Domingo Guccione: Spiritual Geometry : In-person and Online

28 OCTOBER - 4 DECEMBER, 2021

 

Domingo Guccione was born in Buenos Aires in 1898, he was a mystic, a classical musician, and​ a​ self-taught artist. The body of work that he left behind, produced between 1930 and 1955, is a compelling example of Latin American geometric abstraction.
Guccione worked in private and claimed to be channeling a mysterious force that took a hold of him in bouts of creative energy; he did not sketch his drawings, working quickly and with a minimal range of materials. His geometric landscapes are reminiscent of futuristic buildings and labyrinths that interweave densely packed color with subtle shadings.
​After Guccione's death in 1966, his oeuvre remained in his ​family’s possession​ ​(and unseen by a wider audience​)​ until 2020​—when Ricco/Maresca mounted his art world debut at the Independent Art Fair. 
​Spiritual Geometry, the artist's first one-person gallery exhibition, will present works that have never been seen​ or offered.

  • In the following audio passages, our guest expert Mary-Kate O’Hare speaks about the work of Domingo Guccione, as it relates to the the movement of geometric abstraction in Latin America and the broader historical context of his time.

    Mary-Kate O’Hare specializes in U.S. and Latin American modern and contemporary art. She was a Curator of American Art at the Newark Museum for thirteen years, where she organized critically lauded exhibitions such as Constructive Spirit: Abstract Art in South and North America, 1920s-50s (2010); At the Movies: Edward Hopper’s The Sheridan Theatre (2007); and co-curated Off the Pedestal: New Women in the Art of Homer, Sargent and Chase (2006). The International Association of Art Critics (AICA-USA) honored her work for Constructive Spirit with a second place award for "Best Thematic Museum Show Nationally." O’Hare  earned a Ph.D. in art history from Rutgers. In 2010 she was the recipient of the Clinton Hill/Allen Tran Foundation Curatorial Innovation Grant and held a fellowship at the Clark Art Institute, where her research focused on an exhibition exploring mid-20th century Brazilian art, music, architecture and design. She has taught art history surveys and advanced seminars at Rutgers University and William Patterson University and is a regular guest speaker at Christie’s Education. In 2013 she joined Citi Private Bank’s Art Advisory and Finance as Vice President and Advisor, Modern & Contemporary Art. 

  • All works:

    Untitled , ca. 1930-55
    Colored pencil and graphite on paper
    [Click on artwork images to see dimensions and prices]

  • “there are these diagonal lines almost suggesting perspective, like you’re entering into some kind of space, but then you’re whipped back around into the frontal ground of the picture plane​. S​o ​[the works] are​​ really dynamic … they keep pulling you deeper and deeper into this space that you’re also not allowed to fully inhabit”

  • “That period of late 19th century - early 20th century in Argentina is one of immense immigration, and it’s a time of great transition, so [Guccione] is part of the big wave of European immigrants ... the decades he is growing up and living are also the decades when Latin American cities are really growing; the metropolises are expanding and you have major development in the building of skyscrapers … It’s a really exciting period in Latin American history”

  • “When I look at [Guccione’s drawings] as a body of work, it feels like this is a much bigger, broader world, which again makes me think of Borges’s short stories”

  • “There are aesthetic connections you might be able to make between the artists, but the language of geometric abstraction is so flexible, ultimately, that it has the ability to accommodate different visions, goals, and different kinds of practices”

     

  • “Language, or naturalistic representation can’t communicate what it is that he wants us to experience”