León Ferrari (1920-2013)

A foundational figure in the development of Conceptual Art in Latin America and ardent political activist, Argentinian born Leon Ferrari made iconoclasm the essence of his practice. These works redefined boundaries of mark making through the philosophy of language, semiotics, and codes of writing. The year 1962 was a turning point for Ferrari having read, powerful poem, Untitled (Sermon of the Blood) by his close friend the Spanish poet, Raphael Alberti. This influential work led Ferrari through gestural abstraction to his “written paintings” which are actually drawings as texts and texts and drawings. Tensile and convulsive, the line in Untitled moves in fits and starts, the ink alternately pooling and darting across the paper in a fraught, elegant delirium.