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Antonio Berni From Social Realism To Soc
Antonio Berni From Social Realism To Soc
Introduction
Two great thinkers of the arts and art history in the 20th century can help
artists, Antonio Berni (1905 - 1981). Diego Rivera once said that art is a social
creation. In his essay The Revolutionary Spirit in Modern Art, published in 1932,
Rivera writes about how Honoré Daumier was revolutionary in both his
expression and content and that to do so, he created a new technique by seeing
his subjects through class-conscious eyes (Rivera 54). Art, according to Rivera,
class individuals and the lowest rung in the social class structure (Rivera 57).
Meyer Schapiro states in his The Social Bases of Art that it is in terms of changes
in the immediate conditions in the world that artists create their work. He also
states that that there is evidence that binds art to the “conditions of its own time
and place” (Schapiro 118). Schapiro says that the artist acquires the “courage to
manner” (Schapiro 126). Berni, his art (especially the Juanito Laguna series), and
Antonio Berni could easily fit into Rivera’s description of Daumier because
Berni also took a revolutionary approach to his art by seeing his subjects through
a class-conscious lens, too and then taking it a step further in his collages that
1
were to become his Juanito Laguna series. And Berni also created works in
response to the conditions that plagued the society in which he lived, such as no
Antonio Berni, along with other Argentinean artists, wished to forge an art
that was a tool for social justice, expressing his opinions the best way he knew
how - through his art. Berni would express the plight of the working class and the
residents of the villas miserias most notably during the latter part of his career
during the late 1950s and well into the 70s. His paintings and collages, which
resonated with many people at the time they were made and displayed, continue
to resonate with the people of Argentina, and indeed the world, to this day.
is imperative to understand the artist’s country, its political climate, and the
societal circumstances that helped to shape his body of work. Only then will the
groundwork be laid to better understand and appreciate his work so that the
aesthetic quality is not all that is appreciated, but also the cultural portrayal of
the artist’s view of his world. In this chapter, the political history of Argentina,
the arts of Argentina, and the villas miserias (shantytowns) that is the subject of
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A Brief Political History of Argentina from the Late 19th Century to
rapid rate and was also trying to establish itself as a modern metropolis. During
these years the public administration was organized and the first political parties
began to emerge. Buenos Aires was declared a federal district and land was being
appropriated in large numbers. The population began to rise sharply, mostly due
to the influx of people from Spain and Italy. These immigrants would change the
1992, 124). A number of loans were being received by the state and inflation
generated. Pacheco notes the monetary instability that was “permanently altered
an apparently well-off and growing nation” (124). Argentina was also in the era of
intellectuals and artists and by the end of the 19th century, “socialism and
anarchy appeared together within the newly born proletariat” (Pacheco, 124). The
workers began to use strikes as an “active method in the fight against excessive
workdays, low wages, unemployment, and electoral fraud” (Pacheco 1992, 124).
In the first few years of the 20th century, different social sectors were
the rural population declined, and the number of people settling in the cities rose
once more. Pacheco mentions the decline of international prices of farm products
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which affected the economy. This, coupled with excessive public spending, was
the cause of budget deficits (125). According to Pacheco, the First World War and
the Russian Revolution were the two international events that most influenced
ousted President Yrigoyen “on the grounds that his government was
illegitimate” (Skidmore & Smith 86). General José F. Uriburu directed the
provisional government but was won out by the group led by General Agustín P.
Justo. Elections still took place but “fraud was freely practiced” (Skidmore &
Smith 87).
Justo was succeeded by Roberto Ortiz in 1937 and in 1940 he was forced to
resign due to health conditions. Ramón Castillo succeeded him but he stuffed the
ballot box to get there, increasing his illegitimacy. It was at this time that military
officers were watching how Germany and Italy had played key roles in “displacing
the wavering civilian governments” (Skidmore & Smith 88). Seeing the Axis
powers on the winning side of the war, the chief military officers “saw the need
for steady, sure leadership in their own land” (Skidmore & Smith 88). So, while
the military was seizing control of the government, there was a surge in class
consciousness among the working class. According to Skidmore and Smith, the
“urban working class, especially in Buenos Aires, had changed...[and] was now
about 90 percent literate and it was mobile, with many of its members having
recently arrived from the countryside” and most of the urban workers “were now
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native Argentines, not European immigrants” (89-90). The urban working class
Enter Juan Domingo Perón, a man of the middle-class who had risen to
the rank of colonel through his career in the Argentine army. He was made
Secretary of Labor and eventually began to “rally the urban classes, especially the
proletariat, against the estancieros and foreign business” which was his strategy
for winning power (Williamson 466). He won his popularity “by introducing a
whole range of welfare benefits for trade unionists” and the established parties
liberty” (Williamson, 467). The military junta dismissed Perón, but on October
release. In the presidential election of 1946, he won 54 percent of the vote and
once in power “he proceeded to purge the army leadership, raise officers’ pay and
give political posts to his military followers” (Williamson 467). His biggest
political asset, however, was Eva Duarte who became Perón’s wife in 1945. The
Eva Perón Foundation provided hospitals, clinics, schools and many forms of
charitable relief for the poor and the sick (Williamson 467).
Perón would soon face economic problems and in 1949, the country saw
its first trade deficit since the war which reduced the foreign exchange reserves to
low levels (Skidmore & Smith 92). This economic crisis coincided with his
“decision to strengthen his political grip” and his first move was to amend the
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constitution to allow for the reelection of the president and also to “reiterate a
1947 law which gave women the vote” (Skidmore & Smith 93). The government
society” (Williamson 468). Opponents were persecuted or jailed under a new law
of contempt for the authorities; the critical press was hamstrung by “selectively
470). The government was taking a lurch toward totalitarianism and extending
associations, schools, and universities (Skidmore & Smith 470). But, when Perón
decided to take on the Catholic Church, the military leaders had had enough and
the Church “turned hostile after Peronism began to encroach on its traditional
domains of education, welfare, and public morals” (Skidmore & Smith 470). In
1954 divorce and secular education was legalized and the remaining relation with
the Church reached a breaking point. During a mass rally of Peronists outside
the presidential palace, military aircraft bombed the palace, killing several
hundred people, inflaming the political realm. The Peronists responded “by
putting many churches in Buenos Aires to the torch; violence and counter-
violence broke out in the streets...” and finally, on August 31, Perón told his
followers to “take up arms and kill five opponents for every murdered
Peronist” (Skidmore & Smith 471). Civil war seemed to be nearing, but two weeks
6
later, army revolts succeeded and they ousted Perón, allowing him to escape to
The end of Perón did not mean an end to Peronism. There continued to be
a split between political and economic power and inflation and public deficits
base of the economy, but any plans to solve these problems met with bitter
opposition from the Peronists” (Skidmore & Smith 472). In 1958, the Radicals
were allowed to form a government that was led by Arturo Frondizi that lasted
from 1958 until 1962. Frondizi tried to appeal to the Peronists by legalizing their
party but when the Peronists won majority of the seats, the military forced
Frondizi to annul the elections because of his failure to convert the Peronists.
