Argentine art, term for the art in what is now Argentina.
After the independence of Argentina (1810), painting (portrait, genre, landscape) was the focus of the fine arts. European painters and travelers played an important role in their development. They included the French Juan Felipe Goulu (* 1786, † 1853) and Amadeo Gras (* 1805, † 1871) with portraits, Carlos Enrique Pellegrini (* 1800, † 1875) with city views, and Raimundo Quinsac Monvoisin (* 1790, †) 1870) and Jean León Pallière (* 1823, † 1887) as well as the German J. M. Rugendas with landscapes and portraits. The first significant Argentine artist was Carlos Morel (* 1813, † 1894), who created numerous genre pictures (including the lithographic series “Usos y costumbres del Río de la Plata”, “Customs and manners in the region of the river La Plata”, 1844–45). Most of the Argentine artists found inspiration in the romantic, realism and naturalist currents from Italy and France. One of the most important painters of his time was Prilidiano Paz Pueyrredón (* 1823, † 1870), who stood out with landscapes, portraits, genre scenes and scandalous erotic depictions. In addition, the French Juan León Pallière (* 1823, † 1887), the German Otto Grashoff (* 1812, † 1876) and the Italian Ignacio Manzoni (* 1797, † 1876)painting in the mid-19th century. Cándido López (* 1840, † 1902) played a special role with naive battle pictures and Angel Della Valle (* 1852, † 1903) with scenes from the life of the Indians and gauchos. Around 1900 were v. a. social themes in the foreground, with which Reinaldo Giudici (* 1853, † 1921), Eduardo Sívori (* 1847, † 1918), Ernesto de la Cárcova (* 1866, † 1927), who, like Sívori, achieved a reputation as a landscape painter influenced by Impressionism, and Pío Collivadino (* 1869, † 1943), who also created murals, stood out. While Graciano Mendilaharzu (* 1857, † 1894) processed literary topics, Martín A. Malharro (* 1865, † 1911) and Faustino Brughetti (* 1877, † 1956) were inspired by Neo-Impressionism. This also shaped the landscapes of Bernaldo Cesáreo de Quirós (* 1881, † 1968) and Fernando Fader (* 1882, † 1935), the scenes from the La Boca docks in Buenos Aires by Benito Quinquela Martín (* 1890, † 1977) and the indigenistic pictures by Alfredo Gramajo Gutiérrez (* 1893, † 1961).
Sculpture was dominated by funerary art in the first half of the 19th century (Lázaro Almada, active between 1830 and 1870; Elías Duteil, * 1836, † 1874). The important sculptors who stood out particularly with monuments include Arnoldo Zocchi (* 1862, † 1940), Lucio Correa Morales (* 1852, † 1923), Francisco Cafferata (* 1861, † 1890) and Rogelio Yrurtia (* 1879, † 1950). Also Hernán Cullen Ayerza (* 1879, † 1936) and L. Fontana , who later became famous in Italy, continued the figurative tradition.
European avant-garde movements such as futurism and cubism, spread through the magazine Martín Fierro, influenced painting by Alfredo Guttero (* 1882, † 1932), Emilio Pettoruti (* 1892, † 1971), Alejandro Xul Solar (* 1888, † 1963) and Norah Borges (* 1901, † 1975), who can be considered the main bearer of modernity. The paintings by Ramón Gómez Cornet (* 1898, † 1964) and Víctor Juan Cúnsolo (* 1898, † 1937) are related to the New Objectivity. The »Artistas del Pueblo« (»Artists of the People«) with Guillermo Facio Hebequer (* 1889, † 1935) and Adolfo Bellocq (* 1899, † 1972) dealt with political and social issues in the graphic. Pittura metafisica, neoclassical and expressive tendencies are reflected in the work of the artist group »Grupo de París«, named after their common place of study (Héctor Basaldúa, * 1895, † 1978; Lino Eneas Spilimbergo, * 1896, † 1964; Horacio Butler, * 1897, † 1983; Alfredo Bigatti, * 1898, † 1964; Raquel Forner, * 1902, † 1988; A. Berni). In the satirical collage cycles of his late work, Berni created exemplary figures for the lower class in the fictional characters Juanito Laguna and Ramona Montiel. The surreal can be found in Juan Battle Planas (* 1911, † 1966), later in Roberto Aizemberg (* 1928, † 1996).
