The landscape we live in...

8:23 p.m.

08/15/16 - The hypothesis of the exhibition "Paisaje: el devenir de una idea" at the CCK, curated by Ana María Battistozzi, is based in the founding visions of our territory and how those visions were udpated by contemporary artists. It's through more than 50 artworks that we can discover who were the artists to recreate the landscapes and who were the ones to modify them. And although the exhibition does not pretend to be historical, the first records belong to the traveling artists. The first engraving of the city of Buenos Aires was done in Spain by Fernando Brambila, who participated in the scientific expedition that travelled around the world between 1784 and 1794. The image shows the influence of Europe's visual culture and the usual artistic conventions of the time to depict an urban area. The result is an idealized Buenos Aires, probably very different to the real one.

Buenos Ayres in Amerika, attributed to Fernando Brambila

Technique: Lithograph on paper / Measures: 16 x 20.5 cm

Another of the traveling artists (those interesting personalities to join the European expeditions of the 19th century to record, with drawings or paintings, the fauna, flora and places visited) was Johann Moritz Rugendas. In the following painting he depicts a gaucho with clear foreign references. Back then in France, the interest for Arabic exoticism ruled the arts. Rugenda's gaucho looks more Oriental than belonging to the Pampas.

Boleando avestruces, by Johann Moritz Rugendas (1845)

Technique: oil on canvas / Measures: 46 x 55 cm

Years later, local artists would be more identity-wise when painting these sceneries, as was the case with Prilidiano Pueyrredón and Eduardo Sívori.

Quinta de Hale, by Prilidiano Pueyrredon

Technique: watercolour on paper / Measures: 13 x 28.5 cm

Rancho con ombú, by Eduardo Sívori

Technique: watercolour and oil on cardboard / Measures: 15 x 12 cm

According to the curator, contemporary art found different ways to depict the landscapes, growing apart from the founding images, with more fantastic, realistic and painteresque visions. Mónica Millán presents an approach with deers in an overwhelming fantasy, while Alfredo Prior, uses an oxidised atmosphere to recreate the mythical foundation of Buenos Aires.