Early life Berni was born in the city of
Rosario on 14 May 1905. His mother, Margarita Picco, was the Argentine daughter of Italians. His father Napoleon, an
immigrant tailor from
Italy, died in the
first World War. In 1914 Berni became the apprentice of
Catalan craftsman N. Bruxadera at the
Buxadera and Co. stained glass company. He later studied painting at the
Rosario Catalá Center, where he was described as a child prodigy. In 1920 seventeen of his oil paintings were exhibited at the Salon Mari. On 4 November 1923, his
impressionist landscape paintings were praised by critics in the daily newspapers
La Nación and
La Prensa.
Paris The
Jockey Club of Rosario awarded Berni a scholarship to study in Europe in 1925. He chose to visit
Spain, as Spanish painting was in vogue, particularly the art of
Joaquín Sorolla,
Ignacio Zuloaga,
Camarasa Anglada, and
Julio Romero de Torres. He also began studying
revolutionary politics, including the
Marxist theory of
Henri Lefebvre, who introduced him to the
Communist poet
Louis Aragon in 1928. Berni continued corresponding with Aragon after leaving France, later recalling, "It is a pity that I have lost, among the many things I have lost, the letters that I received from Aragon all the way from France; if I had them today, I think, they would be magnificent documents; because in that correspondence we discussed topics such as the direct relationship between politics and culture, the responsibilities of the artist and the intellectual society, the problems of culture in colonial countries, the issue of freedom." Instead, he began painting
realistic images that depicted the struggles and tensions of the Argentine people. His popular
Nuevo Realismo paintings include
Desocupados (
The Unemployed) and
Manifestación (
Manifestation). As one critic noted, "the quality of his work resides in the precise balance that he attained between narrative painting with strong social content and aesthetic originality." Notable Juanito works include
Retrato de Juanito Laguna (
Portrait of Juanito Laguna),
El mundo prometido a Juanito (
The World Promised to Juanito), and
Juanito va a la ciudad (
Juanito Goes to the City). Art featuring Juanito (and Ramona Montiel, a similar female character) won Berni the Grand Prix for Printmaking at the
Venice Biennale in 1962. Berni moved to
New York City, where he continued painting, engraving, collating, and exhibiting. New York struck him as luxurious, consumerist, materially wealthy, and spiritually poor. He conveyed these observations in subsequent work with a touch of social
irony. His New York paintings display a great protagonism of color and include
Aeropuerto (
Airport),
Los Hippies,
Calles de Nueva York (
Streets of New York),
Almuerzo (
Lunch),
Chelsea Hotel and
Promesa de castidad (
Promise of Chastity). He also produced several decorative panels, scenographic sketches, illustrations, and collaborations for books. Berni's work gradually became more spiritual and reflective. In 1980 he completed the paintings
Apocalipsis (
Apocalypse) and
La crucifixion (
The Crucifixion) for the Chapel of San Luis Gonzaga in
Las Heras, where they were installed the following year. Antonio Berni died on 13 October 1981 in Buenos Aires, where he had been working on a
Martín Fierro monument. The monument was inaugurated in
San Martín on 17 November of the same year. In an interview shortly before his death, he said, "Art is a response to life. To be an artist is to undertake a risky way of life, to adopt one of the greatest forms of liberty, to make no compromise. Painting is a form of love, of transmitting the years in art." ==Legacy==