Arte Abstracto Argentino
por Florencia Battiti y Cristina Rossi

Carmelo ARDEN QUIN
Carmelo Heriberto Alves was born on March 16th, 1913 in Rivera, Uruguay. He came to the visual arts through a family friend, the Catalan writer Emilio Sans.

In 1935, he met Joaquín Torres-García at a conference held at the Theosophic Society. Though at first he adhered to Torres-García´s aesthetics, in 1936 he produced his first non-orthogonal paintings, defying the traditional constraints of the rectangle. He exhibited these paintings with Casa de España in Montevideo, as part of a demonstration supporting the Spanish Republic.

At the end of the year 1937, he settled in Buenos Aires, saw much of the avant-garde artists and attended university where he studied philosophy and literature. In Buenos Aires, he shared a studio with Miguel Martínez, who introduced him to Gyula Kosice, by then a teenager devoted to leather craft.

In 1941 he co-founded the bimonthly publication El Universitario, with which he spread his political and aesthetic ideas. He published the only issue of the Arturo art magazine with a group of artists that included Kosice, Rhod Rothfuss and Tomás Maldonado, among others. Murillo Mendes, Vieira da Silva, Vicente Huidobro and Torres-García, whom he had contacted in 1942, reckoned among its contributors.

In 1945, this group divided into two groups, the Asociación Arte Concreto-Invención and the Grupo Madí. With the latter Ardén Quin took part in four exhibitions held during the second half of 1945 at the Van Riel Gallery and at the Escuela Libre de Artes Plásicas “Altamira”, in Buenos Aires, and also in the first International Madí exhibition held at the Ateneo in Montevideo. From this period are his polygonal frames, mobiles, articulated planes, object frames and concave surfaces which he dubbed Formes Galbées.

In 1948, he moved to Paris where he frequently contacted Michel Seuphor, Marcelle Cahn, Auguste Herbin, Jean Arp, Georges Braque and Francis Picabia, among other avant-garde artists. In Paris he took part in many exhibitions, with the Salon des Realités Nouvelles and, in 1956, he got married. In this period he introduced the collage and the découpage techniques which he used until 1971.

Back in Buenos Aires, he co-founded Arte Nuevo (New Art) a group encompassing artists of different non-figurative trends who showed for the first time at Galería Van Riel (1954). In Paris he directed Ailleurs and during the sixties he took part in the movement called Concrete Poetry. After 15 years, in 1971, he returned to painting.

Among his latest exhibitions are Galerie Charley Chevalier, Paris (1973); Galerie Quincampoix, Paris (1977); Exposición Homenaje (celebrating his sixty years); Espace Latino-Americain, Paris (1983); Galeria Niza, Brescia (1986); Galerie Down Town, Paris (1987); Patio Bremen Gallery, Germany (1988) and Fundación Arte y Tecnología, Madrid (1997). He took part in group exhibitions as well, such “Art in Latin America. The Modern Era” (1820-1990), at the Hayward Gallery, London (1989); “Argentina. Arte Concreto-Invención 1945. Grupo Madí 1946” (Argentina. Concrete Invention Art) 1945. Madi Group 1946) at the Rachel Adler Gallery, New York (1990); “Arte Madí” (Madi Art) at the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (1997); and recently, “Abstract Art from Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires and Montevideo 1933/53” at The Americas Society, New York (2001). Nowadays he lives and works in Paris.

 

Juan BAY
Born in 1892 in Trenque Lauquen, province of Buenos Aires, he lived in Italy for many years. Between 1908 and 1914, he studied drawing and painting in Milan and in 1911 took part in a free futurist exhibition held at the Umanitaria, in Milan.

After some teaching in Argentina, he returned to painting in Milan, exhibiting with the galleries Bardi, Poligono, Casa d´Artisti, Il Milione and Mascioni, among others. He took part in the Italian non-figurative artists´show at Brera, organised in 1938 and in the exhibition held in 1936 at the Galeria Moody in Buenos Aires.

In 1942, he exhibited at the Galeria Mascioni as part of the non-figurative group of Como and together with the futurists at the Venice Biennale and at the Quadriennale of Rome. In 1949, he returned to Argentina and showed his works at the Galeria Van Riel, at La Máscara and at Antú.

In 1951, two non-figurative oils of Bay´s could be seen in an important exhibition of Ugo Bernasconi´s collection. He joined the Madí artists and took part in the group exhibitions held at Galeria Kray, and Galeria Numero, in Florence, at Galeria Van Riel and Galeria Bonino in Buenos Aires and at the Galerie Denise René, in Paris, among others. He took part in the First International Show of the Museo de Arte Moderno held in November, 1960.

In 1976 he was also part of the exhibitions Homenaje a la Vanguardia Argentina de la Década del 40, (Celebrating the Argentine Vanguard of the 40’s) held at the Galería Arte Nuevo, Vanguardia de la Década del 40. Arte Concreto-Invención. Arte Madí. Perceptismo (Vanguard of the 40’s. Concrete Invention Art) Madí Art. Perceptism), held at the Museo Sivori (1980) and Argentina. Arte Concreto-Invención 1945. Grupo Madí 1946 (Argentina. Concrete Invention Art 1945. Madí Group 1946), held at Rachel Adler Gallery, in New York (1990).

Bay’s paintings form part of important European collections, such as the collection of the Museo del Castello Sforzesco and of the Museo de Arte Moderno, both in Milan. In 1978, the year he died, a retrospective show was held at the Galeria de la Salle, Saint Paul de Vence.

 

Aníbal J. BIEDMA
Born in Argentina in 1924 he studied at the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes of Buenos Aires. He adhered, since its early stages, to the Madí movement.

