Visual Arts Library
Carcel-Hombre
Artist: Romulo Maccio
Date:
1963
Medium: Oil and enamel on canvas
Dimensions: 250 x 200 cm
Event: Latin American Repression
Motif:
Violence
A completely self-taught artist, Romulo Maccio entered the world of visual arts as a graphic designer at age 14. An inclination towards strong, graphic effects has remained with him throughout his career. A fundamental turning point in Maccio's development as a draftsman occurred in 1961 with the formation of Otra Figuracion, an avant-garde group that included Luis Felipe Noe, Jorge de la Vega, and Ernesto Deira. Carcel Hombre, like many other works from that collaborative period, treats the canvas with deliberate formal irreverence. The face and the mask are used as symbols of human duplicity as well as the split between interior and exterior realities. From 1963-64, Maccio painted a series of faces in acrylic on which, like in this one, he scribbled violently with pencil and haphazardly scored the paint with a sharp tool. The conjunction of discontinuous elements created a formal and emotional tension that permeates much of Maccio's work. --Irma Arestizabal
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