Argentinian Artist Research Articles

Outlining the Victims of the Holocaust and the Argentinian Dictatorship: Jerzy Skąpski’s Każdy Dzień Oświęcimia and Rodolfo Aguerreberry, Julio Flores, and Guillermo Kexel’s “El Siluetazo”

In this article, I examine two case studies of spatial representation of atrocity and trauma: Jerzy Skąpski’s poster Każdy Dzień Oświęcimia (Every Day at Auschwitz) (1974), published in the October 1978 edition of The Unesco Courier, and the aesthetic/activist action known as “El Siluetazo” (1983), which was created by Rodolfo Aguerreberry, Julio Flores, and Guillermo Kexel, and carried out as a memory-activist intervention by the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo and the Argentinian public on 21–22 September 1983. To examine the interconnections of Holocaust memory within these two case studies, I follow Michael Rothberg’s notion of multidirectional memory and Astrid Erll’s conceptualization of transcultural and travelling memory. In particular, I analyze how Skąpski’s use of silhouettes to spatially depict the victims of Auschwitz is adopted and transformed by the Argentinian artists and public to denounce the disappearance of 30,000 of their compatriots. I argue that in outlining the figures of the victims of the Holocaust and the Argentinian dictatorship, respectively, these creative works exemplify the transcultural use of silhouettes originating in Holocaust memory and the multidirectional influence, derived from their organic connection, of spatial visualizations of absent bodies as they commemorate and make present the victims of these traumatic histories.

Learning to Listen

Learning to Listen

Life inside a system: eco-critical stances in the art of Luis Fernando Benedit

Between 1968 and 1972 the Argentinian artist Luis Fernando Benedit (1937–2011) realised a series of works that years later the art critic Jorge Glusberg would define as ‘biological physical-chemical experiences’.1

The palette of Pio Collivadino (1869–1945) throughout his career

Abstract This article focuses on the analysis of the pigmentary palette of Pio Collivadino (1869–1945), an Argentinian artist of outstanding influence in the national art of the early twentieth century. By using Raman spectroscopy on micro-samples taken from a selected corpus of the Pio Collivadino Museum consisting of representative works of different moments of his production, we were able to unambiguously detect several pigments in the artist’s palette: lead white, vermillion, Prussian blue, chrome yellows and oranges, synthetic ultramarine, zinc white, cadmium yellows and oranges, cobalt violet, viridian, cerulean blue, cadmium red and earth pigments (raw sienna and burnt sienna). The identification of the pigments used by Collivadino enabled us to set up a dialogue between his palette and those of the contemporary European artistic movements his work relates to: the Macchiaioli, the Scapigliati, the Divisionists (Italian artistic vanguards) and the Impressionists. The presence of Prussian blue, cerulean blue, viridian not mixed with emerald green and earth pigments relates Collivadino’s choice of pigments to that of the contemporary Italian artistic vanguards, distancing his palette from that of the Impressionists. The palettes of European artists active during the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century have been widely studied making it possible to date the incorporation of the new bright and colorful pigments that were synthesized during this period. Taking into account Collivadino’s privileged position in the Art academic field, his choice of art materials may have influenced many artists whose works make up the Argentine national heritage. Therefore, the characterization of Collivadino’s pigmentary palette carried out here is an important step to date the incorporation of these bright new pigments in the Argentinian artists’ palettes. Besides Collivadino's work importance by itself, and due to his position of privilege, his palette also provides information about the availability of art supplies in Argentina during this period.

El giro crítico en torno a los sujetos y objetos del arte: Edgardo A. Vigo y Cildo Meireles

En este artículo se analizan algunas obras del artista argentino Edgardo A. Vigo (1928-1997) y del brasileño Cildo Meireles (1948- ), poniéndolos en diálogo como participantes en el giro crítico en el arte de los años sesenta y setenta, en el contexto de las vanguardias artísticas latinoamericanas. Ambos artistas amplían la base de sus cuestionamientos a la cultura, la sociedad y la política –en momentos en que Brasil y Argentina atravesaban dictaduras y sus consecuentes regímenes represivos– a través de formas que apelaban a imaginar, experimentar y significar objetos, acciones y hechos. Para ello, nos centraremos en las Obras (in)completas, (in) conferencia y Señalamiento XI Souvenir del dolor de Vigo y Desvio para o Vermelho: I. Impregnação, Inserções em circuitos ideológicos: Projeto Coca-Cola y Projeto Cédula y Tiradentes – Totem Monumento ao Preso Político de Meireles. Metodológicamente se utiliza la perspectiva cualitativa transdisciplinaria, que articula distintas áreas del conocimiento para reflexionar sobre el arte.

