« Vouloir peindre c’est d’abord vouloir inventer une image qui bouleversera les autres. »Antonio Seguí est un peintre argentin né à Córdoba en 1934. Il vit et travaille en France depuis 1963. Après avoir étudié la peinture et la sculpture en Argentine, en France et en Espagne, il voyage en Europe et en Afrique. Sa première exposition individuelle a lieu en Argentine à la fin des années 50. Il parcourt ensuite l'Amérique du Sud et l'Amérique Centrale. En 1962, lors d’une exposition à Buenos Aires, la satire sociale mise en scène dans ses œuvres fait réagir le public… Le peintre bénéficie alors d’un véritable « succès du scandale ». Sa carrière est lancée. Son travail est révélé en Europe à l’occasion de la Biennale de Paris en 1963. S'ensuivent alors des expositions dans le monde entier (ARC, Musée d'art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, Biennale de Venise). Après une courte période matiériste, Seguí, dès les années 60, confère aux figures une place primordiale dans son travail. Il se place alors aux premiers rangs de la Nouvelle Figuration (et du Pop Art) et trouve sa place parmi les artistes qui ont rejeté le formalisme de l’abstraction et redonné une place « au quotidien ».Sa production est formée pour la plus grande part de peintures, mais aussi d'estampes et de sculptures. Jeune peintre, il puise son inspiration auprès d’artistes comme Giorgio de Chirico, Mario Sironi, Gutiérrez Solana ou encore comme le peintre français satirique Honoré Daumier. Dans les années 60 et 70 ses tableaux sont sombres et dénonciateurs. Il y fait figurer des représentants du Pouvoir, de l’Armée et du Clergé. Il peint des toiles expressionnistes et satiriques qui font allusion à l’histoire politique et sociologique de l’Amérique latine (Arrivée du Général, 1967). Il admet qu ‘« il a toujours eu dans sa peinture, des éléments constants, comme la dénonciation et la provocation ». Depuis la fin des années 70, Antonio Seguí travaille par séries. ll décline des suites de toiles aux connotations autobiographiques. On retrouve en permanence dans son oeuvre, El Señor Gustavo, personnage sombre, en costume, portant chapeau et traversant les peintures comme une espèce de double et témoin du peintre. Son œuvre évolue significativement à la fin des années 80… La texture se fait légère et fluide les couleurs deviennent lumineuses voire fluorescentes (certains fonds de toiles sont peints à la bombe). Les tableaux se couvrent de formes géométriques et d’aplats de couleurs. Le peintre réinvente sans cesse son théâtre populaire en explorant tous les possibles de la couleur, de la composition et du dessin. Ses peintures se suivent mais ne se ressemblent pas. Sous une apparente naïveté, chaque composition s’avère en réalité beaucoup plus complexe qu’il n’y paraît. L’Homme, figure emblématique du peintre, est une silhouette anonyme en mouvement, qu’il met en scène tantôt seule tantôt perdue dans une agitation urbaine tragique ou cocasse. Dans la toile, Seguí réduit L’Homme à son comportement social. L’échelle de grandeur disparaît; l’anatomie des corps n’obéit plus aux normes de la biologie. La facétie et l’humour supplantent l’angoisse existentielle. Le peintre orchestre à sa façon les espoirs et les folies d’une comédie humaine ironique faussement naïve et inquiétante.
