A Further Brush with Fame in 1965

In chapter 5, Frank traces the spread of Nueva Figuración’s international renown, discussing the artists’ growing number of group shows and related reviews in U.S. and European magazines. Comparing it to the postmodern treatise The Anti-Aesthetic by Hal Foster, Frank examines Noé’s Antiestética, a theoretical text in which he extolled chaos as a value in art and announces his views on other dominant movements of the day such as Pop Art. Frank closes on the dissolution of Nueva Figuración: with the art scene in Argentina trending toward Pop and related styles and with Marta Minujín staging “Happenings” and proclaiming that painting was dead, the New Figurationists had one final group show in Buenos Aires and then went their separate ways.

International Recognition, 1964

In chapter 4, Frank traces the changing styles of Noé and Macció. These two won travel awards from the Di Tella Foundation that took them to New York and Paris. Perhaps because of their absence from the disorder of Buenos Aires, the paintings of both artists evolved toward consideration of formal issues, such as the potential of flat color planes and the integrity of the surface of the work. Jorge de la Vega created the important Anamorphic Conflict series, influenced by Italian artist Enrico Baj and a response to conflicts between Argentine military factions. Frank rebuts critic Clement Greenberg’s comments about the provincialism of the Argentinian art world in 1964. (Greenberg had made a trip to Buenos Aires to judge an art competition.) Frank also discusses solo shows by Noé, de la Vega, Macció, and Deira and their participation in important exhibitions in the United States at the Guggenheim Museum and the Walker Art Center.

First Group Show and Journey to France, 1961–1962

In chapter 2, Frank considers the group's first show, its critical reception, and the artists’ journey to France shortly after the show closed. He compares Nueva Figuración with European engaged styles of figural painting, such as Un art autre, which influenced the group, at first, to name itself “Otra Figuración.” Discussing the political and sociocultural context of Nueva Figuración, Frank closely examines Ernesto Deira's artistic response to anti-Semitism and the trial of Nazi fugitive Adolph Eichmann and goes on to consider Rómulo Macció's response to the State of Siege in his painting Cárcel = Hombre (Prison = Man). He then compares the politically engaged New Figurationists with other contemporaneous Argentine artists, such as Emilio Renart and Ruben Santantonín, whose works make little reference to contemporary life and with Antonio Berni, whose social references are more explicit than those of Nueva Figuración. The chapter closes on discussion of how the group's trip to Paris pushed their styles toward greater expressive freedom.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Frank traces the evolution of the Buenos Aires art scene away from New Figuration and in a more radical direction against a backdrop of frequent military coups and repression. He also follows the careers of Noé, de la Vega, Macció, and Deira after the group's demise. Macció had a show in New York that was reviewed favorably by critic Hilton Kramer. Noé ceased painting for nine years. De la Vega took up a parallel career as a singer-songwriter whose style has many traits in common with the movement known as Nueva Canción (New Song). One of his songs, “El Gusanito” (The Little Worm) was widely popular in the art world. Frank accounts for the Nueva Figuración artists’ apparent lack of fame today and advances reasons for their reappraisal. Among these is that a state of exception, as outlined by Giorgio Agamben, has become the norm in many societies today. The creative response of the Nueva Figuración artists to the uncertainties and chaos of their times encourages our consideration of their art in relation to the uncertainties and chaos of our own.

At the Forefront of Innovation, 1962–1963

In chapter 3, Frank discusses three important Nueva Figuración exhibitions. In one of these, a drawing show, the group focused on the governmental crisis that was then erupting. The military had divided into two factions in a disagreement over how to manage the Peronist movement: these factions, the Azules and Colorados, actually battled in the streets of Buenos Aires. Ernesto Deira created an important work based on Julio Cortázar’s 1960 novel Los premios (The Winners), an allegory of political chaos in Argentina of the time. Jorge de la Vega began a series of works depicting monsters of various kinds, one of them a critical commentary on developmentalism—the dominant belief set of the country's leaders. Luis Felipe Noé created Introduction to Hope, an important work that engaged many then-current issues, including Peronism, elections, and political passion.

Getting to Expressionism, 1959–1961

In chapter 1, Frank traces the development of Noé, de la Vega, Macció, and Deira before the group formed, discussing examples of their work against the backdrop of the Buenos Aires art world and contemporary events. Each of the artists’ first expressionist works responded to the rise of Informalism in painting as practiced by Alberto Greco and others. They also responded in various ways to disillusionment with the presidency of Arturo Frondizi, to political violence, and to tensions surrounding the survival of the prohibited movement of Juan Perón. Frank focuses particularly on Noé’s Serie Federal (Federal Series) (1960-61), which purported to illustrate violent episodes in the country's past. Frank considers Noé's exhibition of these works and explains how the novelist Ernesto Sábato came to use one of them for the cover of his novel Sobre héroes y tumbas.

Introduction

The introduction defines the Nueva Figuración movement and gives an overview of the group's shifting reputation, from initial fame in Buenos Aires in the early 1960s to regional importance, limited international recognition in the middle 1960s, and subsequent decline. Frank argues for reconsideration of New Figuration as part of a wider reassessment of the worldwide cosmopolitan development of modern art. The best method for such reassessment, Frank argues, is contextual analysis because many of the Nueva Figuración artists’ works refer both directly and indirectly to contemporary events, cultural products, and sociological trends. Drawing on the work of Carl Schmitt, who first defined Nueva Figuración, and of Giorgio Agamben, who later elaborated on it, Frank describes its temporal backdrop in Argentina as a “state of exception.” The introduction closes on Frank’s summary development of the chronological organization of succeeding chapters.