Art as an investment alternative: the case of Argentina

PropósitoEste trabajo presenta la elaboración del primer índice exhaustivo de precios de artistas plásticos de Argentina (y de cualquier otro país de Latino América) a partir de 5.069 ventas de obras de 71 artistas argentinos realizadas en subastas durante el período 1980-2014.Diseño/metodología/enfoqueSe estimó una regresión de precios hedónica por el Método de Mínimos Cuadrados Ordinarios. Una vez corrida la regresión y analizados sus resultados, se procedió a estimar el índice anual de precios de obras de artistas argentinos, para posteriormente relacionarlos con diversas variables financieras y económicas.HallazgosEl rendimiento promedio aritmético nominal anual en dólares del arte argentino durante ese período fue de 6,81% con una desviación estándar de 29,11%. El arte argentino exhibe una baja correlación con las acciones de empresas argentinas y de EEUU y ligeramente negativa con bonos de EEUU, lo cual le confiere atributos para ser incluido en las carteras de los inversionistas, a pesar de la elevada volatilidad.Limitaciones e implicaciones de la investigaciónSe consigue que la valoración de arte en Argentina puede ser explicada por una serie de atributos de las obras de arte. Los beneficios del arte como inversión deben ser evaluados con la iliquidez y los elevados costos de transacción, entre otros costos, inherentes a la inversión en obras de arte.Implicaciones prácticasLas obras de artistas argentinos tienen precios más altos cuando, ceteris paribus: están fechadas, se subastan en Christie's, en Sotheby's o en Galería Arroyo, son ejecutadas en óleo o en acrílico, tienen un mayor área, aunque el aumento de precio es decreciente al aumentar el área, y cuando el artista ya había fallecido al momento de celebrase la subasta.Originalidad/valorEste trabajo propone el primer índice riguroso de precios de obras de artistas de Argentina. Además, y hasta donde hemos podido comprobar, el período utilizado en este trabajo es el más largo que se haya empleado en estudios del arte como inversión en mercados emergentes.

‘I am Tower of Hamlets’: enchanted encounters and the limit to art’s connectivity

‘I am Tower of Hamlets, as I am in Tower of Hamlets, just like a lot of other people are’ (2011–2012) was an artwork by Argentinian artist Amalia Pica, and involved a pink-granite sculpture touring around different homes in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets for one year. This paper offers a geographical investigation into the type of encounters and relations created by this artwork. Rather than assume the progressive role of such art encounters, the paper casts a critical eye on to the actual forms of association that they foster and the normative social logics they may perpetuate. In doing so, it suggests that while enchanted, ‘meaningful’ encounters did occur between participants and the sculpture, these occurred within a pre-existing art community, something which compounded problematic class boundaries. Thus, the paper utilises this artwork to identify how encounters can be meaningful whilst maintaining embedded social and cultural divisions. It concludes with a discussion on the relationship between art and the geographies of encounter.

La rivoluzione siamo noi

By referring to the aesthetics theory developed by the Argentinian philosopher Rodolfo Kusch, this article aims to question the European models of cultural domination based on artistic canons, which still persist in the narratives of art history. The study of cultural relations between Latin American artists of the 1970s and the German artist Joseph Beuys exemplifies the inadaptability of Western artistic canons in the Latin American contexts. The analysis of Beuys’s artistic dialogue with Argentinian artists, such as Víctor Grippo and Nicolás García Uriburu, examines the matrix of transatlantic cultural relations in which the problem of influence usually concerns Latin Americans playing the role of followers of Western art trends. Criticism of Beuys’s artistic and political positions, which were raised by the Uruguayan Clemente Padín and the Brazilian Paulo Herkenhoff, opens new viewpoints with regards to the interpretation of canonical modern art.

Challenges in the conservation of the work of León Ferrari

When dealing with contemporary art, conservators have to address not only the material aspects of the artwork but also other highly complex issues. The Argentinian artist Leon Ferrari is a representative example. He created avant-garde art installations but also worked with traditional techniques. His works raise dilemmas over concepts such as authorship, authenticity, legitimacy of art. Some of his artworks only interested him as a means to express his opinions and he was not concerned about alterations in their appearance. Therefore, what should be kept in them is not in an area of certainty for conservators. An essential key for achieving a responsible and respectful conservation result, is to understand the ideology involved in each ‘art piece’ created by Ferrari.

Concrete Scrawls

Argentinian artist León Ferrari's work has often been read as comprising two distinct orientations: an explicitly political, content-centred one on the one hand and, on the other, a formalist, apolitical one. This article contests the basis of this distinction, arguing that the distinction occludes Ferrari's primary artistic practice – that of making lines. Understanding line-making as a political act – one that leaves intact the traces of the signifier's emergence – the author reads Ferrari's work in dialogue both with Brazilian Concrete poetry – an important line-making enterprise contemporary to his work – and with the explosion of signification in other realms of public life. He concludes that Ferrari's formalist work is premised on unmasking the false transparency of all communication.