Frondizi refused to resign and on March 29, 1962, “the army tanks rolled onto the
streets and removed Frondizi from the Casa Rosada” and in stepped José María
Guido would serve for a year and a half, but the real power of the
government was held by the military. The military annulled the elections of 1962
and held a new election in 1963, in which Arturo Illia would win. Illia’s governing
style was more low key and he “made no overtures to the Peronists”. Despite the
fact that he held down prices and increased wages, he still found it impossible to
meet the Peronists half way. In 1966, Illia was overthrown by the military who
had decided to try “the indefinite suspension of electoral politics and the
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Onganía announced another Revolución argentina (Williamson 473). This, too,
would not last long. The uprising in Córdoba in May 1969 led the military to
believe that the nation “was ungovernable without Perón, who alone could put an
end to the escalating terrorism and reconcile political forces to the need for
economic discipline” (Williamson 474). Thus, Perón would have a second chance
8
The History of Social Realism in Argentina up to Antonio Berni’s
Emergence
socially conscious. At the end of the 19th century, there was a rise in the number
of strikes and demands for acceptable working conditions and wages and the
people were becoming aware of electoral fraud. There were also, beginning in the
1930, a series of military coups that repressed the people and the freedom of
expression, in print and in art. With Perón, we are led to believe that he was a
man of the people, but he did not convince everyone and indeed repressed the
Social realism as we know it today can be traced back to the 19th century
and the rise of modern industrialized societies “in which social struggles began to
emerge and the proletariat was first defined" (Pacheco 1992, 123). In some
countries, like Italy or France, some forms of realism held steadfastly to the
commitment to the social reality in which the artists worked with an aim of
denouncing and transforming it (Pacheco 1992, 123). However, despite the fact
that we can trace the origins of social realism to the 19th century, social realism
has actually been present throughout the history of art and cannot be confined to
just one period in history. Marcelo Pacheco points out that social realism is not a
style, nor is it a school of art. Rather, it is a trend in art that flowers in “distinct
moments and [is] enveloped in various aesthetic formal orders specific to certain
movement, but a commitment to analyzing one’s world and the social reality of it.
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Artists, particularly in the Western hemisphere, called for an art that was both
responsive to the struggles of the working class and also had a wide appeal
(Anreus, Linden, and Weinberg xiv). However, there is more than one definition
of Social Realism. David Schapiro writes that social realism is an attempt to use
art to “protest and dramatize injustice to the working class” which was caused by
xvi). Others suggest that it is an attitude about where art fits in to life and that
this question emerges in the mid-1930s. However, Argentina was, and to some
extent still is, a conservative country, creating a harsh environment for artists
wanting to express themselves via social realism. But artists in Argentina and the
rest of Latin America realized art’s potential to create class consciousness that
because of immigration of Spanish and Italian peoples. This would change not
only the demographics of Argentina, but the culture, the social, and economic
aspects of reality as well. For the generation of artists in the late 19th and early
fundamental step toward professional development. Despite the fact that France
served as a social and cultural model for the Argentina of the late 19th century,
Italy also was highly influential to the early generation of artists. Many artists,
Eduardo Sívori, Reinaldo Gíudici, and Eduardo Schiaffino, studied first in Italy
before moving on to study in France. Their stays in Italy would influence their
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use of social realism due to the social struggles of the country and how they were
there are no signs of social realism in their later work (129). Pacheco goes on to
say that a key theme in the early social realism of Argentina was a “lack of
articulation of such works within the artists’ production and the lack of a defined
ideological stance” (129). This, however, was not necessarily the case for Sívori
who reflects:
A painter goes to Europe, studies and works there for years, makes
no one will buy?... So, with this sad knowledge, he devotes himself
impressionism began to be seen in Argentina but not without opposition from the
Nexus group, two members in particular, Ana María Telesca and José Emilio
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influence, in terms of a style both dynamic and modern, and an impressionism
repetitive” (Pacheco 1992, 132). So, there were two rival trends: the trend toward
renewal and the “officialism of the Nexus group [a group of young artists working
French philosopher Jean-Marie Guyau who included the aesthetic within the new
superimposed on the known world, changes art into a powerful means for the
transformation of societies”. However, art can have both “civilizing effects” or the
“effect of social disintegration” according to Guyau (Pacheco 1992, 133). With the
Malharro found a way to denounce social reality and helped pave the way for the
Cinco Artistas del Pueblo, the founders of social art in 1920s Argentina.
The Artistas del Pueblo were both humanist and revolutionary, wanting to
use art to achieve “direct contact with the masses” (Santana 20). They took their
art to the masses, including libraries where they would often lecture, city squares,
and even took exhibitions to the factories and streets (Santana 20). These artists’
main aim was to denounce injustice and raise awareness of the working
conditions of the working class while also denouncing militarism and war. They
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did this using art, usually reserved for the elite classes, but instead of using
myths, legends, or scenes from the Christian doctrine, they used the ordinary
men and women that make up society. With the Artistas del Pueblo, there was,
for the first time in Argentina, a reflection upon the function of art within a
contemporary society.
Numerous other movements followed the Artistas del Pueblo and in 1937,
Raquel Forner entered the scene. Wtih Raquel Forner, social realism meant more
than just looking at local dynamics. Forner reflected on the pain and impotence
of humanity with the tragedy found all over the world. She started out looking to
Buenos Aires for her early themes, but after the Spanish Civil War, she began to
“broaden her horizons and denounce the situation of the millions of disinherited
humans punished by the war and the irrationality of power” (Pacheco 1992, 144).
even if, at that time, reality did not seem so pressing; but then the
An interesting trend seems to occur around the same time that Raquel
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of artists, active since the twenties, who came from the middle or lower classes
and made their living in areas not related to art, while at the same time devoting
artist. Policastro worked in a factory for thirteen years and from the beginning of
his artistic career, his interests lay in his sense of solidarity with the working
class. He formed a group with Antonio Berni, Juan Carlos Castagnino, and
Demetrio Urruchúa, exhibiting and publishing pieces together. They each held
1992, 146). Demetrio Urruchúa, together with Castagnino, Berni, and Manuel
Colmeiro, formed the Taller de Arte Mural in 1944. Muralism was highly debated
Another artist bound to social realism was Antonio Berni. Pacheco says
that the “quality of his work resides in the precise balance that he attained
“aligned himself with the ideology of the French Communist Party” (Pacheco
1992, 147). At this same time, other artists from Argentina were studying in Paris
including Aquiles Badi, Héctor Balsadúa, Lino Spilimbergo, Raquel Forner, and
Juan del Prete. All of these artists first studied in Buenos Aires and then were
immersed in the contemporary art of Europe. Many also traveled to other areas
14
Etruscan art, and the Italian masters. For many of these artists, “the end result
1992, 148). Juan del Prete, however, followed the abstract style in both painting
15
Fast Forward: Art in Argentina in the 1960s
time to the rule of Juan Domingo Perón. In April of 1945, the artistic and cultural
(Giunta 2007, 26). Two days before the march, the Salón Independiente
(National Salon), which had become synonymous with the government. Artists
had assumed their civic responsibility and called for a return to democracy saying
that
The works on exhibit here were intended for the National Salon this
was because of these names that “Antonio Berni was able to uphold the
importance of the Salon and raise it to a level equal to the significance of the
march for the Constitution and Liberty” (Giunta 2007, 28). Berni was an active
participant in the Salón Independiente and spoke of the reasons for creating the
Salón by saying,
16
What is extraordinary is that against all the restrictions imposed on
artists over the years to keep them within unworkable and narrow
citizens (as well they should), fighting for the cause of Argentine
The word “freedom” was the principle that these artists felt they were
defending when they exhibited work favoring the end of the war, which would not
be shown because the government had taken a stance with the Axis forces.
