In 1966, she developed her series of "Objetos sensoriais" ("Sensorial objects"), using ready-made items like tubes, burlap sacks, plastic bags, pebbles, and spices. Between 1971 and 1974 she created Homenaje a Guatemala [Tribute to Guatemala], a group of fifty wood sculptures painted and carved by local artisans, after the artists drawings. TEOR/tica in the catalogue Tres Mujeres, Tres Memorias, 2009, pgs. While Algerian, Lebanese, Argentinian and Chinese women artists were often left on the margins of Villa Vassilieff - 21, avenue du Maine 75015 Paris (France) Her first solo exhibition, in 1963, set the tone for her career as a constant, irreverent experimenter. Between 1971 and 1974, Azurdia created a series of fifty wood figurative sculptures, titled "Tribute to Guatemala" (Homenaje a Guatemala), that combine the sacramental with the profane. M. Azurdias series Asta 104 received an honorary mention at the 10th Bienal de So Paulo in 1969 and signaled the artists lifelong search for the identity of human beings in the cosmos. Margarita Azurdia (born April 17, 1931 in Antigua, Guatemala, died July 1, 1998 in Guatemala City, Guatemala ), who also worked under the pseudonyms Margot Fanjul, Margarita Rita Rica Dinamita, and Anastasia Margarita, was a feminist Guatemalan sculptor, painter, poet, and performance artist. Whether she was Margot Fanjul, Una Soledad, Margarita Rita Rica Dinamita, or Margarita Anastasia, her chameleonic nature caused her to be swallowed up in the Latin American art world, but it also allowed her to re-emerge later as one of the most interesting artists in Guatemalas small art scene. Taking a retrospective approach, the exhibition offers an insight into Guatemalas modern and contemporary art landscape and invites us to explore Margarita Azurdias creative metamorphosis, as reflected in the many names under which she produced her works. In the late 1950s, while temporarily living in Palo Alto, California, Margarita Azurdia began to explore the visual arts thanks to the free workshops at the San Francisco Art Institute. At the Third Coltejer Art Biennial (1972), her series of mobile marble sculptures stood out for being subject to spectators impulses. For instance, at the Second Coltejer Art Biennial in 1970, held in Medelln, the artist left behind her predominantly pictorial work and adhered more to the spirit of the times with the installation Por favor quitarse los zapatos (Please Take Off Your Shoes), created specifically for the event, whereby she invited viewers to delve into a place of sensorial experimentation through performative and interactive elements. After closing the exhibition, and as a symbolic gesture of friendship and gratitude, NuMu will donate replicas to Milagro de Amor, S.A. At the closing of the exhibition, the museum will donate both works to Milagro de Amor, S.A., which pertains to Azurdia's familia and estate. While in Paris, she also began a series of drawings entitled Recuerdos de Antigua (Memories of Antigua, 1976-1992), an introspective journey through the folds of memory and a therapeutic process that allowed her to let go of traumatic experiences from the past. From the mid-1960s to the beginning of the decade that followed, Azurdia made incursions into geometric forms inspired by Indigenous textile designs from Guatemala, applying them chiefly to painting her series Geomtricas (Geometric Paintings) went on show at Galera DS in Guatemala City in 1967. Jocelyn Taylor Find out more. Mena Valenzuela, Rosa, Prieto, Emilia, Tres mujeres, tres memorias : Margarita Azurdia, Emilia Prieto, Rosa Mena Valenzuela, San Jos, TEOR/Tica, 2009, Pellecer Mayora, Mara del Carmen, Una: La historia de Margarita Azurdia, Guatemala City, Tipografa Nacional, 2011, Margarita Azurdia (19311998), Centro Cultural Metropolitano, Guatemala City, 2008, Geometras y Sensaciones: A homage to Margarita Azurdia, New Museum of Contemporary Art, Guatemala City, 2016, Born in Guatemala, Margarita Azurdia was educated in private boarding schools and attended a Catholic high school, Loretto Academy, in Niagara Falls, in Canada. The most recent article is Margarita Azurdia at Museo Nacional Centro De Arte Reina Sofa written for Art Viewer in February 2023. On her return to Guatemala in 1982, Azurdia met artists Benjamn Herrarte and Fernando Iturbide. From 1971 to 1974, Azurdia made an emblematic series of sculptures known as Homenaje a Guatemala (Homage to Guatemala), made up of fifty wood carvings commissioned to artisans specialised in religious figures, resulting in a set of assemblages with artisan objects, zoomorphic figures and women wearing boots, rifles and tropical fruit evoking the altars of the altiplano towns in Guatemala and referencing the cultural and religious syncretism imbuing the complex history of Guatemala. Canadian, Marc-Antoine K. Phaneuf Radical Women: Latin American Art, 19601985 Margarita Rita Rica Dinamita is the first monographic exhibition in Europe of Margarita Azurdia (Antigua Guatemala, 1931 Guatemala City, 1998), one of the key Central American artists of the 20th century. Throughout her trajectory, Azurdia produced an extensive body of work that ranged between painting, sculpture, performance, ritual, dance, artist books, collage and poetry. Primarily self-taught, she first became known as an artist under the name Margot Fanjul. [3] The sculptures depict women carrying firearms, babies riding on crocodiles, and tigers transporting bananas, images reminiscent of the magic realism from Latin American literature. During the 1960s Azurdia produced critically acclaimed large-scale abstract paintings, some composed of rhythmic arrangements of parallel lines, others consisting of large, flat fields with geometric and linear patterns in unusual color combinations reflecting indigenous textile designs. 