Antonio Berni: Juanito and Ramona

by Marcelo Pacheco, Guillermo David (Contribution by), Andrea Giunta (Contribution by), Héctor Olea (Contribution by), Michael Wellen (Contribution by)

Overview

Argentinian figurative artist Antonio Berni (1905–1981) is known for his aesthetic originality and for art steeped in social commentary. In the 1950s, he inaugurated a series of works that documented the lives of two fictional characters, Juanito Laguna and Ramona Montiel. Through the stories of Juanito, a denizen of Argentina’s shantytowns, and Ramona, who rises from the working class to the upper echelons of society, Berni addressed topics from industrialization to neocolonialism to economic backwardness and their effects on the population of underdeveloped countries.

Written by leading scholars of Latin American art, this handsome volume presents the first comprehensive survey of the internationally acclaimed Juanito and Ramona series. Richly illustrated with more than 250 color images, the volume brings together nearly two decades of Berni’s monumental, mixed-media reliefs and assemblages, experimental works on paper, and sculptural constructions made of found, everyday objects.

Distributed for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Exhibition Schedule:

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
(11/10/13–01/26/14)

Phoenix Art Museum
(06/28/14–09/21/14)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300196481
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	12/17/2013
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	9.90(w) x 12.70(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Mari Carmen Ramírez is the Wortham Curator of Latin American Art and the director of the International Center for the Arts of the Americas at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Editorial Reviews

01/27/2014
Organized to accompany an exhibition, this book presents a comprehensive survey of the Juanito and Ramona series by Argentinean Antonio Berni in an attempt to bring this under-recognized artist to greater attention. The 270 sumptuous color reproductions provide a convincing testament to Berni's great talent in a variety of mediums ranging from painting and collage to assemblage, as well as the provoking social narratives he imagined for his characters: Juanito—a boy living in a Shantytown—and Ramona, a prostitute. The essays in this volume discuss Berni's relationship to realism and trends in European and American art, however, an overreliance on art jargon and repetitive discussions on realism and marginalized groups often results in unwieldy and overwrought texts. However, Michael Wellen's "Reaching New Jersey: Antonio Berni in the United States" presents a concise and lucid summary of Berni's relationship to America that comes as a relief after the other meandering attempts to interweave biography and theory. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly