RETROSPECTIVE

Julio Silva, watercolours and paintings

20.03.2004 – 20.04.2004

Julio Silva (Argentina, 1930).  As a child Silva met the writer Léopoldo Maréchal.  Maréchals interest in Silva’s talent and his encouragement prompted him to study Art. In 1950 the surrealist artist Juan Batlle Planas takes him on as a student. They share a mutual interest in literature especially Lautréamont, Baudelaire, Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortázar. Silva meets the latter when he arrives in Paris in 1955. The two Argentineans start a fruitful friendship that culminates in several projects. Among others the book Les discours du Pince-Gueule (1966), La vuelta al día en ochenta mundos (1967) and Ultimo round (1969).
In 1976 Cortázar dedicates the book Silvalandia to Silva. The book is illustrated by Silva and is published in Spanish and translated to French and German. The French newspaper Libérationwrites: “Tolkien et Cortázar dans les sabots du Père- Noël…” a sentence that hints at the magical imagery that dominates this book.
While staying in Carrara (Tuscany) Silva is intrigued by marble as a sculptural material and he makes ten monumental sculptures. Pyegemalion at the Forum Les Halles and Dame Lune on the central axis of  La Défense in Paris.
In 2001 the fountain Panta Rhei is revealed in Massa (Toscane).
Silva has had solo exhibitions in museums as Sainte-Croix in Poitiers, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and several European, Latin American and North American Galleries.

Artist website:
www.juliosilva.org