Biography
Born in Rosario in October 1930. He studied architecture and painting. He joined the Refugio y Taller, fine arts group from Rosario. During his first production period his work undergoes changes that lead him to try from non-figurative painting to figurative and back. He was the first to do concrete painting in Rosario, with great audacity in daring to present for the first time a concrete painting in this city. In1957 he brings the vanguard of the Concrete Art into Rosario. Since then, his work appears as a constant "pursuit of forms", which serves him as base to go through a relentless formal trajectory stripped of all prejudice, putting aside stereotypes and pointing to a consistent and renewed search of his imaginary.
He was Professor of Painting at the Provincial School of Visual Arts in Rosario, and Assistant Professor of Implementation and color specialist at the School of Architecture at the UNR. He was also Secretary of the Provincial Museum of Fine Arts Rosa Galisteo Santa Fe, and Director of the MMBAJBC. Since 1954, he participated in over one hundred collective exhibitions in galleries and museums in Argentina, America and Europe. Since 1958, he did more than fifty solo exhibitions of drawings and paintings. Among them are: MMBAJBC, 1958; Visual Arts Museum Sister Josefa Díaz Clusellas de Santa Fe (1958 and 1961); Museum of Fine Arts, Peter E. Martinez de Paraná (Entre Ríos, 1961); Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Santiago de Chile (1969); of drawings and paintings in 1970, in 1990 in the Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes Rosa Galisteo; retrospective at the Museo Sivori (Buenos Aires, 1981), and retrospective at the MMBAJBC (Rosario, 1981). He has also exhibited in private galleries of Rosario, Buenos Aires and other cities.
Awards: First Prize for Drawing, Friends of the Art Hall (Rosario, 1961), Purchase Award "Martin Rodriguez Galisteo”, XLV annual Salon of the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe (Santa Fe, 1968), Scholarship Annual Award of the Province, X Hall of Fellows of the Directorate of Cultural de Santa Fe (1968, Purchase Award of Rosario Municipal Bank, First Exhibition of Award Winners in the Halls of Modern Art, Friends of Art of Rosario (1972) and Award Dr. Carlos Corbella, awarded by the Foundation Hector I. Astengo, for his valuable contribution to the culture of the city of Rosario (1994).
He lectured, and was a judged in several occasions. He is represented in museums and private collections in Argentina, Spain, France, Uruguay, Chile and USA. He lives and works in Rosario.
Vision of art
1. Choose a work that represents you, describe it in relation to its format and materiality, its relation with time and space, its style and theme; detail its production process.
The selected work is entitled “The look that nods”, text taken from a poem by Raúl Gustavo Aguirre. I made it in 2003. The technique is oil without additions, brush painted directly on canvas. It measures 100 x 70 cm. Its longest side is the vertical one. Its relationship with the time involved relates it to what is called post-concreteness. Regarding the space it always interested me to create unconventional situations related to surveying the entire square; its subject of a none figurative poetic, developed through the years, departs from a deep need that prompted me to seek criteria to generate forms in which the color is integrated to their life force. The production process arises from a combined development between the intuitive and the geometric.
2. In general terms, how would you suggest to approach your work?
I suggest reading my work with the approach that galvanized the constructivists, that is without prejudice or visuals preconceptions.
3. In reference to your work and your position in the national and international art fields, what tradition do you recognize yourself in? Who are your contemporary referents? What artists of previous generations are of interest to you?
I recognize into constructivists and its background, at national and international levels.
4. Choose works or exhibitions from the last ten or fifteen years which in your opinion were very significant and explain why
Thinking of the last ten or fifteen years I can cite Alfredo Hilton’s exhibition at Cronopios and Alfredo Espinosa at the Museum Castagnino of Rosario, besides the tribute to the concretes at the Infinity Gallery of Buenos Aires. I mention these three showings by their spiritual relationship and their coincidences with my work.
5. What tendencies or groupings from common elements do you see in argentine art of the last ten or fifteen years?
Concerning Argentine art movements of the last ten or fifteen years; because of their multiplicities, I do not dare to suggest common elements in between them.
