Laura Malosetti Costa. Buenos Aires. Fund of Economic Culture. 2022.
Quarto (23.1 x 16.4 cm), 563 pages, 1 sheet. Paperback publisher's binding.
Expanded and improved, this work -already a classic in the history of Argentine art- will follow the path of success traced by its original version, reprinted several times in its twenty-year history.
In the Prologue to the new edition, its author addresses the changes that have occurred since its launch in the studies and critical approaches on the final years of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, in her opinion, at that time the "darkest" area of history. of Argentine art. Almost two very fruitful decades in the rescue and study of the archives of artists and artistic institutions; and among other features of maturity, he acknowledges, numerous critical essays were published on different aspects of the arts and cultural life in that period -around 1870 and 1910- with approaches on the formation of collecting, painting of historical themes, women artists, graphic arts and visual culture, representations and self-representations of the Afro-Porteño community, sculpture, and art criticism, among many other aspects.
In addition, in these twenty years important exhibitions have been held that visualized works and relevant issues, indicates Malosetti Costa to stop at the three exhibitions that pay homage to Ernesto de la Cárcova, a project that was born with the original version of the book. In 2016, one hundred and fifty years have passed since the birth of the artist whose work Without bread and without work early became an icon of social protest. Those three tribute shows put into practice the dialogue between the history of art and the present. Modern and contemporary in appropriations and reappropriations.
In the development of knowledge
For the author, the study of visual artists and their links with other arts, such as literature, music, theater and, in particular, opera, acquires a vitalizing role, which at that time attracted crowds in large cities and American capitals. Always in that reflective search, her gaze is not only situated in the aura of consecrated art, she ventures into its spaces of influence, in the circuits of legitimation, and is enthusiastic about interdisciplinary dialogue.
All these contributions enrich and justify the new edition of this classic, the work of one of the greatest personalities in the history of Argentine art, Dr. Laura Malosetti Costa, respected by her colleagues, admired by her disciples and distinguished by her teachers.
Los Primeros Modernos is an essential book for those of us who enjoy Argentine art from all eras.
In dialogue with the author
Hilario: Do you notice a change in the training and motivations of contemporary artists that inspire the appropriations of modernism? To be more precise in the query, do studies published on the history of art intervene in this intellectual process?
Laura Malosetti Costa: Without a doubt! And I think the movement is in both directions: there is a mutual enrichment between the writing of art history and contemporary artistic practices, a back and forth of questions and looks from the present to the past and the future.
H: Obviously, your book will deserve a future update, with new questions and new reflections; the current practice of art and the new presence of critics and curators engaging in what is rewarded and what is discouraged, awakens opinions about the future of the arts and about its past. In this way, a new dynamic is born that adds to crypto art and all the challenges to come. That future will generate counterpoints with the past and other horizons will emerge. You yourself interact with these functions, named curator of Uruguay's submission to the Venice Biennale together with Pablo Uribe. Can you imagine a next update to Early Moderns in the 2030s?
LMC: Oh! What a difficult question! I can only express my wish that it were so…
