BUENOS AIRES - THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART RECEIVES A DONATION OF 60 WORKS BY ALDO SESSA
The Museum of Modern Art of Buenos Aires, dependent on the Ministry of Culture of the City, announces the donation of 60 works by Aldo Sessa (Buenos Aires, 1939) that go through its 50-year bond with the museum. Thus, they will become part of the collection of the institution, adding to the history of the donations made to the museum by the great Argentine artists.
The donated photographs were selected by Victoria Noorthoorn, director of the institution, and many made up the exhibition Archivo Aldo Sessa 1958-2018: 60 years of images, which the museum presented in 2018.
It is a collection of iconic material from the artist's career that covers, at the same time, a wide range of techniques, genres and research. The set includes photos taken from 1958 to the present with different cameras and formats including, 35 millimeters, medium format, panoramic, on black and white and color film, and the instant photo with Polaroid system; as well as digital photography with a camera and cell phone. The selected images represent many of the artist's research on different photographic genres –among them, photojournalism and portraiture– and various themes, including Buenos Aires, the Teatro Colón, New York, travel in Argentina and around the world.
Aldo Sessa and the Museo Moderno
The long link between the Museum and the artist began back in 1972, when Rafael Squirru –founder of this Museum– wrote the prologue for the first exhibition of Sessa's paintings at the Bonino Gallery: “Synthetic painting, metallic colors, same metal plate enter his work with the docility of a tamer who knows well the reactions of his tigers. For this to happen, there is no doubt that Sessa had the constancy of the true experimenter”.
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Rafael Squirru, 1992 - Negativo blanco y negro 35 mm
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Julio Le Parc, Palais de Glace, 1988 - Negativo blanco y negro 35 mm
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Oscar Araiz, sala La Rotonda, Teatro Colón, - 1982 - Negativo blanco y negro 35 mm
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Vladimir Vassiliev y Ekaterina - Maximova, Teatro Colón, 1987 - Negativo blanco y negro 35 mm - Prueba de artista
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Gruta “La Olla”, Parque Nacional Monte - León, Santa Cruz, 2010 - Toma digital
Aldo Sessa (Buenos Aires, 1939) began his training in graphic arts in the printing press of his father. A pioneer in his field, at the age of 17 he made his first photographic collaborations for the press, first in the newspaper La Nación and then in La Gaceta de Tucumán. In 1962, he traveled to Los Angeles to study cinematography with Sydney Paul Solow, president of the Consolidated Film Industries of Hollywood film laboratory, where he discovered color photography.
In 1972 he signed his first contract as an artist with the Bonino Gallery with which he organized individual exhibitions in Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro and New York. In 1976, with the support of Guillermo Whitelow and Marta Grinberg, he held his first solo show at the Museum of Modern Art in Buenos Aires with headquarters, at that time, at the San Martín Theater. This was followed by two new shows in 1977 and 1978 at the institution. Throughout his career, Sessa has held more than 200 exhibitions around the world.
His collaborations with writers began in 1976 with Cosmogonías, a book that brings together poems by Jorge Luis Borges and his illustrations. In the following years he carried out other projects together with Manuel Mujica Láinez, Ray Bradbury and Silvina Ocampo, among others.
His camera recorded the world as he traveled through America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. He also exhaustively photographed the Argentine territory and published important photographic essays on the estancias, gauchos, tango universe and emblematic places of the city of Buenos Aires such as the Teatro Colón.
Among the numerous awards and recognitions that he received throughout his life, in 1991 he was appointed Honorary Member of the Argentine Federation of Photographers and Member of the Academy of Fine Arts. In 2007, the Buenos Aires Legislature honored him with the title of "Illustrious Citizen of the city of Buenos Aires."
