Kuitca, Guillermo (1961- ) - 1998 Untitled (Christie's New York, 2007)
Watercolor pigment and wash on canvas; 198.1 x 192.4 cm.
Guillermo Kuitca is an Argentinean artist who was born in Buenos Aires in 1961, where he continues to work and live. Kuitca's work has been shown extensively around the globe, and is included in many important public collection, including The Tate Gallery, England; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC ; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY and The Daros Collection, Zürich, Switzerland . Kuitca represented Argentina at the 2007 Venice Biennale. Recurrent themes of travel, maps, memory, and migration can be found in Kuitca’s work.
In the early and mid-1980s, Kuitca made works which incorporate theater imagery. Many paintings from this period feature figures on a stage-like platform, with titles often inspired by plays, literature and music. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Kuitca began to integrate the subjects of architecture and topography in his work, often exploring the confluence of communal and private spaces. The floor plans of public institutions, such as those found in the “Tablada Suite” series, geographical maps, and genealogical charts begin to serve as important references during this period.” In 1992, Kuitca created his first works which incorporated the image of a painted bed, “often small and forlorn on the canvas.” Afterwards, the artist used the motif of an apartment floor plan, middle-class and compact, with only one bathroom. This floor plan would eventually lead to maps, theater plans and baggage carousels. Kuitca continued to explore organizational systems, in his “Neufert Suite” (1998) and “Encyclopédie” (2002) series. In his “Global Order” (2002) works, Kuitca combines a world map with architectural plans for interior spaces, “identifying borders and notions of ‘place’ as the changing products of human invention.”
Kuitca is well known “for his use of maps – particularly his transcriptions of topography onto mattresses” Kuitca says he uses the image of a map “to get lost… not to get oriented.” Stemming from his experimentation with aerial views of floor plans, Kuitca moved to maps because “he liked the way they occupy a space somewhere between the abstract and the representational.”
Kuitca’s retrospective “Guillermo Kuitca: Everything, Paintings and Works on Paper, 1980–2008” opened at the Miami Art Museum in 2009, and traveled to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo (19 February– 30 May 2010), New York, the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (26 June – 19 September 2010) and will concluded at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. (21 October 2010 – 9 January 2011).
Kuitca, Guillermo (1961- ) - 1998 Untitled (Christie's New York, 2007)
Watercolor pigment and wash on canvas; 198.1 x 192.4 cm.
Guillermo Kuitca is an Argentinean artist who was born in Buenos Aires in 1961, where he continues to work and live. Kuitca's work has been shown extensively around the globe, and is included in many important public collection, including The Tate Gallery, England; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC ; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY and The Daros Collection, Zürich, Switzerland . Kuitca represented Argentina at the 2007 Venice Biennale. Recurrent themes of travel, maps, memory, and migration can be found in Kuitca’s work.
In the early and mid-1980s, Kuitca made works which incorporate theater imagery. Many paintings from this period feature figures on a stage-like platform, with titles often inspired by plays, literature and music. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Kuitca began to integrate the subjects of architecture and topography in his work, often exploring the confluence of communal and private spaces. The floor plans of public institutions, such as those found in the “Tablada Suite” series, geographical maps, and genealogical charts begin to serve as important references during this period.” In 1992, Kuitca created his first works which incorporated the image of a painted bed, “often small and forlorn on the canvas.” Afterwards, the artist used the motif of an apartment floor plan, middle-class and compact, with only one bathroom. This floor plan would eventually lead to maps, theater plans and baggage carousels. Kuitca continued to explore organizational systems, in his “Neufert Suite” (1998) and “Encyclopédie” (2002) series. In his “Global Order” (2002) works, Kuitca combines a world map with architectural plans for interior spaces, “identifying borders and notions of ‘place’ as the changing products of human invention.”
Kuitca is well known “for his use of maps – particularly his transcriptions of topography onto mattresses” Kuitca says he uses the image of a map “to get lost… not to get oriented.” Stemming from his experimentation with aerial views of floor plans, Kuitca moved to maps because “he liked the way they occupy a space somewhere between the abstract and the representational.”
Kuitca’s retrospective “Guillermo Kuitca: Everything, Paintings and Works on Paper, 1980–2008” opened at the Miami Art Museum in 2009, and traveled to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo (19 February– 30 May 2010), New York, the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (26 June – 19 September 2010) and will concluded at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. (21 October 2010 – 9 January 2011).