Delia Cugat

Last updated
Delia Cugat
Born1935 (age 87–88)
Scientific career
FieldsGraphic Art, Fine Art, Educator

Delia Cugat (born 1935) is an Argentine artist who has lived and worked in Paris for most of her professional career, with her partner Sergio Camoreale, also a well-known fellow Argentine artist). Cugat is one of the founding members of the graphic art group Grabas. Cugat's work encompasses the solitary everyday world of Edward Hopper, the pictorial reflection of Balthus, and the Cubist idea of composition of Jacques Villon. She has her own world of meanings and has established herself as belonging to that of the Latin American greats. [1]

Contents

Early life, education, and career

Cugat was born in Argentina in 1935. [2] Since the end of the 1950s, Cugat has been pursuing a means of self-expression. She began when she was very young, studying at the School of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires. In 1958, she entered the world of the theater, where she made sets, design costumes, and ventured into directing plays and ballets. [3] A trip to Europe a few years later led her to continue her studies at the School of Fine Arts. While there, she apprenticed under and learned a great deal from renowned Argentine artist, Horatio Butler. Later, for two years, she worked in the Studios of the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro. In the 1970s she returned to Buenos Aires and with three other artists, Pablo Obelar, Daniel Zelaya and Sergio Camporeale, founded the Grabas Group. As a graphic arts group, the Grabas group had full access to a printmaking workshop in Buenos Aires, which allowed them to explore a broad range of printmaking media, including etching, lithography, and silkscreen. The Grabas group was active in printmaking presentations at universities and workshops throughout South America, with a particular focus on Argentina, Colombia, and Venezuela. [4] Eventually, the group moved to Paris to seek fame and fortune. [5]

As a member of the Grabas Group, which revolutionized the concept of graphic work, Cugat is considered one of the pioneering artists of Latin America. In her painting, from 1990, Turbulences Argentine School, Delia Expresses the turbulence felt while studying at art school. Here she has painted, using quick painterly brush strokes, a swirling dreamscape with an image of a girl dressed in her night gown, in the act of running through her dream, but somehow unable to escape from the wheel. The essence of her art lies in the structure of composition with its patient brushstrokes, which seek out a sensitive world of modeled tones and structured masses. The action appears invented, fictitious, created merely to give an existence to the image, in a kind of sentimental projection on a specially structured landscape. It is on the basis of this fictitious fabric, the confluence of surfaces, directions, and characters that Cugat manages to liberate the plastic elements of her art. [6]

Work

Cugat's body of work has transitioned significantly from her early years in Argentina till now. Very early on, she used mixed graphic media as a way to express her memories or the feelings associated with them. Her work at this time was structured with very few elements as not to distract from the overall message. A good example of this, stylistic simplicity, is her piece entitled Las Moradas from 1973. [7]

In the early 1980s, after moving to Paris France, Cugat began to work primarily in oil. The works created around this period were muted in tone, mostly shades of tan and gray, and depicted quiet reflective scenes. One such work, Desde el Mirador, from 1980, depicts a man in the background, back to the viewer, looking out, as the title suggests, at a sort of picturesque viewing area. The scene is dominated by architectural features that separate the viewer from the figure. The painting has a sense of melancholy that will come to define Cugat's work in years to come. [8]

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, her work began to incorporate bold and vibrant color schemes. She would continue to utilize vibrant color for the rest of her career. In addition, she began to fracture her paintings in a cubistic fashion and began to make use of looser brushwork. A good example of these new found techniques is a work from 1991 entitled L'adiau. In this piece Cugat depicts a memory of travel and combines it with a feeling of separation. Two figures dominate this scene, they seem to be say goodbye to one another but are far removed from each other, effectively highlighting both the sadness of separation and the feeling of ambiguity. [9]

Acclaim

In Delia's art, there is a kind of all-pervading magic: windswept beaches, seaports with ruffled waves, drop scenes, and decadent interiors. Inside them, an intriguing humanity: Young men and women passionately engaged in some occupation: before, they were deep in endless conversation, now they are frequently alone in company. Some leave the scene, making their exit with great strides, others low in an Art Deco armchair, faintly geometric and uncomfortable, showing us a fleeting or stable profile. [10] […] Emanating from that this is sense of profound and modern melancholy: now we already yearn for what happened barely half a century ago. (This section references Peronism) If they were music in these pictures, as there might be, it would be Revel's or Stravinsky's, or else jazz. As for color, it's abounds, justifying everything: frozen schemes of blues, leading grays, slate, rusty ochers. And flights of steps leading to nowhere, Old-fashioned toys, your metric tile floors, clothes strewn in all directions, sometimes cast aside to reveal the woman's nude body; not a erotic, there's too much anxiety in the scene we spy through the keyhole for anyone to think of the sensuality of the skin.

