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Lot Essay
In the twenties Modernism arrived in Latin America, introduced by the young generation of Latin artists that had travelled to Europe in their late teens and early twenties as part of their academic education. In Europe, Cubism and Futurism had lost their appeal and a return to a classic style of representation was becoming fashionable. In Argentina, this return to classicism served as the perfect vehicle for the introduction of modernism to a highly conservative society.
Antonio Berni was one of the major activists in this realm engaging himself with political and social issues in Argentina. From its early stages, his work was charged with political content and it remained so throughout his life. Berni's major endeavour was to achieve an artistic language that would best represent in pictorial and aesthetic terms the political unrest in Latin American countries. La fogata de San Juan (1943), painted during Berni's most aggressively political period, represents the religious holiday of Saint John the Baptist being celebrated in any small town in the outskirts of Buenos Aires. In it we see the inhabitants of the town gathered around a bonfire; as they contemplate the fire, the spectator's eye may wander around the town seeing the desolation and impoverishment of the folk.
This painting clearly responds to what is known as Berni's realismo crítico, a style that intended to depict the social and economic conditions of the people through art. This idea developed from popular aesthetic manifestations of the early twentieth century including the Mexican muralism. In the thirties, the artist abandons his surrealist and metaphysical concerns to turn towards the depiction of the quotidian as lived through the eyes of the humble and marginal groups. Although nationalistic and revolutionary, Berni philosophically distanced himself from the muralists because he did not believe in a revolution supported by the State. He was against executing institutional murals, however, he believed in some of the pictorial and aesthetic concerns employed by the muralists. Berni supported large-scale compositions depicting scenes with an explicit social content. Formally, he employed some elements from this style, most clearly the frontal and frieze like placement of the figures in the pictorial space. Vestiges of his earlier compositional manner are also present, most noticeably in the melancholic and somewhat metaphysical nature present in his work. This sombre yet elegant quality to his painting may also be attributed to the melancholic character of the Argentineans.
Furthermore, Berni explored religious themes during the decades of the thirties and forties. His religious concerns are rooted in both the national character of the people and in the artist's own quest for spirituality. La Fogata de San Juan, not unlike La Siesta (1943) or Medianoche en el mundo (1937-38) are large scale compositions that depict Argentina's own political unrest through the use of religious themes. In the present composition the fire acts as a symbol of religious fervor which in turn is reinforced by the figures contemplating the fire. Moreover, the scene takes place in the square of a quiet, desolate town. There are few buildings, austere in architectural detail, further underlying the marginality of the place as well as the metaphysical character of the overall composition.
Antonio Berni was one of the major activists in this realm engaging himself with political and social issues in Argentina. From its early stages, his work was charged with political content and it remained so throughout his life. Berni's major endeavour was to achieve an artistic language that would best represent in pictorial and aesthetic terms the political unrest in Latin American countries. La fogata de San Juan (1943), painted during Berni's most aggressively political period, represents the religious holiday of Saint John the Baptist being celebrated in any small town in the outskirts of Buenos Aires. In it we see the inhabitants of the town gathered around a bonfire; as they contemplate the fire, the spectator's eye may wander around the town seeing the desolation and impoverishment of the folk.
This painting clearly responds to what is known as Berni's realismo crítico, a style that intended to depict the social and economic conditions of the people through art. This idea developed from popular aesthetic manifestations of the early twentieth century including the Mexican muralism. In the thirties, the artist abandons his surrealist and metaphysical concerns to turn towards the depiction of the quotidian as lived through the eyes of the humble and marginal groups. Although nationalistic and revolutionary, Berni philosophically distanced himself from the muralists because he did not believe in a revolution supported by the State. He was against executing institutional murals, however, he believed in some of the pictorial and aesthetic concerns employed by the muralists. Berni supported large-scale compositions depicting scenes with an explicit social content. Formally, he employed some elements from this style, most clearly the frontal and frieze like placement of the figures in the pictorial space. Vestiges of his earlier compositional manner are also present, most noticeably in the melancholic and somewhat metaphysical nature present in his work. This sombre yet elegant quality to his painting may also be attributed to the melancholic character of the Argentineans.
Furthermore, Berni explored religious themes during the decades of the thirties and forties. His religious concerns are rooted in both the national character of the people and in the artist's own quest for spirituality. La Fogata de San Juan, not unlike La Siesta (1943) or Medianoche en el mundo (1937-38) are large scale compositions that depict Argentina's own political unrest through the use of religious themes. In the present composition the fire acts as a symbol of religious fervor which in turn is reinforced by the figures contemplating the fire. Moreover, the scene takes place in the square of a quiet, desolate town. There are few buildings, austere in architectural detail, further underlying the marginality of the place as well as the metaphysical character of the overall composition.