
"Art is not beauty or novelty, art is effectiveness and disruption…”
León Ferrari, Sin Título, 2009, Drawing, Ink and graphite on canvas, 39 3/8 x 27 1/2 in. (100 x 70 cm.)
León Ferrari. Sin Título, 1962. Ink on paper and wood, 27 9/16 x 5 29/32 in. (70 x 15 cm.)
León Ferrari. Sin Título, 1963. Indian ink on paper, 19 7/8 x 13 3/4 in. (50.5 x 34.9 cm.)
León Ferrari. Sin Título, 1964. Stainless Steel, Bronze and Copper, 13 3/8 x 8 5/8 x 7 1/2 in. (34 x 22 x 19 cm.)
León Ferrari. Sin Título, 1962. Ink on paper, 9 15/32 x 6 1/16 in. (24.1 x 15.4 cm.)
León Ferrari. Sin Título, 1962 (September). Ink on paper, 19 x 13 1/2 in. (48.3 x 34.3 cm.)
León Ferrari. Sin Título, 1983. Ink on polystyrene, 12 19/32 x 14 5/32 in. (32 x 36 cm.)
León Ferrari. Sin Título, 1976. Ink on paper, 8 5/8 x 7 3/8 in. (21.9 x 18.7 cm.)
León Ferrari. Sin Título, 1976. Pencil on paper, 19 9/32 x 13 25/32 in. (49 x 35 cm.)
León Ferrari. Sin Título, 1976. Graphite on paper, 19 5/8 x 13 5/8 in. (49.8 x 34.7 cm.)
León Ferrari. Sin Título, 1976. Pencil on paper, 12 19/32 x 9 27/32 in. (32 x 25 cm.)
León Ferrari. Retablo, 1994. Collage, 8 21/32 x 6 11/16 in. (22 x 17 cm.)
León Ferrari. Lanzamiento, 1986. Collage, 11 7/8 x 8 3/4 in. (30.2 x 22.3 cm.)
León Ferrari. Majestad, 1998. Collage, 10 7/32 x 14 15/16 in. (26 x 38 cm.)
León Ferrari. Sin Título, 1986. Collage, 9 1/16 x 9 1/16 in. (23 x 23 cm.)
León Ferrari. Santa Clara do Porto, from the Relecturas de la Biblia series, 1988. Collage, 11 13/16 x 9 1/16 in. (30 x 23 cm.)
León Ferrari. Apocalípsis, from the Relecturas de la Biblia series, 1986. Collage, 9 15/32 x 7 7/32 in. (24.1 x 18.4 cm.)
León Ferrari. Sin Título , 1977. Indian ink on paper, 10 1/8 x 6 3/4 in. (25.7 x 17.2 cm.)
León Ferrari. Sin titulo, 1978. Ink on paper, 9 3/4 x 11 19/32 in. (24.8 x 29.5 cm.)
León Ferrari. Sin Título, 1978. Watercolor on paper and Ink on paper, 10 5/8 x 8 1/4 in. (27 x 21 cm.)
León Ferrari. Sin Título, from the Errores series, 1991. Indian Ink on paper, 39 3/8 x 27 1/2 in. (100 x 70 cm.)
León Ferrari, Sin Título, 2004. India ink on paper, 11 11/16 in. x 8 1/4 in.
LEON FERRARI (1920 - 2013, Argentina)
"Art is not beauty or novelty, art is effectiveness and disruption…”
Born in 1920 in Buenos Aires, León Ferrari's artistic practice encompassed the media of painting, collage, sculpture, poetry, and printmaking. Known internationally for his often-provocative social and political critiques, Ferrari made work that was highly critical of war, social inequality, discrimination (sexual, religious, and ideological), and abuse of power.
In the 1950s, Ferrari traveled repeatedly to Italy, where he began making sculpture. In the early 1960s, he began exploring the connections between word and line in Cuadros escritos (Written Paintings) and Dibujos escritos (Written Drawings) and he continued these explorations throughout his career. These abstract “writings” on canvas and paper combine dry pastel, graphite, watercolor, and colored pencil to make lyrical, almost calligraphic imagery. About these works, Ferrari writes, “I draw silent handwritten words, which tell things, with lines that recall voices. And I write drawings that recite memories that words cannot say” (Letter to Christina Harrison, 1996).
In 1965, an exhibition including Ferrari’s La civilización occidental y cristiana (Western Christian Civilization) was censored and then closed by the Catholic Church. His subsequent work would challenge the policies of the church and the role of religion in the history of art. In the late 1960s, Ferrari participated in the collective known as Tucumán Arde. The group intended to draw attention to the conditions of the Tucumán Province through an intervention into the circuits of mass communication, countering the official news media of the Argentine dictatorship. During this period of increasing political activism, Ferrari published what would become a famous manifesto and call-to-arms for artists, in which he wrote, “Art is not beauty or novelty, art is effectiveness and disruption…”
With the persecution, murder, and disappearances of family members and friends during the Guerra Sucia (Dirty War) in Argentina, Ferrari fled to São Paulo, where he remained from 1976 to 1991. During this political exile, Ferrari created metal sculptures, photocopies, postal art, heliography, and art books, and he continued his explorations in drawing. Upon his return to Buenos Aires in the early 1990s, Ferrari created a series of collages to illustrate the official report about the disappearance of Argentineans during the war; the report, created by the National Commission for the Disappearance of Persons, was titled “Never Again” and it was published in 1984 and reissued with Ferrari’s collages in 1996. The imagery condemns the relationships between the repressive military regime and the religious establishment.
