Antonio Berni

Antonio Berni
Born	Delesio Antonio Berni (1905-05-14)14 May 1905 Rosario,Argentina
Died	13 October 1981(1981-10-13)(aged 76) Buenos Aires,Argentina
Known for	Painting,Engraving,Illustration,Collage
Notable work	Juanito Laguna Ramona Montiel La Manifestación
Style	Surrealism
Movement	Nuevo Realismo

Delesio Antonio Berni(14 May 1905 – 13 October 1981) was an Argentinefigurative artist.He is associated with the movement known asNuevo Realismo( "New Realism" ), an Argentine extension ofsocial realism.His work, including a series ofJuanito Lagunacollagesdepicting poverty and the effects ofindustrializationin Buenos Aires, has been exhibited around the world.

Biography

Early life

Berni was born in the city ofRosarioon 14 May 1905.His mother, Margarita Picco, was the Argentine daughter of Italians. His father Napoleon, animmigranttailorfromItaly,died in thefirst World War.

In 1914 Berni became the apprentice ofCatalancraftsman N. Bruxadera at theBuxadera and Co.stained glass company. He later studied painting at theRosario CataláCenter, where he was described as a child prodigy.In 1920 seventeen of his oil paintings were exhibited at the Salon Mari. On 4 November 1923, hisimpressionistlandscapeswere praised by critics in the daily newspapersLa NaciónandLa Prensa.

Paris

Berni in the 1920s

TheJockey Club of Rosarioawarded Berni a scholarship to study in Europe in 1925. He chose to visitSpain,as Spanish painting was in vogue, particularly the art ofJoaquín Sorolla,Ignacio Zuloaga,Camarasa Anglada,andJulio Romero de Torres.But after visitingMadrid,Toledo,Segovia,Granada,Córdoba,andSevillehe settled inPariswhere fellow Argentine artists Horacio Butler,Aquiles Badi,Alfredo Bigatti,Xul Solar,Héctor Basaldua, andLino Enea Spilimbergowere working. He attended "City of Lights" workshops given byAndré LhoteandOthon FrieszatAcadémie de la Grande Chaumière.Berni painted two landscapes ofArcueil,Paisaje de París(Landscape of Paris),Mantel amarillo(The Yellow Tablecloth),La casa del crimen(The House of Crime),Desnudo(Nude), andNaturaleza muerta con guitarra(Still Life with Guitar).

He went back to Rosario for a few months but returned to Paris in 1927 with a grant from theProvince of Santa Fe.Studying the work ofGiorgio de ChiricoandRené Magritte,Berni became interested insurrealismand called it "a new vision of art and the world, the current that represents an entire youth, their mood, and their internal situation after the end of the World War. A dynamic and truly representative movement." His late 1920s and early 1930s surrealist works includeLa Torre Eiffel en la Pampa(The Eiffel Tower in Pampa),La siesta y su sueño(The Nap and its Dream), andLa muerte acecha en cada esquina(Death Lurks Around Every Corner).

He also began studyingrevolutionarypolitics, including theMarxisttheory ofHenri Lefebvre,who introduced him to theCommunistpoetLouis Aragonin 1928.Berni continued corresponding with Aragon after leaving France, later recalling, "It is a pity that I have lost, among the many things I have lost, the letters that I received from Aragon all the way from France; if I had them today, I think, they would be magnificent documents; because in that correspondence we discussed topics such as the direct relationship between politics and culture, the responsibilities of the artist and the intellectual society, the problems of culture in colonial countries, the issue of freedom."

Several groups of Asian minorities lived in Paris, and Berni helped distribute Asian newspapers and magazines, to which he contributed illustrations.

Nuevo Realismo Period

In 1931 Berni returned to Rosario, where he briefly lived on a farm and was then hired as a municipal employee. The Argentina of the 1930s was very different from the Paris of the 1920s. He witnessed labor demonstrations and the miserable effects ofunemploymentand was shocked by the news of a militarycoup d'étatinBuenos Aires(seeInfamous Decade). Surrealism didn't convey the frustration or hopelessness of the Argentine people. Berni organizedMutualidad de Estudiantes y Artistasand became a member of the local Communist party.

