THE FREEDOM OF ART

Drawings. Circa 1948?


Graphite pencil on paper. Measures. A: 23 x 14.6 cm. B: 22.5 x 16.2cm. Works somewhat toasted in the fold and its edges. Signed on one of its sides: "Badii". It is delivered framed.


Five works retain these papers, four half-page, and one using the entire page. The first four are “Tribute to the legs of the blonde”, along with a nude female figure, made with a thick graphite line; next to it, an abstract composition with organic lines and movements, and on the next sheet, another abstract composition that combines straight lines and geometric figures with organic shapes and, at the same time, the inscription “Muera Descartes / Viva Rimbaud”, and the author's signature. On the back of the paper the only creation of a full page, vertical. In it the pronoun "Je" (me in French), a bird, and below "Viva Dadá".


Note that all expressions refer to French art and culture. They were probably made on his trip to Paris in 1948. We read in “Libero Badii” by Alfredo R. Burnet-Merlín (1) that in Paris “he visited many museums and began to draw. He made many drawings that today he keeps carefully bound and is pleased to go through them continuously”, and he continues: “(...) the pages grew with annotations, with notes, with deductions”. These drawings have the character of plastic compositions as well as that of an aesthetic manifesto. In “Muera Descartes / Viva Rimbaud” he expresses his distance from rationalism and his allegiance to the transgressive and surrealist spirit, like the dadaist in “Viva Dadá” and freedom in “Je” (me) plus a bird.


Libero Badii (Arezzo, Italy, 1916 - Buenos Aires, 2001) was an Italian sculptor, draughtsman, engraver and painter, naturalized Argentine. The son of a marble worker, his first approach to the noble stone was working in his father's workshop. He studied at the Ernesto de la Cárcova Superior School of Fine Arts. Upon completion, his high grades earned him a travel scholarship to South America. In 1962 he presented a retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, in 1968 he exhibited at the Di Tella Institute and in 1977 at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. In 1959 he won the Palanza Prize, in 1971 the San Pablo Biennial National Prize, in 1982 the Grand Prize of the National Endowment for the Arts, and in 1987 the National Consecration Prize. He was made a full member of the National Academy of Fine Arts. His work is represented in the most important national museums and in the Moma in New York.


Note:

1. Alfredo R: Burnet-Merlin: Libero Badii. Argentines in the arts, Argentine Cultural Editions, Ministry of Education and Justice, Undersecretary of Culture, 1965.


S.O.XVII-DGL

AUTHOR LIBERO BADII

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