Viviana Zargón
b. 1958 in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Viviana Zargón
b. 1958 in Buenos Aires, Argentina
ARTISTS
VERÓNICA DE TORO
1974 , Buenos Aires, Argentina
Di Toro creates large series, exploring the plastic possibilities of form and color, through a powerful abstraction that is unquestionably limited to two-dimensionality. Rigorously guided by geometry, her painting is at once vibrant, systemic and purist. The lines that intersect, break or dispose in parallel generating planes and creating modules that divide the surface. With these few elements, Di Toro elaborates a precise logic that she will be able to recombine in new paintings, with only introducing minimal alterations. In this way she gives rise to a system in which each element is intimately linked with the others: each color, each shape, each distribution in the plane, pre-announce to others. Analytical and highly encoded, Di Toro's abstract geometry is presented as the corollary of systemic thinking, but never predictable.
Maria Eugenia Spinelli
DOORS
Each Di Toro painting is a kind of “abstract sign” that operates in the viewer on an unconscious level, away from speech and writing patterns. These pictorial units are related to others through modules, forming ensembles, and it is in this dialogue where a chromatic territory develops that is perceived physically and emotionally, due to the large formats in which she chooses to paint. Also, when looking at close range, her works reward with subtle precision of detail. In contrast to the dynamism of her production, her paintings encourage slowing down to create an experience of pleasure.
Gabriela Boer, 2015
SYMMETRIES
Verónica Di Toro's painting could develop at the exact intersection between an abstract poetics of a rationalist stamp, an interest in the distorting effects of op art, and the type of serial formal solution typical of American minimalism. In her different works, Di Toro combines tools belonging to these universes, with the desire to return to her formal teachings and extract from them new practical consequences.
(...)
In the Symmetries series the landscape lines, of different thickness, generate perspective games by forming a corner towards the center of the plane. A new element appears in this series, showing Di Toro's specific use of the formal instruments of the abstract tradition. The effect of the image on the gaze incorporates the position of the observer in front of the paintings, pointing out the center of the viewer's visual field in the break of the lines. In her most recent works, two axes of symmetry converge in a central cross and the vertices form a line of points in perception, which runs from the center to the edges. The crossing of lines becomes a dynamic center (which does not necessarily coincide with the topological center of the image) towards which all movement flows. In this way, two axes converge, one literal marked by the intersecting color fields, and the other perceptual, determined by the projection of the vertices, in what appears to be an endless movement of rectangular color waves. But the construction of these pieces also incorporates the rotation of the image with respect to the vertical sense of the observer as a key factor of optical distortion: the entire orthogonal skeleton of the image rotates, in the manner of the structure of some Suprematist compositions, as moved by a centrifugal force independent of gravity. In this way, the geometric game that in the first works took place between the figures in the plane, in the later works it is projected towards the viewer, embodied in a more complex system that involves both the perceptual elaboration of the image and the point of view the observer in front of her.
Claudio Iglesias, 2010
RHYTHMICS
Verónica Di Toro's painting could develop at the exact intersection between an abstract poetics of a rationalist stamp, an interest in the distorting effects of op art, and the type of serial formal solution typical of American minimalism. In her different works, Di Toro combines tools belonging to these universes, with the desire to return to her formal teachings and extract from them new practical consequences.
(...)
In the Symmetries series the landscape lines, of different thickness, generate perspective games by forming a corner towards the center of the plane. A new element appears in this series, showing Di Toro's specific use of the formal instruments of the abstract tradition. The effect of the image on the gaze incorporates the position of the observer in front of the paintings, pointing out the center of the viewer's visual field in the break of the lines. In her most recent works, two axes of symmetry converge in a central cross and the vertices form a line of points in perception, which runs from the center to the edges. The crossing of lines becomes a dynamic center (which does not necessarily coincide with the topological center of the image) towards which all movement flows. In this way, two axes converge, one literal marked by the intersecting color fields, and the other perceptual, determined by the projection of the vertices, in what appears to be an endless movement of rectangular color waves. But the construction of these pieces also incorporates the rotation of the image with respect to the vertical sense of the observer as a key factor of optical distortion: the entire orthogonal skeleton of the image rotates, in the manner of the structure of some Suprematist compositions, as moved by a centrifugal force independent of gravity. In this way, the geometric game that in the first works took place between the figures in the plane, in the later works it is projected towards the viewer, embodied in a more complex system that involves both the perceptual elaboration of the image and the point of view the observer in front of her.
Claudio Iglesias, 2010
VERÓNICA DI TORO
EXHIBITIONS
18.10.18 - 22.11.18
STONE AND CONSCIENCE
I. In the preface to the Japanese edition of The Art of Color, the painter Johannes Itten wrote: “To become a master of color, it is essential to study and assimilate each one, being aware at the same time of the infinite combinations that exist among all".