Berni metMexicanartistDavid Alfaro Siqueiroswho had been painting large-scale politicalmuralson public buildings and was visiting Argentina to give lectures and exhibit his work in an effort to "summon artists to participate in the development of a proletarian art." In 1933 Berni, Siqueiros, Spilimbergo,Juan Carlos Castagninoand Enrique Lázaro created the muralEjercicio Plástico(Plastic Exercise).But ultimately Berni didn't think the murals could inspire social change and even implied a connection between Siqueiros artwork and the privileged classes of Argentina, saying, "Mural painting is only one of the many forms of popular artistic expression...for his mural painting, Siqueros was obliged to seize on the first board offered to him by the bourgeoisie."

Instead, he began paintingrealisticimages that depicted the struggles and tensions of the Argentine people. His popularNuevo Realismopaintings includeDesocupados(The Unemployed) andManifestación(Manifestation).Both were based on photographs Berni had gathered to document, as graphically as possible, the "abysmal conditions of his subjects."As one critic noted, "the quality of his work resides in the precise balance that he attained between narrative painting with strong social content and aesthetic originality."

In a 1936 interview, Berni said that the decline of art was indicative of the division between the artist and the public and that social realism stimulated a mirror of the surrounding spiritual, social, political, and economic realities.

1940s, 1950s and early 1960s

Berni at his studio

In 1941, at the request of the Comisión Nacional de Cultura, Berni traveled toBolivia,Ecuador,Peru,andColombiato studypre-Columbian art.His paintingMercado indígena(Indian Market) is based on the photos he took during this trip.

Two years later, he was awarded an Honorary Grand Prix at the Salón Nacional and co-founded a mural workshop with fellow artists Spilimbergo,Juan Carlos Castagnino,Demetrio Urruchúa, and Manuel Colmeiro. The artists decorated the dome of theGalerías Pacifico.

The 1940s saw various revolutions and coups d'état in Latin America, including the ousting of Argentine PresidentRamón Castilloin 1943. Berni responded with more political paintings includingMasacre(Massacre) andEl Obrero Muerto(The Dead Worker).

From 1951 to 1953, Berni lived inSantiago del Estero,a province in northwestern Argentina. The province suffered massive ecological damage, including the exploitation ofquebracho trees.While in Santiago del Estero, he painted the series "Motivos santiagueños" and "Chaco," which were later exhibited in Paris,Berlin,Warsaw,BucharestandMoscow.

In the 1950s he returned to expressionism with works likeLos hacheros(Axemen) andLa comida(Food),and began a series of suburban landscapes includingVilla Piolín(Villa Tweety),La casa del sastre(House of Taylor),La iglesia(The Church),El tanque blanco(White Tank),La calle(Street),La res(The Answer),Carnicería(Carnage),La luna y su eco(The Moon and its Echo), andMañana helada en el páramo desierto(Morning Frost on the Moor). He also paintedNegro y blanco(Black and White),Utensilios de cocina sobre un muro celeste(Cookware on a Blue Wall), andEl caballito(The Pony).

From his position as Director Of Culture of the Argentine Foreign Relations Ministry (1960) during the government ofArturo Frondizi,art critic and friendRafael Squirrusent Berni's engravings to theVenice Biennale,where they obtained First Prize in their category. After Squirru became Director of the Cultural Department of the OAS in 1963, he promoted Berni's work once again organizing prestigious shows for the artist such as the 1966 exhibition at the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton.

Juanito Laguna

Berni's post-1950s work can be viewed as "a synthesis ofPop ArtandSocial realism."In 1958, he began collecting and collaging discarded material to create a series of works featuring a character named Juanito Laguna.The series became a social narrative onindustrializationandpovertyand pointed out the extreme disparities existing between the wealthy Argentine aristocracy and the "Juanitos” of the slums.

As he explained in a 1967Le Mondeinterview, "One cold, cloudy night, while passing through the miserable city of Juanito, a radical change in my vision of reality and its interpretation occurred...I had just discovered, in the unpaved streets and on the waste ground, scattered discarded materials, which made up the authentic surroundings of Juanito Laguna – old wood, empty bottles, iron, cardboard boxes, metal sheets etc., which were the materials used for constructing shacks in towns such as this, sunk in poverty."

