Zona activa (Active Zone)

Best known by the inversion of his first and last name, Pérez Celis (1939-2008) was a prestigious Argentine artist who fused European avant-garde aesthetics with American visual imaginary. Pérez Celis is recognized for the versatility of his work, having produced paintings, book illustrations, medium and large sculptures, murals, prints, and tapestries. His installations and interventions in public spaces are especially famous, including a huge mural in La Bombonera, the stadium of the Boca Juniors soccer team in Buenos Aires; a 23-meter sculpture and sundial in the province of San Luis, Argentina; and part of the facade of the University of Belgrano, built in cement, bronze, and polychrome iron.
Regarding the development of his painting, the artist himself pointed out that one of the fundamental milestones of his artistic career was marked by his visit to the exhibition of abstract painter Victor Vasarely, held in 1957 at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires. “Zona activa” ('Active Zone') is part of the artist’s pictorial repertoire in which, far from the academicism that characterized his earlier works, he begins to experiment with lights, shadows, and lines that evoke both the horizon of the Argentine pampas and the vertical forms of buildings in New York, Paris, and Caracas, where he lived for several years.