Biography (1924 – 1993)

Victor Magariños was born in Lanús, province of Buenos Aires in 1924. In 1946 he founded “Grupo Joven” (Youth Group), composed of artists from different disciplines. The Group was characterized by its confrontation with the artistic community, which they believed was ill and needed to be attacked to change. In 1950 his style shifted and turned abstract. In 1951 with the help of the French Government who granted him a scholarship he traveled to Paris to continue his training. The works of Fernand Leger, Max Bill and Georges Vantongerloo, who he befriended, profoundly influenced his views on art. After returning to Argentina, in 1967 he build his home and workshop in the seaside city of Pinamar away from the artistic centers of the country. Throughout his career he was interested in the relationship between art and science, incorporating in his works continuous visual references to structures of atoms, nuclear physics, magnetism and even symbols of computation, such as X and parentheses. Among the distinctions he received, in 1980 he was appointed Gold Medal Academic Member of the Italian “Academia delle Arti e del Lavoro”; in 1988 he received the Milano Prize of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Milan and the same year the prize “Golden Centaur” of the Italian Academy of Arts.

Selected exhibitions

1974: Venezuelan-Argentinian Center, Caracas.
1984: “Magariños D. Pinturas”, CAYC, Buenos Aires.
1986: “Víctor Magariños -Finito-Infinito-Homenaje a G. Vantongerloo”, Modern Art Museum of the “Musées Royaux de Belgique”, Brussels, Belgium.
1991: “Víctor Magariños D. – Obras 1950-1990”, Patricios Bank Foundation, Buenos Aires.