Latin American artexpert Mari Carmen Ramirez has described the Juanito works as an attempt to "seek out and record the typical living truth of underdeveloped countries and to bear witness to the terrible fruits of neocolonialism, with its resulting poverty and economic backwardness and their effect on populations driven by a fierce desire for progress, jobs, and the inclination to fight." Notable Juanito works includeRetrato de Juanito Laguna(Portrait of Juanito Laguna),El mundo prometido a Juanito(The World Promised to Juanito), andJuanito va a la ciudad(Juanito Goes to the City). Art featuring Juanito (and Ramona Montiel, a similar female character) won Berni the Grand Prix for Printmaking at theVenice Biennalein 1962.

In 1965 a retrospective of Berni's work was organized at theInstituto Di Tella,including the collageMonsters.Versions of the exhibit were shown in the United States, Argentina, and several Latin American countries. Compositions such asRamona en la caverna(Ramona in the Cavern),El mundo de Ramona(Ramona's World), andLa masacre de los inocentes(Massacre of the Innocent) were becoming more complex. The latter was exhibited in 1971 at theParis Museum of Modern Art.By the late 1970s, Berni's Juanito and Ramona oil paintings had evolved into three-dimensional altarpieces.

Later years and death

After theMarch 1976 coup,which was like others in Latin America supported by the United States,Berni moved toNew York City,where he continued painting, engraving, collating, and exhibiting. New York struck him as luxurious, consumerist, materially wealthy, and spiritually poor. He conveyed these observations in subsequent work with a touch of socialirony.His New York paintings display a great protagonism of colorand includeAeropuerto(Airport),Los Hippies,Calles de Nueva York(Streets of New York),Almuerzo(Lunch),Chelsea HotelandPromesa de castidad(Promise of Chastity).He also produced several decorative panels, scenographic sketches, illustrations, and collaborations for books.

Berni's work gradually became more spiritual and reflective. In 1980 he completed the paintingsApocalipsis(Apocalypse) andLa crucifixion(The Crucifixion) for the Chapel of San Luis Gonzaga inLas Heras,where they were installed the following year.

Antonio Berni died on 13 October 1981 in Buenos Aires, where he had been working on aMartín Fierromonument. The monument was inaugurated inSan Martínon 17 November of the same year.In an interview shortly before his death, he said, "Art is a response to life. To be an artist is to undertake a risky way of life, to adopt one of the greatest forms of liberty, to make no compromise. Painting is a form of love, of transmitting the years in art."

Legacy

Since the late 1960s, various Argentine musicians have written and recorded Juanito Laguna songs.Mercedes Sosarecorded the songsJuanito Laguna remonta un barrilete(on her 1967 albumPara cantarle a mi gente) andLa navidad de Juanito Laguna(on her 1970 albumNavidad con Mercedes Sosa). In 2005 a compilation CD commemorating Berni's 100th birthday included songs byCésar Isella,Marcelo San Juan, Dúo Salteño,Eduardo Falú,and Las Voces Blancas, as well as two short recordings of Berni speaking in interviews.

After his death, he was granted the HonourKonex Awardas the most important deceased artist from Argentina, given by the Konex Foundation in 1982.

Several Argentine government organizations also celebrated Berni's centennial in 2005, including the Ministerio de Educación, Ciencia y Tecnología de la Nación, and Secretaría de Turismo de la Nación. Berni's daughter Lily curated an art show entitledUn cuadro para Juanito, 40 años después(A painting for Juanito, 40 years later). Through the organization,De Todos Para Todos(By All For All), children across Argentina studied Berni's art and then created their own using his collage techniques.

In July 2008, thieves disguised as police officers stole fifteen Berni paintings that were being transported from a suburb to theBellas Artes National Museum.Culture Secretary Jose Nun described the paintings as being "of great national value" and described the robbery as "an enormous loss to Argentine culture."

See also

• Louis Aragon
• Culture of Argentina
• Infamous Decade
• Latin American art
• Pop Art
• Social realism
• Lino Enea Spilimbergo
• Rafael Squirru

External links

• Paintings at Ten Dreams Galleries
• Antonio Berni on e-flux