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Eugenio Dittborn: TINCTURA
May 22 – Jun 25, 2004
Tinctura, an exhibition of airmail paintings executed by Eugenio Dittborn over the past two years will open at Alexander and Bonin on May 22nd.
In these new paintings, his use of tincture, (as opposed to paint) has enabled him to explore the alchemic aspects of painting. The tincture, a dye-like substance, provides a more mobile, translucent means to achieve transmutation of images drawn from cartoons, old engravings, and drawings from how-to-draw books. The fluidity of the tincture, combined with the printed images, appliquéd satin fragments and embroidery result in complex combinations and interpretations.
The artist continues to use the international postal system to send his folded ‘airmail paintings’ from one continent to another, and aspires to “infallibly reach places that are far away from the starting point, to break through isolation, separation and international confinement.”[1] The folds bear traces of the cultures and political landscapes through which they have traveled.
The artist lives and works in Santiago, Chile. His work has been exhibited internationally in numerous museum exhibitions such as Cocido y Crudo at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (1994), Face à l’Histoire 1933-1996, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1996), Around 1984: A Look at Art in the Eighties, P.S.1, New York (2000). In 1997 his work was the subject of a survey exhibition at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York which traveled to the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Santiago (1998). His work can presently be seen at El Museo del Barrio, New York in the exhibition MoMA at el Museo: Latin American and Caribbean Art from the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art and a new multi-panel installation with be included in the forthcoming 26th Bienal de São Paulo (September, 2004).
[1] Eugenio Dittborn quotation from Cubitt, Sean. "Retrato Hablado, The Airmail Paintings of Eugenio Dittborn." Third Text no. 13 (London) (winter 1990)