Roberto Aizenberg
Encyclopedia
Federal, Entre Ríos
Federal is a city in the province of Entre Ríos, Argentina. It had 16,333 inhabitants per the , and is the head town of the Federal Department. It lies in the center-north of the province, by National Route 127, about 190 km northeast of the provincial capital Paraná.The basis of the local economy...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
- February 16, 1996 in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, Argentina) was a painter and sculptor. He was considered the best-known orthdox surrealist
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
in Argentina.
Early years
Aizenberg was the son of an immigrant Russian Jew who settled in the Jewish colonies of Entre Ríos ProvinceEntre Ríos Province
Entre Ríos is a northeastern province of Argentina, located in the Mesopotamia region. It borders the provinces of Buenos Aires , Corrientes and Santa Fe , and Uruguay in the east....
, in the town of Federal Villa, now called Federal. When he was eight years old, his family moved to La Paternal
La Paternal, Buenos Aires
La Paternal or Paternal is a barrio or district in the centre of Buenos Aires city, Argentina. It was founded in 1904 by a City Decree and was named 'La Paternal' after the train station in the neighbourhood, a former industrial zone....
, a neighborhood in Buenos Aires. He completed his secondary education at the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires
Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires
Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires is a public high school in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In the tradition of the European gymnasium it provides a free education that includes classical languages such as Latin and Greek. The school is one of the most prestigious in Argentina...
.
Aizenberg began his career as an architect, but left it to devote himself to painting. He became a student of Antonio Berni
Antonio Berni
Delesio Antonio Berni was a figurative artist, born in Rosario, province of Santa Fe, Argentina. He worked as a painter, an illustrator and an engraver. His father, Napoleón Berni, was an immigrant tailor from Italy...
, and later, 1950–1953, studied with the surrealist Juan Batlle Planas.
Career
His first solo exhibition, in 1958, was at the Galeria Galatea. It was followed by six other solo exhibitions before the 1969 Torcuato di Tella InstituteTorcuato di Tella Institute
The Torcuato di Tella Institute is a non-profit foundation organized for the promotion of Argentine culture.-Overview:The di Tella Foundation and its institute were created on July 22, 1958, the tenth anniversary of the death of industrialist and arts patron Torcuato di Tella...
major retrospective of his work which included collages, sculptures, 50 paintings, and 200 drawings. His work was included in numerous group exhibitions, including the 1963 São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
Bienal. His first European exhibit was in 1972 at London's Hanover Gallery. The following year, he exhibited at Gimpel and Hanover Gallery in Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, Switzerland. In 1982, his work was exhibited at Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
's Naviglio Gallery.
During the period 1985–1986 and again in 1993, he taught painting at the Instituto Universitario Nacional del Arte
Instituto Universitario Nacional del Arte
The National University of the Arts is an Argentine university established in 1996 as an incorporation of various national institutions dedicated to the teaching of fine arts....
. In 1986, he held a seminar on the Jewish Communth.
Works
According to the painter Giorgio de ChiricoGiorgio de Chirico
Giorgio de Chirico was a pre-Surrealist and then Surrealist Italian painter born in Volos, Greece, to a Genovese mother and a Sicilian father. He founded the scuola metafisica art movement...
, Aizenberg admired architecture and the idea of its construction, especially the architecture of the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
. His work is permanently influenced by this fascination. His work shows isolated towers, empty towns, mysterious and uninhabited buildings, and rare polyhedral constructions.
He used slow drying oils to perfect his finishes.
Aizenberg criticized the use of models in teaching art. For him, the model involved a "completely rigid, anachronistic, totalitarian, in the sense of dependence on the artist to model, to the authority of the model, in the teaching of art." He felt that the model was the opposite of free expression, arguing that the essence of modern art was the absence of a model to copy or an external reality that should be imitated.
He was influenced by Juan Battle Planas, an unclassifiable artist who emphasized the importance of surrealism and psychoanalysis.
His work hangs at Fortabat Art Collection
Fortabat Art Collection
The Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat Art Collection is a museum of fine arts in Buenos Aires, Argentina.-Overview:The museum was initiated by María Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat, the longtime Chairperson and chief stockholder of Loma Negra, the largest cement manufacturer in Argentina...
Museum.
Personal life
Aizenberg married the journalist and writer Matilde Herrera (1931–1990) of the weekly Primera Plana. Her three children from a prior marriage, Valeria, José and Martín Beláustegui, lived with them. After the military coup occurred that led to the dictatorship known as the National Reorganization ProcessNational Reorganization Process
The National Reorganization Process was the name used by its leaders for the military government that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. In Argentina it is often known simply as la última junta militar or la última dictadura , because several of them existed throughout its history.The Argentine...
in 1976 and 1977, the three children and their spouses were kidnapped. Herrera's daughter and one of the daughter-in-laws were pregnant. All remain missing
Forced disappearance
In international human rights law, a forced disappearance occurs when a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organization or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the...
.
In forced exile, Aizenberg moved to Paris in 1977, and in 1981, to Tarquinia
Tarquinia
Tarquinia, formerly Corneto and in Antiquity Tarquinii, is an ancient city in the province of Viterbo, Lazio, Italy.- History :Tarquinii is said to have been already a flourishing city when Demaratus of Corinth brought in Greek workmen...
, Italy. He returned to Argentina three years later and died in Buenos Aires in 1996 while preparing a retrospective of his work at the National Museum of Fine Arts
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Buenos Aires)
The National Museum of Fine Arts is an Argentine art museum in Buenos Aires, located in the Recoleta section of the city. The MNBA inaugurated a branch in Neuquén in 2004.-History:...
.
Awards
- Automóvil Club ArgentinoAutomovil Club ArgentinoThe ACA is Argentina's largest automobile association.It was founded on June 11, 1904, by Dalmiro Varela Castex, who in 1892 had imported the country's first registered automobile, a Daimler, and in 1894 its second...
- Acquarone Prize, 1962
- First prize, painting, Instituto de Tella, 1963
- Cassandra Foundation Prize, Chicago, 1970