León Ferrari (Buenos Aires, Argentina 1920 - idem 2013)
León Ferrari was an Argentine painter, printmaker, sculptor and multimedia artist, known for his provocative and politically engaged work. He began his artistic career in sculpture during a three-year stay in Italy, where, in 1955, he held a solo exhibition at the Galleria Cariola in Milan. Back in Argentina, he began working with wire and stainless-steel sculptures from 1960 onwards, while also developing calligraphic drawings and collages that marked a new phase in his aesthetic research.
His involvement with the Instituto Di Tella in Buenos Aires, from 1965 onwards, marked a significant turn toward a more politicized and critical production. In this context, he abandoned abstraction and began making works that questioned power, religion and authoritarian regimes. He took part in emblematic actions such as Tucumán Arde and Malvenido Rockefeller, in 1968 and 1969, which expressed strong opposition to repression and foreign domination in Latin America. In 1976, he moved to São Paulo, where he resumed his metal sculpture and also began exploring sound sculptures.
During his time in Brazil, he developed works influenced by artists such as Regina Silveira and Julio Plaza, incorporating new media into his practice, such as videotext, microfiche, mail art and artist's books. He also worked with lithography and received the award for best exhibition of the year from the Associação Paulista de Críticos de Arte (APCA) in 1983. In 1984, he returned to Buenos Aires, broadening his language even further by bringing digital media into works such as Electronicartes, from 2002/2003.
Besides his visual output, León Ferrari was also an active author, publishing books with a strong critical and political content, such as Nosotros No Sabíamos [We Didn't Know] (1976), Cuadro Escrito [Written Painting] (1984), Exégesis [Exegesis] (1993) and La Bondadosa Crueldad [Kindly Cruelty] (2000). That same year, he received the Costantini Prize, consolidating his position as one of the most relevant and combative artists in contemporary Latin American art.
Critical Commentary
León Ferrari's output spans diverse fields, such as three-dimensional work, drawing, writing, collage, assemblage, installation and video. His work is marked by an intense process of experimentation.
In 1961, the artist begins making metal sculptures. Gradually, he incorporates texture and movement into his compositions through the use of sheets of various sizes and different metals. He also begins exploring unusual materials, such as bottles, cut-out images and plastic objects, and even works with live animals in some pieces, as in Justicia [Justice] (1991).
In parallel, he begins the series Escrituras, Manuscritos [Writings, Manuscripts], in which he freely associates ideas and words, linked by a poetic sense and at times mixed with biblical references. As the scholar Andrea Giunta notes, Cuadro Escrito [Written Painting] (1964) is one of the longest of these works. In it, the words undulate and the letters intermingle, yet they always remain legible: the text describes a painting, as if the artist could paint it with words.
In the 1970s and early 1980s, he lives in São Paulo. He returns to abstract sculpture and drawing and becomes interested in new expressive media, encouraged by his contact with Regina Silveira and Julio Plaza. In addition to lithography, he begins working with videotext, microfiche, mail art and artist's books. He also develops sound sculptures made of metal rods.
More recently, back in Argentina, he has explored the digital medium for his proposals, as in Electronicartes (2002/2003), in which he sends by e-mail images relating to events of the period, such as the September 11 attack in New York (2001), the bombing of Baghdad (2003), terrorism, US politics, and justice and the economy in Argentina, among other themes, always driven by a sense of social and political critique.