—  Damián Bayón [11]

Personal influence

The following is a direct quote from Cugat concerning her personal perspective and the relative influences in and on her work:

I think the idea is directly related to memory and imagination, as I have always believed that memory is far closer to imagination than to reality. It is as if I work unraveling an inner recollection of a scene, or an atmosphere, or a character, and from there, I try to extract the sensation, and the emotion I felt at the time: through color and light. But I have no prior vision of what the picture will be like. It is very diffuse when it comes to the mind, then afterwards, Little by little; it begins to develop like a conversation, as the picture progresses. It has a lot to do with memory and imagination, an esthetic revelation. I find contrast fascinating. I begin by applying the more neutral colors and if I were to continue like that I should end up with a picture in half-tints, which might make me despair. So, at that point, I underlined light and shade and-as I tend to exaggerate-the light always has a weird connotation. I demand more than it is natural to expect. Consequently, in one picture you find: turquoise, red, yellow, and orange shades that have little to do with the original plan, which was to have a muted picture. Then you see that those touches of color are like holes in the canvas, real openings or windows. I am very fond of blue it is a difficult color, but I use a lot of turquoise tones and neutral grays, I need blue as a force capable of giving vigor to the picture. [12]

Selected exhibitions

Solo

Group

Museum exhibitions and collections

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gisèle Freund</span> French photographer

Gisèle Freund was a German-born French photographer and photojournalist, famous for her documentary photography and portraits of writers and artists. Her best-known book, Photographie et société (1974), is about the uses and abuses of the photographic medium in the age of technological reproduction. In 1977, she became president of the French Association of Photographers, and in 1981, she took the official portrait of French President François Mitterrand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emilio Pettoruti</span> Argentine painter

Emilio Pettoruti (1892–1971) was an Argentine painter, who caused a scandal with his avant-garde cubist exhibition in 1924 in Buenos Aires. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Buenos Aires was a city full of artistic development. Pettoruti's career was thriving during the 1920s when "Argentina witnessed a decade of dynamic artistic activity; it was an era of euphoria, a time when the definition of modernity was developed." While Pettoruti was influenced by Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism, and Abstraction, he did not claim to paint in any of those styles in particular. Exhibiting all over Europe and Argentina, Emilio Pettoruti is remembered as one of the most influential artists in Argentina in the 20th century for his unique style and vision.

Alfredo Prior is a painter, writer, performer and musician. His career began at the age of 18 with his first solo exhibition in Buenos Aires, where he still lives and works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raquel Forner</span> Argentine artist (1902–1988)

Raquel Forner (1902–1988) was an Argentine painter known for her expressionist works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marta Minujín</span> Argentine artist (born 1943)

Marta Minujín is an Argentine conceptual and performance artist.

Alfredo Da Silva was a painter, graphic artist, and photographer, known for his abstract expressionism. He came to international prominence in 1959 and remained so until his death in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manuel Espinosa</span> Argentine artist

Manuel Espinosa was an Argentinian painter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camila Quiroga</span> Argentine actress

Camila Josefa Ramona Pássera was an Argentine actress acclaimed in America and Europe. She was also one of the founding members of "Asociación Argentina de Actores".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horacio Cordero (painter)</span> Argentine painter, sculptor and ceramicist

Horacio Rodolfo de Sosa Cordero, tenth Marquis de Sosa, was an Argentine painter, sculptor and ceramicist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rogelio Polesello</span> Argentine sculptor and painter

Rogelio Polesello was an Argentine painter, muralist and sculptor. He was best known for making Op art known in Latin America. He won two Konex Awards; one in 1982 and another in 2012. He was born in Buenos Aires.

