Raquel Forner - Expressionism

Raquel Forner (1902-1988) was an Argentine painter known for her expressionist works.
Forner's work demonstrated an interest in current events, and from the beginning of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 this took a dramatic and tragic tone. She borrowed ideas from surrealism during the 1940s, adapting its esthetic of distortion without seeking to reproduce a dream state. In 1942 she took first place at the Argentine National Salon competition.During the 1940s through most of the 1950s she produced several series on similar tragic themes in a primarily expressionist mode. Forner often portrayed strong female figures, but not as specific explorations into gender norms.
Beginning in 1957, coinciding with the space race, Forner's attention turned to imagined scenes of interplanetary travel.With her Space Series, which exhibited in Europe and earned recognition, she became one of the earliest fine artists to portray scenes of outer space. This period is characterized by a more vibrant use of color and a personal cosmic mythology of her own creation Forner's artistic portrayals of space travel continued until the 1970s.Wikipedia

Víctor Grippo - Conceptual Art

"He was born in Junín, Buenos Aires Province, on May 10th 1936. In his native city, he learnt some aspects of the sculptor's art with an Italian blacksmith. He settled in La Plata where he studied chemistry in the Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry. He soon gave chemistry up in favour of design, studying at the Escuela de Bellas Artes in La Plata, where he attended the decisive courses on Vision given by Héctor Cartier.He put on his first solo exhibitions in Junín in 1953 and, in 1958, in Tandil newspaper, Nueva Era.In 1961, he took part in the Grupo SI, a group of young artists in La Plata that followed informalism. In 1966, he held his first solo exhibition in Buenos Aires at Galería Lirolay. That same year, he participated together with Kenneth Kemble, Emilio Renart and Enrique Barilari in Investigación sobre el proceso de la creación (Investigation into the process of creation) exhibition held at Galería Vignes. There, he exhibited Sistema (System) in which he incorporated the scientific paradigm on which many of his later creations were to be based.
Around 1970, he joined the Grupo de los Trece (Group of Thirteen), later the Cayc Group, organised by Jorge Glusberg and which also included Luis F. Benedit, Jacques Bedel, Alfredo Portillos, González Mir, Vicente Marotta and Leopoldo Maler among others. With them, he promoted the various aspects of conceptual art in Argentina. In 1977, the group won the Grand Prix at the XVI São Paulo International Biennial.Between 1971 and 1977, Grippo produced a series of works called Analogías (Analogies), in which he emphasised the energy contained in natural products such as the potato, cereals and vegetables, as opposed to the cultural world constructed by man. His installations, objects and working methods, materialised with great refinement, lead to the reflection of universal and eternal subjects, such as life, death, Nature and the ability of man to transform himself through his work. The recognition of crafts in his work emphasises the conviction that the craftsman-artist proceeds as an alchemist who is able to transform material into a medium for ideas and poetic metaphors.Valijita de panadero (Baker's little suitcase) (1977), in which the burned bread shows the devastating consequences of an unrestrained, furious application of energy, follows this same line. The text that accompanies the work, "Baker's little suitcase: Flour + Water + (excessive) Heat", merely ratifies the factor of imbalance: excess, as a symbol of the violence then rife in the country at the worst moment of the military dictatorship. The reference to these events is completed with the presence of the suitcase that alludes to exile.Major solo exhibitions of his work were organised: Algunos oficios (Some Crafts), presented at Galería Multiple in 1976; V{ictor Grippo - Obras 1965-1987 (Víctor Grippo - Works 1965-1987) held in 1988 at Fundación San Telmo; La comida del artista (The artist's meal) at the Instituto de Cooperación Iberoamericana in 1991; Mesas de Trabajo y Reflexión (Tables of work and reflection) held in 1994 as part of the V Havana Biennial and, in the same year, Víctor Grippo-Energía-1971-1994 (Víctor Grippo - Energía - 1971 - 1994) held at the Museo Carrillo Gil in Mexico City.In 1995, the largest retrospective of his work was held at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham (Great Britai ) and at the Palais de Beaux Arts in Brussels (Belgium). In 2001, he held his last solo exhibition in Buenos Aires at Galería Ruth Benzacar, where he again took up his reflections about the realm of work and crafts.Among his numerous participations in important international exhibitions, he was selected to participate in the XI Documenta in Kassel, Germany, held in 2002."(cvaa.com.ar)

Optical Art - Rogelio Polesello

Rogelio Polesello (26 July 1939 – 6 July 2014) was an Argentine painter, muralist and sculptor. He was best known for making Op art (or optical art) known in Latin America. He won two Konex Awards; one in 1982 and another in 2012. He was born in Buenos Aires.Rogelio Polesello studied at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Manuel Belgrano and the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredón, both in Buenos Aires. In 1959, he joined the Asociación Arte Nuevo, founded by Aldo Pellegrini and Carmelo Arden Quin. The paintings he included in his first solo exhibition at the Galería Peuser (Buenos Aires, 1959) followed the aesthetics of Op Art and were based on Gestalt theories. Their geometric forms, generally in black and white, added to or subtracted from the whole according to perceptive principles that produced specific optical effects.Polesello died from a heart attack on 6 July 2014 in Buenos Aires. He was 75.Wikipedia

 

Emilio Pettoruti

Emilio Pettoruti (1892–1971) was an Argentine painter, who caused a scandal with his avant-garde cubist exhibition in 1924 in Buenos Aires. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Buenos Aires was a city full of artistic development. Pettoruti's career was thriving during the 1920s when "Argentina witnessed a decade of dynamic artistic activity; it was an era of euphoria, a time when the definition of modernity was developed."While Pettoruti was influenced by cubism, futurism, constructivism, and abstraction, he did not claim to paint in any of those styles in particular. Exhibiting all over Europe and Argentina, Emilio Pettoruti is remembered as one of the most influential artists in Argentina in the 20th century for his unique style and vision

 Emilio Pettoruti's work was "a prototype of the modern concept of harmony, of order, and of geometric precision, near-scientific in its severity, but oscillating between the lyrical and the purely spiritual."Preoccupied with technique, light, color, and movement, Pettoruti managed to include harmony in his artworks throughout his changing phases. After witnessing Pettoruti's advance in style, Xul Solar wrote that "each stage of his development, even each technical advance, corresponds to a new stage of his soul.Wikipedia

Art that inspires you 

 

Raúl Soldi

Raúl Soldi (27 March 1905 in Buenos Aires, Argentina – 21 April 1994 in Buenos Aires, Argentina) was an Argentine painter whose work treated various subjects, including landscapes, portraits, the theater and the circus, and nature. His theatrical figures are renowned for their melancholy appearance. He also illustrated poetry books.

Raúl Soldi was born into an artistic family in Buenos Aires in 1905, his father was a cellist and his eldest sister studied piano and song. He began his studies at the National Academy of Beautiful Arts, Buenos Aires, Argentina then travelled to Europe in 1921. He stayed in Germany until 1923 then moved to Italy to continue his studies, enrolling in the Real Academy of Brera (Milan) where he remained until 1932. Whilst in Italy, he became involved with groups of vanguard artists.Wikipedia