Art and Materiality
Discussion through works of art encourage how to approach ambiguous and complex ideas, thoughts, and feelings. The MFAH offers a democratic space where students and teachers can develop, practice and articulate these habits of mind. Remember that the quality of the conversation is what is important, not finding the artist’s “answer.” Slow down and take the time to make careful observations. Talk about what you notice, and try to avoid jumping to conclusions and interpretations. Be sure to give enough time for silent looking and thinking.
Work of Art
Born in Rosario, Argentina, Antonio Berni is a central figure in 20th-century Argentinean art. Berni studied drawing in Rosario in 1916 while apprenticing in a stained-glass workshop. In 1925, he earned a scholarship to study painting in Europe. Settling in Paris for five years, he was deeply influenced by the Surrealist movement. Returning to Argentina in 1930, Berni exhibited his own Surrealist paintings, which were poorly received by critics. Soon after, his paintings, including murals, shifted to a more realist style and focused on social reform. In the 1950s, Berni abandoned his social realist style, although he continued to create art with social and political themes. In 1958, he began a series of prints, collages, and assemblages incorporating garbage and found objects, based on two characters he invented, Juanito Laguna, a street urchin, and Ramona Montiel, a prostitute. Berni created the prints using an innovative technique that used impressions left on paper by trash arranged as pictures. These won him the Grand Prize for Printmaking at the 1962 Venice Biennale. In subsequent work, Berni began to collage found materials onto canvas, enhancing them with paint to create large format works. Later, he transformed his work with scrap metal and waste into sculptural assemblages that featured two themes: La sordidez (Sordidness, 1964) and Voracidad (Voracity, 1965), in a series called Monstruos cósmicos (Cosmic Monsters). Berni returned to a more conventional style of painting in the 1970s but throughout his life continued to make works addressing poverty.
Reaching just over five feet in length this urban creature was created from the refuse of modern society. Bent and rusty nails fill out its bristling head and neck, ragged shards of wood stand up from its crawling spine, while decayed and rotten plant roots encrust its back. Its wide open mouth reveals jagged, uneven teeth, created from pieces of plastic ice cube trays, and a thrusting reptilian tongue made from a splintered piece of wood. Like a rat scouring through alley trash bins, this “sordid,” wretched monster appears too intent on finding its next meal to notice the shock and disgust with which it is received. To Berni, La Sordidez is a universal allegory for the degradation and corruption of modern society caused by endemic poverty.
The theme of this assemblage sculpture is conveyed by both the materials used and the subject matter itself. Berni chose man-made materials and natural refuse marked by age and deterioration. He assembled and arranged these waste products of society into the shape of a monster that exists only because of such waste.
From the mid-1950s into the early 1960s, Argentina underwent rapid economic development, accelerated after the downfall of President Juan Domingo Perón in 1955 and financed by infusions of foreign capital. These were “boom” years in Argentina; an expansive and optimistic mood prevailed throughout the country, especially in Buenos Aires. With expanded access to consumer goods, many people, including Argentinean Pop artists, celebrated consumer culture much in the same way artists like Andy Warhol did in the United States. However, there were others, including Berni, who were more concerned that the infusions of capital were not reaching those with the greatest needs. They spoke out against the negative aspects of rapid economic development, the emptiness of a materialistic society, and the ever-increasing gap between the rich and the poor.
Conversation
- As you observe the sculpture, what materials can you identify? What types of objects or structures do you associate with these materials?
- Consider the scale of the sculpture. How would the work be impacted it the work were smaller or larger?
- Why might the artists have chosen to use this collection of materials to form this particular shape? How would your interpretation of the work change if the artists used different materials?
- Consider the form of the sculpture. What might this work be depicting?
When students are making observations and formulating their thoughts while comparing and contrasting, they are taking risks. In these moments of classroom dialogue when we are exploring ideas, there are no “right” answers. For students, offering an observation and then justifying and supporting it in their own words can be a moment of overcoming fear and taking a risk.
Subject Matter
Art I:
- In a unit on social reform/found object issues show the documentary Waste Land by Vik Muniz in conjunction with La Sordidez.
- Compare and Contrast the documentary with the work of art.
AP Art:
- Observe La Sordidz using the Conversation starters. Compare with other works of art by Berni, including those at the MFAH. How does the signature style of the artist remain evident in multiple formats? What messages/philosophies permeate his artistry?
- Explore the materials Berni uses and how they reflect social and political realities. How does this work of art exhibit a synthesis of materials and concept? Analyze and evaluate the artist’s oeuvre.
Assessment
Comparing and contrasting, whether two or more different artists or several works by a single artist, requires strong attention to detail. In both of the exercises described in the "Subject Matter Connection" of this lesson, making sure students have the time and opportunity to look closely and articulate their observations is critical.
Resources
Resources Available to Order
Check our online collection module for further information.