38-39, were utilized as reference. Two years later, she received an honorary mention in the Tenth So Paulo Biennial for her series Asta 104(1969) large-scale sculptural paintings in her interrogation of the discipline. When the group disbanded around 1985, M. Azurdia continued her explorations of sacred dance, everyday ritual, feminine spirituality, and unity with the earth. The Library has records for 2 group exhibitions including this artist. In 1962 Azurdia exhibited her first painting, a self-portrait. Margarita Rita Rica Dinamita is the first monographic exhibition in Europe of Margarita Azurdia (Antigua Guatemala, 1931 - Guatemala City, 1998), one of the key Central American artists of the 20th century. The replicas have been reproduced with oil on canvas, and have similar dimensions to a small group of geometric abstractions of smaller scale that Azurdia created in the late sixties. Canadian, 1937, Michelle Hoogveld Azurdia's first performance, Favor quitarse los zapatos (Please take off your shoes, 1970), presented at the 2nd Bienal de Arte Coltejer, tested the possibilities of "integrating the body of the public into the work, exploring sensorial capacities other than vision and expanding psychological awareness."#. [2], In 2016, the Nuevo Museo de Arte Contemporneo (NuMu), the only contemporary art museum in Guatemala,[4] created an exhibit of scaled-down reproductions of two of Azurdia's "Geometric Abstractions" paintings. With her presentation of manipulable marble abstract sculptures at the 3rd Bienal de Arte Coltejer in Medelln, in Colombia, in 1972, she sought to solicit public participation in her work. Through a retrospective gaze, this publication offers an insight into the artists unorthodox poetic and visual universe, demonstrating how she managed to organically fuse languages of modernity with elements tied to indigenous cultures from her native country. Biography Her colorful and vibrant compositions are the result of an abstraction process based on guatemalan mayan huipiles, from weaving to painting. Margarita Rita Rica Dinamita, this encounter explores the Central American artist Margarita Azurdia's (Guatemala, 1931-1988) lesser-known work as a poet and the different poetry collections she published throughout her career. Is It Morning For You Yet? For instance, at the Second Coltejer Art Biennial in 1970, held in Medelln, the artist left behind her predominantly pictorial work and adhered more to the spirit of the times with the installation Por favor quitarse los zapatos (Please Take Off Your Shoes), created specifically for the event, whereby she invited viewers to delve into a place of sensorial experimentation through performative and interactive elements. The exhibition Margarita Azurdia. In 1974, she moved to Paris, the epicentre of a veritable revolution of ideas, where she became involved in women artists circles and was encouraged to trace a watershed in her own conceptions as a woman and artist. Canadian, Jacqueline Smith 2018. (+34) 91 774 1000 Margarita Azurdia is a modern artist, who died in 1998. artworks sold in major auction houses no news presence total artworks 0 currently for sale 0 Latest News 4 months ago artnexus.com Margarita Azurdia. Azurdia's work reflects her feminist and anti-establishment views. Azurdia's work reflects her feminist and anti-establishment views. Margarita Azurdia Contact details Website +34.91.468.30.02 Santa Isabel 52 Madrid, Spain 28012 VIEW ON MAP Picasso 1906, The Turning Point, Maquinations, Ben Shahn and Something Else Pres, among Museo Reina Sofa's exhibitions in 2023 Margarita Azurdia at Museo Nacional Centro De Arte Reina Sofa February 9, 2023 Margarita Azurdia. Courtesy of the artist and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofa, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofa, The Rings of Saturn at Galerie Derouillon. Margarita Rita Rica Dinamita, Margarita Azurdia at Museo Nacional Centro De Arte Reina Sofa. Like other Latin American artists working at the time, and in keeping with formal and conceptual developments in the international art world, Azurdia became interested in actively incorporating the public in her works. The artist Margarita Azurdia is ranked among the Top 100,000 on ArtFacts. Upon her return to Guatemala in 1982, she met artists Benjamn Herrarte and Fernando Iturbide, with whom she formed the experimental dance group Laboratorio de Creatividad, channelling her concerns by exploring movement, the origins of ritual and sacred dance. Browse map, Some rights reserved. A publication on art, politics and the public sphere, Collaboration with different agents and international political and cultural collectives, A confederation of artistic internationalism made up of seven European museums, Tel. Browse map, Some rights reserved. Azurdias first performance, Favor quitarse los zapatos [Please take off your shoes, 1970], presented at the 2nd Bienal de Arte Coltejer, tested the possibilities of integrating the body of the public into the work, exploring sensorial capacities other than vision and expanding psychological awareness.. Numerous key galleries and museums such as Carnegie Museum of Art have featured Margarita Azurdia's work in the past. Canadian, Blake Senini 6 months. Pellecer Mayora, Mara del Carmen. These intricate assemblages recall the altars of the peoples of the Guatemalan highlands, with an emphasis on the cultural and religious syncretism resulting from the countrys complex history. Retrospectively, the exhibition opens an in-depth view of the modern and contemporary art landscape in Guatemala and prompts an exploration of the artists creative metamorphosis between 1960 and the mid-1990s, reflected, moreover, in the numerous name changes with which she signed her works. 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