Page 48 - Studio International - November 1965

Emilio Pettoruti

By Frank Elgar

The retrospective exhibition of Emilio Pettoruti's works Art of La Plata as an example; its director since 1930
held at the Galerie Charpentier. in Paris. in January was Pettoruti. He was soon after invited by the Com­
and February of this year. under the title of 'Fifty years mittee for lnteramerican Artistic and Intellectual
of painting·. was without any doubt one of the most Relations to visit the United States for an eight months'
notable post-war artistic events. Of course. the great trip and to study the organisation of the principal
Argentinian artist is not unknown in Paris. where he museums of the Union. At about the same time. he had
has lived since 1953. nor had his canvases passed received another invitation. this one from the San
unnoticed when he had consented. not without Francisco Museum of Art, which wanted to exhibit
reticence. to expose a few of them. It is. however. groups of his works in San Francisco and in the big
North America which. first after his mother-land. cities of the United States.
recognised his worth not only as painter and as Pettoruti was to stay there from September 1 942 to
educator but as an initiator of modern art. June 1943. His first exhibition took place in San
In fact. in 1941. a commission of North-American Francisco Museum. It was then successively transferred
Young Har/equ,n 1926 specialists. who had come to visit the various museums to New York. Saint-Louis. Kansas City. Cincinnati.
Oil on Wood
33 X 30 in. of Latin America held up, in its report. the Museum of Chicago, Cleveland. Detroit. Columbus. Toledo. Port-

210