Whatever the government’s stance, artists did not hesitate “to shun the official
ceremonies and to utilize their works as instruments for social advance” which
After February 1946 and the elections of that year, artists dissolved the
Salón Independiente, but the conflict, both in the political and arts sectors, did
not disappear. At the same time artists were boycotting the Salón Nacional and
17
geometric abstraction, leaving politics out of their art, and opposing realism
in 1956, all of the discourses seemed to collide in the form of a controversy over
the selection of delegates to the 28th Venice International Biennial Art Exhibition
of 1956 (Giunta 2007, 61). Jorge Romero Brest and Julio E. Payró had selected
artists based on their ability to represent hope for the future and not images of
the past. They did this by selecting young, recent graduates of art school and left
out the artists who had been left out of the Biennial during the Peronist years,
excluding them not because of lack of quality, but “for reasons as superficial as
those of ‘youth’” (Giunta 2007, 62). The group of selected young artists expressed
their opinions to the minister saying that “We cannot accept that any group
Argentina was trying to establish itself on the international art scene and
the idea was to show “what was considered new and innovative” (Giunta 2007,
282). However, the style that North American institutions favored was
increasingly leaning more and more toward abstraction and less toward realism.
Argentine artists were experimenting with new materials in their art which
opened up a new discourse about the work of art and its relation to its physical
reality. Artists, such as Kenneth Kemble, Luis Felipe Noé, Greco, and Jorge de la
Vega, all added organic and/or found objects to their artwork. Greco “promoted
the destruction of painting for painting’s sake in his organic works by adding
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elements such as bitumen, urine, rain, and wind” (Pacheco 2004, 129). Kemble
chose Informalism for his pieces and included wood, sheet metal, and other
of origin and constructed a real landscape that referred to the emerging and
growing shantytowns in Argentina at the time” (Pacheco 2004, 129). So, the
theme in the new art of Argentina, as determined by the artists of the avant-
One of the leading critics of the period, Jorge Romero Brest, wanted “to
of up-to-date art was essential” (Giunta 2004, 79). Romero Brest’s idea of
progress was equated with abstract art. In his modernist view, Informalism was
just a detour and an impulse toward regression. But, there were others that
believed that Informalism was the new art and Guido Di Tella was one who would
help to convince Romero Brest that this was so. Romero Brest eventually chose to
At the beginning of the 1960s, there was a noticeable shift from the
suspends all of his aesthetic thoughts and judgements and “declares the term
‘experience’ a key word and announces the initial stages for the production of a
great art in his country” (Giunta 2004, 82). Rubén Santantonín wrote in a
manuscript that “While the art of the galleries and salons agonizes, we carry out
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this form of art that cannot be sold. ‘Pamphleting’ is art that isn’t for sale, it’s an
These artists are all under an umbrella of art named Conceptual by Mari
question both the fetishization of art and the systems of art’s production and
distribution in late capitalist society” (Ramirez 2004, 425). She goes on to say
that Conceptualism is not limited in its medium and can appear in a variety of
forms and that it “can be read as a ‘way of thinking’ about art and its relationship
to society” (Ramirez 2004, 425). The artist offensives against General Onganía
came together with the collective event Tucumán Arde (Tucumán Is Burning). In
the pamphlet given out at the exhibition, the artists claim that
him or her. Revolutionary art considers the aesthetic act as the core
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artists responded to the Operativo silencio by executing Tucumán
The last major theme in Argentine art of the 60s was that of Consumerable
Art in which Romero Brest maintained that art “no longer invites the viewer to
contemplate, but rather to consume” (Giunta 2004, 88). The new art objects were
clothes, accessories and posters and one of the goal’s was to shape popular taste
(Giunta 2004, 88). But, consumption was one of those words that “provoked
resistance and irritation in the world of art and culture, as much among those
who thought that art should remain pure...as among those committed to the
revolution who were searching for an art that would support their cause” (Giunta
2004, 88).
As described above, artists throughout the late 50s and 60s Argentina
were experimenting with new methods, theories, and materials. Some artists
were wanting to have the public participate in their art, while others chose to use
materials from their surroundings to create a “real” landscape for their collages,
bricolages, and other forms of Informal art (which could also be considered
Conceptual according to Ramírez). Artists were not able to separate the political
realm from their art and in fact chose to take it upon themselves, as their duty, to
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Berni’s Theme: The Villa Miseria in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires was a key site for social struggle and debate in the 1950s and
1960s. The villas miserias of Buenos Aires had been present since the 1930s but
grew rapidly after World War II for numerous reasons. Migration from other
provinces into the city was increasing due to the “decreasing agricultural
around 1945 onward, the population of the city “became stabilized, and it was the
population” (Polakow and Guillean 221). But, the new arrivals put even more
prices” (Podalsky 102). Podalsky notes that the rental property law that was
supposed to benefit the working classes by freezing the rents and preventing
results “that did not always benefit the increasing number of lower-income
In 1959, the Frondizi administration reduced the available funds for low-
interest housing loans and the terms from the banks made housing accessible
only to those with higher income. Therefore, the lower-income families did not
22
have the access to credit making it more difficult for them to find housing
(Podalsky 102). Families with lower incomes thus turned to villas which steadily
grew during the 50s and into the 70s. According to Podalsky’s charts, the period
from 1963-1968, witnessed the population of the villas more than doubling, and
then almost doubling again between 1968 and 1975 (Podalsky,103). The
approximately 80 percent.
The government also tried to repress the villas and in the 1950s, a wall was
built around the villas located by the new airport “presumably to hide them from
wall also symbolized the shift from working-class interests to that of the middle-
class (78). The villas were seen as a blight on the city, one that had to be covered
up. The government would try to eradicate the villas throughout the 1950s and
residents perched above Plaza Martín. In the late 60s, one villa was completely
removed making way for a Sheraton Hotel and, later on in the 70s, a business
complex (Podalsky 105). Those living in the villas frequently protested their
removal but in 1978, the military removed “about 12,000 families from Villa 31
located northeast of Retiro station between the tracks and the river” (Podalsky
105-106).
sheet metal, wood, chicken wire, corrugated tin, and bricks to construct their
homes. They made use of unused space, making no-man’s land someone’s land.
23
They were “wedged in between railroads and highways or perching on the edge of
occupations of public land”, they often had “narrow and sinuous corridors
the rich and the poor also grew “by placing land values and rents beyond the
means of those who were not well-to-do” (Podalsky 121). Podalsky notes that the
villas changed the face of the city in another way. Some of the immigrants coming
into the city from other provinces had indigenous features, such as darker skin,
that “set them apart from other long-established urban dwellers” (Podalsky 107).