Norah Borges, the Graphic Voice of Ultraísmo in Two Peripheral Centres

This paper examines the seminal contributions Argentinian artist Norah Borges made to Ultraist literary magazines in Spain and in Argentina during the early 1920s. Countering Spanish Ultraist Guillermo de Torre's claim that the 'cultural meridian' of Latin America ran through Madrid during this period, Borges' prints are discussed in terms of the artist's original stylistic synthesis of expressionist and cubist currents and her pivotal role in translating the tenets of Ultraist poetics into graphic form in Madrid and in Buenos Aires.

Photo Essay:"Chuck Another Steak on the Barbie, Would'ja Doll?"

Barbecue: [Spanish: Barbacoa possibly from Arawak barbacoa: a raised wooden framework of sticks] 1. A sleeping platform; a bed. 2. An outdoor entertainment where meat is cooked over an open fire. Barbie: [colloquial, chiefly in Australia] Abbreviation of barbecue. Barbie Doll: [diminutive of female personal name, Barbara + Doll] Proprietary name for a doll representing a slim, conventionally attractive young woman. Consumption: 1. The action or fact of consuming by using, eating or wasting. 2. The purchase and use of goods, or the amount of this. The ubiquitous Barbie Doll is most famous -- and most often criticised -- for those markers of Western conventional female sexuality: blonde hair, long legs and large breasts. It is the ambiguity of this object -- explicit sexuality in a toy marketed to pre-adolescent girls -- that accounts for some of the discomfort which it sometimes evokes. Despite this however, it is one of the most successful consumer items on the planet. The aggressive marketing of the Barbie Doll is similar to that of another cultural icon, Coca-Cola. Where Barbie's sexuality is demure and implicit, Coke, with its reliance on bikini-clad models whose bodies come as close to Barbie's as is physically possible, is quite explicit in its portrayal of sexuality. The famous shape of the Coke bottle, intentionally designed to suggest the female body, but also phallic in shape, links the themes of food, sex and consumerism in a profound way. This jump from the Barbie Doll, that icon of consumerism, to food, arguably the ultimate consumer good, and that topic which relates them -- sex -- is mirrored by the convoluted etymology of the words. Barbecue evokes themes of food, but also of sex, through the image of the bed. The Australian colloquialism barbie introduces a nexus of themes: food and sex are marketed as aggressively and seductively as the advertisements that insist we purchase toys for our children; dolls and food are imbued with a sexual connotation that is as obvious as it is coyly ignored; and we are urged that shopping and sex are as necessary to enjoyment of the modern world, as food is to survival. Issues of gender enter the nexus in different ways. Hierarchies of value and meaning attach to our bodies as men and women in often unacknowledged ways. In Australia at least, cooking at barbecues is traditionally done by men: often dressed in "novelty" aprons with highly sexualised themes. Perhaps it is the barbecue's connection with meat, especially red meat, that makes it acceptable for men to undertake the undervalued, "feminised" role of cooking (the women, of course, are inside preparing the salads). The signifier of virility in barbecued meat is obvious in its stereotyped form -- "charcoal on the outside, and still bloody in the middle". In many societies, including our own, the assumption that red meat, especially rare red meat, equals virility is unspoken, but persuasive. In the following suite of photographs by Judith Villamayor, an Argentinian artist and photographer, these themes, and others, are raised. We urge you to reflect on these issues as you "read" this photo-essay. The possible meanings evoked by the photos, however, are not limited to these themes, and they may speak to you in entirely different ways. Enjoy! Check out more of Judith's digital art at <http://members.xoom.com/cyberguias>, <http://members.xoom.com/rattlesnake3>, <http://come.to/villamayor> and <http://www.cyberguias.com/villamayor.htm>. Citation reference for this article MLA style: Judith Villamayor, John Gunders, Vikki Fraser. ""Chuck Another Steak on the Barbie, Would'ja Doll?"." M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2.7 (1999). [your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9910/barbie.php>. Chicago style: Judith Villamayor, John Gunders, Vikki Fraser, ""Chuck Another Steak on the Barbie, Would'ja Doll?"," M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2, no. 7 (1999), <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9910/barbie.php> ([your date of access]). APA style: Judith Villamayor, John Gunders, Vikki Fraser. (1999) "Chuck Another Steak on the Barbie, Would'ja Doll?". M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2(7). <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9910/barbie.php> ([your date of access]).

Food

Food