Diego Barboza

DIEGO BARBOZA (Venezuela, 1945- 2003).
Untitled.
Wax on paper.
Signed in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 48 x 60 cm; 64 x 73 cm (frame).
Diego Barboza was a Venezuelan painter outstanding within the neofigurative movement and an influential figure in Latin American art. His style moved away from surrealism and magical realism, creating a visual language based on dislocation and transgression. His figures, extremely distorted, maintained their expressive force through explosive strokes and fractured contours, generating a world of illusions.
Coming from an upper middle class family, he showed an inclination for art since he was a child. At the age of 7 he claimed to want to be a famous artist and, at 12, he left formal school to enroll in the Escuela de Artes Plásticas de Maracaibo. He later studied in Caracas and at the London College of Printing in the United Kingdom between 1965 and 1968.
His first solo exhibition was in 1963 at the Centro de Bellas Artes in Maracaibo. In London, influenced by conceptual art, he developed performative works such as 30 girls with nets, Hats and nets in markets and restaurants, El Ciempés and Expressions in a laundry. In 1974 he returned to Venezuela, where he presented key works such as La caja del cachicamo and De la Escuela de Atenas a la Nueva Escuela de Caracas, closing his conceptual stage.
He is considered one of the pioneers of conceptual art. He was invited to exhibit in multiple events organized by institutions such as the Arts Council of Great Britain. He participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions since 1963, and his work is represented in museums in Venezuela, England, Brazil, Colombia and Cuba. He received several important awards, including the National Prize of Plastic Arts of Venezuela in 1997.