Juan del Prete (* 1897, † 1987), Raúl Soldi (* 1905, † 1994), Leónides Gambartes (* 1909, † 1963) and Raúl Russo (* 1912, † 1984) mark the transition to abstract art, in sculpture Antonio Sibellino (* 1891, † 1960) and Pablo Curatella Manes (* 1891, † 1960). In the 1940s, a broad movement began, with the Asociación de Arte Concreto Invención founded by Tomás Maldonado (* 1922, † 2018), the Movimiento Madí and that of Raúl Lozza (* 1911, † 2008) Perceptismo developed an art that partly transcended genres and partly scientifically founded art in the wake of European currents such as Suprematism, Neoplasticism and Bauhaus. The result was neo-concrete art that continues to have an effect up to the present day. Their main representatives are the Uruguayans Carmelo Arden Quin (* 1913, † 2010) and Rhod Rothfuss (* 1920, † 1969), the German émigré Martín Blaszko (* 1920, † 2011), the Hungarian Gyula Kosice (* 1924, † 2016) as well as the Argentines Alfredo Hlito (* 1923, † 1993) and Enio Iommi (* 1926, † 2013). Libero Badíi (* 1916, † 2001) represented an independent geometric-abstract sculpture and María Juana Heras Velasco (* 1924, † 2014). Informel influenced the sculptures of Alicia Peñalba and the paintings of Alberto Greco (* 1931, † 1965) and Luis Alberto Wells (* 1939). Op-Art and Kinetik have played with J. Le Parc, Eduardo Mac Entyre (* 1929, † 2014), Ary Brizzi (* 1930, † 2014) and Rogelio Polesello (* 1939, † 2014) and one symbolic since the 1960s – Sensitive geometric art with Marcelo Bonevardi (* 1929, † 1994), César Paternosto (* 1930) and Alejandro Puente (* 1933, † 2013) a major role. At the same time, the Nueva Figuración was created, a time-critical satirical painting influenced by Cobra and Pop Art by Ernesto Deira (* 1928, † 1986), Jorge de la Vega (* 1930, † 1971), Rómulo Macció (* 1931, † 2016) and Luis Felipe Noé (* 1933), who in sculpture and object art are related to León Ferrari (* 1920, † 2013), Alberto Heredia (* 1924, † 2000) and Juan Carlos Distéfano (* 1933). The expansion of art into multimedia and social action funded by the Instituto Di Tella (founded in 1958) (including Marta Minujín, * 1943) has been continued by the Centro de Arte y Comunicación (CAYC) since the 1970s: Víctor Grippo (* 1936, † 2002) and Luis Fernando Benedit (* 1937, † 2011) created conceptual installations with anthropological issues.
Many artists went into exile during the military dictatorships (1976–83). According to ehistorylib, the artistic situation in Argentina has been extremely complex since the 1980s. Surrealism shapes the pictures by Víctor Chab (* 1930) and Ernesto Bertani (* 1949) as well as the drawings by Catalina Chervin (* 1953) and the sculptures by Hernán Dompé (* 1946). Critical-figurative and expressive traditions are taken up by painters such as Guillermo Roux (* 1929), Antonio Segui (* 1934), Ana Eckell (* 1947), Marcia Schvartz (* 1955) and Guillermo Kuitca (* 1961), and by Pablo Suárez (* 1937, † 2006) also transferred to the sculpture. In the present, installation art plays a major role with Liliana Porter (* 1941), Pablo Reinoso (* 1955), Jorge Macchi (* 1963) and Fabián Marcaccio (* 1963), some of whom live abroad. The hybrid forms of painting and object art influenced by kitsch, op art, design and mass media are particularly evident in the work of Mónica Girón (* 1959), Marcelo Pombo (* 1959), Miguel Harte (* 1961), Pablo Siquier (* 1961) and Nicola Constantino (* 1964).