Miguel Ángel Rojas is a Colombian conceptual artist born in Bogotá in 1946. His work includes drawing, painting, photography, installations and video and is often related to the sexuality, the marginal culture, the violence and problems involved with drug consumption and production.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sergio Castiglione</span> Argentine photographer

Sergio Castiglione is an Argentine photographer. He has exhibited his work in Argentina as well as abroad. He mainly focuses on urban exploration, travel, and architectural photography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Delia Cancela</span> Argentine pop artist and fashion designer

Delia Cancela is an Argentine pop artist and fashion designer. She has lived in Argentina, New York, London and Paris, and exhibited internationally. Retrospective exhibitions of her work and her collaborations with Pablo Mesejean include Delia Cancela 2000-Retrospectiva (2000), Pablo & Delia, The London Years 1970-1975 (2001), and Delia Cancela: una artista en la moda (2013).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martha Boto</span>

Martha Boto was an Argentinian artist. Boto was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and was co-founder of the Group of Non-Figurative Artists of Argentina. She is considered to be a pioneer of kinetic and programmed art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juan Melé</span> Argentine sculptor,painter and art critic(1923-2012

Juan Nicolás Melé was an Argentine sculptor, painter, and art critic. Melé was a member of the Asociación Arte Concreto-Invención as well as co-founder of the Grupo Arte Nuevo.

Elbio Raúl Lozza was an Argentinian painter, draughtsman, designer, journalist, and theorist who was part of the concrete art movement. He was part of the Asociación Arte Concreto-Invención. He was the founder of the Perceptivist group. He was granted the Platinum Konex Award in Visual Arts from Argentina in 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dalila Puzzovio</span> Argentine artist (born 1943)

Dalila Puzzovio is a Latin American visual artist and fashion designer active during the 1960s. Puzzovio works in the art forms of pop, happening, and conceptual art. Her artistic creativity is credited by Graciela Melgarejo as having paved the way for subsequent Argentine artists and greatly influenced the work they produced.

Mari Nalte Orensanz is an Argentine artist. Her artwork examines the integration of thought and matter as a methodology to obtain a social consciousness. Orensanz's experience of Argentina's "Dirty War" has influenced her artwork and translated itself into the work Pensar es un Hecho Revolucionario. Located in the Parque de la Memoria in Bueno Aires, it is attributed as a monument for the victims of state terrorism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raquel Rabinovich</span> Aregentinian-American artist

Raquel Rabinovich is an Argentinian-American artist. She is known for her monochromatic paintings and drawings as well as for her large-scale glass sculpture environments and site-specific installations along the shores of the Hudson River. She is included in the Oral History Program of the Smithsonian Institution Archives of American Art. Her work is included in numerous museum collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Silvia Rivas is an Argentine visual artist known for her multi-channel video installations. In Latin America she is considered a precursor in the area of expanded video. Her work is characterized by the crossing of materialities and technologies in which she uses both electronic devices and ancestral techniques. Her production is organized in thematic series of video installations, drawings, photographs or objects. Interested in revealing the metaphorical power of different materialities, she uses the electronic medium and the moving image to record stillness, the imminent and the subjective perception of time.

References

  1. ↑ Puerto, Cecilia (1996). Latin American Women Artists, Kahlo and Look Who Else: A Selective, Annotated Bibliography. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.
  2. ↑ "The Annex Galleries".
  3. ↑ Bayón, Damián (1992). Delia Cugat 1989-1992 Sergio Camporeale. Paris, France: De Francony.
  4. ↑ Snow, Mitchell K. (2003). "Swirling Spaces of Stories and Spectators: In Disconnected Images of Bodies, Faces, and Accessories, Argentine Painter Sergio Camporeale Merges the Real and the Fantastic, Challenging Viewers to Create Their Own Interpretation". Americas (English Edition). 55 (2).
  5. ↑ Bayón, Damián (1992). Delia Cugat 1989-1992 Sergio Camporeale. Paris. Paris, France: De Francony.
  6. ↑ Sulic, Susana (April 1992). "Delia Cugat". Art Nexus.
  7. ↑ "Arte En Las Aulas".
  8. ↑ "artnet".
  9. ↑ "artnet".
  10. ↑ Bayón, Damián (1992). Delia Cugat 1989-1992 Sergio Camporeale. Paris, France: De Francony.
  11. ↑ Bayón, Damián (1992). Delia Cugat 1989-1992 Sergio Camporeale. Paris. Paris, France: De Francony.
  12. ↑ Bayón, Damián (1992). Delia Cugat 1989-1992 Sergio Camporeale. Paris. Paris, France: De Francony.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.