Emilio Rodriguez-Larrain
Lima, 1928 - Distretto di Chorillos, 2015
Between the years 1959-60 in Rodriguez-Larrain's works the evocative signs and symbols of ancient Peruvian art emerge from memory; the painter discovers the meaning and appearance of the beloved land by creating compositions that are both vibrant and concrete; the geometric figures are filled with secret melancholy, the tonal juxtapositions communicate intellectual elegance, emotional finesse, and the union of fantasy and rationality. He creates multifaceted and inexhaustible works, following the behavior of nature; in Rodriguez-Larrain's visionary sensibility there is room for both material creation and objective presences by recalling geometric precision.
Emilio Rodríguez-Larrain is considered one of the most innovative artists of his generation; he began painting in 1944 and then studied architecture at the University of Lima from 1945 to 1949, when he received the First Prize. On May 15, 1947, several artists and architects including Jorge Piqueras, Sánchez Concha, Benjamïn Moncloa and Emilio Rodrïguez Larrain published the "Manifesto of Agrupación Espacio" (Manifesto of the Spatial Group) in the Lima newspaper "El Comercio," with the aim of questioning traditionalism and arguing that art should be consistent with the present.
The environment was ripe for change, and Rodriguez-Larrain began to create paintings drawing inspiration from factories and industries, heavily influenced by the geometry of pre-Columbian art; at the same time, professors and students at the "Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes" (ENBA) eschewed figurative and landscape painting in favor of a geometric universalism that responded to Cubism.
Institutions such as the Lima Gallery, the Institute of Contemporary Art, and magazines such as "Espacio" and "Plástica" began to support the new artists; the Lima newspaper "El Comercio" also began to publish weekly articles on the artists' work and their concerns.
Although geometric abstraction in Peru emerged quite some time after the creative flowering in the United States and Europe, it was extremely important not only for the development of Peruvian culture, but also for the artistic dialogue on the international scene: during those same years the geometric movement called Mádi had broken out in Argentina. These artists experienced the bewilderment caused by the constant sensory stresses to which man is subjected daily and testified to the discomfort in the face of an artificial reality, totally eschewing the universe of the constructed image.
His early works were based on geometric forms referring to traditional Peruvian art; later, incorporating ideas absorbed in European artistic and intellectual circles, referring to his training as an architect, he designed large-scale sculptures, unfortunately unrealized due to the rise of the armed wing of the Peruvian Communist Party known as Sendero Luminoso.
In the compositional balance that characterizes it, Rodriguez-Larrain's painting is strongly influenced by the lesson of Paul Klee, with whom the artist feels in perfect consonance, but the rigor and measure of abstraction are mitigated by the evocation of the elements of Peruvian culture and nature: symbols, architecture, textiles, colors, landscapes. In all this there is always an extreme freedom of expression faithful to the artist's personal intuitions and deep poetic feeling.
Emilio Rodriguez-Larrain's first solo exhibition was in 1950 at the Lima Gallery, and during the same year he began traveling to South America, Portugal and Spain; in 1951 he exhibited at Galerias Biosca in Madrid; in 1952 he traveled to Paris, the Netherlands; in 1954 he discovered Italy and Eastern Europe and then returned to Paris to study Egyptian art at the Louvre school.
In 1955 he won the "Moncloa" Prize of the Museum of Modern Art in Lima and was invited to the "Ciudad de Valencia" Prize in Venezuela.
In 1957 he returned to Italy to mount a solo exhibition at the Galleria Numero in Florence; the same year he participated in the "XII Salon des Nouvelles Réalités" at the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris, signing himself Emilio Rodriguez; the following year the B.A. Gallery. Rasmussen in Copenhagen organized another solo show for him, which was followed by countless other exhibitions in Milan (Galleria Montenapoleone, 1959; Galleria Il Milione, 1960; Galleria Lorenzelli, 1963), in Cologne (Galleria der Spiegel, 1960), in Berlin (Kunsthause in Charlottenburgh, 1960), in Bergamo (Galleria Lorenzelli, 1961), in New York (Staempfli Gallery, 1962), in Paris (Galleria Neufville, 1962), in Jacksonville, USA (Cummer Gallery of Art, 1962), in Washington (Obelisk Gallery, 1963); in 1960, 1964 and 1972 he was invited to the Venice Biennale (this was his first Peruvian participation) and in 1961 to the Carnegie Prize of the Pittsburgh Triennial. In 1969 he participated in the Salon de Mai in Paris and in 1970 exhibited some canvases at the exhibition "Painters and Sculptors of Latin America" organized by the Istituto Italo Americano in Rome.
