A new exhibition, “Libro de Artista,” comprising a showcase of the Argentine National Museum’s Artist Book Collection, is now available for viewing at Syracuse University in what is the collection’s first showing in the United States.
More than 60 pieces from the institutional collection are featured in the show, housed at the Sue and Leo Genet Gallery of the University’s Nancy Cantor Warehouse Building at 350 W. Fayette St. The show runs through Friday, Nov. 22. Admission is free and open to the public.
The exhibition, “Libro de Artista,” features more than 60 artists books from the collection at the Argentine National Museum. (Photo by Matias Roth)
The exhibition is a production of the University’s Punto de Contacto-Point of Contact (POC) gallery in partnership with the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Argentina (MNBA) and the University’s museum studies master’s degree program in the College of Visual and Performing Arts.
Sergio Moscona’s “Personajes Diarios,” in ink, acrylic and collage, depicting the intervention of facsimile 1956 edition of “La Prensa,” a daily newspaper that was censored in 1951. (Photo by Matias Roth)
Latin American creators represented in the exhibition include artist books by Diana Dowek, Luis Felipe Noé, Lucrecia Orloff, Jacques Bedel, Daniel García, Miguel Harte, Carolina Antoniadis, Marcos López and Marcia Schvartz. The exhibition also includes the Agentinian museum’s latest accession to the collection, a piece co-authored by Argentine artists Pedro Roth and the late Syracuse University professor and POC founder Pedro Cuperman.
Juan Astica’s acrylic-on-paper piece, “Diversos Conjuros,” consists of 64 paintings. (Photo by Matias Roth)
“It is an honor to partner with MNBA in its first showing of the ‘Libro de Artista’ collection in the United States,” said Teresita Paniagua, executive director of the Office of Cultural Engagement for the Hispanic Community at Syracuse University.
“Point of Contact worked in close collaboration with the Roth family of creators and with the National Ministry of Culture of Argentina in exhibitions at the New York Art Book Fair held at MoMA PS1 from 2012 to 2018. ‘Libro de Artista’ culminates such a project with this timely exhibit as we commemorate National Hispanic Heritage Month 2024,”she says.
Andrés Duprat, MNBA director, explains the art form. He says, “The artist book or Libro de Artista is generally not considered a work of art in itself, but for us, it holds great interest because it is in artist books where explorations, intentions, sketches, and even doubts and regrets or new searches are revealed.”
This foldable book in ink on paper, and bound in leather, is by artist Leonel Luna. It’s called “Genealogías del Arte Argentino.” (Photo by Matias Roth)
In terms of artist techniques, formats and materials, artist books take many forms on paper, cardboard, celluloid, acrylic, metal and other materials, transforming into boxes, intervened prints, collages and pop-up books.
One of the pieces in the show, “La Dama del Río,” is a collaborative work with original texts by Pedro Cuperman and illustrations by Pedro Roth. Pedro Roth is a recipient of the 2023 National Award for Artistic Trajectory, an honor bestowed by the National Ministry of Culture recognizing the exceptional path and contributions of living Argentine creators inducted to the National Gallery of Visual Arts.
Juan Pablo Ferlat’s digital print is titled “Golem.” (Photo by Matias Roth)
“Point of Contact, soon to commemorate its 50th anniversary, has much to celebrate with the accession of this piece to the MNBA’s permanent collection,” says Matias Roth, curator of the “Libro de Artista” Buenos Aires exhibition and an exhibiting artist in the show. “As a member of the Point of Contact board of directors and longtime collaborator of both POC and the National Museum, I greatly appreciate that this work will be preserved in Argentina’s National Art Collection.”
At Point of Contact’s exhibition opening are, from left, Tere Paniagua, gallery director; Matias Roth, Point of Contact board member and show curator; Museum Studies Professor Andrew Saluti and museum studies graduate students Paola Manzano and Molly Dano.