"Art is not beauty or novelty, art is effectiveness and disruption…”
2022-2020
2018 | The Kind Cruelty, 100 Years, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, the Netherlands; Musée National d'Art Moderne-Centre Pompidou, Paris, France The Words of Others: León Ferrari and Rhetoric in Times of War, Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), Miami, FL |
| León Ferrari, Galerie Mitterrand, Paris, France |
| León Ferrari: For a World with no Hell, Galeria Nara Roesler São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil |
2017 | León Ferrari, The Words of Others: Leon Ferrari and Rhetoric in Times of War, REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA, USA |
2015 | León Ferrari: To Write, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA |
2014 | La donación Ferrari, Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires (MAMBA), Buenos Aires, Argentina |
2012 | León Ferrari - Brailles y relecturas de la Biblia, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA), Buenos Aires, Argentina |
2011 | León Ferrari, Haunch of Venison, New York, NY, USA |
| León Ferrari, Museo del Banco de la República de Bogotá, Colombia |
2010 | Re-encontres, Église Sainte Anne, Arles, France |
| Luces de León, Fondo Nacional de las Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Retrospective, Museo Emilio Caraffa, Córdoba, Argentina; Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes Juan B. Castagnino; Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Rosario, Argentina; Secundario de Artes, Fiorito, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Museo de Bellas Artes, Salta, Argentina |
2009 | León Ferrari: 40 Years of Work, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA |
| Galería Zavaleta LAB, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Locura urbana, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Santa Fe, Argentina |
2008 | León Ferrari, Los Músicos, Galería Braga Menéndez Arte Contemporáneo, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| León Ferrari. Obras 1976-2008, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, Mexico |
| León Ferrari. Antológica, Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes Juan B. Castagnino, Ciudad de Rosario, Argentina |
2007 | Secretaría de Cultura de la Nación, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Leon Ferrari, Galería Ruth Benzacar, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
2006 | Revisiting Tautology, Pan American Art Projects, Miami, FL, USA |
| Poliuretanos, Sonoridad Amarilla, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| León Ferrari, A Relentless Critique of Power, University Gallery, University of Essex, Essex, UKRetrospectiva León Ferrari, Pinacoteca do Estado do São Paulo, Brazil |
2005 | Escrito en el Aire, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Neuquén, Argentina |
| Plumas y Brillos, Galería Braga Menéndez Arte Contemporáneo, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
2004 | Retrospectiva León Ferrari, obras 1954-2004, Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Instrumentos para dibujar sonidos, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA), Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Politiscripts, The Drawing Center, New York, NY, USA |
| Escrituras, Ruth Benzacar, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
2002 | The Architecture of Madness, University of Essex, Essex, UK |
2000 | Infiernos e Idolatrías, ICI, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
1997 | Tormentos-amores, Arcimboldo Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
1992 | Sobre Justicias y Preservativos, Espacio Giesso, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
1989 | Retrospective, Sívori Museum, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
1987 | Heretic Chapel by León Ferrari, Franklin Furnace, New York, NY, USA |
1986 | Serie Parahereges, II Bienal de La Habana, Centro Wilfredo Lam, Havana, Cuba |
1984 | León Ferrari: Ocho años en Brazil, Arte Nuevo, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
1983 | Casa de las Américas, Havana, Cuba |
1982 | Planos, heliografías y fotocopias, Museo Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, Mexico |
| Prismas e retângulos, Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Museo Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, Mexico |
1980 | A Arte de León Ferrari, Museo de Arte Moderno, São Paulo, Brazil |
1978 | Pinacoteca do Estado, São Paulo, Brazil |
1964 | Escrituras, alambres y manos, Lirolay, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
1960 | Esculturas, Galatea, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
1955 | Cerámicas, Galeria Cairola, Milan, Italy; Via Margutta, Rome, Italy |
Art Institute of Chicago, IL, USA
Arturo Schwarz, Milan, Italy
Banco Nación Collection, Argentina
Banco Velox Collection, Argentina
Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX, USA
Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY, USA
Cambiaso Collection, Argentina
Cancillería, Collection, Argentina
Casa de las Américas, Havana, Cuba
Centro Wifredo Lam, Havana, Cuba
Daros Latinamerica Collection, Zürich, Switzerland
Davis Museum, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, USA
Diane & Bruce Halle Collection, Scottsdale, AZ, USA
Fondo Nacional de las Artes, Argentina
Giesso Collection, Argentina
Harvard Art Museum, The Fogg Museum, Cambridge, MA, US
Helft Collection, Argentina
Herlitzka Collection, Argentina
Liprandi Collection, Argentina
Museo Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, Mexico
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Bahía Blanca, Argentina
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Argentina
Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA), Argentina
Museo de Arte Moderno de Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, Mexico
Museo del Grabado, Argentina
Museo La Tertulia, Cali, Colombia
Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes Juan B. Castagnino, de Rosario, Argentina
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain
Museo Salvador Allende, Santiago, Chile
Museo Sívori, Museo de Arte Moderno, Argentina
Museu de Arte Brazileira, Pinacoteca do Estado Brazil
Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil
Museu de Arte de São Paulo, Brazil
Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, Brazil
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), TX, USA
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, NY, USA
Nagel Collection Argentina
Rosenkrantz Collection, Argentina
Tate Modern, London, UK
University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA, USA