In 1960 he met Marcel Duchamp with whom what was to become a deep friendship was born such that there is an aspect of Rodríguez-Larraín's work strongly influenced by the "readymade" concept of which Duchamp is known to be the inventor.
From the moment they met and after his death, Duchamp dramatically influenced Rodríguez-Larraín in art and in life.
In a fascinating anecdote, Herman Braun-Vega (a fellow artist and friend of Rodríguez-Larraín) recounted a chess tournament in Llança reserved only for Spaniards: "...Rodríguez-Larraín had the idea of taking both Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray to compete and, after the two had signed up, he changed their names to Manolo Rayo and Marcelo del Campo and said that they were both deaf-mute, so that Spaniards would not be able to identify their accents. Rodríguez-Larraín orchestrated everything and Duchamp and Man Ray placed 1st and 2nd respectively."
Between the years 1959-60 in Rodriguez-Larrain's works the evocative signs and symbols of ancient Peruvian art emerge from memory; the painter discovers the meaning and appearance of the beloved land by creating compositions that are both vibrant and concrete; the geometric figures are filled with secret melancholy, the tonal juxtapositions communicate intellectual elegance, emotional finesse, and the union of fantasy and rationality. He creates multifaceted and inexhaustible works, following the behavior of nature; in Rodriguez-Larrain's visionary sensibility there is room for both material creation and objective presences by recalling geometric precision.
He has also been the protagonist of important recent exhibitions: in 2016 the MALI Museum in Lima paid tribute to Rodriguez-Larrain with an important retrospective including more than sixty years of works; in 2018 the Revolver Gallery (Lima, Peru) juxtaposed the works of Jorge Eielson and Emilio Rodriguez-Larrain; in January-February 2020 the artist is included in the important group exhibition organized by the Michelangelo Gallery together with three representative artists of Peruvian art: Jorge Eielson, Jorge Piqueras and Emilio Rodriguez-Larrain; both occupy fundamental positions in art history, to the point that today the contemporary Peruvian art scene could not be imagined without their existence: these artists show dazzling processes and trajectories, a dialogue between Peruvian and European culture in which they totally eschew the universe of the constructed image and artificial reality.
Museums and places of worship that preserve his works:
Arte Moderno Museum, Trujillo, Peru
Instituto Cultural Peruano Norteamericano, Arequipa, Peru
MAC, Museo de arte contemporaneo, Lima
MALI, Museo de Arte de Lima, Lima
MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, New York
Bibliography:
XXX Biennale internazionale d'arte, 1960; Metro 4/5 et alia, Milan, Stab. Poligr. Colombi, 1962; Rodriguez-Larrain, Galleria Lorenzelli, Milan, 1963
Web sources:
www.mali.pe; www.phillips.com; duchamp-and-rodriguez-larrain-friends-and-collaborators; artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-gold-of-peru-qk
The environment was ripe for change, and Rodriguez-Larrain began to create paintings drawing inspiration from factories and industries, heavily influenced by the geometry of pre-Columbian art; at the same time, professors and students at the "Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes" (ENBA) eschewed figurative and landscape painting in favor of a geometric universalism that responded to Cubism.
Institutions such as the Lima Gallery, the Institute of Contemporary Art, and magazines such as "Espacio" and "Plástica" began to support the new artists; the Lima newspaper "El Comercio" also began to publish weekly articles on the artists' work and their concerns.
Although geometric abstraction in Peru emerged quite some time after the creative flowering in the United States and Europe, it was extremely important not only for the development of Peruvian culture, but also for the artistic dialogue on the international scene: during those same years the geometric movement called Mádi had broken out in Argentina. These artists experienced the bewilderment caused by the constant sensory stresses to which man is subjected daily and testified to the discomfort in the face of an artificial reality, totally eschewing the universe of the constructed image.
His early works were based on geometric forms referring to traditional Peruvian art; later, incorporating ideas absorbed in European artistic and intellectual circles, referring to his training as an architect, he designed large-scale sculptures, unfortunately unrealized due to the rise of the armed wing of the Peruvian Communist Party known as Sendero Luminoso.
In the compositional balance that characterizes it, Rodriguez-Larrain's painting is strongly influenced by the lesson of Paul Klee, with whom the artist feels in perfect consonance, but the rigor and measure of abstraction are mitigated by the evocation of the elements of Peruvian culture and nature: symbols, architecture, textiles, colors, landscapes. In all this there is always an extreme freedom of expression faithful to the artist's personal intuitions and deep poetic feeling.