In 1949 he exhibited at Salón Argentino de Arte No-Figurativo and at Galeria Van Riel, in Buenos Aires. He also took part in the exhibitions Homenaje a la Vanguardia Argentina de la Década del 40, (Celebrating the Argentine Vanguard of the 1940s) held at Galería Arte Nuevo, Vanguardia de la Década del 40. Arte Concreto-Invención. Arte Madí. Perceptismo (Vanguard of the 1940s. Concrete Invention Art. Madí Art. Perceptism), held at the Museo Sivori (1980) and Arte Madí held at Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (1997) among others.

 

Martín BLASZKO
Born Martín Blaszkowski on December 12th, 1920, in Berlin, Germany, he left his country in 1933 and settled in Poland where he studied drawing under Henryk Barczynsky and Jankel Adler.

In 1938, he visited Paris and contacted Marc Chagall. One year later, he returned to settle in Argentina. In 1945 he met Carmelo Ardén Quin and joined the Madi Group in 1946.

During the 1940s he produced frameless canvases and three-dimensional figures which later showed an ascending progression that changed them into monoliths, towers and columns.

In 1952, he did a project for the Monument to Unknown Political Prisoner which was shown at the Tate Gallery in London and for which he received the award of the Institute of Contemporary Art in the same city. He was a member of the Argentine representation to the II Sao Paulo International Biennale, Brazil, and in 1960 was included as Argentine representative to the Venice Biennale. In 1958, he was chosen to take part in the Universal Exhibition of Brussels at which he was awarded the Bronze Medal.

This artist from Berlin —Argentinean by adoption since 1959— added his theoretical work to his art making; in 1961 Galeria Lirolay presented his exposition Fifteen years of Sculpture, selected and prologued by Germain Derbeck. Among his writings the following deserve mentioning: “Sculpture and the Bipolarity Principle”, published in the magazine Leonardo, in Oxford (1968); “A sculpture is born”, published in the magazine Sculpture International, Oxford (1970) and “The making of a Sculpture” published in Leonardo, Oxford (1971).

At the Ninth International Conference on Sculpture held in 1976 in New Orleans he posed his standpoint in his lecture “Monumental Sculpture and Society”. He has won important prizes such as Premio Aquisición, at the exhibition held in Mar del Plata, in 1959; Gran Premio de Honor, at the Manuel Belgrano Exhibition, in 1960; First Prize, at the exhibition held in Córdoba, in 1960; Premio Cámara de Representates de la Nación (Chamber of Representatives of the Nation) in1973 and the Open-Air Museum award, in Hakone, Japan, in 1991.

His sculpture “Júbilo” (Joy) made of painted aluminium stands in Parque Centenario in the city of Buenos Aires, and “El Canto del Pájaro que Vuela” (Flying Bird’s song) is located in Utsugushi-Ga-Hara, Japan.

Among his recent exhibitions are the one held at the Bank of Interamerican Development (BID), Washington (1984); Latin American Artists of the XX Century, Museum of Modern Art, New York (1990); Argentina. Arte Concreto-Invención 1945. Grupo Madí 1946, Rachel Adler Gallery, New York, (1990); Exposición de Arte Madí, ( Exhibition of Madi Art), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (1997); and Abstract art from Río de la Plata, Buenos Aires and Montevideo 1933/53; The Americas Society, New York (2001). Nowadays he lives and works in Buenos Aires.

 

Antonio CARADUJE
Born in Spain, he settled in Argentina in 1924 and at the end of the 1950s he adopted the Argentine nationality. He studied in the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes “Prilidiano Pueyrredón”, subscribed to the Inventionist Manifesto and took part in the group’s exhibition held at Salón Peuser in March, 1946.

After working at the Asociación Arte Concreto- Invención in the middle of the 1940s he turned to restoring art-works and teaching. In 1976, he took part in the exhibition Homenaje a la vanguardia argentina de la década del ’40 (Celebrating the Argentine vanguard of the 1940s) held at the Galeria Arte Nuevo, and in Vanguardia de la década del ’40. Arte Concreto-Invención. Arte Madí. Perceptismo. (Vanguard of the1940s. Concrete Invention Art. Madí Art. Perceptism) held at Museo Sívori in Buenos Aires. Nowadays he lives in the Province of Buenos Aires.

 

Eugenia CRENOVICH (Yente)
She was born on November 6th, 1905 in Buenos Aires, attended the School of Philosophy and Literature Letras, the Academy of Fine Arts in Santiago, Chile and in Buenos Aires she studied under Vicente Puig first, and under Juan del Prete whom she married.

In 1935, she exhibited at Amigos del Arte and then she showed her abstractions, reliefs and non-figurative paintings at Galería Müller, in Buenos Aires. Her aesthetics, with a trend towards an abstract vocabulary, combined coloured reliefs of orthogonal structure with sensitive findings of texture and materials, though since 1946, she simultaneously produced abstract and figurative paintings.

In 1945, she began making reliefs and constructions in celotex, a material that is soft and can be easily shaped. She participated in many exhibitions such as Nuevas Realidades (New Realities) in 1948/49, Arte No-Figurativo (Non-Figurative Art) in 1958/1960and the Sao Paulo Biennial Exhibition in 1957.

Her collages made in Italy, from used matches and packaging paper, were seen at Galería Wicomb in 1964. He exhibited several series in the Van Riel Gallery of Buenos Aires, such as the collages “Ciudades de Italia” (Italian towns) (1965), and “Antiguo Testamento” (Old Testament) (1966); the collages made from tarred paper under the title “El Jardín del Edén” (The Garden of Eden) (1967); the photomontages “Turistas en Italia” (Tourists in Italy) (1967) and a retrospective exhibition of non-figurative works produced between 1937 and 1963. She was awarded the first prize for drawing in Viña del Mar, Chile (1934/36), in Centenario de Valparaíso, Chile (1937), in the Salón de Acuarelistas (Watercolour Exhibition) of Buenos Aires (1940 and 1950) and she won the Medal awarded at the International Exhibition of Brussels (1958). She was among the Argentine artists exhibiting in Rio de Janeiro (1958) and at the show “50 years of Argentine Painting 1930/1980” held at the Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes Juan B. Castagnino, in Rosario. She died on November 28, 1990 in Buenos Aires, at 85.

