Dos Figuras 

Curator: Here we have Emilio Pettoruti’s “Dos Figuras,” an acrylic painting reflecting the artist's engagement with modernism and cubist principles. The piece, whose exact date of execution remains unknown, immediately grabs attention with its bold colors and geometric simplification. Editor: It hits you, doesn't it? A jolt of vintage pop art with a dash of silent movie drama. The figures look like stylized chess pieces, caught in some strange, silent transaction. What’s being offered here? Or withheld? Curator: Well, consider the material reality. The precise application of acrylic paints creates hard edges, emphasizing form over illusion. The division of space is almost diagrammatic. It’s not about rendering figures but presenting them as constructed objects. Pettoruti seems fascinated by the language of forms stripped down to their essentials. Editor: Absolutely, but what those forms whisper…one rigid and pale, the other curved and offering green beads, the scene reads almost like an oracle moment. Those shapes dance a strangely tense, social waltz! Don’t you feel the drama simmering? I do! Curator: Drama comes from the composition but also from our social understanding. Pettoruti came of age during significant upheaval. His movement between Argentina and Europe placed him at various nodes of the modernist project, constantly negotiating local and international pressures. One could read these “figures” as emblems of shifting social positions, particularly considering his later engagement with abstract art. Editor: Perhaps the question it poses: what do we sacrifice in the streamlining, and formalizing the real. We gain sleekness but at the cost of... What would Pettoruti whisper? I imagine that a life spent traveling informs all! Curator: Right, the streamlining, commodification and negotiation… aspects to definitely mull over while experiencing it for yourself. Editor: True. Every curve and rigid angle has a silent story to share! It sings in shapes and angles.