Lot Essay
Antonio Berni (1905-1981) is one of the most prominent and admired Argentine artists in the cultural sphere of Latin America. Together with Emilio Pettoruti, Xul Solar, Jorge Luis Borges and Joaquín Torres-García, Berni belonged to the generation that introduced modernity and other European trends of the Twenties and Thirties to the Río de la Plata region. At the age of twenty-one, Berni was given a scholarship to study in Paris with André Lhote and Othon Friesz, both of whom were actively involved in the Fauvist and Cubist movements. Likewise, his great friend and the renowned poet, Louis Aragón, introduced him to the Surrealists, where he was greatly inspired by Bretón's manifesto. Surrealism caught Berni's interest and thereafter oniric images on the horizon--where a button and a screw lay together with the Eiffel Tower--became part of the artist's recurring contemporary themes as well as a constant subject in his oeuvre. In 1928, a whole series of Surrealist collages and paintings were to begin, only to be exhibited years later in Buenos Aires.
Berni returned to Argentina in the early Thirties to find a country full of social and political disorder. He soon abandoned his Surrealist and psychoanalytical tendencies and started a realist, critical and political art. Berni became convinced that socialism was the alternative to capitalism, and reflected these beliefs by embracing social realism. A brilliant example of these concerns lies in his work entitled Manifestación, (1934), a painting that presents the viewer with a group of anguished workers holding posters which read 'pan y trabajo'.
In the Sixties, Berni created the stories of Juanito and Ramona. Juanito was a boy growing up in the villa miseria or, as they are more commonly known, 'the slums' on the outskirts of the big city; while Ramona was a humble prostitute. The marginal lives of these symbolic characters were represented in engravings and assemblages of garbage. For the next decade there followed a continuous flow of works and invitations to exhibit in museums all across Europe and in 1962, Berni was awarded the Grand Prix at the Venice Biennal.
It was in New York, however, that he reached maturity as an artist. Having arrived to the most opulent city in the world, Berni was overwhelmed. The world of vulgar personages, of grotesque women, stereotyped postmodern youths, hippies lost to the consumer world, and of crude sexual parodies, became recurrent themes in his work. Formally, the paintings from this period were rendered in saturated and strident colors, and he filled in the empty spaces with larger than life grotesque characters that seemed to have lost their identities to a consumerist society.
This period represents a particularly rich and innovative time of pictorial and stylist growth for Berni, and it was this period that most influenced the younger generations of artists. The Nueva Figuración, a group of young painters from the 1960's, drew inspiration from Berni's liberal approach to painting in rendering their socially engaged works of artistic expression. Furthermore, the exhibition The Magic Everday Life that took place at the Bonino Gallery in New York (1977), presented Berni's New York production as well as some of the Ramona and Juanito compositions. This exhibition brought to the public's attention Berni's ironic view of reality and how the artist sarcastically rendered the marginal characters and the streets of New York City.
The Chelsea Hotel (1977), as well as a series of numerous paintings, collages and engravings all belong to this period. The painting is a composition which measures two meters high, where a pink curtain literally hangs in front of a woman who sits on a bed at the famous hotel. The generously endowed blonde is wearing nothing but black stockings and is pulling back the curtain while glancing at the viewer. Behind her and through the window, the spectator may appreciate a view of Manhattan's skyscrapers as seen from the Chelsea Hotel on a winter's night. Undoubtedly, this painting evokes the harshness of modern urban spaces as well as the contradictions of a consumer society that Manhattan must have provided for Berni during his stay.
Other compositions from the same period equally present popular places and events such as the snack bar, airport lounges or even street scenes. Formally, Berni exploits the kitsch and adorns each painting by adding to the composition such heavily popular accents as lace, signs and other elements. Wedding Cake (1977) for example, represents a charming couple of newlyweds cutting their magnificent five story cake. Again, Berni sarcastically depicts the scenes of the middle class, exposing to the viewer the dreams forged upon individuals by a consumerist society.
Berni's whole artistic production was engaged in social criticism against the fluctuation of power and injustices of the Latin American governments. He was constantly acting as a witness and representing his own lifetime by relentlessly depicting social themes in his pictoric work. His art captures not only the social issues that he aimed to portray, but also his rich artistic and moral spirit as well.
We are grateful to Jorge López Anaya of the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, for his assitance in writing the above essay for the present lot.
Berni returned to Argentina in the early Thirties to find a country full of social and political disorder. He soon abandoned his Surrealist and psychoanalytical tendencies and started a realist, critical and political art. Berni became convinced that socialism was the alternative to capitalism, and reflected these beliefs by embracing social realism. A brilliant example of these concerns lies in his work entitled Manifestación, (1934), a painting that presents the viewer with a group of anguished workers holding posters which read 'pan y trabajo'.
In the Sixties, Berni created the stories of Juanito and Ramona. Juanito was a boy growing up in the villa miseria or, as they are more commonly known, 'the slums' on the outskirts of the big city; while Ramona was a humble prostitute. The marginal lives of these symbolic characters were represented in engravings and assemblages of garbage. For the next decade there followed a continuous flow of works and invitations to exhibit in museums all across Europe and in 1962, Berni was awarded the Grand Prix at the Venice Biennal.
It was in New York, however, that he reached maturity as an artist. Having arrived to the most opulent city in the world, Berni was overwhelmed. The world of vulgar personages, of grotesque women, stereotyped postmodern youths, hippies lost to the consumer world, and of crude sexual parodies, became recurrent themes in his work. Formally, the paintings from this period were rendered in saturated and strident colors, and he filled in the empty spaces with larger than life grotesque characters that seemed to have lost their identities to a consumerist society.
This period represents a particularly rich and innovative time of pictorial and stylist growth for Berni, and it was this period that most influenced the younger generations of artists. The Nueva Figuración, a group of young painters from the 1960's, drew inspiration from Berni's liberal approach to painting in rendering their socially engaged works of artistic expression. Furthermore, the exhibition The Magic Everday Life that took place at the Bonino Gallery in New York (1977), presented Berni's New York production as well as some of the Ramona and Juanito compositions. This exhibition brought to the public's attention Berni's ironic view of reality and how the artist sarcastically rendered the marginal characters and the streets of New York City.
The Chelsea Hotel (1977), as well as a series of numerous paintings, collages and engravings all belong to this period. The painting is a composition which measures two meters high, where a pink curtain literally hangs in front of a woman who sits on a bed at the famous hotel. The generously endowed blonde is wearing nothing but black stockings and is pulling back the curtain while glancing at the viewer. Behind her and through the window, the spectator may appreciate a view of Manhattan's skyscrapers as seen from the Chelsea Hotel on a winter's night. Undoubtedly, this painting evokes the harshness of modern urban spaces as well as the contradictions of a consumer society that Manhattan must have provided for Berni during his stay.
Other compositions from the same period equally present popular places and events such as the snack bar, airport lounges or even street scenes. Formally, Berni exploits the kitsch and adorns each painting by adding to the composition such heavily popular accents as lace, signs and other elements. Wedding Cake (1977) for example, represents a charming couple of newlyweds cutting their magnificent five story cake. Again, Berni sarcastically depicts the scenes of the middle class, exposing to the viewer the dreams forged upon individuals by a consumerist society.
Berni's whole artistic production was engaged in social criticism against the fluctuation of power and injustices of the Latin American governments. He was constantly acting as a witness and representing his own lifetime by relentlessly depicting social themes in his pictoric work. His art captures not only the social issues that he aimed to portray, but also his rich artistic and moral spirit as well.
We are grateful to Jorge López Anaya of the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, for his assitance in writing the above essay for the present lot.