 

Pablo CURATELLA MANES
Was born on February 14th, 1891 in La Plata, province of Buenos Aires (Argentina). In 1906 his family moved to Buenos Aires. He began his education in arts at Arturo Dresco’s studio, and attended the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes where he learned under Lucio Correa Morales. His disdain for certain academic criteria inclined him to take part in the meetings held by Walter de Navazio, Ramón de Silva and Valentín Thibón de Libian, among others.

In 1911 he was awarded, Government of the Province of Buenos Aires, a scholarship on which he continued studying in Europe. First in Florence, then in Rome he saw much of the Renaissance artworks. Later he travelled through Italy, Germany, Holland, England, Belgium, France and Switzerland.

In 1914, he settled in Paris where he worked under the direction of A. Maillol, Antoine Bourdelle and he even passed quickly through André Lhote’s studio. He came into contact with the Parisian avant-garde artists and in 1922 she married the French artist and critic Germaine Derbeck. He made friends with Juan Gris, whose cut out, folded metal figures inspired works in which volumes are fragmented into large planes of light and shadow.

In 1926 he was appointed Ambassador in Paris. He acted as Consultant to the Organiser of the Argentine Pavilion in the International and Universal Exhibition of Paris (1937). When war broke out he was in charge of the repatriation of Argentine residents in France. During this period he did drafts and models which he would execute ten years later in Buenos Aires, such as “Estructura Madre” (Mother Structure), theme which he developed in eight other sculptures meeting the requirements of different materials.

His works were exhibited at the Venice Biennale of 1952 and at the Biennale of São Paulo in 1957. He was Organiser of the Biennale of Paris in 1961 and a year later, after being shown in the exhibition Pablo Manes et Trente Argentin de la Nouvelle Génération held at the Galerie Kreuze in Paris, his sculptures left for Buenos Aires. Curatella Manes died in this city on November 16, 1962, before his works —donated to the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes— had arrived in Buenos Aires.

 

Diyi LAAÑ
Born in 1927 in Buenos Aires, he began his studies at Buenos Aires University, which he soon abandoned to take up writing.

In 1946 he joined the Madí Group and took part in the group’s first exhibition. His works were included among the Madí works exhibited at the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles in 1948. He contributed poems, narratives and paintings to the art magazine Arte Madí Universal.

His work was also included in the major representative exhibitions of the group, especially, “Vanguardia de la década de los 40. Arte Concreto-Invención. Arte Madí. Perceptismo” (Vanguard of the 1940s. Concrete Invention Art. Madí Art. Perceptism) held at the Museo Sívori in Buenos Aires (1980) and “Arte Madi” at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (1997), among others. He also took part in the travelling exhibition “Art from Argentina 1920/1994” opened at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford (1994), and presented in the Sudwestdeutsche Landesbank, the Royal Academy of Art Galleries, London, the Fundação Descobertas at the Centro Cultural de Belem, Lisbon and in the Centro Cultural Borges, Buenos Aires, Argentina (1995). Nowadays he lives in Buenos Aires.

 

Juan Pedro DELMONTE
Was also among the artists shown at the permanent exhibition of Madí art opened in 1984 in Buenos Aires and his work was published in the magazine of Madí art as from 1984 until 1954.

In July, 1953 he took part in the Madí exhibition organised at the Ateneo del Chaco, in Buenos Aires and in 1954 he was an exhibitor at the Casa del Escritor, in the same city. His works were also exhibited at the group’s major representative exhibitions especially, “Vanguardia de la década de los 40. Arte Concreto-Invención. Arte Madí. Perceptismo “ (Vanguard of the 1940s. Concrete Invention Art. Madí Art. Perceptism) held at the Museo Sívori in Buenos Aires (1980), and “ Arte Madi” at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (1997), among others.

 

Juan DEL PRETE
Born in 1897 in Vasto, Chieti (Italy), when he was a small child his family settled in La Boca, Buenos Aires (Argentina).

A self-taught artist who very early in his life showed his adherence to the postulates of modernity. His major source of expression was material and color with which he created compositions which alternate figuration and non-figuration. In 1925 he obtained great sucess with his exhibition in the Salón Nacional and a year later he organised his first individual exhibition at the Asociación Amigos del Arte.

In 1929 he adopted the Argentine nationality. When he was 32 he obtained a scholarship, through Amigos del Arte, and travelled to Paris where he could admire the masters of tradition and, at the same time, come into contact with the avant-garde circles. In Paris he contacted Joaquín Torres-García, Jean Arp and Enrico Prampolini, among others and felt greatly attracted by the use of colour in Henri Matisse and by the treatment of form in Pablo Picasso.

In 1932 he joined the group Abstraction Creation Art non Figuratif and simultaneously contributed to the magazine published by the group together with Alexander Calder, Auguste Hervin, Georges Vantongerloo and others. In 1933, back in Buenos Aires, he exhibited abstract paintings and collages at Amigos del Arte. This exhibition —considered the first exhibition of non-figurative art held in Argentina— was followed by another at which he presented abstract sculptures created from wire, iron planks and carved plaster. Although it received neither the public applause nor the approval by the critics, Del Prete continued painting non-figurative works without breaking totally away from representative art.

Artist Eugenia Crenovich, also known as Yente, was his disciple and partner as from 1937. Around the middle of the 1940s, Del Prete added certain geometricalisation to his particular treatment of materials and color. In 1954 he travelled to Europe and visited Italy where he exhibited in Genoa, Milan and Como. He became president of the Agrupación de Artistas no Figurativos —group which intended to humanise abstraction— founded by Domingo Di Stéfano, Pedro Gaeta and Eugenio Abal, among others.

In 1957 he took part in the IV Sao Paulo Internacional Biennale and two years later he participated as guest artist in the same biennale with twenty works. A year later, he was included among the exhibitors in the international biennales of Venice and Mexico. Towards the end of the 1950s he adopted —approaching informalist aesthetics— the dripping, blotting and splashing techniques on large canvases.

