Lysergic Argentina

In search of National Psychedelia

Buenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (Museo Moderno)

Buenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (Museo Moderno)

Finite-Infinite (1963) by Victor MagariñosBuenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (Museo Moderno)

The exhibition, which took place between 2013 and 2015 at the Museum, was a ride among the work of over twenty artists that are part of our heritage in the search on a certain National Psychedelia. The show, curated by Rafael Cippolini, moves between two dimensions: Chemical Lisergy and Psychedelic Graphics. It is a trip to the past, to the 60s in which Pop, colors and excess were the leading roles. The exhibition included graphic design, painting, collage, experimental cinema, sculpture, photography, engraving, objects and industrial design.

Mars and Saturn (1954) by Xul SolarBuenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (Museo Moderno)

This work opens the exhibition synthesizing the chromatic choices of the bulk of posters with cautious mysticism and discretionary use of geometry.

Incubation (1966) by Jorge de la VegaBuenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (Museo Moderno)

Today's Drama (1966) by Juan Del PreteBuenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (Museo Moderno)

The Beatles (1966) by Luis Gowland MorenoBuenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (Museo Moderno)

This work by Luís Gowland Moreno, The Beatles, proposes a multiplication of the face of one of the members of Uruguayan group Los Shakers, as another parallel incarnation of the Liverpool musicians.

Flirt (1968) by Jorge de la VegaBuenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (Museo Moderno)

Leapfrog (1974) by Edgardo GimenezBuenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (Museo Moderno)

Monkey (1974) by Edgardo GimenezBuenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (Museo Moderno)

Afrika (1968) by Edgardo GimenezBuenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (Museo Moderno)

The one who came back without a face (1967) by Osvaldo BordaBuenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (Museo Moderno)

Fresh Paint (1972) by Juan CavalleroBuenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (Museo Moderno)

Claudia Sanchez and Nono Pugliese (1969) by Martha PeluffoBuenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (Museo Moderno)

Claudia Sánchez and Nono Pugliese were the most outrageous Argentine couple in TV thanks to an advertisement of cigarettes which showed them traveling around the world.

Here they are reformulated in an hallucinated version halfway between sexy and nightmare, reconfigured from a spectacular graphic situation.

Untitled (1944) by Domingo CasimiroBuenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (Museo Moderno)

Generative Painting (1970) by Eduardo Mac EntyreBuenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (Museo Moderno)

Psychedelics has used geometry in its various variables...

...op, kinetic, generative art and its sensitive slopes.

Illetas (1967) by Manuel EspinosaBuenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (Museo Moderno)

Opticar Structure (1962) by Martha BotoBuenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (Museo Moderno)

Woman born during war (1964) by Roberto AizembergBuenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (Museo Moderno)

Useless piece of furniture by Aldo PaparellaBuenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (Museo Moderno)

Electrical Architecture (1965) by Gregorio VardánegaBuenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (Museo Moderno)

Untitled (2000) by Fabio KaceroBuenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (Museo Moderno)

Ideal Landscape (1968) by Pérez CelisBuenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (Museo Moderno)

Ecko (1968) by María MartorellBuenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (Museo Moderno)

LSD (1968) by Edgardo GimenezBuenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (Museo Moderno)

The LSD poster was asked by Eduardo Covadlo, an Argentine writer, because at that time he was experimenting with psychedelic or psychoactive drugs, in the search for expansion of consciousness.

I thought it was an interesting proposal, and that was how this poster was created. It was sold in Buenos Aires, thousand copies were made, and none remained.

Edgardo Giménez, correspondence with Rafael Cippolini, 2016

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