These immigrants clashed with the modernization of the city, and the projected
image of the country as a whole and served as a reminder of the other areas of the
Within the city of Buenos Aires and its surrounding areas, the cruel reality
of a nation trying to modernize itself could clearly be seen. There was no way to
hide the villas and even though high-rise apartments would give a privileged view
of the city, there was no escaping the definite reality of the surroundings. While
some would choose to ignore the villas existence, others, like Antonio Berni,
would try to speak out on behalf of their inhabitants. The villas represented what
true modern life was in Argentina and Berni saw them as more realistic than the
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Chapter 2: The Birth of Juanito
This chapter examines Berni’s life in more detail: the time he spent in
France (which could arguably be called his most formative period for both his art
and political ideals), and his relationship with the French poet, novelist, and
Communist supporter, Louis Aragón. I will also discuss Berni’s early works,
Ejercicio Plástico (Plastic Exercise), so as to emphasize the fact that Berni was
continually criticizing economic and social problems through his art from the
While one can look at a piece in the Juanito Laguna series, it is close to
impossible to see past the aesthetic quality of the work without knowing the
background story of the artist and his subject. To understand the development of
imagery. I will argue that as viewers of Berni’s work, we must look past the
aesthetic quality and not look at these works as “expressions of defeat” like
Andrea Giunta suggests, but rather, we should look at these works with the
questions of “how” and “why”, thus allowing us to think with our eyes because
Berni wanted more than his viewer to just look at his work, he wanted the viewer
to take action against injustice. Andrea Giunta writes “Whereas in the 1930s he
protagonists in the great march of history, he now focused on the world of those
living on the fringes of society and his work expressed defeat” (2006, 77). Giunta
25
understands the subject matter but chooses to see it in a negative light instead of
in 1905 to Italian immigrant parents. He had his first one man show at the age of
art. He started out in Spain and in 1926 he went to Paris to study at La Grande
Chaumièr. While in Paris he studied under the surrealists Andre Lhote and
Othon Friesz. His stay in France would prove to have direct and indirect
influences. These influences were not limited to direct artistic influence, but also
learned the Marxist theory of Henri Lefebvre, who introduced him to the poet,
retrospective in Paris which had a major impact on Berni’s earliest mature works.
Surrealist group, particularly Louis Aragón” (Elliot 42). Aragón and Berni quickly
became friends and agreed on many things. David Elliot states that at this time,
Berni became aware of both the “political and social circumstances” that
separated him “as both Argentine and Latin American from his European
contemporaries” (42). The surrealist paintings (fig. 1, 2) that Berni created from
26
wide variety of elements including “images of the sea, coastal walls and
42).
27
Fig. 2 La muerte acecha en cada esquina, 1932. Taken from Argentina, 1920-1994: Art from
Argentina, p. 43.
(Kivatinetz 7). By this time Surrealism was “a revolutionary movement not only
in art, but in the political field as well” (Kivatinetz 7). In 1930, Aragón distanced
himself from Andre Breton and the Surrealist circle, which had taken a Trotskyist
position. Aragón joined the Communist Party. According to Kivatinetz, the fight
between these two artists was very public and other artists were taking sides.
Because of Berni’s close relationship with Aragón, he sided with him and joined
Berni would later tell of his continued relationship with Aragón after his
stay in France:
28
Es [una] lástima que haya perdido, entre tantas cosas que perdí, las
among the many things I have lost, the letters that I received from
Aragón all the way from France; if I had them today, I think, they
and culture, the responsibilities of the artist and the intellectual for
the society, the problems of the culture in the colonial countries, the
Antonio Berni states that the time in France, and indeed his entire time
him, perfectly logical. He had gone to Europe with a total ignorance of what had
happened in modern times and within the last twenty years or so, including the
development of new ideas and politics (Berni 1999, 45). Berni also says that his
stay in Europe did not make him forget his own experiences and the reality of his
country and time and that he never strayed away from Argentina and the
problems of Latin America (Berni 1999, 47). Indeed, his time in Europe fed him
29
with the intellectual, philosophical, and moral tools that he would use in his art
Europe, his art took the form of social realism, an artistic form that depicted the
working class. He began commenting on the economic crisis and political and
social problems of Argentina and the world. In 1931, Berni became a municipal
employee in Rosario, his hometown and one of Argentina’s main industrial cities,
to make ends meet. He turned a necessary struggle for financial survival into
witnessed labour demonstrations. He also saw the port and streets of Buenos
30
The Presence of Siqueiros and Other Early Works
May 25, 1933 to give a few lectures and to exhibit some work at the request of
writer Victoria Ocampo. Siqueiros’s lectures sparked such a controversy that his
third lecture was canceled (Kivatinetz 10). Siqueiros sought to “summon artists to
conservative rule, this was clearly not a time for “revolutionary speeches in
Argentina, and Siqueiros found himself in trouble” (Kivatinetz 10-11). The artists
of 1930s Argentina had just freshly returned home from Europe and were still
attention to aesthetic value “rather than focusing on political messages about the
social events of the time” (Kivatinetz 12). Needless to say, Siqueiros was not met
Siqueiros calls for all producers of art to join him in creating art for the popular
masses:
reality that is all around us, hitting us in the face...in order to walk
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in the full light of human and social reality, in factories, the streets,
Antonio Berni, along with Lino Eneas Spilimbergo, Juan C. Castagnino, and
Enrique Lázaro, answered that call to artists and together, with Siqueiros, created
the mural Ejercicio Plástico (Plastic Exercise) in 1933 (fig. 3). Berni was
interested in Siqueiros’s message and his art for the people. Berni said in an
article written for Nueva revista in January 1935 that Argentina lacked a “history
of revolutionary popular art” that they could draw from and use and that it was
“an opportune moment to take advantage of it” (Berni 2004, 502). Berni goes on
to say that Siqueiros did not get the spaces to work because the bourgeoise were
the ones who would have given the space to paint the murals and they did not
support him like the intellectual community did (Berni 2004, 503). It is because
of this realization that Berni moves to large-scale canvas paintings that “could
serve an equally public function and that he could develop major themes
32
Fig. 3 Ejercicio Plástico, 1933. Image taken from http://www.taringa.net/posts/arte/1372792/
Ejercicio-Plástico---Siqueiros.html
Beginning in the early 1930s, and right after his encounter with Siqueiros,
Berni moved into nuevo realismo (new realism). Up to this point, social realism
had been associated with the Communist Party and Berni chose to define nuevo
realismo in the context of Argentinean art and culture which allowed him to
Cárcova’s Sin pan y sin trabajo (1893-94) (fig. 5) as this iconographic and
33
conceptual source (37). The faces of the workers and their families in the crowd
are not angry, hateful, or vengeful; instead, they are filled with anxiety. In this
painting, Berni shows the unity of the people who are struggling. He also shows
the painstaking reality of their situation, but also the hope that there is a solution
to their crisis.
Fig. 4 Manifestación, 1934. Courtesy of International Center for the Arts of the Americas.
34
Fig. 5 Sin pan y sin trabajo, (1893-94) by Ernesto de la Cárcova. Taken from http://www.iuna.edu.ar/
departamentos/carcova/historia.html
a box and resting, asleep, as if waiting for someone to come by to offer him a job.
The group of men to his right also rest with their hats off. But not everyone rests
and sleeps. The mother stares off into the distance as if to ponder what she is
going to feed the daughter she holds in her arms. A man in a red pullover towards
the center of the composition twiddles his fingers, thinking about the situation he
is in and if he will ever get out of it. The row of workers in the background
illustrate the hopelessness that the people as a whole must have felt.
