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| MASTER BENICIO NUÑEZ
Text and portrait by:
Dr. Gabriel Pirato Mazza
Master Benicio Núñez was born in Itacaabo in the Department of Mercedes, Province of Corrientes, on August 23rd, 1924.
From the age of 5 to the age of 15 he lived in Colón, Entre Ríos.
It was there where he began studying drawing at the age of 13.
He moved to Buenos Aires and studied Drawing and Painting at the Escuela Beruti in Avellaneda, Province of Buenos Aires.
Benicio’s potential was discovered by the distinguished Professor Amare, whose works are shown today in different national and provincial museums.
In 1945, at the age of 21, Benicio founded the “Invention Concrete Art Group” and exposed his work, which had already been defined in various galleries in Buenos Aires.
Juan Mele, Gregorio Vardánega, Virgilio Villalba, and other avant-garde colleagues joined the People’s Cultural Center of La Boca, and formed a group that stated their principle:
“NEITHER SEARCH, NOR FIND: INVENT.”
Artists such as Lozza, Prati, Hilito, and Núñez created figures with holes in different shapes, and soon the sculptors Girola and Iommi joined the group.
Benicio Núñez continued refining his work, mainly under the guidance of Master Tomás Maldonado, a professor at the Bauhaus.
In 1952, at the age of 28, the Brazilian Foreign Affairs Ministry invited him to participate in the Second International Sao Paulo Biennial, where he was awarded a very important third prize.
Sometime later, he would form part of the famous exhibition called “50 Years of Argentine Painting”, which was displayed in Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela.
These visits left memories that will be depicted in most of this Master’s work, which is not divided into periods but consists of assemblies of lives and motivating sceneries.
This important itinerant exhibition was organized by the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
At the age of 44, he was already included in the group of masters selected for the First Argentine Promotion of Fine Artists at the “International Art Gallery”.
He became well known in magazines by collaborating in “El Hogar”, “Mundo Argentino”, “Vosotras”, “Hipotenusa”, “Lyra”, and “Leoplán”.
Many of these publications were translated into different languages and successfully published in several countries.
In 1986, 1987, and 1988, he collaborated with his comics’ series in “Corto Maltese” of Milan, Italy, as well as in other comics whose copies are nowadays considered to be highly valuable.
In 1987 he also illustrated the Play Boy magazine of Rome, Italy.
He used those years in Europe for exhibiting his work, and his drawings were sold in different countries, mainly Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, and Greece.
He illustrated books such as “Fausto” and “Status Magazine” and appeared in a special place in “Twentieth Century Argentine Painting”. He also illustrated “The Tapestry” and “1972 American Art Encyclopedia”.
He made a great number of individual exhibitions since 1953: “The Labyrinth”; in 1964, “The Sun”, “Tapestries”; in 1968, “Art Gallery”. Paintings: “Attic Olive Gallery” and “Galatea”; in 1981, “Maison de L´Amerique Latine”, in Paris, France.
In 1987 he was invited by the National Visual Arts Office as a guest artist in the Malvinas Cultural Center and in the Deutche Bank Headquarters Cultural Center in 1988-1989.
After making an itinerant exhibition across the United States in 1990, collectors from Miami, Denver, Texas, New York, and Chicago started buying his works, which are at present in the hands of many people who value his art.
Each of his works is worth appreciating and watching in detail in order to understand the tremendous depth of the assemblies he depicted.
These particular shapes, which may sometimes seem simplistic at first sight and complex and tied later, intertwined by simple and human traits, play with people, animals, plants, and any other thing he meant to enclose in each work.
BENICIO NUÑEZ IS A POET.
He has a deep knowledge of the myths and depths of the soul, of the whining in Buenos Aires and the Argentine provinces. He is a true scholar, although he stands out because of his respect and discipline.
Everything in him embodies a paradigmatic simplicity that encloses it all.
You cannot stop listening to him, speaking with his simple, deep, clear speech so full of life, sap, and substance.
He loves and treasures the old to depict it in his work, which is always vivid and shows impacting, amazing colors.
Each of his works can be read in a unique way.
Each drawing and each coating color has the light of the soul, the spirit, and the energy of senses.
In 1997, at the age of 73, death surprised him in the middle of a prolific and creative stage, leaving beautiful and admirable memories in all the people who were honored to know him.
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