An exhibition by Argentinean abstract artist Antonio Berni is being shown in the Museo Casa Natal de Picasso until the 27th February.

About Antonio Berni:

Antonio Berni, born in 1905 in Argentina, was an abstract artist who worked as a painter, an illustrator and an engraver.

In 1925, he received a scholarship that allowed him to travel to Europe, including Paris, where he met a number of influential people including the French writer, Louis Aragon, one of the leaders of Dada and surrealism. He also befriended Henri Lefebvre who opened up the world of Karl Marx. With the mixed influences from his contacts in politics, Giorgio de Chirico’s works and René Magritte in the arts, he finally embraced surrealism and Communism.

After leaving Europe, Antonio Berni returned to Argentina. Ruled under a conservative dictatorship, with on-going social struggles, workers’ strikes and unemployment, Berni’s later works began to reflect these social problems. The whole world was moving towards desperate times, and Berni started moving into social realism, starting in 1934 with two paintings called Desocupados (“Unemployed people”) and Manifestacion (“Demonstration”).

Antonio Berni´s most recognizable work is that of his two characters, Juanito Laguna and Ramona Montiel which would bring him international recognition. Berni used metal sheets, cardboard, wood and surplus industrial materials to represent the fate of Juanito, the boy from the slums. For Ramona Montiel, the prostitute, he chose waste materials such as embroidery, plastic nails or paper and cheap furniture mouldings.

Antonio Berni died in Buenos Aires on October 13th 1981.

Museo Casa Natal de Picasso
Plaza de la Merced
Malaga