35
Fig. 6 Desocupados, 1934. Courtesy of International Center for the Arts of the Americas.
as possible, the “abysmal conditions of his subjects” (Barnitz 84). These “abysmal
conditions” were documented through his paintings throughout the 1930s and
2006, 71). In an article written for Forma, an arts magazine, in 1936, Berni
defends his nuevo realismo by saying that the decline of art is the product of the
division between the artist and the public and proposed that nuevo realismo
should stimulate a mirror of the spiritual, social, political, and economic reality
that surrounds them (Berni 1936). Berni would keep this idea of nuevo realismo
36
throughout the rest of his career and his social realist style would reach its height
37
Juanito Laguna: “Un pobre chico, pero no un chico pobre”
commitment to social causes in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1958, Berni began to use
industrialization and poverty. This new series would be based on the elements of
his early social realist paintings, a “bold reworking” of the collage technique, and
a “renewed critical Marxist vision, this time humorous and even erotic [in the
case of the Ramona Montiel series]” (Anreus 112). The narrative series tells the
story of a boy living on the fringes of society, the outskirts of Buenos Aires, in the
“ring of shacks and hovels straggled along the industrial belt that divided the city
collected by the artist in the villas miserias surrounding Buenos Aires. The
Argentinean capital was also the home of some of the most extreme disparities
between the wealthy, elite Argentinean aristocracy, and the real-life “Juanitos” of
the vast, depressing slums, which inspired Berni to create his legacy.
When Berni moved away from his paints and began making collages of
found objects, he made his means of creating art work as poverty stricken as what
confronting their viewers with the presence of poverty in the here and now of the
viewing moment in a way his realist oils could not” and turned his artistic
38
Juanito represented one archetype of social exclusion in industrialized
societies and Berni wanted to “seek out and record the typical living truth of
neocolonialism, with its resulting poverty and economic backwardness and their
effect on populations driven by a fierce desire for progress, jobs, and the
inclination to fight” (Ramirez 1999, 190). The story of his epiphany goes that
Berni was walking through a shantytown, much like the one Juanito would have
lived in, and he had a revelation in his “reality and its interpretation” (Ramirez
One cold, cloudy night, while passing through the miserable city of
Juanito’s true environment did not lie in paints and canvas, but in the scrap
wood, metal, discarded objects, empty bottles, cartons, card board boxes, etc. that
lined the streets of the villa miseria (Ramirez 190). Berni said, “Beginning that
day I bought fewer and fewer bottles of paint, because in the shantytown where
39
Juanito lived, I could find the components for my paintings” (Ramirez 1999,
190).
Berni was the first painter to address the ways the villas were
“transforming Buenos Aires and to use them as inspiration for developing new
compositional techniques” (Podalsky 108). Berni did not stop at the portrayal of
the villa life at Juanito. He continued to share Juanito’s life with the world by
introducing his family and his friends. Juanito could be seen reading with his
friends, taking family vacations in a jam-packed truck, flying his kite, dreaming,
with his family at Christmastime and during Carnival, and even taking his father
lunch at a factory that dwarfed him in size. Berni was intent on establishing the
presence of Juanito and his family as representative of all those who lived a slum
life.
40
Discussion of Three Works
(fig. 7) is a large scale collage depiction that makes real the disparities of
the viewer’s gaze immediately to the colorful bursts of painted cardboard pieces
that form two atomic mushroom clouds having the festive look of fireworks. The
sky is a very dark, ominous black color with no clear indication of whether it is
night time or if the sky is just scorched black with the remnants of industrial
waste clouds. As we move our gaze down, we can see the villa miseria in all of its
poor qualities with the patchwork style of dwellings, hardly homes. As we make
our way down the piece, we can see that this is a neighborhood constructed of
found materials. Two girls emerge from what seem to be doorways in the massive
heap of junk and discarded objects and Juanito is centered and wide-eyed.
41
Fig. 7 El mundo prometido a Juanito Laguna, 1962. Courtesy of International Center for the Arts
of the Americas.
tin, wood, corrugated cardboard, chicken wire, and other various objects. In fact,
it is pieced together much like the walls of the real villa miseria in which the real
Juanitos would have lived. The life like proportions of the collage indicate the real
life references Berni is making. Podalsky writes that while he was “deriving his
patchwork technique from the precarious constructions in the villas, his work was
humanity of his subjects, not where or how they lived. By focusing on the
children of the villas miserias, he was able to humanize the peoples of villas and
42
bring to the forefront his concerns of the relationship between industrialization
All three figures are carrying a bag, readying themselves to leave. But as
the viewer, we must ask ourselves, where would these children go? What place
would they have to run to? When we see Juanito’s pale face outlined with the
atomic explosions all around him and is standing outside his doorway being left
to wonder where he will go and how he will survive. This festive atomic show
suggests how technological advances can distract us all from the real life
destructive effects and the reality of the underclass. Juanito and his friends are
constructed with burlap, cloth, and thread and seem to melt into the background,
prometido..., Juanito’s stare “speaks to his lost childhood in the villa where the
In 1961, Berni used burlap, metal strips, wood, and other materials to
“create the misshapen face and upper torso of his antihero” (Podalsky 109).
of wood pieces that have been made to somehow form a wall behind Juanito’s
face. His hair is made up of dark pieces of threads and shredded burlap. His face
cardboards, and metals. His eyes are cut from two pieces of tin and Berni has
43
placed two green specks in the center to show the color of his eyes. Juanito’s nose
is constructed from two separate pieces, one metal and one wood. As we move
down toward the mouth, we see that his lips are constructed of several pieces of
thin metal. Juanito’s torso is also made of burlap and scrap pieces of metal.
44
Fig. 8 Retrato de Juanito Laguna, 1961. Courtesy of International Center for the Arts of the
Americas.
45
When looking at traditional portraiture, we are usually confronted with a
distinguished person, or, at the very least, with a nicely painted figure with
found objects that have been carefully crafted into the face of a young boy. Berni
has not referenced any beauty, possessions, or dignity. Instead, Berni has chosen
to define Juanito in the very things he lacks and by accentuating the fact of the
villa life he is so engrossed in. In doing so, we see Juanito’s true self in his true
environment. If ever there was a portrait of the true portrayal of someone’s status
in society, this would be it. Podalsky notes that “Juanito’s distorted features
resemble the craggy figures of Jean Dubuffet’s painting” (109). Podalsky goes on
to say that Jacqueline Barnitz has made the comparison before and that Dubuffet
along with the CoBrA group, Willem de Kooning, and Francis Bacon, “were the
artists whose work was most associated with Latin American neo-
considerably less abstract than the younger generation of Argentinean artists, but
he nonetheless took up a preoccupation with his own local realities that seemed
to deform the fabric of humanity and human existence. In Retrato..., we see a raw
Goes to the City) (1963) (fig. 9). Juanito is dressed in his Sunday best while he
makes his way through the villa. On his way to his destination, he passes
46
mindlessly by the heaps of junk that make up his world. The very top of the
tin to create the dark, smoky haze of an industrial area. The buildings in the
background are made from pieces of wood and tin and made to look like villa
multi-story residential buildings. Juanito walks on top of the heaps of trash that
line the streets of the villa. Juanito’s clothes are made of burlap and scraps of
cloth. His hat and satchel are cut from a real hat and satchel that was probably
found among the heaps of trash in a villa. The sack on his back is textured like a
potato sack, probably filled with things to try to make a dollar or perhaps his shoe
shine kit. Juanito’s shoes are also made from pieces of leather that have been cut
into the shape of a nice pair of loafers that have definitely seen better days.