Collections
Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo/Brasil Collection (São Paulo, SP)
Casa de las Américas (Havana, Cuba)
Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam (Havana, Cuba)
Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo Collection (São Paulo, SP)
Museu de Arte Moderna - MAM/RJ Collection (Rio de Janeiro, RJ)
Museu de Arte Moderna - MAM/SP Collection (São Paulo, SP)
El Museo del Barrio (New York, United States)
Fondo Nacional de las Artes (Buenos Aires - Argentina)
Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil - MACG (Mexico City, Mexico)
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (Buenos Aires - Argentina)
Museo de Arte Moderno (Mexico City, Mexico)
Museo de Arte Moderno La Tertulia (Cali, Colombia)
Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende (Santiago, Chile)
Museo del Grabado (Buenos Aires - Argentina)
Museu de Arte Brasileira - MAB/FAAP (São Paulo, SP)
Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand - Masp (São Paulo, SP)
Museo de Arte Moderno - MAMba (Buenos Aires - Argentina)
The Bronx Museum of the Arts (New York, United States)
Solo Exhibitions
1962 - Milan (Italy) - Solo Pater
1964 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Solo Lizolay
1978 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo
1979 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Gabinete de Artes Gráficas
1980 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at MAM/SP
Group Exhibitions
1963 - Paris (France) - Latin American Art, at Museu de Arte Moderna
1965 - New York (United States) - Buenos Aires 64, at MoMA
1978 - Penápolis SP - 3rd Noroeste Visual Arts Salon, at Fundação Educacional de Penápolis. Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Penápolis
1978 - São Paulo SP - 10th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1978 - São Paulo SP - 1st Exhibition of Unusual Furniture and Objects, at Paço das Artes
1979 - São Paulo SP - Playful Sculpture Exhibition, at Masp
1980 - São Paulo SP - 12th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1981 - Cali (Colombia) - Cali Biennial
1981 - Guarujá SP - Outdoor Sculpture, at Hotel Jequitimar
1981 - São Paulo SP - 13th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1981 - São Paulo SP - Heliography Exhibition, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1982 - Belo Horizonte MG - 14th Belo Horizonte National Contemporary Art Salon, at Museu de Arte da Pampulha
1982 - São Paulo SP - Art by Telephone, at MIS/SP
1983 - Ribeirão Preto SP - Xerography: Brazilian Sampling, at Galeria Campus
1983 - São Paulo SP - 17th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Fundação Bienal
1983 - São Paulo SP - Today: Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures and Musical Instruments, at Poesia e Arte
1983 - São Paulo SP - Percanta, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1983 - São Paulo SP - Rereading Project, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1984 - Santo André SP - 12th Santo André Contemporary Art Salon, at Paço Municipal
1984 - São Paulo SP - 15th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1984 - São Paulo SP - Arte Xerox Brasil, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1984 - São Paulo SP - Rereading the Bible, at Galeria Suzana Sassonn
1985 - Penápolis SP - 6th Noroeste Visual Arts Salon, at Fundação Educacional de Penápolis. Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Penápolis
1985 - São Paulo SP - 16th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1985 - São Paulo SP - 18th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Fundação Bienal
1985 - São Paulo SP - Art and Technology, at MAC/USP
1985 - São Paulo SP - Art New Media/Multimedia: Brazil 70/80, at MAB/Faap
1985 - São Paulo SP - Trends of the Artist's Book in Brazil, at CCSP
1985 - São Paulo SP - Transcriar [Transcreate], at CCSP
1985 - São Paulo SP - Transcriar [Transcreate], at MAC/USP
1986 - Fortaleza CE - Imagine: The Planet Greets the Comet, at Arte Galeria
1986 - São Paulo SP - The New Dimension of the Object, at MAC/USP
1987 - Brasília DF - Paulistas in Brasília, at Museu de Arte de Brasília
1987 - São Paulo SP - The Weave of Taste: Another Look at Everyday Life, at Fundação Bienal
1987 - São Paulo SP - Palavra Imágica [Imagic Word], at MAC/USP
1988 - Campinas SP - 13th Campinas Contemporary Art Salon, at MACC - guest artist
1988 - São Paulo SP - MAC 25 Years: Recent Acquisitions and Donations, at MAC/USP
1992 - Campinas SP - Prizewinners of the Campinas Contemporary Art Salons, at MACC
1993 - São Paulo SP - Masp at Morumbi Shopping, at Shopping Morumbi
1994 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Brasil Século XX, at Fundação Bienal
1995 - Belo Horizonte MG - Babel Project, at Praça da Liberdade
1995 - São Paulo SP - Babel Project, at SESC Pompéia
1996 - Porto Alegre RS - Latin American Visual Arts Meeting - Art in Latin America: 100 Years of Production, at UFRGS
1996 - São Paulo SP - Ex Libris/Home Page, at Paço das Artes
1997 - Belo Horizonte MG - What Happens When You Change Places?, at Sala Multimeios do Palácio das Artes
1997 - New York (United States) - Re-Aligning os South-American Drawing
1997 - São Paulo SP - The City of Artists, at MAC/USP
2000 - São Paulo SP - Almeida Júnior: An Artist Revisited, at Pinacoteca do Estado
2000 - São Paulo SP - Conceptual Art and Conceptualisms: The 1970s in the MAC/USP Collection, at Galeria de Arte do Sesi
2000 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Sculpture: From the Pinacoteca to the Jardim da Luz, at Pinacoteca do Estado
2000 - São Paulo SP - The Role of Art, at Galeria de Arte do Sesi
2001 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Culture 1, at Casa das Rosas
2002 - São Paulo SP - Art and Politics, at MAM Higienópolis
2002 - São Paulo SP - Strategies to Dazzle, at Galeria de Arte do Sesi
2003 - São Paulo SP - The Subversion of the Media, at Itaú Cultural
2003 - São Paulo SP - Compressors and Condensers, at Espaço MAM - Villa-Lobos
2003 - São Paulo SP - MAC USP 40 Years: Contemporary Interfaces, at MAC/USP
2004 - São Paulo SP - Contemporary Art at Iberê Camargo's Studio, at Centro Universitário Maria Antonia
Source: Itaú Cultural
