Memories of the land. Leónidas Gambartes

This temporary exhibition, dedicated to the artist Leónidas Gambartes from Rosario, Argentina, opens on 15th February 2025.

Leónidas Gambartes was an artist-magician, a magician of the land. We find the essence of indigenous spirituality and rituality in his themes and pictorial processes.

In his pieces, Gambartes gives visibility to that which cannot be seen by the naked eye, but which is latent in the reality surrounding them. Telluric aspects, relating to the earth and the past of its inhabitants, are the starting point for his work.

After beginning by creating the series Cartones de humorismo (“Humorous Cartoons”, 1937 and 1941) and Dibujos oníricos (“Dream Drawings”, 1942 and 1945), in which all these original and identifying elements of the land and its beliefs were already present, Gambartes spent years (from 1950 to his death in 1963) alternating his creations between these two worlds: the visible and the invisible; between washerwomen, yuyeras (medicine women), mothers and conspirators, peasants, mythoforms and His production during this last stage can be divided by themes into two series: Mito, magia y misterio (“Myth, magic and mystery”) and Figuras y paisajes (“Figures and landscapes”), with the works exhibited here belonging to this last series.

Scenes of the daily life of the inhabitants of the periphery are depicted in these series, in which Gambartes found his connection to original cultures. Within this theme, Gambartes mainly depicts indigenous women working the land or going about their work, as well as motherhood. He places his characters on flat landscapes, with a high level of schematisation and planimetry in the backgrounds. His figures are shown hieratically, either standing, sitting or squatting, with a use of colour ranging between sombre and warm.

Despite the mundane nature of these scenes, Gambartes always kept in mind the magical world that was typical of the communities represented and subtly included it.

His vision problems affected him for life and would also be a major influence in his work. Unable to a see a surface larger than 30x40cm without deformation, Gambartes usually worked in small formats, although he was not limited to them. For works that exceeded his field of vision, the artist painted fragments that were joined together in a final composition, with him never seeing the whole work at any time.

In the works exhibited here we can see Gambartes’ experimentation with plasticity, material and language. This includes the invention of the pictorial technique cromo al yeso (“plaster chrome”), the application of the principles of Constructive Universalism in his compositions, and direct influences from Antonio Berni, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Joaquín Torres García himself and Paul Klee.

They clearly show us why Gambartes is considered one of the great painters with regional roots, along with artists of the calibre of Rufino Tamayo, Carlos Mérida and Wifredo Lam.

• 

  La Morteada, 1952

  Cromo al yeso (“plaster chrome”)
  35 x 50 cm

  Ralli Collection

• 

  Lavanderas, 1955

  Washerwomen
  Cromo al yeso (“plaster chrome”)
  66 x 48 cm

  Ralli Collection

• 

  Serie Lavanderas I, 1960

  Washerwomen
  Serigraphy
  Ed. 108/200
  47 x 37 cm

  Ralli Collection

• 

  Serie Las Yuyeras II, 1960

  Serigraphy
  Ed. 5/200
  47 x 37 cm

  Ralli Collection

• 

  Serie Las Yuyeras III, 1960

  Serigraphy
  Ed. 90/200
  47 x 37 cm

  Ralli Collection

The exhibition Memories of the land. Leónidas Gambartes has been conceived as a pedagogical curatorial project which seeks to generate collective learning processes from collaborative creative practice. The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of activities based on collaborative participation and artistic creation. With these proposals in mind, we invite you to reflect on the central themes raised by Gambartes’ work: memory, identity, territory and rituality.

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Silvia Sánchez
Curator