Emilio Rodriguez-Larrain's first solo exhibition was in 1950 at the Lima Gallery, and during the same year he began traveling to South America, Portugal and Spain; in 1951 he exhibited at Galerias Biosca in Madrid; in 1952 he traveled to Paris, the Netherlands; in 1954 he discovered Italy and Eastern Europe and then returned to Paris to study Egyptian art at the Louvre school.
In 1955 he won the "Moncloa" Prize of the Museum of Modern Art in Lima and was invited to the "Ciudad de Valencia" Prize in Venezuela.
In 1957 he returned to Italy to mount a solo exhibition at the Galleria Numero in Florence; the same year he participated in the "XII Salon des Nouvelles Réalités" at the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris, signing himself Emilio Rodriguez; the following year the B.A. Gallery. Rasmussen in Copenhagen organized another solo show for him, which was followed by countless other exhibitions in Milan (Galleria Montenapoleone, 1959; Galleria Il Milione, 1960; Galleria Lorenzelli, 1963), in Cologne (Galleria der Spiegel, 1960), in Berlin (Kunsthause in Charlottenburgh, 1960), in Bergamo (Galleria Lorenzelli, 1961), in New York (Staempfli Gallery, 1962), in Paris (Galleria Neufville, 1962), in Jacksonville, USA (Cummer Gallery of Art, 1962), in Washington (Obelisk Gallery, 1963); in 1960, 1964 and 1972 he was invited to the Venice Biennale (this was his first Peruvian participation) and in 1961 to the Carnegie Prize of the Pittsburgh Triennial. In 1969 he participated in the Salon de Mai in Paris and in 1970 exhibited some canvases at the exhibition "Painters and Sculptors of Latin America" organized by the Istituto Italo Americano in Rome.
In 1960 he met Marcel Duchamp with whom what was to become a deep friendship was born such that there is an aspect of Rodríguez-Larraín's work strongly influenced by the "readymade" concept of which Duchamp is known to be the inventor.
From the moment they met and after his death, Duchamp dramatically influenced Rodríguez-Larraín in art and in life.
In a fascinating anecdote, Herman Braun-Vega (a fellow artist and friend of Rodríguez-Larraín) recounted a chess tournament in Llança reserved only for Spaniards: "...Rodríguez-Larraín had the idea of taking both Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray to compete and, after the two had signed up, he changed their names to Manolo Rayo and Marcelo del Campo and said that they were both deaf-mute, so that Spaniards would not be able to identify their accents. Rodríguez-Larraín orchestrated everything and Duchamp and Man Ray placed 1st and 2nd respectively."
Between the years 1959-60 in Rodriguez-Larrain's works the evocative signs and symbols of ancient Peruvian art emerge from memory; the painter discovers the meaning and appearance of the beloved land by creating compositions that are both vibrant and concrete; the geometric figures are filled with secret melancholy, the tonal juxtapositions communicate intellectual elegance, emotional finesse, and the union of fantasy and rationality. He creates multifaceted and inexhaustible works, following the behavior of nature; in Rodriguez-Larrain's visionary sensibility there is room for both material creation and objective presences by recalling geometric precision.
He has also been the protagonist of important recent exhibitions: in 2016 the MALI Museum in Lima paid tribute to Rodriguez-Larrain with an important retrospective including more than sixty years of works; in 2018 the Revolver Gallery (Lima, Peru) juxtaposed the works of Jorge Eielson and Emilio Rodriguez-Larrain; in January-February 2020 the artist is included in the important group exhibition organized by the Michelangelo Gallery together with three representative artists of Peruvian art: Jorge Eielson, Jorge Piqueras and Emilio Rodriguez-Larrain; both occupy fundamental positions in art history, to the point that today the contemporary Peruvian art scene could not be imagined without their existence: these artists show dazzling processes and trajectories, a dialogue between Peruvian and European culture in which they totally eschew the universe of the constructed image and artificial reality.
Museums and places of worship that preserve his works:
Arte Moderno Museum, Trujillo, Peru
Instituto Cultural Peruano Norteamericano, Arequipa, Peru
MAC, Museo de arte contemporaneo, Lima
MALI, Museo de Arte de Lima, Lima
MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, New York
Bibliography:
XXX Biennale internazionale d'arte, 1960; Metro 4/5 et alia, Milan, Stab. Poligr. Colombi, 1962; Rodriguez-Larrain, Galleria Lorenzelli, Milan, 1963
Web sources:
www.mali.pe; www.phillips.com; duchamp-and-rodriguez-larrain-friends-and-collaborators; artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-gold-of-peru-qk
