Biography (1930 – 1971)
Born in Buenos Aires, where he began an architectural career that he then abandoned. He was a self-taught painter, engraver, poet, guitarist, illustrator, artisan and advertising creative. In 1961 he Born in Buenos Aires in 1930, De la Vega was a self-taught painter, engraver, poet, guitarist, comic illustrator, professor and graphic designer. As a teenager he attended drawing classes and studied Architecture at the University of Buenos Aires but never finished. He began his career painting figurative art but in 1953, influenced by the international abstract and optic movements he experimented with Geometric Art.
In 1959 he met Alberto Greco, key figure in the development of Informalist Art in Argentina. In 1961, together with fellow artists: Romulo Maccio, Ernesto Deira, and Felipe Noé he founded the Neo-Figuración Group. They focused on creating figurative works using mixed-media techniques.
In 1965 he received the Fulbright Grant and was invited by the Cornell University of Ithaca in New York to work a visiting art professor during their Latin American Year. He stayed in the United States for two years living between Cornell and New York. His works of this period were greatly influenced by Pop Art, inspired by publicity images he created stencils with psychedelic forms and figures.
In 1968 he returned to Argentina and started working as a music composer and singer-songwriter. That year, his record El gusanito en persona was presented at the Bonino Gallery of Buenos Aires. He would continued working in several music shows and in 1970 opened an exhibition-concert at the Carmen Waugh Gallery. He died in August of 1971.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
1981. Pinturas y dibujos de los ’60, Vermeer Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1996. Obras 1948 – 1970, Art and Technology Foundation, Madrid, Spain.
1995. Obras 1961-1970. Borges Cultural Center, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1976. Retrospectiva, National Museum of Fine Arts, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1973. Conkright Gallery, Caracas, Venezuela.
1971. Homenaje a Jorge de la Vega, Carmen Waugh Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1968. De la vega en Color, Guernica Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1967. Torcuato Di Tella Institute, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1965. Museum of Modern Art, Río de Janeiro, Brazil.
1964. Jorge de la Vega, Pinturas, Bonino Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1962. National Fine Arts Museum, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1961. De la Vega, Lirolay Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Otra Figuración Group Exhibitions:
1991. Deira, Macció, Noé, de la Vega, Recoleta Cultural Center, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1987. Nova figuraçao Rio/BuenosAires, Cultural Institute of Brazil-Argentina, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
1985. Deira, Macció, Noé, de la Vega, Fine Arts Museum, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1985. Nueva Figuración Argentina, XVIII Biennale of São Paulo, Brazil.
1981. Otra Figuración… veinte años después, San Telmo Foundation, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1965. Deira, Macció, Noé, De la Vega. Pinturas, Bonino Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1965. Deira, Macció, Noé, de la Vega, Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
1962. Dibujos. Lirolay Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1961. Otra Figuración, Peuser Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Awards and Prizes:
1966: Painting Special Prize, III American Art Biennial (IKA), Córdoba, Argentina.
1965: Drawing Prize, Bonino Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina.