León Ferrari

Highly regarded Argentinian conceptual artist whose work attacked war, government and religion

León Ferrari, artist. Born: 3 September, 1920, in Buenos aires, argentina. died: 25 July, 2013, in Buenos aires, aged 92.

LeóN Ferrari was an iconoclastic Argentine conceptual artist who marshalled ceramics, sculpture and poems as “revolutionary weapons” against war, government and religion.

In 2004 in buenos Aires he displayed statues of the Virgin Mary in a blender, little saints in baby bottles and Christ figures in a toaster to demonstrate his belief that people are force-fed religion. Archbishop Jorge Mario bergoglio of buenos Aires, now Pope Francis, called the exhibition blasphemy and demanded that it close. After public protests that included violent attacks on the artworks, it did.

Ferrari began his artistic career as a ceramicist, then became an abstract artist. As his political and moral beliefs strengthened, he said, he grew passionate about using his talent to challenge what he considered illegitimate authority. Perhaps his most famous piece, Western Civilization and Christianity, depicted a nearly life-size Christ being crucified on an American fighter plane in Vietnam.

the recipient of several prestigious artistic awards, Ferrari professed not to care if some considered his work more polemical than artistic.

“the only thing I ask of art is that it helps me express what I think as clearly as possible, to invent visual and critical signs that let me condemn more efficiently the barbarism of the West,” he wrote in 1965. “Someone could possibly prove to me that this is not art. I would have no problem with it, I would not change paths, I would simply change its name, crossing out art and calling it politics, corrosive criticism, anything at all, really.”

Ferrari castigated the Argentine government for human rights abuses well before the military took full control in 1976. Fearing reprisal, he went into exile in brazil from 1976 to 1991. His son Ariel was abducted by the military and is presumed dead.

One of Ferrari’s first works on returning to buenos Aires was a collage of clippings about charred bodies found during military rule. Its purpose was to criticise the news media for not reporting on murders committed by the military government. He titled the piece We Knew Nothing About It.

His works have been exhibited in hundreds of galleries and museums around the world.

In 2007 he received the Golden Lion award as best artist at the Venice biennale. the Konex Foundation, which gives awards to outstanding Argentine cultural figures, named him his country’s best conceptual artist for the five years ending in 2006. At his death he was working on a Guggenheim Fellowship to study sex and violence in Christian art.

León Ferrari was born in buenos Aires in 1920. His father, Augusto, was an Italian artist who painted religious frescos and helped restore and build churches.

He advised his son not to choose an artistic career because of poor financial prospects, so León studied engineering. He made repeated trips to Italy, where he worked as an engineer, studied ceramics and made abstract art.

In 1960 he had a show of his abstract art in buenos Aires. by 1965 he had changed course to do political art and made his sculpture of Christ being crucified on a fighter plane. He did almost nothing but political works until he left for brazil in 1976. He published a manifesto in which he wrote: “Art is not beauty or novelty; art is effectiveness and disruption.”

While in brazil he reverted to abstract art to earn a living. His few shows during his exile were in brazil.

Ferrari is survived by his wife, Alicia barros Castro de Ferrari; two sons, a sister and seven grandchildren.