Rogelio Polesello

Rogelio Polesello (26 July 1939 – 6 July 2014) was an Argentine painter, muralist and sculptor. He was best known for making Op art (or optical art) known in Latin America. He won two Konex Awards; one in 1982 and another in 2012. He was born in Buenos Aires.

Rogelio Polesello studied at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Manuel Belgrano and the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredón, both in Buenos Aires. In 1959, he joined the Asociación Arte Nuevo, founded by Aldo Pellegrini and Carmelo Arden Quin. The paintings he included in his first solo exhibition at the Galería Peuser (Buenos Aires, 1959) followed the aesthetics of Op Art and were based on Gestalt theories. Their geometric forms, generally in black and white, added to or subtracted from the whole according to perceptive principles that produced specific optical effects.

Polesello died from a heart attack on 6 July 2014 in Buenos Aires. He was 75.

Solo exhibitions

Galería Peuser, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1959 Galería Pizarro, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1960 Galería Lirolay, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1961 Galería Rubbers, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1962 Galería Bonino, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1966 Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela, 1966 Pinturas laicas, Galería del Techo, Caracas, Venezuela, 1966 Centro de Artes Visuales del Instituto Torcuato Di Tella, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1969 Museo de Arte Moderno, México D.F., Mexico, 1974 Progresiones, Salas Nacionales de Cultura, Palais de Glace, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1995 Galería Ruth Benzacar, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1997 Muestra antológica, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2000 Imanes, Sala Cronopios, Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2005

Group exhibitions Premio De Ridder a la joven pintura, galeria Pizarro, Buenos Aires, 1959 Grupo Boa, Galería Van Riel, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1962 Salón Esso de Artistas Plásticos de América Latina, Panamerican Union, Washington, United States, 1965 The Emergent Decade: Latin American Painters and Painting in the 60s, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, United States, 1966 Premio George Braque, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1968 Grupo Boa, Sociedad Hebraica Argentina, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1969 Pintura argentina actual. Dos tendencias: geometría-surrealismo, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1976 Siglo XX argentino: arte y cultura, Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1999

Collections

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, United States Blanton Museum, Austin, Texas, United States La Tertulia Art Museum, Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Florida, United States Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami, Florida, United States Miguel Urrutia Art Museum, Bogotá, Colombia Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Caracas, Venezuela Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, Argentina Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina Museo Rufino Tamayo, México D.F., Mexico Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, United States The Bronx Museum of Arts, New York, United States

Suggested bibliography

Bayón, Damián. "Constructor con materiales nuevos: Polesello". In Rogelio Polesello. Buenos Aires: Galería Carmen Waugh, 1974 Glusberg, Jorge. "La geometría sensible de Rogelio Polesello". In Rogelio Polesello. Buenos Aires: Ruth Benzacar Galería de Arte, 1990 Glusberg, Jorge. Rogelio Polesello: Epi e hipergeometría. Buenos Aires: Ediciones de Arte Gaglianone, 1984 López Anaya, Jorge. "Rogelio Polesello: The neo baroque as metaphor of our era". In Rogelio Polesello: Recent works. Panamá: Museum Galería de Arte, 1992 Masotta, Oscar. "Rogelio Polesello y el mito de las profanaciones". In Rogelio Polesello. Buenos Aires. Galería Bonino, 1966 Noé, Luis Felipe. "Polesello encuentra a Polesello". In Rogelio Polesello. Buenos Aires: Galería Lirolay, 1962 Pau-Llosa, Ricardo. Un acercamiento a Rogelio Polesello. Buenos Aires: Ediciones de Arte Gaglianone, 1984 Progresiones. Buenos Aires: Palais de Glace, 1995 Rogelio Polesello en el Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. Buenos Aires: Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, 2000 Uribe, Basilio. "Rogelio Polesello, o las proposiciones del ojo". In Rogelio Polesello. México D.F.: Museo de Arte Moderno, 1974