"Iconic": The exhibition that brings together previously unpublished works by Quinquela Martín, Berni, and Xul Solar

Works that have not been seen for decades, pieces recovered after long international tours and key names in the history of Argentine art coexist in Iconic , the exhibition that opened its doors at the Maman Fine Art gallery, curated by Patricia Pacino . The tour, in the gallery on Avenida del Libertador, traces a temporal arc that spans from the late 19th century to the 1970s , with a selection that allows us to track the great moments, aesthetic turns and debates of local modernity.

Upon entering the gallery, the public will encounter one of the highlights of the tour: the return to Argentina of a painting by Benito Quinquela Martín that had not been shown for over a century . "Work Scene," painted in 1923 and acquired by Spanish royalty (it was purchased by the Duke of Almenara Alta during an exhibition in Madrid), was recovered for this exhibition after a long international tour.

"This work had a triumphant entrance ; it arrived on the same day of the opening, in the afternoon, and it was like installing a jewel in the heart of the exhibition," says curator Patricia Pacino in conversation with Clarín .

Quinquela's painting reveals the momentum of a thriving country, represented by the port of Boca Juniors. In 1920, Quinquela traveled to Europe, no longer to learn from the avant-garde, but to leave his own mark.

Thus he conquered Madrid, where he exhibited at the Salons of the Círculo de Bellas Artes in 1923. He sold 18 paintings – of the 20 he had brought – of which two were purchased by the Museum of Modern Art in Madrid (today the Reina Sofia) and the others by Spanish royalty and aristocracy, including the "Work Scene" exhibited here.

It is possible – and even advisable – to begin the tour of this exhibition on the upper floor of the gallery , a room of much smaller size than the one on the ground floor, but at the same time more intimate , where some of the essential names of local historiography are displayed, as in a succinct museum.

There you can see Prilidiano Pueyrredón 's work, "Family Portrait" which was exhibited in 2023 at the Pueyrredón Museum in San Isidro, for the exhibition Celebramos Prilidiano , dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the bourgeoisie's favorite portraitist in the 19th century.

There's also Ángel Della Valle , with an exquisite still life that reflects his time in Florence and bears little resemblance to his best-known imagery ("The Return of the Raid"). Or "Urquiza's Lancers," a watercolor that once belonged to the collector Antonio Santamarina, a prominent donor to the National Museum of Fine Arts. "The cropping was arbitrary but significant," explains Pacino.

"I chose works that hadn't been seen in a long time , that had been out of the country, or that were recently acquired," he says.

In this same room, the tour continues with figures such as Cesáreo Bernaldo de Quirós and his costumbrista interiors, but also includes names such as Alejandro Xul Solar , artist, astrologer, philologist, visionary, alchemist and inventor, through a work that refers to the panlengua (his dream of a universal language), thus putting great names from different periods into dialogue.

The visual journey of those artists who traveled to Europe in the first decades of the 20th century to train is evident in works such as those of Antonio Berni , whose metaphysical landscapes from the 1920s and 1930s mark a little-known period in his production.

"I'm very interested in how Berni interprets the landscape as something affective, emotional, and also social," Pacino emphasizes.

Also on display are two scenographic watercolors by Alfredo Guttero for the Teatro Colón, for the opera Elixir d'Amore , and some views of La Vuelta de Rocha from the perspective of Boca Juniors painter Víctor Cúnsolo . The unique surrealism of pioneer Juan Battle Planas and Miguel Caride also stands out.

Once again on the gallery's ground floor, Quinquela's immense painting acts as a hinge between the two rooms, which seek to narrate a possible history of Argentine art: a journey that condenses more than a century of art through pieces that dialogue with each other like superimposed layers of the same cultural identity.

Next up is Emilio Pettoruti 's "Chianti," a work from the "Suns" series, where light becomes an autonomous visual element. "It's a wonderful piece, in excellent condition, and was first exhibited in 1948 ," notes the curator.

Another work that had been largely absent from exhibition channels is "The Doll and the Monkey" (1967) by the multifaceted artist Libero Badii : a series of 22 collages that were exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts in 1972, and then toured Canada.

The exhibition also brings into dialogue artists such as Sarah Grilo, Raúl Lozza and José Antonio Fernández Muro , tracing a genealogy of local abstraction from the 1940s to the 1960s. Along the same lines are Martha Boto and Gregorio Vardanega , figures of kinetic art who developed their careers in Paris, and Alejandro Puente , with his research on colour from a conceptual perspective.

The existentialist realism of the Otra Figuración group also has its space with works by Rómulo Macció, "Yuyo" Noé and Ernesto Deira , as well as the informalist art of Luis Wells and Alberto Greco.

"Greco was a provocateur. We mustn't forget that his practice was completely transgressive for his time," says Pacino. "And he was also a pioneer in street protests in Argentina ," adds the curator, pointing to the photographs taken by Sammer Makarius of his first action on Corrientes Street in 1961.

In closing, the sculptural tour critiques the idea of ​​a monument, with large pieces by Alberto Heredia and Aldo Paparella made from precarious materials, discarded objects, and fragile structures.

"They both worked on the same idea: to desacralize the idea of ​​the monument . It's a way of confronting not only the classical canon, but also the current power," the curator concludes, referring to these pieces from the 1970s.

The exhibition "Icónicos." Emblematic Works and Artists from the Maman Collection will be on view until August 31, Monday through Friday, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., at the Maman Gallery (Avenida del Libertador 2475).