"To want to paint is first to want to invent an image that will upset others."Antonio Seguí is an Argentinean painter born in Córdoba in 1934. He has lived and worked in France since 1963. After studying painting and sculpture in Argentina, France and Spain, he traveled to Europe and Africa. His first individual exhibition took place in Argentina at the end of the 1950s. He then travelled throughout South and Central America. In 1962, during an exhibition in Buenos Aires, the social satire presented in his works made the public react... The painter then benefited from a real "success of the scandal". His career was launched. His work was revealed in Europe on the occasion of the Paris Biennale in 1963. Exhibitions followed all over the world (ARC, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, Biennale de Venise). After a short period of matierism, Seguí, from the 1960s onwards, gave figures a central place in his work. He was at the forefront of the New Figuration (and Pop Art) and found his place among the artists who rejected the formalism of abstraction and gave a place to "the everyday".His production is made up for the most part of paintings, but also prints and sculptures. As a young painter, he drew his inspiration from artists such as Giorgio de Chirico, Mario Sironi, Gutiérrez Solana and the French satirical painter Honoré Daumier. In the 60s and 70s his paintings are dark and denunciatory. He depicts representatives of the Power, the Army and the Clergy. He painted expressionist and satirical canvases that alluded to the political and sociological history of Latin America (Arrival of the General, 1967). He admits that "there have always been constant elements in his painting, such as denunciation and provocation. Since the end of the 1970s, Antonio Seguí has worked in series, creating a series of paintings with autobiographical overtones. El Señor Gustavo, a dark character in a suit, wearing a hat and crossing the paintings as a kind of double and witness of the painter, is always present in his work. His work evolves significantly in the late 80s ... The texture is light and fluid colors become bright or even fluorescent (some backgrounds are painted with spray paint). The paintings are covered with geometric shapes and flat colors. The painter constantly reinvents his popular theater by exploring all the possibilities of color, composition and drawing. His paintings follow one another but are not alike. Under an apparent naivety, each composition turns out to be much more complex than it seems. The Man, the emblematic figure of the painter, is an anonymous silhouette in movement, which he stages sometimes alone and sometimes lost in a tragic or comical urban agitation. In the painting, Seguí reduces Man to his social behavior. The scale of size disappears; the anatomy of the bodies no longer obeys the norms of biology. The facetiousness and the humor supplant the existential anguish. The painter orchestrates in his own way the hopes and follies of an ironic human comedy, falsely naive and disturbing.
"To want to paint is first to want to invent an image that will upset others."Antonio Seguí is an Argentinean painter born in Córdoba in 1934. He has lived and worked in France since 1963. After studying painting and sculpture in Argentina, France and Spain, he traveled to Europe and Africa. His first individual exhibition took place in Argentina at the end of the 1950s. He then travelled throughout South and Central America. In 1962, during an exhibition in Buenos Aires, the social satire presented in his works made the public react... The painter then benefited from a real "success of the scandal". His career was launched. His work was revealed in Europe on the occasion of the Paris Biennale in 1963. Exhibitions followed all over the world (ARC, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, Biennale de Venise). After a short period of matierism, Seguí, from the 1960s onwards, gave figures a central place in his work. He was at the forefront of the New Figuration (and Pop Art) and found his place among the artists who rejected the formalism of abstraction and gave a place to "the everyday".His production is made up for the most part of paintings, but also prints and sculptures. As a young painter, he drew his inspiration from artists such as Giorgio de Chirico, Mario Sironi, Gutiérrez Solana and the French satirical painter Honoré Daumier. In the 60s and 70s his paintings are dark and denunciatory. He depicts representatives of the Power, the Army and the Clergy. He painted expressionist and satirical canvases that alluded to the political and sociological history of Latin America (Arrival of the General, 1967). He admits that "there have always been constant elements in his painting, such as denunciation and provocation. Since the end of the 1970s, Antonio Seguí has worked in series, creating a series of paintings with autobiographical overtones. El Señor Gustavo, a dark character in a suit, wearing a hat and crossing the paintings as a kind of double and witness of the painter, is always present in his work. His work evolves significantly in the late 80s ... The texture is light and fluid colors become bright or even fluorescent (some backgrounds are painted with spray paint). The paintings are covered with geometric shapes and flat colors. The painter constantly reinvents his popular theater by exploring all the possibilities of color, composition and drawing. His paintings follow one another but are not alike. Under an apparent naivety, each composition turns out to be much more complex than it seems. The Man, the emblematic figure of the painter, is an anonymous silhouette in movement, which he stages sometimes alone and sometimes lost in a tragic or comical urban agitation. In the painting, Seguí reduces Man to his social behavior. The scale of size disappears; the anatomy of the bodies no longer obeys the norms of biology. The facetiousness and the humor supplant the existential anguish. The painter orchestrates in his own way the hopes and follies of an ironic human comedy, falsely naive and disturbing.