Studio Orta

The 1970’s in Argentina was marked by a growing interest in the Latin American reality, sparked by the mythical voyage of Che Guevara who discovered vast social inequalities. The rise in the student movements reinforced the sentiment of belonging to a Latin American identity, not one forged by the European immigrants but one built on a social and geographical reality that was being discovered. As a young artist living in Rosario, the home town of El Che, Jorge Orta felt part of this new social awakening and his response was the series of paintings Geometría Contextual. The ideological positioning of these works opposes the dominant North American and European culture, with their geometric composition partially drawn from indigenous motifs found in vernacular architecture, ceramics and textile designs across Latin America.