Among his scenic works, those executed for Estrella de mar and Magia Negra, in Amigos del Arte and for the opera “Leyenda de Urutaú”, in the Teatro Colón are outstanding. In Buenos Aires he was awarded the First Prize at the Salón de Acuarelistas (1957), The First Prize of the Salón Municipal (1957), the Palanza Prize (1958), the Honor Prize of the Salón Nacional (1963) and, in Brussels, he was awarded the International Prize (1958). He was also honoured at the exhibitions of Mar del Plata, Province of Buenos Aires and at the exhibitions of the Province of Santa Fe. Among his retrospective exhibitions are the one organised by the Secretaría de Cultura de la Nación, Buenos Aires (1950); by the Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires (1961); by the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo of Santiago de Chile and Lima (1963) and by the Galería LAASA, Mar del Plata (1974). In 1987, he died in Buenos Aires, at the age of 90. His oeuvre has been recently shown as part of the exhibition “Abstract art from Río de la Plata”. Buenos Aires and Montevideo 1933/53, New York, The Americas Society (2001).

 

Manuel ESPINOSA
Was born in 1912 in Buenos Aires. He attended the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes and the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes “Ernesto de la Cárcova”.

After a short surrealist period he co-founded the Asociación Arte Concreto- Invención (Concrete Invention Art Association). He subscribed the Inventionist Manifesto and participated in the group exhibitions among which are outstanding the “Homenaje a la vanguardia argentina de la década del ’40” (Celebration of the Argentine vanguard of the 1940s) held at the Galería Arte Nuevo (1976), “Vanguardia de la década del ’40. Arte Concreto-Invención. Arte Madí. Perceptismo” (Vanguard of the 1940s. Concrete Invention Art. Madí Art. Perceptism) held at the Museo Sívori (1980) and the more recent exhibitions such as “Abstract art from Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires and Montevideo 1933/53” held at The Americas Society, New York (2001).

His work remained within geometric abstraction characterised by the repetition of the square or the circle over the whole surface of the composition. Over this serial arrangement he created shadows, overlapping and movements, which allowed him to introduce the spatial relations of movement forward and backwards. He took part in group exhibitions such as “Del arte concreto a la nueva tendencia” (From Concrete Art to the New Trend), at the Museo de Arte Moderno (1963), “Más allá de la geometría” (Beyond Geometry), at the Instituto Torcuato Di Tella (1967), and the Salon Camparaison, París (1967), “Veinticinco artistas argentinos” (Twenty-five Argentine Artists) at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (1970), Bienal Internacional de Cagnes-sur-Mer (International Biennale of Cagnes-sur-Mer), Francia (1970), “Proyección y dinámica” (Dynamic Projection) at the Modern Art Museum, Ville de Paris (1973), “Tendencias actuales del arte argentino” (Current Trends in Argentine Art) at the Art Center of International Reunions, Nice, France (1974), among others.

In the 1980s he took part in exhibitions of the so called “sensitive abstration” trend such as “Geometría 81” (Geometry 81), held at the Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes of La Plata and, in Buenos Aires: “La geometría. Homenaje a Max Bill” (Geometry. Celebration of Max Bill), organised by the Centro de Arte y Comunicación, “La abstracción sensible” (Sensitive Abstraction) –exhibition held together with “Jornadas de la Crítica” (Conference on Criticism) in1981 and “Del constructivismo a la geometría sensible” (From Constructivsm to Sensitive Geometry), held in Harrods on May,1992, among others. Nowadays he lives in Buenos Aires.

 

Nelly ESQUIVEL
In 1948 her works were part of the permanent exhibition of Madí art opened in Buenos Aires and then they were published in the Madí magazine. In July 1953 she took part in the exibition of Madí art held at the Ateneo del Chaco, in Buenos Aires.

Her works were also seen at the major antological exhibitions of the goup, at “Homenaje a la Vanguardia Argentina década del 40” (Celebration of the Argentine Vanguard of the 1940s) held at Galería Arte Nuevo (1976), at “Vanguardia de la década de los 40. Arte Concreto-Invención. Arte Madí. Perceptismo,” (Vanguard of the 1940s. Concrete Invention Art. Madí Art. Perceptismo) held at the Museo Sívori, Buenos Aires (1980) and at “Arte Madi” (Madí Art) held at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (1997), among others.

 

Lucio FONTANA
Born on February 19th, 1899 in Rosario, province of Santa Fe, when he was 6 his family moved to Milano where he studied at a technical school.

In 1922, back in Argentina he worked in his father’s studio mainly devoted to funeral sculpture. Towards the end of the decade, he went to Italy again and studied under Adolfo Wildt at the Academia Brera.

In 1934, he experimented with thin two-faced structures which were exhibited in 1935 at the first collective exhibition of Italian abstract art in Turin, where the Milano Concrete Art group subscribed a Manifesto. In that same year he joined the group Abstraction-Creation . Art non figuratif. He submitted a project to the International Contest for the Monument to General Julio A. Roca and in December 1936 he was included in Lombard group of Abstract art that exhibited drawings and engravings at the Galería Moody, in Buenos Aires.

During World War II he settled in Buenos Aires, where he executed the monument “El Sembrador” (The Sower) to be located in the city of Rosario and collaborated as sculptor on the project of the “Monumento Nacional a la Bandera” (National Monument to the Flag) and on the project of the “Monumento al Gral. San Martín” (Monument to General San Martín) to be located in Quilmes, Province of Buenos Aires. While in Argentina he exhibited at the Galería Müller, at Impulso, at the Museo Municipal of Santa Fe, took part in many collective exhibitions and was a teacher at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas, (Arts School) in Rosario, at the Fine Arts Schools “Prilidiano Pueyrredón”, “Manuel Belgrano”and at the Altamira Independent School of Arts, which institution he organised together with Jorge Romero Brest and Jorge Larco.