47
Fig. 9 Juanito va a la ciudad , 1963. Courtesy of International Center for the Arts of the Americas.
48
This work is particularly interesting because it is one of the first pieces to
posthumous homage that for Elena Olivera, the show’s curator, Berni’s
practically all the immediate spaces by invading our own space with this
genre of installed bulks. And finally, “to give content more visibility,”
placing the object as the raw material for his surroundings and
These monstrous figures reflect miseries, our own and everyone around us. The
two monstrous figures that look toward Juanito embody his own misery, the
same misery that he lives with every day of his life, the misery of having to carry
his sack over his back to hopefully come back home with a buck to help his
Monsters challenge our idea of what is real and felt. They can shake our
perception of reality and the world’s regularity. Laudano says that the monster
“always sins of excess, never of defect” (102). Laudano also goes on to say that
49
enigma yet to be solved” (102). They are also destabilizers of everyday life and the
rules we all need to know in order to understand and sustain the normality of our
lives.
the surface, these monsters look very menacing and dangerous in relation to
Juanito. However, looking beneath the surface of these monsters, we see that
there are many things that these monsters represent. They reflect our miseries,
but they also do much more than that. These monsters are personifications of
human to animal, and viceversa” (Laudano 102). The egg carton on the back of
the monster in the bottom left corner of Juanito va a la ciudad and the plastic
pieces that make up his scaliness call attention to the fact that the things that
make up our everyday lives, including that carton of eggs that we get from the
refrigerator, contribute to the heap of trash that makes up our daily lives.
Although people who are not residents of the villas may not experience the
consumer society. These monsters, and by extension the collage pieces in general,
Berni’s Juanito collages are a source of narrative style that alludes, “in a
metaphorical code, to the city, the shanty town, the factory, the machine, and the
mass media” (Laudano 103). Laudano also notes that Berni places his archetype
figures, Juanito Laguna and later, Ramona Montiel, into the sociopolitical
50
context of 1960s Argentina. Berni exhibited “the national folklore and
paraphernalia found during the desarrollista push, Illia’s radical government, and
In 1962, Antonio Berni won the Grand Prize for Printmaking at the Venice
Biennale for his work on Juanito Laguna and Ramona Montiel. It was not until
after this achievement and the successes of numerous one man shows in Europe
and the United States that Berni received wider recognition for his work. He was
Podalsky, the collages’ social critique was unrecognized by reviewers in the top
arts magazines throughout Argentina and Latin America (117). Instead, they
focused on the creativity of the pieces instead of what the pieces represented. The
European art circles would have been ignorant to the growing villas in Buenos
Aires and “would have been even more inclined to focus on the collages’ formal
somewhat true, it is an inaccurate understanding of his work. Berni was not just
His goal was to educate the people of Argentina and the world so that real
progress could be made and not covered up by modernizing projects that clearly
51
were not working. However, it is apparent that Berni’s critique of his city’s
burgeoning villas was not radical enough “for the new cultural institutions
promoting the modernizing project that his work denounces” (Podalsky 117).
Andrea Giunta says in her essay for “Versions and Inversions” that Berni’s
Juanito series “focused on the world of those living on the fringes of society” and
that his work “expressed defeat” (77). I beg to differ. Berni’s work brings to light
industrialization, and consumerism can do. These collages are a call to the
viewers’ conscience. Berni asks simply, “What are you going to do? Will you sit
idly by and let this continue? Or will you do what you can to help solve this
problem?” Berni said that he could save one person, two people, maybe ten, but
that he could not save them all by himself. To save all of them, he would need
don't exploit them, I am claiming them) (Berni 1999, 59). In 1976, Berni wrote in
an article that
[E]very artist and all art is ultimately political, or we may say, using
the terminology in vogue today, that all art 'also' admits a political
and that if one does leave it out, the work will not be understood in
52
Berni had defined his “social” vision of reality as “being modern, not
interpreting, the way they did, one’s own era with its new phenomena and
diminishing the real with an ideology, but adapting that ideology to the reality,
and through it radically revising the real” (Anreus 112). When we stand before
one of Berni’s collages, we can see the truth of the misery that surrounds Juanito,
his friends, and his family. We can see the lost opportunities that Juanito will
never have. We can see the factory that his father works in that does not help to
better the lives of his family. And we can see that we, as consumers, have helped
to create and sustain the problem. Juanito Laguna stands for every child of Latin
America and for all the children of Third World countries. Berni has given,
through Juanito, a voice to the voiceless children of the villas of the world.
53
Chapter 3: The “Juanito Phenomenon”
As we have seen in the first chapter, there were many political and social
events, including a rise in the social consciousness of the working class paired
which Antonio Berni was a product. We also saw that social realism becomes
more frequent in times of political and social upheaval. In the second chapter,
Berni’s early work was introduced as well as his intellectual influences and the
character of Juanito Laguna. These chapters will allow me to examine in this final
chapter what I have come to call the “Juanito Phenomenon.” Although there is no
the canvas and in mural sized collages, however, in the last few years Juanito is
now appearing elsewhere in our ever more virtually connected world. With the
seeing snippets of plays that are being performed with Juanito as the protagonist.
There are also musicians in Argentina who are creating songs inspired by Juanito
Laguna and his fictional life. Juanito Laguna is also the name of a rather posh
looking bar in Rosario. And Juanito made another appearance in the city of
54
Buenos Aires for Antonio Berni’s centennial anniversary in which children all
over Buenos Aires created their own Juanito-inspired worlds in their classrooms.
This creates a very unique problem that was most likely not anticipated by
Antonio Berni because Juanito can now be seen abundantly in areas of modern
society that embrace consumerism. As stated in the last chapter, the character
was created as a critique on the growing villas and consumer society which
Antonio Berni denounced. But before examining this, let us first take a look at a
sample of the videos, the centennial celebrations, and the music that has been
created.
The first video that will be examined is a fan video entitled “Juanito and
the Beatles” and was created in 2007. The video uses the song “Blackbird” by the
selected works from Antonio Berni’s Juanito Laguna series. It starts out with
Retrato de Juanito Laguna (1961) and ends with El mundo prometido a Juanito
Laguna (1962). The person who made this video, I would speculate, made it with
the intention of publicly recognizing his or her love of Antonio Berni and his
works.
