Full Name Celis Perez Movement Abstract art Role Artist | Nationality Argentine Name Perez Celis Period Abstract art | |
Born January 15, 1939 San Telmo, Argentina Education Belgrano School of Fine Arts Known for Painting, sculpture, murals and engravings Awards Alba Award at the 61st Salon Nacional de Artes Plasticas Argentino Died August 2, 2008, Buenos Aires, Argentina Spouse Sara Fernandez (m. 1958–1975),Iris Laconich and Tamara Toma Children Maria Jose Gabin,Sergio Perez Fernandez | ||
Perez Celis 2005 | Prólogo Orlando Barone
Celis Perez (January 15, 1939 – August 2, 2008) was an Argentine artist usually referred to as Perez Celis. He earned international recognition for his paintings, sculptures, murals and engravings.
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Life and work
Perez was born in San Telmo on the South side of Buenos Aires, and grew up in Liniers, on the opposite end of town. Working as a newsboy during childhood, he learned the basics of drawing and painting via correspondence classes. He enrolled at the Belgrano School of Fine Arts in 1954, and first exhibited at age 17, at Galeria La Fantasma. Following his entry into the professional arts world, he bagen using his name in a reversed form. Inspired by Hungarian artist Victor Vasarely during a 1957 restrospective of the latter's works at the National Fine Arts Museum, he married Sara Fernandez, relocated to Uruguay for less than a year invited by Carlos Paez Vilaro . Took part in the "Group of 8" – proponents of abstract art among the normally conservative local audiences.
He returned to Buenos Aires in 1960, and opened a downtown atelier with the support of the Torcuato di Tella Institute, a major center for local contemporary artists. Perez Celis explored geometric art, and builds his first mural, Fuerza America, in 1962. Indigenous patterns and colors would re apear in many of his productions during the 1960s and 1970s, and distinguished him from most other local artists, among whom pop art and figurative art was more influential. He was featured in more than 120 solo shows during his career, notably the Gallerie Bellechasse, and his art was purchased for many private collections and first-rate museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He received commissions from the Argentine government, which placed his work in the Ministro Pistarini International Airport, from other governments, and from prominent individuals and businesses.
Tragedy stuck Perez Celis' life in 1975, when an automobile accident killed his wife, and resulted in months of physical therapy for his injuries. He remarried, to Margarita Laconich, in 1977, and lived in Caracas, New York, and Miami in subsequent years. He relocated to Buenos Aires in 1985, however, and hosted retrospectives of his work at the Centro Cultural Recoleta and the Argentine Senate, shortly afterwards. He lost his second wife, but continued to work, exhibiting in the Sanyo Gallery in Tokyo, the Anita Shapolsky Gallery in New York City, and at numerous universities. Among his numerous recognitions in later years was the Alba Award at the 61st Salon Nacional de Artes Plasticas Argentino, and he was proclaimed a Distinguished Citizen of the City of Buenos Aires in 2001.
He also created several literary illustrations, notably those for Jorge Luis Borges' Spanish-language translation of Walt Whitman's poem Leaves of Grass. A fan of the Club Atletico Boca Juniors football team, he created two murals in 1997 for the team's La Bombonera Stadium in Buenos Aires: "Idolos" (Idols) and "Mito y Destino" (Myth and Destiny), both Venetian mosaics and bronze on cement.
Later years
His daughter, actress Maria Jose Gabin, published a biography of her father in 2007.
Perez Celis developed leukemia, and underwent a lengthy series of treatments. Ultimately, however, the noted artist lost his life in Buenos Aires in 2008, at age 69.