Josefina Robirosa
Bio
Josefina Robirosa (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1932) painter.
One of the most outstanding women in Argentine painting.
She studied painting with Héctor Basaldúa and Elisabeth von Rendell.
Her first solo exhibition was at the Bonino Gallery in Buenos Aires in 1957, followed by eight shows for several years in the same gallery, then exhibited at the Rubbers and Ruth Benzacar Galleries. Since 2019 has been exhibiting in OdA gallery.
She was part of the group of artists of the Instituto Di Tella in Buenos Aires that revolutionized the artistic perception of Argentina in the 1960s.
She has made murals in public buildings, in two underground stations in Buenos Aires and in the Argentine Metro Station in Paris, and her works are included in the National Museum of Fine Arts of Buenos Aires, Museum of Modern Art of Buenos Aires, Genaro Pérez Museum of Cordoba and Tres Arroyos Museum in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In the ITT Collection, N.York; Albright Knox, U.S. Buffalo; Neiman Marcus and Chase, Manhattan, U.S. and Thyssen in Switzerland.
In 1997 she had a retrospective exhibition of Painting at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina and in 2001 at the Sala Cronopio of the Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
For eight years she was Director of the National Arts Fund and a member of the National Academy of Fine Arts.
Outstanding awards
2012 - Konex Special Mention Award for Trajectory in Visual Arts
2001 - Fundación Banco Ciudad Award for Visual Arts - Honorable Mention of the Jury: J. Robirosa.
2001 - 90 "National Salon of Visual Arts - Painting section: 2° Prize.
1968 - Codees Prize for Latin American Painting - Museum of Fine Arts.
1967 - 2° Premio Salón Nacional de Artes Plásticas, Bs. As. Argentina.
Statement
In this series Josefina Robirosa emphasized the optical art that she has been working on since the mid-1960s. The constant and unifying element of that period were the linear geometric bands of colors, with variations of thickness and tonalities, which design multiple types of bodies and landscapes. Her language fluctuates between abstraction and figuration. Part of this series would then be overturned into his precious tapestries.
"I paint".
For years, since I was a girl, since I was different from how I am now, for as long as I have been constructing this that I am, this that I paint.
To me, this painting I draw out of my house, my atelier, this painting I hang in front of people, is not my clothes
Not even my skin or my head.
My painting is me and this sounds so simple that I don’t know if I should say it.
But I must say it so that it is understood why I cannot talk about my painting.
It would be like standing in front of people to talk about myself and that task would take me another 34 years with their days and nights and one never quite knows some days and let us not speak of dreams.
Also, it would be another trade.
Also, there is modesty.
Also, my painting hangs from walls, from ceilings.
When one is confident, modesty fades.
My name is Josefina Robirosa. I am Josefina Robirosa.
My painting is called like me.
I am that painting and God help me."
Josefina Robirosa
2.5 x 4m / 98.4 x 157 in
