User:Jesús Beltrán C./Luis Fernando Benedit

Luis Fernando Benedit (1937 – 2011) was an Argentine conceptual artist.

Biography
Luis Fernando Benedit was born in Buenos Aires in 1937. In 1963 he graduated from the National University of Buenos Aires with a degree in Architecture. In 1967 he was awarded a grant by the Italian government to study landscaping in Rome. His artistic career began in the early 70´s with a series of experiences that aimed to connect art, science and nature. In 1970 he represented Argentina in the 35th. International Art Exhibition Venice Biennial, and in 1972 he was the first Latin American artist to exhibit at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). During this time he was also part of the Argentine CAYC Group, which focused on conceptual manifestations in the realm of experimental art. The ‘80s marked the return of Benedit to the pictorial practice. In his watercolors and paintings of “criollo” subject matters he began to reflect about the cultural identity, the regional problems and the restoration of Argentina’s historical memory. During his last years, Benedit incorporated cow and horse bones into his paintings and installations, he aimed to criticize the history of national art by talking about its origins and it´s production methods.

Obra Artística
Benedit’s body of work seems like a vast metaphor of the relationship between art and science. Architect and artist, Benedit started painting in the 1950s, working within the supposedly naïve world inhabited by animals, children and fantasy figures. In the 1970s, he became part of the Conceptualist movement that spanned the arts. His pictures grew in scale, and came to accommodate paintings by his son Tomás, or constructed, three-dimensional additions in wood or resin, decorated in oils and enamels. By the 1980s. Benedit concluded that his technique consisted of ‘three stages: the original, the one-dimensional drawing, and the object’. AMANDA HOPKINSON

Exhibitions
2014. Genealogías del campo argentino, Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat Art Collection, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

2012. Comportamientos, control y condicionamientos, 11 x 7 Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

2009. Equinus Equestris, MALBA Costantini Collection – Museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

2002. Circular Nro. 1, MAMAN Fine Art Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

1994: Rachel Adler Gallery, New York, NY, United Sates.

1996. Obras de 1960 – 1996, National Museum of Fine Arts, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

1980. Luis F. Benedit, Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art (LAICA), Los Angeles, CA, United States.

1972. Projects: Luis Fernando Benedit, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and New York, NY, United States.

Museums and Biennials
1972: Museum of Modern Art, New York.

1992: Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.

1995: Kwangju Biennale, 1st International Biennial exhibition in Seul, Korea.

1997: Sexta International Biennial exhibition in La Habana, Cuba.

2000: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, España.

Bienal Internacional de Venecia, Italia.

Award
1977: 1st Prize in the XIV Biennial Exhibition in Sao Pablo, Brasil.