Until 1946 his production in Argentina showed a marked figurative accent but in contact with his young disciples he worked on new ideas which gave birth, in October-November 1946, to the White Manifesto, composed by Bernardo Arias, Horacio Cazenueve and Marcos Fridman and subscribed by a bigger group of partners. Perhaps for his links with the official institution, Fontana did not subscribe the manifesto, which promoted the “furtherance of painting and sculpture in order to access to a new art made from material, color, sound and movement”.

In 1942 he took part in the XXXII Salón Nacional de Bellas Artes (XXXII National Exhibition of Fine Arts) in Buenos Aires, winning in such event the first prize for sculpture. Nevertheless, in 1945 he participated in the Salón Independiente (Independent Exhibition) invited by the artists who objected to the above mentioned official exhibition, Back in Italy, he settled in Milano, where he subscribed, together with Giorgo Kaisserlian, Beniamino Joppolo and Milena Milani, the First Spatialist Manifesto which stated that “a work of art is subject to he destructive power of time (...). An aerial artistic expression lasting one minute lasts a millenium in eternity, as it were. For such purpose, with the resources of modern technology we will create artificial forms in the sky, marvelous rainbows, luminous signs”

In March, 1948 he signed, together with Kaisserlian, Joppolo, Milani and Antonio Tullier the Second Spatialist Manifesto and exhibited spatial sculpture at the International Venice Biennale. A year later he created “Ambiente espacial con luz negra” (Spatial environment with black light) at the Galleria del Navaglio and then —going deeper into his spatial search in painting— he created his first “holes”. In 1950 he signed the Third Manifesto of Spatial Art: Proposal for a Rule, together with Milani, Joppolo, Roberto Crippa, Giampiero Giani y Carlo Cardozzo. In that same year he took part in the Internationl Exhibition of Modern Drawing held in Bergamo and in the contest for the fifth door of cathedral of Milano. In November, 1951 he subscribed the Fourth Manifesto of Spatial Art. Then came the series “Piedras” (Rocks) —works with glass applications— “Tintas” (Inks) and “Papeles” (Papers).

In 1959 he exhibited, with the Galleria del Naviglio and with the Galerie Stadler of París, the series “Tajos” (Cuts), in which he proposed the physical rupture of the plane. In 1964 Enrique Crispolti organised a “Tribute to Fontana”, in the grounds of the international conference Aspetti dell’arte contemporanea and in1966 the Museum of Modern Art of Nueva York organised the travelling exhibition Alberto Burri and Lucio Fontana. In Argentina, the outstanding exhibitions were those held at the Instituto Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires (1966), at the Museo Municipal Juan B Castagnino in Rosario (1966) and the exhibition Lucio Fontana. Masterpieces from the Lucio Fontana collection of Milano held at the Fundación Proa in Buenos Aires (1999-2000). Settled in the old family house of Comabbio, Fontana continued producing oils, holes and cuts until his last days. He died on September 7,1968, in Varese, Italy.

 

Claudio GIROLA
Was born in 1923 in the city of Rosario, Province of Santa Fe. In his early childhood his family moved to Buenos Aires. He started his art education together with his brother Enio Iommi, in his father’s sculpture studio. Later, he studied drawing under Formells and, in 1939, he entered the Escuela de Bellas Artes “Manuel Belgrano” (Manuel Belgrano School of Fine Arts).

In l941 he studied under Antonio Sibellino but he left this institution in 1943 after subscribing a manifesto against the criteria taught at such school. His early figurative sculptures changed into planes expanded in space, which presented cuts or took oblique or horizontal or curved directions.

In Argentina he took part in the Asociación de Arte Concreto-Invención (Concrete Invention Art Association) and together with the MAC Group of Milano he exhibited in the Italian city of Como. During this period he worked between Paris and Milano, organising in this city an individual exhibition at the Librería Salto. Together with the Group of Argentine Modern Artists he exhibited at the Galería Viau (1952) and at the Galería Krayd (1953). He settled in Chile, where he presented his works in Viña del Mar and in Santiago de Chile and became professor at the School of Architecture in the Catholic University of Valparaíso.

In 1963 he won the Braque prize awarded by the French embassy. In 1968 he participated in the exhibition “Mas allá de la geometría” (Beyond Geometry) organised by the Instituto Torcuato Di Tella of Buenos Aires and in 1971 he took part in the 11th Sculpture Biennale of Antwerpt. Gradually he made his volumes more geometric, broke and integrated the basis in an attempt to make the mass of the base the dominating part of this work.

As from 1970 he worked in several sculptures located in public spaces in Chile, such as “DispersaI”, “Trehuaco” (1986) and Monument to Athenea, Santiago del Chile (1987). Simultaneous with his work as a sculptor was his considerable work in poetry with contributions to the Revue de Poésie of Paris.

In 1991 the Catholic University of Valparaíso organised an important retrospective exhibition of his oeuvre held at the Parque de las Esculturas (Garden of the Sculptures) of the borought of Providencia. Three years later he died in the city of Viña del Mar, Chile, being Chile the country where he produced most of his art work. Recently his production was included in the exhibition Abstract art from Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires and Montevideo 1933/53 held at The Americas Society, in New York (2001).

 

Alfredo HLITO
Was born in 1923, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he studied at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes. His early works show considerable influence from Uruguayan artist Joaquín Torres-García, though some years later he turned to clearer forms and implemented a more abstract sense of composition.

In 1945 he co-founded the Asociación Ate Concreto-Invención and in 1946 he subscribed the Inventionist Manifesto. His personal, austere style remained unchanged in most of his works. During the Concrete Art period (1945-1955) he wrote abundantly about the issues raised by this type of abstraction and his texts were published in 1995 by the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes.

