In the early 1960s Ferrari made gestural drip drawings with entangled line structures, and what he called “written paintings”—drawings as texts and texts as drawings. By working in these two styles, Ferrari questioned the distinction between art and language—and between graphic gesture and calligraphy, a stylized form of writing. Typically realized in an overflowing, ornate, and dramatic calligraphy, Ferrari’s written paintings feature sarcastic and politically loaded poems masterfully transcribed by the artist but deliberately rendered as illegible scrawls.
2023
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León Ferrari
Argentine, 1920–2013 229 works onlineWhat is the political capacity of art? How should artists address injustice and violence? In 1965, the Argentine artist León Ferrari had a clear answer to these questions: “Art will be neither beauty nor novelty; art will be efficacy and agitation.
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Exhibition history
MoMA Exh. #2074: "Tangled Alphabets: León Ferrari and Mira Schendel", 6th Floor, The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art Gallery, April 5, 2009 - June 15, 2009
and tour: Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, November 24, 2009 - March 1, 2010, Porto Alegre, Fundacao Ibere Camargo, April 8 - July 11, 2010
MoMA Exh. #2152: "I Am Still Alive: Politics and Everyday Life in Contemporary Drawing", The Paul J. Sachs Drawings Galleries, March 23 - September 19, 2011
MoMA Exh. #2512: "2023: 4th Floor Collection" Gallery 404 (Calligraphic Abstraction), January 6, 2023 - July 27, 2023
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