Berni, Antonio

He was born in Rosario in 1905. He began his studies in that city and in 1925 received a scholarship that allowed him to travel to Europe and attend the workshops of André Lhote and Othon Friesz. In Paris, he came into contact with metaphysical painting and surrealism, as well as embracing the idea of artistic action committed to political and social reality. Back in Argentina in 1930, he worked on surrealist paintings and collages that he exhibited in Buenos Aires in 1932. The international crisis, and particularly the national one, influenced his poetics, which shifted towards a critical realism capable of expressing his social concerns. In 1933, he came into contact with the Mexican artist Siqueiros and the concept of mural painting as a community projection art form. From then on, lacking public walls, he worked on large-scale compositions that monumentally addressed the conflicts of the working classes. A scholarship from the National Culture Commission allowed him to travel through Latin America in 1941 and study its art. In 1943, he won the Grand Prize of Honor at the National Salon. In 1944, together with Spilimbergo, Castagnino, Urruchúa, and Colmeiro, he founded the first Mural Art Workshop, with which he executed the decoration of the dome of the Pacífico Galleries the following year. In the 1950s, he began a series dedicated to the humble inhabitants of the interior of the country, especially from Chaco and Santiago del Estero, addressing the phenomenon of internal migration. In 1959, he resumed collage, a technique he used in two cycles of works featuring Juanito Laguna, the boy from the slum, and Ramona Montiel, the prostitute. The choice of waste materials becomes significantly contextual. Metal sheets, cardboard, wood, and industrial remnants would set the scenes for Juanito's adventures, while lace, plastic or paper trimmings, and cheap furniture moldings predominated in Ramona's. He won the Grand International Print Prize at the Venice Biennale in 1962. His prints were also awarded at the International Biennial of Ljubljana, the Krakow Biennale, and Intergrafik in Berlin. He renewed woodcutting by introducing collage and prominent reliefs ("xilo-collage-relief"), as well as creating prints of unusual proportions. In 1965, a retrospective of his work was organized at the Di Tella Institute, where he presented the Polymaterial Monsters. From 1967, he worked on multimedia installations such as Ramona in the cave, The world of Ramona, or The massacre of the innocents, presented in his 1971 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. In the 1970s, he turned to elements of photographic realism, without abandoning his inclination towards expressionism. Paintings of this style were exhibited in 1977 in New York. These resources nourished both the assemblages of Juanito and those of Ramona, which, in turn, gained increasing prominence, almost transforming into modern altarpieces. In this style, reflecting popular cults, he created, in 1976, the setting dedicated to La Difunta Correa. With Apocalypse and The Crucifixion, he completed in 1980 the imposing paintings destined to decorate the Chapel of the San Luis Gonzaga Institute of Las Heras, Province of Buenos Aires, installed there the following year.