The song seems to have been picked more than likely for its reference to
that which is broken and waits to be freed from its constraints. It is also
worthwhile to mention that Paul McCartney originally wrote this song about
escalating racial tensions in the United States. This may be tied in to the fact that
55
the inhabitants of the villas also faced discrimination, not solely based on race,
but more because of their status in society. The bird in the song has broken wings
and therefore cannot fly on its own. It would need help, nourishment, and care
from someone to get back on its feet. The second constraint, however, is two-
fold. The “sunken eyes” which describe the bird can also describe the audience
because we, too can “learn to see”. At the very end, we see that the author of this
video has inserted a slide which reads “Perdón Berni, todavía no hicimos
nada” (Forgive us Berni, we still do nothing). This resonates with not only
Juanito Laguna, but Antonio Berni as well because of its cry for forgiveness to the
painter and its recognition of a need to do something. In this way, the video itself
is a new means to incite the change that Berni wanted to bring about through his
work. This video is not unique in using contemporary music in the background of
Another such video is one titled “Nature Boy” after the song that was made
famous by Nat King Cole. This video was created in 2008 and features a montage
of about twelve works from the Juanito Laguna series. The song also plays in the
background by an unknown female artist. This song, too, resonates with the
boy who, at the end, gives the advice that the greatest lesson to be learned is to
love and be loved. In a way, Juanito is an enchanted boy because he does teach us
about where he comes from and how he lives through the stories on the canvas.
56
Both of these videos have songs that resonate with Juanito, but they also
have a special meaning to the respective authors of the videos and only they know
the reasons why they chose these particular songs to enhance their video collages
of Berni’s Juanito Laguna works. It is not known if these videos were shown
elsewhere before they were uploaded to YouTube. But, even so, the videos speak
for themselves. They are a testament to the fact that Berni’s paintings have
caused many people to admire and comment on his work through the use of
The second pair of videos I wish to look at have documented actual events
and have brought Juanito to life via the stage. The first video is titled simply
“Juanito Laguna” (fig. 10 and 11) and is a short film that starts off with a quote
that is read by Antonio Berni himself with the painting La familia de Juanito
Laguna (1960) (fig. 12) in the background. The painting is then faded into the
background of the short play done by sixth graders about Juanito’s family. There
are no audible words spoken, but there are gestures made between family
members suggesting dialogue. The children are dressed in clothes that look
scavenged and scrapped. But, the mood of the play does not seem negative.
Instead, the family is shown as happy despite their meager living conditions.
When I first came upon this video, I was baffled that sixth graders would be
putting on plays based on the character of Juanito Laguna. Other videos have
shown elementary age children creating their own Juanito worlds and Juanito
collage pieces. This shows that not just Antonio Berni is included in the general
study in secondary schools, but that the specific character of Juanito Laguna is
57
instilled in the general knowledge of Argentine children, thus making Juanito
58
Fig. 11 Still from “Juanito Laguna” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaQdpNQCh2o
59
Fig. 12 La familia de Juanito Laguna, 1960. Courtesy of International Center for the Arts of the
Americas.
hermana Ramona" (“The true story of Juanito Laguna and his sister Ramona”)
(fig. 13 and 14) which was performed in 2005. In this snippet, Osvaldo Tesser,
Argentinean actor, director, and author of this musical, stresses that he did not
create the characters of Juanito Laguna and Ramona Montiel, but that Antonio
Berni did. He also says that they are not really siblings by blood because they are
of the canvas. Instead, their father is Antonio Berni. Tesser speaks in a very
enthusiastic way with a smile on his face the whole time he is speaking. It is clear
that Tesser is an admirer of Berni’s work and particularly that of Juanito Laguna
and Ramona Montiel. The songs in this play were created specifically for this
occasion and have not been reproduced either before or after to my knowledge.
The snippets of the play that are included in this video use paintings of Ramona
Montiel and Juanito Laguna as backgrounds for the scenes. The actors perform
on a bare stage and the characters reflect the characters in the paintings. It is
important to note, as this chapter develops, that this play was realized in 2002
but did not have proper funding until 2005 and has been performed since 2005
60
Fig. 13 Still taken from http://blogs.clarin.com/juanitolaguna/posts
61
Fig. 14 Still from “La verdadera historia de Juanito Laguna y su hermana Ramona” http://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqdnoJhmOTc
These are just a very brief sampling of videos where Juanito Laguna is the
subject. There are several other videos that celebrate the life and work of Antonio
Berni. I chose the above videos simply because they focused specifically on the
character that we have been examining and because they represent the majority
of Juanito Laguna videos that include songs in the background from pop culture.
This technological evidence via YouTube of Juanito Laguna’s influence and the
admiration of people toward this character does not stop here. He is present in
blogs, MySpace, and Flickr as well. One just needs to do a Google search for
“Juanito Laguna” and the search results will flood with various websites
connected to blogs and photo albums. The internet and YouTube are
62
phenomenons in and of themselves and much of what is on the internet or
YouTube have to deal with pop culture and the numerous opportunities for
people to have their voices heard. Berni had changed the way he created his work
after his epiphany when walking through a villa and, here, again, is a change in
medium. This time, it is digital and done not by Berni, but by the people.
63
Juanito Influences Music
subject of various songs, mostly in the folk tradition in Argentina. The earliest
recording that I was able to find was “Juanito Laguna remonta un barrilete”
which was performed by Mercedes Sosa on the album Para cantarle a mi gente
from 1967, less than ten years after Berni’s first Juanito works. Mercedes Sosa is
a folk singer from Argentina and was born in 1935 in San Miguel de Tucumán.
She agreed with leftist ideas and was forced into exile by the 1976 dictatorship.
She also recorded “La navidad de Juanito Laguna” on the album Navidad con
Mercedes Sosa (1970) in which the album cover was a painting of Antonio Berni’s
from the Juanito Laguna series. Another major Argentinean artist who has
recorded songs with Juanito as the subject is César Isella who was born in Salta
in 1938. He has done various recordings since the 1960s as well and put out an
album titled Juanito Laguna (fig. 15) in 1976 as a tribute to Antonio Berni and
Juanito Laguna.
64
Fig. 15 César Isella’s “Juanito Laguna” released in 1976. Photo taken from eBay listing for item
number 390037952054.
compiled and arranged by César Isella. The songs were all centered on Juanito
and included songs by Mercedes Sosa who recorded “El mundo prometido a
Juanito Laguna” which César Isella composed, César Isella who recorded
“Juanito Laguna se baña en el río”, the instrumental song “Antonio Berni”, “La
familia de Juanito Laguna”, and “Coral por Juanito Laguna”. There are a few
compilation as well including Marcelo San Juan, Dúo Salteño, Eduardo Falú, and
65
Las Voces Blancas, as well as two short tracks of Antonio Berni speaking during
recorded songs by musicians choosing to sing about Juanito. Here are a few lines,
de ese color.
...
...
66
The Promised World of Juanito Laguna
of that color.
...
...
I want to first address the issue of the “zinc blue” sky. Zinc is corrosion
resistant and generally plates steel which alludes to the factories. This ties in to
the next line which describes the villas as being grey (referring to the tin used to
construct houses) and cardboard. Juanito Laguna is a child of the villas and as
such, also a child of that “color” (grey). There is an emphasis on bread, or the lack
thereof, throughout this song which refer to poverty. Usually bread is the
cheapest staple food but it seems as though even Juanito has to dream of having
bread. The lyrics also say that every child is Juan, meaning every child of the villa
67
In the 1960s and 70s, there were several people who came into power and
then were forced out by a military coup representing the conservative interest.
