Cesar Pedro Paternosto

CESAR PEDRO PATERNOSTO (Argentina, 1931).
Untitled, 1997.
Watercolor and pencil on paper.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner.
Measurements. 57 x 57 cm; 66 x 66 cm (frame).
In this paper, Paternosto unfolds a network of lines intertwined with precision and delicacy, which reflects his long research on the materiality of the canvas and visual perception, begun in 1969 with the expressive discovery of the songs and enriched since 1977 by the study of pre-Columbian geometric semantics. The piece thus synthesizes his quest to link modern abstraction with the ancestral geometric traditions of America, where formal rigor coexists with sensitivity and luminosity.
César Paternosto is one of the fundamental figures of Latin American abstraction, whose work is inscribed from its beginnings in the avant-garde tradition of the continent. From very early on he practiced an abstraction with expressionist roots that quickly evolved towards geometry, linking himself to the experiences of Concrete Art and the postulates of movements such as Madí, in dialogue with essential referents such as Joaquín Torres-García. In this process he developed what can be defined as a "sensitive geometry", in which the chromatic delicacy and the subtle irregularity of the lines attenuate the normative coldness of geometric abstraction.
Born in La Plata, Argentina, in 1931, Paternosto trained as a young man in drawing and painting and graduated in law before devoting himself fully to art. In 1967 he settled in New York, a city from which he consolidated an international projection that earned him important awards, including grants from the Guggenheim, Gottlieb, Rockefeller and Pollock-Krasner foundations. He has exhibited in leading international galleries and his work is part of the collections of museums such as the MoMA, the Guggenheim, the Hirshhorn, the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Buenos Aires, the Museo Reina Sofía and the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Leading critics such as Alfred Barr, Lucy Lippard and Damián Bayón have written about his work. In addition to his artistic practice, he has developed a relevant theoretical and curatorial work, reflected in publications such as Piedra abstracta (1989) and in exhibitions such as Abstracción: el paradigma amerindio (IVAM, 2001). He currently lives and works in Segovia, Spain.