Jack Vanarsky
Starting November 16, Fundación Proa, in collaboration with Atelier Vanarsky (Paris), presents a collection of animated sculptures, drawings and collages by Jack Vanarsky, an original creator that incorporated movement as a constitutive dimension of his work.
This is the first exhibition of the artist in Buenos Aires since his death in 2009.
For Vanarsky, the book is the leit motiv, the foundation and the receptacle of art. In his works, the incorporation of movement through a simple mechanism creates a new outlook on the common book, that loses its original function, no longer seeking to be read and showing itself in a new light. Like in a game, Vanarsky invites us to share this playful and seductive dimension of the animated object.
The world of handmade toys and the construction of objects for playing is disappearing. Movement, motor mechanics and the book itself are migrating to virtual space. Presenting the exhibition in the context of the Library and in dialogue with a group of books brings forth a new aspect of Vanarsky animated sculptures.
About his work, made up of layers, Vanarsky writes: "I break down a form into a series of profiles, a bit like -minding proportions- impressionists broke down color". A phrase the sums up his view on the book, which he conceives not only as a figure of knowledge but as a work of art.
Close to movements with which he was contemporary, like the "found object" or cinetism, Vanarsky's vanguard work seduces because it opens up the scope of perception of everyday objects and the reflection on knowledge as erudition.
Taking the borgean concepts of labyrinth and the absolute book, two ideas that had a strong influence on the artist, Vanarsky's sculptures are surprisingly incoporated to Proa's Library and establish a dialogue with the surrounding space and books.
The exhibition presents six animated sculptures created by Vanarsky between 1983 and 2005, most of which belong to Atelier Vanarsky's private collection: Los pensamientos de Pascal (1983), Patagón (1991), Los remadores inmóviles (1992), Fluctuat nec Mergitur (1998), Kafka a la ventana (2003) and Laberinto (2005). Along with these sculptures are a series of drawings, collages and photographies that offer a testimony of the artist's creative process. Animalamina (2007), a documentary by Marie Binet, reconstructs Vanarsky's work method, as explained by himself in his studio.
Born in Argentina, Vanarsky created most of his work in Paris. During the 60s, in a context dominated by abstraction and "geometric cinetism", his work developed a hybrid sense: on one hand, being involved with contemporary movements, he employed movement as a defining characteristic of the artistic object; but, on the other, realting his work with the previous figurative tradition, he created realistic and everyday objects, such as faces, butterflies, parts of the human body or his famous moving books.
Biography of Jack Vanarsky
Jack Vanarsky was born in 1936, in Gral. Roca, Río Negro, Argentina. He attended Colegio Nacional Buenos and studied architecture at Universidad de Buenos Aires, at the same time studying art with Juan Carlos Castagnino, Antonio Berni and Lino Enea Spilimbergo, among others.
In 1962 he moved to Paris, where he developed all his artistic career. He created mobile sculptures made of layers animated by a hidden mechanism, a device the Vanarsky worked with throughout his life. Characters, fragments of the human body, books, fallen leaves, arrows or butterflies, all figures driven by their own vital rhythm, outline Varasky's singular style. His work has had a wide circulation that is permanently shown and updated in his official web site www.jackvanarsky.com, and some of his works are part of public and private collections, both national and international.
In 2009, at 73 and in full activity, Jack Vanarsky passed away in the city of Paris.
Exhibition
Jack Vanarsky / Obras 1983 - 2005
Idea, project and organization
Atelier Vanarsky, París
Fundación Proa
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Production
Cintia Mezza / Cecilia Jaime / Mercedes Longo Brea / Montserrat Hernández / Laure Chauvelot
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Montage
Pablo Zaefferer / Soledad Oliva
Montajistas: Hernán Torres / Nicolás Vasen
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Press
Lucía Ledesma / Ignacio Navarro / Alejandro Grimoldi / Juan Pablo Correa
