Raul Farco exhibition

Raul Farco is back with a new major exhibition in Buenos Aires, this time at Palacio Duhau which is one of the largest luxury hotels in Buenos Aires. This hotel has a major art collection of its own, including works by Raul Farco and has also staged exhibitions of other big names in Argentinian art like Berni, Xul Solar and Segui to mention some.

In the exhibition Farco presents 38 new works, mainly sculptures but also works like paintings on various background materials such as tapestries. The exhibition is called “Amparo” which can be translated to protection or “skydd” in Swedish. The human figure is put in the forefront of the different compositions in an almost theatrical way. The use and place of the figure is made more obvious in some pieces in the form of heads, split up or fragmented faces or empty clothes.

All works are originals, Farco does not work with editions – well, in the early 1980´s we made an edition in Sweden and cast twenty-five high polished bronze sculptures called “Executive Bird”. WE could have easily sold twice the edition due to popular demand! Most of Farco’s pieces are not only conceptually original but also of high technical quality and uniqueness – you never see his works being copied by others due to its intricacy.

The shelter made by thick wire (an inch!) is a new dramatic application of this concept. The piece is close to 2,5 m high and weighs more than 100 kg and is a technical achievement just to construct and present the strong impression of a mega shelter. With such measurements the impact is simply imposant!

The shelters in bark with (or without) elements of old French furniture, or even a major part in onyx, also have such a strong presence because of the basic form and what is a rather simple image can come out with such versatility.

There are also sculptures made out of books where Farco uses the books the same way as one would lay bricks. It takes a more thorough examination of the sculpture to see that it is in fact books. This is following the concept of Farco’s large (8 meters) installation in ’Espacio Casa de la Cultura’ in Buenos Aires a few years ago as an homage to Jorge Luis Borges (the Argentinian writer famous for never receiving the Nobel prize, he was also director of the National Library). We also have a few similar sculptures in the Olsson Art Collection.

The exhibition also includes a couple of paintings, the larger ones made on tapestries as a background. Although painting usually isn’t a major part of Farco´s oeuvre, they are nevertheless incredibly strong and unique both conceptually and technically. The ideas and figure of the sculptures are recurring in the paintings and not seldom with an added twist which also gives them a life of their own. Farco´s paintings and their importance were recognised and appreciated by OAC very early on in our partnership which was manifested through our commission back in 1989 of three large (180 x 210 cm) canvas paintings when Farco was working in Madrid.

To quote the late Robert Irwin: “To be an artist is not a matter of making paintings or objects at all. What we are really dealing with is our state of consciousness and the shape of our perceptions.”

This could have been said by Raul Farco – and probably has!