Teresa Burga, trailblazing Peruvian conceptualist artist, died on February 11, 2021, aged 86.

News Center- Teresa Burga, trailblazing Peruvian conceptualist artist, died on February 11, 2021. Her death was announced by the Peruvian Minister of Culture. 

She was born in 1935 in the port city of Iquitos. She moved as a child to Lima with her parents. After initially training as an architect, in 1966 she became one of six Lima-based artists who formed Grupo Arte Nuevo, a collective that wanted to propel the contemporary movements of Pop, Minimalism, Op Art, and happenings in Peru.

One of Teresa Burga’s major works is “Work that disappears when the viewer tries to approach it” (1970). This work is a wall piece comprising layers of light bulbs, 100 in total, arranged in a square formation around a black box. As you approach, the bulbs gradually switch off, so that, when you reach the work, you are left in a dark, seemingly empty room.

‘Arte Nuevo’

Teresa Burga became one of six Lima-based artists who formed Grupo Arte Nuevo (1966-1968). The group is widely credited with the introduction of the new avant-garde tendencies in the Peruvian context, such as Pop art, Op art, and happenings. During this time, the country was controlled by a military dictatorship. Under the populist policies of the regime, Burga's experimental proposals were deemed as not possessing enough "Peruvian character," and the artist's exhibition possibilities. 

In the 1970s, she further pushed the conceptual elements of her work and questioned conventional notions of artistic authorship by creating objects that could be replicated by anyone through detailed schematics that she made.