Lot Essay
The story of the triumph of modernism conventionally leaves out the battles that took place outside the limelight overshadowing the equally compelling lives of Latin American artists. They too, traveled to Paris and Spain during the first quarter of the 20th century and actively participated in this atmosphere before returning home to become lonely prophets of the new art. Like the Europeans, the Latin American artists returned to defend modernity, individuality and internationalism against the prevaling traditions of secular and religious authority and nationalism.
Pettoruti was thus among these young Latin Americans that ventured into the materialization of change. Born in 1892 to Italian immigrant parents, Pettorutti left Argentina at the age of eighteen to pursue an artistic education during the crucial years that spanned between 1913 and 1924. He spent time in Florence, Milan, Rome, Berlin and Paris before returning to Argentina. He collaborated with such figures as Juan Gris, Giacomo Balla, F.T. Marinetti and Giorgio de Chirico. After a short period of fascination with Futurism, Pettoruti embraced the cubist aesthetic, adding his own ideas of spatial dynamism and embedding it with a special focus on color and plastic form derived from his futuristic background and studies in Renaissance art.
Back home in Argentina, the local population was embracing European cultural models and an urban, modern and industrialized national identity emerged. Pettoruti soon became a leading spokesperson for the avant-garde promoting new ideas in painting, literature and museum practices. He introduced his cubist painting style while establishing a journal along with Xul Solar and Jorge Luis Borges that introduced this new art and writing to the Argentine public. Titled Martin Fierro after a classic gaucho poem of an outlaw that rebelled against society, the magazine served as a tool towards the rejection of tradition.
During the 30's and 40's Pettoruti held the title of Director of the Musem of Fine Arts of La Plata, a job that allowed him to continue the battle to gain acceptance in both European and Latin American Modernism. In his own artistic endeavor Pettoruti, clearly effected by Cubism, thoughtfully reinterpreted the style adding local and personal influences. He embraced the multiple perspectives and their dynamism in the composition. His still-lifes and La copa verde II (1933), clearly shows how the artist broke arrangements of glasses, bottles, tables and tablecloths into flat interlocking planes, creating a very particular rhythm that is further accentuated by the thoughtful use of color. Pettoruti's copas acquires a manneristic tension where balance appears among a small number of saturated colors, which is unique to the artist's style.
This painting is sold with a photo certificate of authenticity signed by Natalio Jorge Povarche
Pettoruti was thus among these young Latin Americans that ventured into the materialization of change. Born in 1892 to Italian immigrant parents, Pettorutti left Argentina at the age of eighteen to pursue an artistic education during the crucial years that spanned between 1913 and 1924. He spent time in Florence, Milan, Rome, Berlin and Paris before returning to Argentina. He collaborated with such figures as Juan Gris, Giacomo Balla, F.T. Marinetti and Giorgio de Chirico. After a short period of fascination with Futurism, Pettoruti embraced the cubist aesthetic, adding his own ideas of spatial dynamism and embedding it with a special focus on color and plastic form derived from his futuristic background and studies in Renaissance art.
Back home in Argentina, the local population was embracing European cultural models and an urban, modern and industrialized national identity emerged. Pettoruti soon became a leading spokesperson for the avant-garde promoting new ideas in painting, literature and museum practices. He introduced his cubist painting style while establishing a journal along with Xul Solar and Jorge Luis Borges that introduced this new art and writing to the Argentine public. Titled Martin Fierro after a classic gaucho poem of an outlaw that rebelled against society, the magazine served as a tool towards the rejection of tradition.
During the 30's and 40's Pettoruti held the title of Director of the Musem of Fine Arts of La Plata, a job that allowed him to continue the battle to gain acceptance in both European and Latin American Modernism. In his own artistic endeavor Pettoruti, clearly effected by Cubism, thoughtfully reinterpreted the style adding local and personal influences. He embraced the multiple perspectives and their dynamism in the composition. His still-lifes and La copa verde II (1933), clearly shows how the artist broke arrangements of glasses, bottles, tables and tablecloths into flat interlocking planes, creating a very particular rhythm that is further accentuated by the thoughtful use of color. Pettoruti's copas acquires a manneristic tension where balance appears among a small number of saturated colors, which is unique to the artist's style.
This painting is sold with a photo certificate of authenticity signed by Natalio Jorge Povarche