Familia de Felicitas,
1962
oil on
canvas
41.9 x 63.3 in. 106.5 x 161
cm.
En otoño empieza el frío ,
1990
oil on
canvas
78.7 x 78.7 in. 200 x 200
in.
Si no le gritas, no escucho ,
2006
acrylic on
canvas
77.56 x 114.17 in. 197 x 290
cm.
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A
retrospective
exhibition spanning over 44 years by post-modernist Antonio
Seguí
will be on view at Nohra Haime Gallery from April 27th through
June
10th.
Antonio Seguí's fascination with the city, its people
and
its movement has been a
part of his work for the past three decades. The artist, in a
pre-computer
age, has
created a vocabulary now being explored by a new generation of
artists
through
comics and
Manga.
Often described as the painter of cities, Seguí pulls
inspiration
from the
modern-day man - urban, fast-paced and intense. Noticeably
repeated
throughout many
of Seguí’s compositions is the automaton, his
version
of the “everyman”, the
faceless passerby and the anonymous being that serves as a
fleeting
thought. Up
close the figure is an individual, walking down dark alleys,
pointing,
waving, and
emerging from potholes. But at a distance, the individual
morphs
into a complex
pattern swallowed up in a labyrinth of buildings and
cookie-cutter
trees. Seguí’s
perfectly duplicated images mimic those that are computer
generated,
but ironically,
he adopted this style well before computer technology became
mainstream.
Seguí’s visual language and social commentaries
are
more poignant today, both
symbolically and literally, than when they first started
appearing
in his work. He
often explores man’s place in society with scribbled
words
referencing current
events that act as a ground for the “everyman” to
tread
upon. In his most recent
series, he targets the operator of the largest Ponzi scheme in
history,
Bernie
Madoff. The paintings clearly reflect the tragedy, anger and
confusion
of society
with broken phrases packed between buildings and symbols of
money
plastered on every
briefcase.
Utilizing cubist techniques, Seguí’s repeated
elements
give shape to the cities
causing planes to vibrate between line and color. Numerous
perspectives
unfold with
each vibration and reflect the many angles of life of the urban
man.
Always in
action, the little figures trample, tip-toe, dodge and advance
through
Seguí’s
imaginary metropolis of life.
Antonio Seguí began his artistic endeavors at a young
age
when he left Argentina to
travel the world and study art. Places like Latin America,
Europe
and Africa exposed
him to new ideas and encouraged his culturally diverse
approach to art. Influenced by artists like Fernand Leger and
Diego
Rivera, Seguí’s
work is generally satirical, critiquing society and human
nature.
Born in Córdoba, Argentina in 1934, Antonio Seguí
currently
lives and works in
Paris. He studied at the San Fernando Academy in Madrid, Spain
as
well as the Ecole
des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France. His first solo exhibition was
in
Argentina at age
23. Seguí’s work is collected and exhibited
worldwide
in places such as the MoMA,
New York; Art Museum of the Americas, Washington, DC; Frissiras
Museum,
Athens,
Greece; Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires,
Argentina;
Museum der
Moderne Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria; Museum of Modern Art
Dubrovnik,
Dubrovnik,
Croatia; and Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico. The
Musée
National d´Art Moderne,
Paris organized a retrospective of his works on paper in 2005.
A
monography of
his
work was written by Daniel Abadie in
2010.
A catalogue will be published for the
exhibition
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