He took part, together with other members of the AACI, in the Salon Realités Nouvelles, in Paris, as well as in the exhibition Nuevas Realidades, held at the Galeria Van Riel in Buenos Aires, both of them organised in 1948. In 1951 he founded with Tomás Maldonado the magazine Nueva Visión. In 1954 he was awarded the Acquisition Prize at the Biennale of Sao Paulo, and a year later, he took part in the XXVIII International Biennale in Venice.

In 1964 he moved to Mexico where he lived until 1953. Among the major collective exhibitions in which he participated are “Vanguardia de la Década del 40. Arte Concreto-Invención. Arte Madí. Perceptismo” (Vanguard of the 40’s. Concrete Invention Art. Madí Art. Perceptism), held at the Museo Sivori (1980), “Argentina. Arte Concreto-Invención 1945. Grupo Madí 1946” (Argentina. Concrete Invention Art 1945. Madí Group 1946), held at Rachel Adler Gallery, in New York (1990), the travelling exhibition “Art from Argentina 1920/1994” opened at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford (1994), and presented in the Sudwestdeutsche Landesbank, the Royal Academy of Art Galleries, London, the Fundação Descobertas at the Centro Cultural de Belem, Lisbon and in the Centro Cultural Borges, Buenos Aires, Argentina (1995) and recently, “Abstract Art from Rio de la Plata. Buenos Aires and Montevideo 1933/1953”, held at The Americas Society, in New York (2001). As from 1984 he was a regular member of Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes. An important retrospective exhibition of his oeuvre was held under the title “Alfredo Hlito. Obra pictórica. .1945/1985”, in 1987, at the Museo de Bellas Artes of Buenos Aires. He died in 1993.

 

Enio IOMMI
He was born Enio Girola on March 20th, 1926, in Rosario. When he was an adolescent his family moved to Buenos Aires. He did not have formal education in arts but his experience began at his father’s studio where he learned to work with metal.

In 1945 he executed his early concrete sculptures and a year later he was among the founders of the Asociación Arte Concreto-Invención (Concrete Invention Art Asociation). In 1946 he subscribed the Inventionist Manifesto together with his brother, Claudio Girola, Lidy Prati, Tomás Maldonado, Raúl Lozza, Manuel Espinoza, Edgar Bayley, Alfredo Hlito, Oscar Nuñez and Jorge Souza and others. In the early 1950s, in the series Directional Sculptures, Lineal Continuities and Spatial Constructions —all of them inscribed within the postulates of concrete art— he used varied materials such as wire, aluminium, stainless steel or bronze.

In 1958, he participated in the International Exhibition of Brussels. In 1960 he represented Argentina in the International Exhibition of Concrete Art held in Kunsthaus, Zurich. A year later he took part, after the closing date, in the VI International Biennale of Sao Paulo and in 1964 he was included in the Argentine representation to the XXXII Biennale of Venice. The major collective exhibitions in which his work was included are “Argentina. Arte Concreto-Invención 1945. Grupo Madí 1946” (Argentina. Concrete Invention Art 1945. Madí Group 1946), held at Rachel Adler Gallery, in New York (1990) and recently, “Abstract Art from Rio de la Plata. Buenos Aires and Montevideo 1933/1953”, held at The Americas Society, in New York (2001).

In 1968, invited by the Italian government, he travelled through Italy, Switzerland, England, France and the United States of America. In France he executed two sculptures in the city of Cannes. In this period, his art underwent a process of change and in 1971 he exhibited a space crossed by tense cables which generated virtual and real spaces appealing to the spatial experience of the viewer. In 1977, under the title “Adiós a una época” (Farewell to an era) he organised an exhibition at the Galería del Retiro, in Buenos Aires, at which the turn in his aesthetics could be appreciated. The works of this period include paving stones, rocks, marble o metal, materials that allow him to take advantage of the senses to express some contradictions of modern lifestyle.

Among the most recent individual exhibitions are “Exposición retrospectiva 1945/1980” (Retrospective Exhibition 1945/1980) held at the Museo Eduardo Sívori (1980), “A 10 años del cambio escultórico” (10 years after the change in scupture) held at Galería Julia Lublin, Buenos Aires (1987) and “Para no caer en toques artesanales” (To avoid the craftman’s touch) held at ICI, Buenos Aires (1994). Many of this sculptures are located in major public and private places, such as the sculpture executed for a house projected by Le Corbusier, in La Plata (1954), the sculpture for the Teatro San Martín (1960), the sculpture in the School of Architecture of Valparaíso, Chile (1967) and the sculpture standing at the Sheraton Hotel in Buenos Aires (1972) . In 1975, he was made regular member of the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes, and he resigned this position in 1999. He also participated in the I Biennale of Nüremberg (1969) and in the I Biennale of Visual Arts of the Mercosur, Porto Alegre (1997). Nowadays he lives and works in Buenos Aires.

 

Gyula KOSICE
Born Fernando Fallik on April 26th, 1924. Kosice arrived in Argentina in 1928. He studied drawing and modeling at free academies and attended for a short time the Escuela de Bellas Artes “Manuel Belgrano”.

In 1944 he was co-publisher of the Arturo magazine, to which he contributed several theoretical papers and poems. He was among the number of concrete artists who exhibitied at “Arte Concreto- Invención” (Concrete Invention Art) in the house of psycho-analist Enrique Pichon Rivière in October 1945 and he also took part in the exhibition “Movimiento Arte Concreto-Invención” (Concrete Invention Art Movement) held in December, 1945, in the house of photographer Grete Stern.

In 1946, when the group broke up into two, he was co-founder of the Movimiento Madí (Madí Movement). Kosice was the energetic leader of the group and organised many exhibitions, spread the activities of the group worldwide and was director of the Universal Madi Art magazine.

In 1948 he was invited to exhibit Madí artworks at the Salon Realités Nouvelles, in Paris. He experimented with new materials, such as plexiglass, glass and neon gas tubes. He took part in the XXVIII International Biennale of Venice (1956) and in the IV International Biennale of Sao Paulo (1957). Later, in addition to movement, he used water, executing his hydrochinetic sculptures which were exhibited at the Galierie Denise René, in Paris (1958).

