ELDA CERRATO
1930-2023, ItalyIn a remarkable career spanning six decades, Elda Cerrato developed a body of work that affirms art as a conduit for inner and cosmic knowledge, resistance, and transformation. Her life and art embodied multiple migrations: from her birthplace of Italy to São Paulo, Brazil; Buenos Aires, Argentina to Caracas, Venezuela; and ultimately back to Buenos Aires where she lived, worked, and taught for nearly four decades. The political dynamics of these locales had a profound impact on her work, merging with academic inquiry and esoteric teachings to align her practice with a search for heightened consciousness. Intersecting with avant-garde movements in Argentina and Venezuela, Cerrato was associated with such male-dominated groups as the Centro de Arte y Comunicación (CAyC), El Techo de la Ballena [The Roof of the Whale], and Grupo Escombros [Rubble Group].
Cerrato’s oeuvre is marked by constant exploration and evolution, beginning with her first abstract biomorphic paintings created in the early ‘60s and the “cosmovision” paintings that followed later in the decade. Subsequent paintings respond to the harsh political realities of Latin America in the ‘60-70s, including her “Maps and Multitudes” works which pair maps of the Americas with images of ordinary people. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, Cerrato returned to esoteric abstraction, now working at an increased scale and with an expanded sociopolitical vision. In the last twenty years of her life, Cerrato looked back at her own oeuvre in the “Recapitulation Paintings,” layering symbols and images from her lexicon against abstract fields.
“Energy is slowly transformed to produce an image. There are images that are in the mind’s eyeand others that are visible; in other words,there are boundary posts, and thereanything can happen.”
Cerrato had her first solo museum exhibition at the Museo Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela in 1963. In 2021, the retrospective exhibition_El día maravilloso de los pueblos_ opened at Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, Argentina. Recent notable presentations of her work include the 35th Bienal de São Paulo (2023), the 14th Shanghai Biennale (2023), and the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (2024). Cerrato’s works can be found in the collections of museums worldwide, including the Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, Argentina; Museo de Bellas Artes de Caracas, Venezuela; and Museo Tamayo, Mexico City; among others. In 2019, she received the Premio Nacional a la Trayectoria Artística [National Award for Artistic Career] from the Argentine government and in 2022 was honored with the Premio Velázquez de Artes Plásticas [Velázquez Award for Visual Arts] by the Ministry of Culture, Spain.
Elda Cerrato was born in Asti, Italy, in 1930, and died in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2023.
Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co. New York
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