For almost forty years, first in Vienna, then at the Bauhaus in Weimar, and other schools in Germany and Switzerland, Itten devoted himself to developing his theory of color. He painted, investigated and shared his artistic (and also spiritual) lucubrations with his students, among whom were, for example, Klee and Kandisnky.
Itten has always been committed to experimentation, teaching and artistic production, the last two most probably understood as the same practice. Two objectives guided his work: to know the laws of form and to release the expressive potentialities of his students. Everything from the color.
II. While she was preparing the contents of a subject that she would dictate in a school of artistic education, Verónica Di Toro reviewed the ideas of the mystic Otto Runge, Wilhelm Oswald or the theory on the interaction of color by Josef Albers. This is how she began to make some squares on paper with Itten's contrasts.
There are moments that lead us to valuable discoveries and re-discoveries. In addition to deciding the different methods that would help students to use and think in terms of color, it was at this moment that, tired of the interplay of fittings and lines from her previous series (Doors, 2015), Di Toro decided to abandon the investigation of the shape determined by the black line and concentrate on the color.
Itten determined that the contrasts were seven: contrast of the color itself, light-dark, warm-cold, complementary, simultaneous contrast, quantitative and qualitative. Describing each group would be extremely boring, I only present them because I find it fascinating that someone has taken the trouble to group them, and above all because when I see the new series of works by Di Toro I confirm that the logic of the system works ... although! watch out!... when painting the artist chooses to be guided by intuition (intuition trained after years of exercises on the subject) and forgets the rigor of all, absolutely all theories of color.
The artist's work does not obey any imperative related to the specific avant-garde programs with which her work tends to be related. Verónica Di Toro collects aspects of this tradition, also of op art, minimalism and she plays. She satisfies an internal demand where color functions as a vehicle for exploration, color is a whim. It is the stone that anchors, it is the element that combined in all ways, brings it closer, brings us closer to the shore of infinity.
Lara Marmor
VERÓNICA DI TORO
BIO
Verónica Di Toro (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1974)
Verónica Di Toro revolves her artistic production around hard edge geometric abstraction. She mainly focuses on exploring color because she believes it acts as a vehicle with the power of catching and transporting the viewer's eye, and connecting spectators with the emotions that stem from different chromatic experiences.
Her production can be divided into two well distinguished groups: small paintings and larger ones. According to Di Toro, the magnificence of large canvases has the ability to create other feelings, thus involving a different type of bodily commitment on her part while painting and also on the viewer's side when observing. Working in series allows her to delve into similar structures. She often works with combinable designs and manages to give a new meaning to her paintings by creating a unique modular structure.
Verónica studied at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Manuel Belgrano and became an Art Professor after obtaining a degree from the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredón. She also attended Sergio Bazán's workshop for four years
She featured her work in several solos show in renowned institutions such as: Piedra y Consciencia (Galería Gachi Prieto, 2018), y Modular (Centro Cultural Borges, 2018), Presente Continuo (Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Salta, 2015), Rítmica del Tiempo (Galería Schlifka Molina, 2014), Fuerza y Forma (Centro Cultural San Martín, 2013), Lo que Persiste (Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes Galisteo de Santa Fe, 2011) y Bonito Tándem (Galería Sendrós, 2012).
In the same way, she participated in numerous group exhibitions. These are the most relevant: Amigxs, el futuro es nuestro. PintorAs, 10 años (Usina del Arte, 2019); Vértigo, geometría e inestabilidad (MACBA, 2019); Latinoamérica: volver al futuro (MACBA, 2018); Museo Tomado (Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes Rosa Galisteo, Santa Fe, Argentina 2018); Adquisiciones 2015/2016 (Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Salta, Argentina, 2017); Diagonal Sur. Arte argentino hoy (Centro Cultural Borges, 2016); Global Exchange, astrazione geométrica dal 1950 (MACRO, Rome, Italy, 2014); PintorAs (Galería Magda Bellotti, Madrid, Spain, 2013); Geometría: desvíos y desmesuras en (Fundación OSDE, 2013); Geométricos Hoy (Museo Caraffa, Córdoba, Argentina, 2012); PintorAs (Masion Argentine Citè Universitaire, París, Francia, 2012); Últimas Tendencias II (Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, 2012) y RAM (Fundación Proa, 2010).
Regarding awards and contests, she received the first Acquisition Prize in the XLVII National Salon of Visual Arts (MUMBAT, Tandil, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2019), a Special Mention Prize in the 105º National Salon of Visual Arts (Palais de Glace, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2016), the Honorable Mention of the Jury in the National Salon of Painting (Fundación Banco Nación, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2012) and Honorable Mention of the Jury in the National Salon of Rosario ((Museo Castagnino, Santa Fe, Argentina, 2008)
Moreover, her work is part of renowned institutions such as: Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Buenos Aires, Banco Central de la República Argentina, Museo de Bellas Artes - Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Bahía Blanca, Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes Urbano Poggi de Rafaela, Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes Rosa Galisteo de Santa Fe, Honorable Legislatura de Tucumán and Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Salta