CECILIA MARCOVICH
(1894-1976)
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CECILIA MARCOVICH IN MEXICO
August 2 - November 24, 2024
Cecilia Marcovich and Antonio Berni represented Argentina in the exhibition "Siqueiros and Artists of the Americas. Case Studies" which commemorated the 50th anniversary of Mexico City's Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil.
Other featured artists included: Jackson Pollock (United States), José Venturelli and Alipio Jaramillo (Chile), José Sabogal, Julia Codesido, Camilo Blas (Peru), and Miguel Alandia Pantoja (Bolivia).
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GOVERNMENT OF MEXICO - INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE BELLAS ARTES Y LITERATURA (INBAL) VISUAL ARTS - September 6, 2024
The artist and women's rights activist shared with David Alfaro Siqueiros a vision of art committed to revolutionary struggles. ... The works of the Argentine artist Cecilia Marcovich (1894-1976) was characterized by social activism and the search for equal rights for women, as well as by her pedagogical inclinations and her desire to educate new generations. She is a clear example of the influence that Mexican muralism had on the Argentine art scene at the time.
....
"Marcovich was an Argentinean artist who produced at the same time as the members of the Equipo Poligráfico, with whom she shared spaces and ideas on many occasions due to her participation in the Association of Intellectuals, Artists, Journalists and Writers. It coincided with Siqueiros's vision of art that was committed to revolutionary struggles, and their activism developed in parallel, with the notable difference that Marcovich had an outstanding work in the search for equal rights for women," wrote the curator Isabel Sonderéguer.
"Formed in the great heritage of Rodin and given her experience
alongside Bourdelle, Marcovich has projected us;
she has enriched us through her vigorous work."
Juan Carlos Castagnino
"There are very few sculptors that I know of in this country who have the strength to plant a figure and make it live in the space".
Jorge Romero Brest
"One of the most serious contributions to Argentine sculpture."
Luis Falcini
This English-language short film documents a walkthrough of the exhibition WOMEN ON THE MARCH - CECILIA MARCOVICH (1894-1976)
To enlarge the video on a mobile phone, click the PLAY button, then the four-arrow icon, and place the phone horizontally.
In December 2023, INFOBAE CULTURA highlighted the WOMEN ON THE MARCH exhibition in a selection of "The best of the year"
"The exhibition shone a light on the legacy of an artist who faced prejudice and difficulties while pursuing her studies in France in between two wars as a separated mother ... (Marcovich) produced beautiful portraits and everyday scenes that centered on genre, as well as works that were created in the Brazilian favelas and the metallurgical blast furnaces of Argentina, and a series of busts of Afro-descendant women, all while she continued teaching and actively fighting against the growing fascism in Europe." - Juan Batalla
CECILIA MARCOVICH
Artist, Teacher, Activist
Cecilia Marcovich (1894-1976), sculptor, painter, educator, and women's rights activist, forged her career on her own terms, defying the gender expectations of her time.
Although out of conviction Marcovich chose not to participate in the art market, her works were exhibited in museums and recognized with prestigious awards from the Salón Nacional de Bellas Artes in 1935 and 1940, Salón de Otoño de Rosario in 1935 and 1936, Sociedad Hebraica Argentina in 1950, and Salón Nacional, where in 1962 she won the Jockey Club Award for her monumental stone head "Niña de color".
Throughout history, many renowned individuals have highlighted Marcovich's contributions to art and education in Argentina, including Jorge Romero Brest, Juan Carlos Castagnino, Luis Falcini, Horacio Coppola, Fina Warshaver, Alberto Giudici, Raúl González Tuñón, and Rosa Faccaro.
Cecilia Marcovich was born in Harlau, Romania, on September 18, 1894. In 1901 the Marcovich family emigrated to Argentina, settling in the agricultural colony of Moisés Ville, Province of Santa Fe, and three years later, in 1904, moved to the city of Rosario, where Cecilia began her artistic studies at the age of 16 with Italian masters Antonio Casella and César Caggiano.
