Buenos Aires - Recently I visited Braga Menendez Arte Contemporaneo, perhaps Buenos Aires’ best-known gallery for contemporary art. When Guido Ignatti (Produccion de Exposiciones) invited me into the gallery’s office, it became clear that the young and playful tone is clearly not limited to the art they represent. While the gallery takes contemporary art seriously, their passionate yet casual atmosphere also insists that art should have nothing to do with intimidation. The gallery’s backroom is an embarrassment of riches. This office-cum-salon-cum-gallery-cum-studio is crammed full of works -- most good, some spectacular -- that emerge one by one after careful but relaxed exploration.
And the gallery’s embarrassment of riches is embarrassing not only because there is so much high-quality work to choose from and see, but also because the prices are so damn reasonable. Even after accounting for shipping and brokerage, the strength of the dollar, euro, and pound against the Argentine peso makes art-buying in Buenos Aires an incredible opportunity.
Especially if you want to buy paintings. Even after taking into account Braga Menendez’s taste for and expertise in painters, I get the impression that Buenos Aires is about Paint. The city seems to have produced (and is producing) an inordinate number of really good painters. Moreover, this is a town of representation. There is a fascination with the image, and with mediating that image through the artist, his brush, and his paint.
Nathan Tichenor
No comments:
Post a Comment