Ten years later he exhibited “100 works by Kosice, a precursor”, at the Instituto Torcuato Di Tella, in Buenos Aires. At the beginning of the 1970s he published a project for a Hydrospatial City, conceived as a new human habitat suspended in space. He has published many books about art and poetry.

In Latinoamerica he participated in the VI Biennale of Sao Paulo (1961), II Coltejer Biennale, Medellin (1972) and in the II Biennale of La Habana (1986). He also executed several monumental sculptures in different countries. Among his individual exhibitions are Spatial constructions and first hydraulic sculpture, held at the Drian Gallery, London (1953), Hydrospatial City, at Espace Cardin, Paris (1975), Hydrospatial City, at the Planetario, Buenos Aires (1979), Kosice, at the Hakone Open Ai Museum, Tokio (1982), Monumental Artworks by Kosice, at Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires (1985) and the retrospective exhibition Kosice. 1944-1990, at Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires (1991). He was awarded the prize for Best Career in Arts by the Fondo Nacional de las Artes (National Art Fund) in 1994. Among the major collective exhibitions are “Vanguardia de la Década del 40. Arte Concreto-Invención. Arte Madí. Perceptismo” (Vanguard of the 40’s. Concrete Invention Art. Madí Art. Perceptism), held at the Museo Sivori (1980) and “Arte Madí” (Madí Art) held at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (1997). He took part in the travelling exhibition “Art from Argentina 1920/1994”, opened at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford (1994) and presented in the Sudwestdeutsche Landesbank, the Royal Academy of Art Galleries, London, the Fundação Descobertas at the Centro Cultural de Bellem, Lisbon and in the Centro Cultural Borges, Buenos Aires, Argentina (1995) and “Abstract Art from Rio de la Plata. Buenos Aires and Montevideo 1933/1953”, held at The Americas Society, in New York (2001). Nowadays he lives and works in Buenos Aires.

 

Antonio LLORENS
Was born in 1920 in Argentina and naturalized in Uruguay. He studied at the Industrial School and attended the Círculo de Buenos Artes (the Fine Arts Circle) in Montevideo. Exhibitor with the Madí group during the 1940s, in 1952 he took part in the exhibition of non-figurative art held at the Asociación Cristiana de Jóvenes (Young Men’s Christian Association) in Montevideo. A year later, co-founder of the Non-Figurative Art Group in Uruguay, he exhibited II and III International Biennale of Sao Paulo, and later, in Argentina, he was a member of the Madí Group.

In 1958 he exhibited at the Salón de Arte Panamericano, in Porto Alegre, Brazil and also at the Galería René Denise, in Paris. In1960 he was included in the exhibition of Group 8, held at the Museo de Arte Moderno, in Buenos Aires. a member of Group 8. Since his allegiance to the Madí Group his work remained within abstraction, came near the borders of Op Art during a period and in another turned to monocromatic painting in bright coloured relief.

In 1960 he took part in the Werthin Prize for Painting, held at the Galería Van Riel, in Buenos Aires. Between 1962 and 1972 he was a teacher and headmaster at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in Montevideo.

He participated in the exhibitions “Los primeros 15 años de Arte Madí” (The first 15 years of Madi Art) organised by the Museo de Arte Moderno of Buenos Aires (1961); “Vanguardia de la Década del 40. Arte Concreto-Invención. Arte Madí. Perceptismo” (Vanguard of the 40’s. Concrete Invention Art. Madí Art. Perceptism), held at the Museo Sivori (1980); the travelling exhibition “Art from Argentina 1920/1994”, opened at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford (1994) and presented in the Sudwestdeutsche Landesbank, the Royal Academy of Art Galleries, London, the Fundação Descobertas at the Centro Cultural de Bellem, Lisbon and in the Centro Cultural Borges, Buenos Aires, Argentina (1995) and, recently, in “Abstract Art from Rio de la Plata. Buenos Aires and Montevideo 1933/1953”, held at The Americas Society, in New York (2001) among others. He died in September 1995.

 

Jacqueline LORIN-KALDOR
In 1948, an exhibitor in the permanent Madí exhibition opened in Buenos Aires, she took part, together with serial artists from the Asociación Arte Concreto Invención (Concrete Invention Art Association) and the Madí Group, in the Salon des Realités Nouvelles in Paris. Her oeuvre was represented in the major collective exhibitions of the group, especially “Homenaje a la Vanguardia Argentina década del 40” (Cellebration of the Argentine Vanguard of the 1940x) held at the Galería Arte Nuevo (1976) among others.

 

Raúl LOZZA
Born in 1911, in Alberti, Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, in the 1930s he published his works with social content, as wells as his theoretical and research writings, in newspapers and magazines.

In 1943, co-publisher and contributor, he directed the visual arts section of the Contrapunto literary magazine. Two years later he co-founded the Asociación Arte Concreto Invencion (AACI). Though he subscribed to the Inventionis Manifesto and took part in the major exhibitions of the group, in 1947 he broke away to create the Perceptism, an experience oriented towards the utter elimination of all illusionist representation, which asserted the fidelity of the plane.

Within the theoretical framework of Perceptivismo he elaborated a new colour relational theory, introducing the idea of “coloured field” which substitutes a centrifugal, open structure for the traditional composition. From 1950 to 1953, he published, together with German theorist Abraham Haber and his brother Rembrandt, the Perceptism magazine to spread his art theory. He took part in the II International Biennale of Sao Paulo, together with outstanding abstract artists and he has not abandoned his aesthetic line.

