Juanito asleep

In the late 50's, Antonio Berni, who was already recognized in the art world for having created the New Realism in the 30's, and always concerned about the social reality of his country, conceived a character: Juanito Laguna, a boy who lived in a shantytown, who would be the protagonist of a long series that culminated in 1978, with works such as this Juanito dormido (Juanito asleep).
To personify Juanito Laguna and his environment, drawing and painting were not enough. Berni returned to collage and wood engraving, but in a different way, using "recycled" materials, in a new form of ideological expression: scrap metal, leftovers, objects collected from the garbage. In the case of Malba's "Juanito dormido", Berni used cans and clothing, a tin toy airplane, and a comic book as symbolic elements, chosen expressly to denounce the tension of daily reality and the urban history of his time.