These were politically volatile times in which those who spoke out against the
government were quickly silenced. While these governments were trying create
wealth for the country, and succeeding to an extent, Berni, and others like César
Isella and Mercedes Sosa, critiqued the government for what they were not
68
Juanito as the Subject of Antonio Berni’s Centennial Celebration
organizations, along with the youth organization De Todos Para Todos and
possibly others, formulated a program for youth for that year. De Todos Para
Todos organized an art show titled “Un cuadro para Juanito, 40 años después (A
painting for Juanito, 40 years later)” which was curated by Lily Berni, Antonio
Berni’s daughter (Rouillon). There was also an exhibition at the MALBA (Museo
their main goal was to have the participation of all schools in thinking about and
exploring the diverse geography, the people, and culture of Argentina (Programa
examples of children’s artwork that was created as a result of this program from a
contemplate Berni’s works and then create their own art pieces using collage
techniques. There are two videos on YouTube that I have located that show the
children speaking about Juanito and their little Juanito “worlds” that they have
created. It also should be mentioned that the play “La verdadera historia de
Juanito Laguna y su hermana Ramona” was backed with funding from the
69
national government as well as the city of Buenos Aires, according to the credits
though every major part of Argentinean society participated in this year long
why the organizers felt they had to center it all specifically on the Juanito Laguna
feasible subject for the younger school children to grasp and understand because
he would have essentially been their age and, therefore, more relatable. It is
legacy of Juanito Laguna, especially when Berni was against capitalism which is
the basis of the Argentine economy and the underlying reason these villas exist.
70
Juanito: Commodity or Hero?
and other various websites, it is worth pondering whether or not Juanito has
because of his lack of heroic qualities which in turn make him closer to reality.
This question presents a problem when one looks at the work and ideals of
Antonio Berni because Berni was very much against capitalism and the
Juanito to help the world see and recognize that these problems do exist and that
created his works with the hope that they would incite change and incite a will to
make real change that was not centered in building and expansion projects that
do not work.
instances where Juanito Laguna has been found. One is a bar in Rosario, Berni’s
home town, as mentioned above that bears the name “Juanito Laguna” (fig.
16-18). The bar looks rather posh on the inside and serves food in addition to
having a full bar. The bar itself seems to be geared toward a younger crowd with
performances by rock bands and displaying the art of young artists. A bar bearing
the name of this important character seems quite significant. However, I have to
question the connectedness that the fictional character of a young boy would have
with a bar. Perhaps the name itself is a homage to Antonio Berni since the
location of this bar is in his home town. The second instance of this phenomenon,
71
or more a glimpse into the future of this phenomenon, comes in the form of a t-
shirt (fig. 19 and 20) that I found while searching through many images of
Juanito. However, the image on the shirt is not of Juanito, it is of the Ramona
Montiel series which was done around the same time as the Juanito series. Seeing
this image, though, I cannot help but think that a t-shirt with Juanito will be next.
Fig. 16 Interior view of the Juanito Laguna bar in Rosario. Photo taken from www.glamout.com/
Juanito-Laguna-para-los-amigos.html
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Fig. 17 Exterior view of the Juanito Laguna bar. Photo taken from www.glamout.com/Juanito-
Laguna-para-los-amigos.html
Fig. 18 Juanito Laguna bar logo against interior. Photo taken from http://
juanitolagunabar.blogspot.com
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Fig. 19 El coronel amigo de Ramona, 1964.
Fig. 20 T-shirt inspired by El coronel amigo de Ramona, 1964. Photo taken from
www.carolinamas.com.ar
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Technological advances have been able to spread the works of Antonio
Berni to those who may not have otherwise been exposed to them. Technology
has given humanity horrible things such as weapons, biological warfare, and has
contributed to climate change and of course to the poverty of the Third World
nations (and even those that are not Third World nations). But, technology has
also allowed people to open new doors. It has allowed them to disseminate
information to people in other parts of the world that they would never be able to
meet and connect with in person. In this way, perhaps the methods of modern
consumption, including the computer that I am using to type these very words
and search for these very videos, can help in a positive way.
Juanito Laguna is what made Antonio Berni a household name and is the
reason people still celebrate his work. He was revered for his social realist work in
the 1930s, especially Manifestación and Desocupados but never to the extent that
Juanito has given him. It is remarkable that this character began to filter into pop
culture less than ten years after his creation and continues to be present, most
probably for years to come. There are no other instances of a character being
created and inserted into pop culture. However, there is one person, perhaps the
most famous Argentine of the 20th century, who has captured the world of
known as the revolutionary “Che” Guevara. One photograph of this man by Korda
taken in Cuba has been seen on everything from CD cases and t-shirts to bikinis
and postcards. The beginning of all of this was more dignified, much like Antonio
Benri’s character was perhaps a little more dignified when alone on his canvas,
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but Che’s life story seems to now be besides the point, much like Juanito’s
fictional life seems to be besides the point when one sits at a bar and orders a
drink because he or she has the money to afford it. This could very well be the
reason that Capitalism “won”. It is the only system that understands that we all
want to change the world, but we are just too lazy to do anything. So, instead,
people wear the “Che” shirts and carry their “Che” CD cases or wear, what I am
sure will be, a Juanito Laguna shirt or have fun at the Juanito Laguna bar or
listen to songs inspired by Juanito. Perhaps this is also the reason that people
Juanito Laguna is now part of Argentine culture and any culture can
change and is transmissible, there are numerous ways that culture can be
monuments, etc or by shirts, YouTube videos, and music. Perhaps at this point in
surge in consciousness about the realities of the conditions of the villas that was
not present before. Or, perhaps there are just more outlets for people to express
themselves. Whatever the case, Juanito is one such figure that will continue to
resonate with the people of Argentina, and the world, so long as there is poverty
in it.
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Conclusion
many of the repressive governments which censored his work and that of other
artists, and he formulated his own ideologies which he held dear up to the day he
died. The creation of Juanito Laguna allowed the artist to explore new methods
and techniques in art making, such as incorporating trash in his collages and
using less paint, while commenting on the villas miserias which were abundant
throughout Buenos Aires and other major Latin American cities. Antonio Berni
has become one of the most celebrated Argentinean artists of the twentieth
While Juanito was created in the very humble medium of oil paint, he
grew into large-scale collages made literally of trash. Antonio Berni faced the
crisis of the burgeoning villas head on and not only observed from afar, but from
debated. With the rise in videos, a bar, plays, and quite possibly t-shirts in the
transformed by admirers for years to come, into a new figure. This new figure is
not just Juanito, the boy from the villa, but Juanito, the cultural icon. It seems as
though there may have been created a separation between the artist and his work,
at least on the surface. Although people pay homage to Berni, these homages are
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almost always centered on the character of Juanito Laguna and the reason why is
yet to be explained.
defeat as I argued earlier. These images were a call to the consciouses of everyone
and anyone willing to really look and think with their eyes. The continuing power,
even commodification, of Berni’s art may be tied to the crisis of the villas. They
are an example of the stark realities of Argentina, but also of Latin America.
These images have been embedded into the souls of Argentineans and have
instilled in them a sense of national pride. This could be because the social
struggle is the richest, most intense subject an artist can choose and this is what
Antonio Berni chose as the subject of the vast majority of his work. Berni was
truly an artist of the people who created for the people. And this is, in my
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79
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*---. “Tactics for Thriving on Adversity: Conceptualism in Latin America,
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*Rivera, Diego. “The Revolutionary Spirit in Modern Art (1936).” Social Realism:
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