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NEW BLOOD FROM THE AVANT-GARDE • 59
EMILIO PETTORUTI. MUSIC AL-
BUMS. 1919. INDIA INK ON PAPER,
20.2 X 26.5 CM. COLLECTION OF
THE INTER-AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK, WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A. PHOTOGRAPH BY WILLIE HEINZ.
the exceptional cleanness of line and coldness of tonality that distinguish the majority of these works. One notes also the small masterpieces of hyperrealism that find a place amid the frozen geometry of compositions such as The Buzzer (1938), Oranges (1944), and The Pears (1945). Pettoruti achieved the happiest fusion of avant-garde and nationalist tendencies to be found in the whole of modern Argentine art in a series of pictures in which sunlight entering a room falls upon a typical still-life grouping (usually a bottle of wine, a soda-water dispenser, and a bowl of fruit). The most significant works in this series were executed during the '40s: Noon (1941), Study of Sunlight (1942), Intimacy (1942), Winter Sunlight (1943), Pampas Sunlight (1944), Blank Book (1944), Centerpiece (1944), and The Guitar (1948). Never has the "neighborhood" aspect of Buenos Aires been better expressed than in these compositions, with their crystallization of sunlight and perfect articulation of illuminated forms. There has been insufficient study of this great period in Pettoruti's career and its consequences for modern Argentine art. The list of artists upon whom Pettoruti has left his stamp is an impressive one: Fernando Catalano (b. 1883), Fioravanti Bangardini (b. 1906), Armando Ghiesa (b. 1907), Norberto Gresta (b. 1929), Pedro Dominguez Neira (b. 1894), Amelia Fiora, Ernesto M. Scotti (1901-1957), Jorge Soto Acebal (b. 1891), Orlando Pierri (b. 1913), Vicente Forte (b. 1912), Francisco Fornieles (b. 1909), Jorge Edgardo Lezama (b. 1921), German Leonetti (b. 1896), Febo Marti (b. 1919), and Alberto Peri (b. 1929), to name but part. The works these artists were doing around 1956 reflect not only Pettoruti's abstract, simplified treatment of his subjects but the subject matter itself: a window, its frame, light, an open book, a fruit dish, fruit, a pitcher. During the twentieth century the art stage in Argentina has been largely occupied by a chorus of figures of second rank. Few among