The Tables of Moses.

Lithograph signed and numbered by the author "6/110". Measures. Engraving: 20.4 x 30 cm / 8.03 x 11.81 in. Paper: 44.9 x 60.1 cm 17,67 x 23.66 in. Exemplar in very good condition. It is displayed framed. 

On a rocky valley stands a monolith, with the clear outline of the Tablets of the Commandments dictated by God to Moses, and crowned by beams of rocky light. In front, some footprints of that invisible presence -as the commandments on the tables are still invisible- in front of which Moses, dressed in leathers, bows.

The great artist of the New Figuration, the most existentialist of the group, tackled religious themes, as we see for example in the painting "Adán y Eva nº 2" that is part of the collection of the National Museum of Fine Arts, which in turn belongs to the homonymous series that he presented in the same museum together with the group in 1963. In the analysis of this work carried out by María José Herrera for the museum, we read: “Art history topics such as crucifixions, martyrdoms or anatomy lessons, were used as strategies rhetoric to talk about reality, sometimes evading censorship, or simply to give a humanistic, universal character to his complaint”. (1)

Ernesto Deira (1928, Buenos Aires - 1986, Paris), a lawyer graduated in 1950 from the University of Buenos Aires, began his painting studies in 1954 with Leopoldo Torres Agüero and continued in 1956 with Leopoldo Presas. In 1958 he held his first solo show at the Rubbers gallery in Buenos Aires. In 1961 he organized together with Jorge de la Vega, Rómulo Macció and Felipe Noé the show "Otra Figuración" at the Peuser gallery in Buenos Aires. In the years 1962 and 1963 the group thus formed, baptized "Otra Figuración" or "Nueva Figuración" carried out various exhibitions (National Museum of Fine Arts of Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro). In 1964 he participated, invited by L. Alloway, in the IV Guggenheim International Award. He was part of numerous group shows in America and Europe. He was visiting professor at Cornell University, USA. He obtained the Palanza Prize in 1967.

Note:

1. National Museum of Fine Arts: SEE