Lot 21: Jorge de la Vega (1930-1971) , El diario de santos l'ouverture

oil, enamel, frottage, cloth, mirror and wood tiles on canvas signed, titled and dated on the reverse

measurements 102 3/8 by 76 3/4 in. alternate measurements (260 by 195 cm)

Córdoba, Universidad de Córdoba, II Bienal Internacional Iberoamericano de Arte , September 25-October 12, 1964, n.n.
New York, The American Federation of Arts, Twenty South American Artists , April 1965-April 1966, n.n.

Mercedes Casanegra, Jorge de la Vega, Catálogo Razonado, Buenos Aires, Editorial Alba, p. 195, no. 107, illustrated

Industrias Kaiser Argentina, Córdoba
Renault, Argentina
Private Collection, California

Executed in 1964.
Along with fellow Argentines Luis Felipe Noé, Ernesto Deira, and Rómulo Maccio, Jorge de la Vega formed a part of the influential group known as the Nueva or Otra Figuración whose approach to painting may be characterized as a form of figurative expressionism and in some respects was consistent with such international tendencies as informalism, Mexico?s Nueva Presencia, and the European CoBrA movement. Although the group was only active from 1961-63, this period proved to be quite significant for the artists as some of the theoretical concepts they espoused such as the notion of an anti-aesthetic and the search for an alternative to painting had a lasting impact on their production. For de la Vega, these ideas led to his formas liberadas (liberated forms), a small series of works produced in 1963 that literally liberated or freed the painting from its stretcher or two-dimensional constraints by destroying the canvas?cutting it into strips and constructing a three-dimensional work devoid of any form, figurative references, or to the traditional properties of painting. As art historian Marcelo Pacheco states, ?[t]hose works opened the horizon for new questions about the nature of art itself, producing a rupture with the historical identification of art with painting and its universe of stylistic programs. This was the moment of transition away from that stage of neo-figurative painting. It was the time to turn to new possibilities.?(1) Indeed, this work represented a critical juncture in the artist?s production and it was that same year that he began one of his most important and iconic series, Los monstruos (The Monsters) or El bestiario (The Bestiary). Far from marking a return to painting in the traditional sense, these mixed media works represented an alternative to painting?freed from the formalism or the essential ?idea? of painting, de la Vega was able to create something that resisted fixed categories and eschewed notions of purity. Critical to this process was his conscious departure from the modernist concept of collage to the use of bricolage that suggests a dialogue with an assortment of objects in which their original meaning or context is further enriched and renewed.(2) Bricolage became a key strategy for exploring one of the recurring themes in his work?the subject of transformation or metamorphosis. Comprised of nearly fifty works executed from 1963 to 1966, de la Vega?s Monstruos of which the painting El diario de Santos L?Ouverture is a part, depict a Kafkaesque universe in which humans are transformed or mutated into animals through a series of nightmarish visions evocative of repressed thoughts or inner psychological worlds. In this work, de la Vega invokes the symbolic presence of the Haitian military leader Toussaint Louverture perhaps as a point of entry into a collective historical past. His hat?one of the few overt references to Louverture?quickly disappears amidst the loose brushwork, frottage, and bricolage elements comprised of scraps of cloth, buttons, broken tile, mirrors, and crumpled sheets. His profile morphs into myriad creatures or monsters whose images are multiplied though the interplay between positive and negative images created through the effects of the mirrored fragments or the doubling effects of the rubbing or frottage technique?perhaps a subtle, yet bitter, critique against the proliferation of corrupt or militant forces in Latin America and the Caribbean. Produced during one of the artist?s most creative periods, yet tragically less than a decade before his untimely death, this work provides an outstanding example of de la Vega?s innovative approach to art making and his desire to expand the parameters of painting. Thus the rediscovery of this work, not seen publicly since it was exhibited alongside Prueba de nuevo (1963) (also from this series and sold in these rooms in June 2001) in the II Bienal Americana de Arte provides an excellent opportunity to reassess his groundbreaking contributions to the history of post-war painting. (1) Marcelo Pacheco, Jorge de la Vega, A Contemporary Artist, Buenos Aires, Editorial El Ateneo, 2003, p. 34. (2) Ibid, p. 35.