At the age of 31, Marcovich separated from her husband and traveled with her two children to Paris, where between 1925 and 1931, she attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and studied with master artists Antoine Bourdelle, André Lhote, Charles Despiau, and Paul Baudouin. In 1931, a sculpture by Marcovich was exhibited at the Salon des Tuileries in Paris.
Upon her return from Europe, her first exhibition at Amigos del Arte presented a group of works done in Paris, and in 1933, the Van Riel Gallery exhibited a series of her sculptures and drawings. At the same time, Marcovich began to direct the painting and sculpture workshop of the Association of Intellectuals, Artists, Journalists and Writers (AIAPE) and curated the exhibitions together with the artists Lino Spilimbergo and Luis Falcini. She also joined Junta de la Victoria, an intersectional organization of anti-fascist women, that collaborated with the Allies during World War II and promoted in Argentina the democratic values and the inclusion of women in political debate.
In 1939, Pedro da Motta Lima introduced Marcovich to Candido Portinari, providing her with an extraordinary opportunity to engage in dialogue with the renowned Brazilian painter during her work residency in Rio de Janeiro. Between 1939 and 1940, she began a series of sculptures, paintings, and drawings featuring women of African descent, as well as children and street scenes sketched in Rio de Janeiro. In 1946, a significant number of those works she created in Brazil were exhibited in Buenos Aires at Salón Peuser.
In the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s, Marcovich made a series of trips to northern Argentina, traveling throughout the provinces of Salta and Jujuy and reaching Bolivia. During those travels, she produced an important body of work, including two series of drawings that highlight mestizo women and workers of the steel mill Altos Hornos de Zapla. At the end of 1948, she participated in the group exhibition "24 Artists" alongside Noemí Gerstein, Juan Carlos Castagnino, Enrique Policastro, Raúl Soldi, and other artists.
In the 40s, Marcovich established her own school-workshop, Asociación Plástica Argentina (APA), where she provided free classes to hundreds of students of various ages for nearly thirty years. Demetrio Urruchúa and Rubén Fontana were among her most notable pupils. During the sixties, the artist continued to create and in 1961, she opened the doors of her home to exhibit her oil paintings, pastels, monoprints, and sculptures in the different rooms of her century-old house, transforming it into a house-museum.
After Cecilia Marcovich's passing in 1976, her work was stored in a fine art storage facility in Buenos Aires until in 2019 Susana Tubert, the artist's granddaughter, launched The Marcovich Project in an effort to preserve Marcovich's legacy and to make it accessible for future generations. From that point forward, the project has kept gaining momentum. In 2021, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes featured selected works by Marcovich in its exhibition "The Accidental Canon - Women Artists in Argentina (1890-1950)", and one of her bronze sculptures, entitled "Woman", was added to the museum's permanent exhibition. In 2023, Museo de Artes Plásticas Eduardo Sívori inaugurated the exhibition "Women on the March - Cecilia Marcovich (1894-1976)" and incorporated the stone sculpture "Female Nude" to its permanent collection.
In February 2024, Isla Flotante Gallery inaugurated the exhibition "Ronda" featuring works by Rosario Zorraquin, Cecilia Marcovich, and Noemi Gerstein. In August 2024, Cecilia Marcovich and Antonio Berni represented Argentina in the exhibition “Siqueiros and Artists from the Americas. Case Studies,” which commemorated the 50th anniversary of Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil in Mexico City.
The Marcovich Project continues to grow, forging partnerships with cultural and artistic institutions in Argentina and the rest of the world to produce an international tour.
*The information on this page has been extracted from research papers that are part of Talía Bermejo's curatorial and editorial project on the life and work of Cecilia Marcovich. To access these research papers, click here.
Video that documents the launch of THE MARCOVICH PROJECT in 2019
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