In 1960 he organised in this own house at No. 1717, Humberto 1° street —together with Paulina Berlatzky, Bernardo Gravier, A. Haber and Rafael Squirru— the exhibition of Non-Figurative art which included a hundred and three artists from all the abstract art currents. Among the major collective exhibitions are “Del Arte Concreto a la Nueva Tendencia” (From Concrete Art to the New Trend) held at the Museo de Arte Moderno (1963), “Homenaje a la Vanguardia Argentina de la década del 40” Celebration of the Argentine Vanguard of the 1940s) held at the Galería Arte Nuevo (1976), “Vanguardia de la década del 40. Arte Concreto-Invención. Arte Madí. Perceptismo” (Argentine Vanguard of the 1940s. Concrete Invention Art. Madi Art. Perceptism) held at the Museo Sívori (1980), “Argentina. Arte Concreto-Invención 1945. Grupo Madí 1946 “ (Argentina. Concrete Invention Art. 1945. Madi Group 1946) at the Rachel Adler Gallery, New York (1990) and, recently, “Abstract art from Rio de la Plata. Buenos Aires and Montevideo 1933/1953” at The Americas Society, New York (2001).

By the middle of the 1980s the Fundación San Telmo (San Telmo Foundation) of Buenos Aires, now extinct, organised an exhibition in his honor. In 1992, the Argentine Secretary of Culture awarded him the prize Gran Premio Consagración Nacional, and in 1997 the Museo de Arte Moderno of Buenos Aires organised an important retrospective exhibition in his honor and in 2001 his oeuvre was shown in the “Muestra Homenaje Raúl Lozza: un museo por sesenta días. Selección de obra para un futuro museo de su pintura concreta” (Celebration to Raúl Lozza: a sixty days’ exhibition. Selection of artwork for a prospective museum of his concrete painting). Nowadays he lives and works in Buenos Aires.

 

Rembrandt Van Dyck LOZZA
Was born in 1915 in Alberti, Province of Buenos Aires. He exhibited his early works in his home town in 1928. Two years later he moved to Buenos Aires and studied at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes. Later he entered the Instituto de Artes Gráficas under the direction of Lino Enea Spilimbergo.

By the middle of the 1940s, together with his brothers, he formed the Asociación Arte Concreto-Invención and took part in the first group exhibition at Galería Peuser. In 1949 he participated in an exhibition made by Torres-Garcia’s studio in Uruguay. In the early 1950s, he was contributor, together with his brother Raúl and the theorist Abraham Haber, to the Perceptismo magazine. From then on he focused on aesthetic research. In 1976 he participated in the exhibitions “Homenaje a la vanguardia argentina de la década del 40” (Celebration of the Argentine vanguar of the 1940s) held at Galería Arte Nuevo and “Vanguardia de la década del 40. Arte Concreto-Invención. Arte Madí. Perceptismo” (Vanguard of the 1940s. Concrete Invention Art. Madi Art. Perceptism), at the Museo Sívori (1980). He died in Buenos Aires.

 

Tomás MALDONADO
Born in 1922 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he started his career in the arts at the Escuela de Bellas Artes. In the early 1940s, together with Alfredo Hlito, Claudio Girola and Jorge Brito, he subscribed a manifesto rejecting the selection of works made at the Salón Nacional (National Exhibition).

A contributor to the first and only issue of the Arturo magazine in1944, at the end of 1945 he cofounded the Asociación Arte Concreto Invención (Concrete Invention Art Association) and wrote, together with his brother, the poet Edgar Bayley, the Inventionist Manifesto published simultaneously with the organisation of the first exhibition of the Association, in August 1946. Two years later he travelled to Europe where he met Max Bill and Georges Vantongerloo.

In 1951, he co-founded with Alfredo Hlito and Jorge Grisetti the Nueva Visión magazine of which he is the director. Gradually, his ideas took him away from painting and brought him nearer design and architecture, his painting ceasing altogether in the middle 1950s. In 1954, he was invited to Europe by Max Bill to teach at the Hochschule für Gestaltung en Ulm, Germany. He remains at this university institute holding a tenure as a teacher and vice-chancellor until 1967. In 1965 he was Lethaby Lecturer at the Royal College of Arts in London.

In 1966 he was Fellow of the Council of Humanities at he University of Princeton (USA). From 1967 to 1970 he held the chair “Class of 1913” at the School of Architecture of Princeton University. The SIAD (Society of Industrial Artists and Designers) awarded him the Design Medal, the highest English distinction in the field of industrial design.

From 1976 to 1984 he was professor of Environmental Design at the University of Bologne, Italy. From 1977 to 1981 he directed the Casabella magazine on architecture.

In 1981 he was appointed professor at the Technical University of Milan, Italy. In 1994, Doctor honoris causa at the University of La Plata (Argentina).

In 1995, the ADI (Associazione per il Deseñno Industriale) awarded him the “Compasso d’Oro alla Carriera” and in 1998 the President of the Italian Republic awarded him the “Medaglia d’oro e el diploma di prima classe” for his contribution to science and culture. In 2001 he was made Doctor honoris causa at the Politecnico of Milan, at the University of Cordoba and at the University of Buenos Aires.

Among his abundant theoretical production are “La speranza progettuale” (1970) translated into Spanish as “Ambiente humano e ideología” (Human habitat and ideology) (1972); “Avanguardia e razionalitá” (1974), translated into Spanish as “Vanguardia y racionalidad” (Vanguard and rationality) (1977); “Disenno industriale: un riesame” (1976), translated into Spanish as “Industrial Design revisited” (1991); “Tecnica e cultura” (1979), translated into Spanish as “Técnica y cultura” (Technology and culture) (2002); “Il futuro della modernità (1987), translated into Spanish as “El futuro de la modernidad” (The future of modernity) (1990); “Cultura, democrazia, ambiente” (Culture, Democracy and Environment)(1990); “Tre lezioni Americane” (Three American Lectures) (1992); “Reale e virtuale” (1992) translated into Spanish as “Lo real y lo virtual” (The real and the virtual) (1994); “Che cos’è un intellettuale” (1995), translated into Spanish as “¿Qué es un intelectual? (What is an intellectual?) (1995); “Critica della ragione informatica” (1997), translated into Spanish as “Crítica de la razón informática,” (Criticism of the computing reason) (1998) and “Hacia

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