Page 46 - Studio International - September 1967

The sculpture of Edgar Negret

Douglas Hall

Above Edgar Negret at the Axiom Gallery during his Exhibition
Left Negret's studio when he was working at 433 Park Avenue 5,
New York in 1960—the works shown are Magic, Machines and
Masks of 1958-60

It must be seldom that the work of a fully-formed, at a full realization of what sculpture means to him.
impressive artist like Edgar Negret is introduced to this Edgar Negret was born in Popayan, Colombia, in
country for the first time anywhere else but in London. 1920. From 1938 to 1943 he studied art at the Escuela de
The RICHARD DEMARCO GALLERY in Edinburgh therefore Bellas Artes of the neighbouring city—by South American
scored a notable 'first' in showing the Colombian sculptor standards—of Cali about 100 miles away. By his account
in February/March. This Edinburgh show was followed the training at this art school was completely academic
by one at the AXIOM GALLERY in London in May. and like other so-called academic schools of art it existed
The lucid, purposeful authority of Negret's new sculp- in a vacuum, owning no connection with the tradition
ture is the product of a genuine development within his and life-blood of the country, but obedient to an alien
work, and has not been achieved at the expense of set of values. Thus Negret was able to return to his
humanist content. The reverse is true; the recent works native Popayan both ignorant of modern art and un-
seem to show a development in both formal and ideo- interested in the abundant remains of earlier civilizations
logical terms. Negret has been, by current standards, a in his part of Colombia. Awareness of modern art,
slow-maturing artist, and has only quite recently arrived naturally enough, preceded awareness of the 'primitive'—