Born in Berlin in 1920, Martín Blaszko left Germany as a teenager. Moving through Europe in the mid-1930s, Blaszko studied in Lodz, Poland, with Jankel Adler and Enrique Barczinski. In 1938, he went to Paris briefly, where he met Marc Chagall and where he visited countless exhibitions, studying contemporary European art. Blaszko moved to Argentina in 1939, fleeing the German occupation of France.
In Buenos Aires in the 1940s, there was a committed group of abstract artists, who were engaged in conversations about challenging the conventions of artistic practice. Blaszko met Carmelo Arden Quin in 1945 and, with Arden Quin, co-founded the Grupo Madí. The following year, he exhibited some of his Madí paintings in the Third Exposición MADI at the Bohemien Club, Galerías Pacifico, in Buenos Aires. In 1947, Blaszko began making sculptures.
Blaszko’s philosophy of sculpture was marked by an idea about the rhythm of forms and their inter-relationships. Writing in 1960, Germain Derbecq described his aesthetic in terms of a universal geometry: “Measurement, geometry, balance of forces – in such terms [Blaszko] formulates personal ideas. He follows logical sequences of dialogue between planes, or their intersections; he outlines space by means of angles which he determines with mathematical precision; the language of numbers testifies to his total control of harmonies.”
In 1952, one of Blaszko’s most important sculptures, Monumento al prisionero político desconocido (Monument to the Unknown Political Prisoner), was shown at the Tate Gallery in London and received an award from the Institute of Contemporary Art. The sculpture, like many of his later works, was meant as a study for a large-scale public installation. In 1956, Blaszko represented Argentina at the Venice Biennale. Throughout his prolific career, he received numerous awards in recognition of his work and participated in many international exhibitions, including Latin American Artists of the Twentieth Century at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1993). In 2001, a solo exhibition of his work was held at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Buenos Aires.
1984: Bank of Interamerican Development, Washington, DC
2001: Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires (MAMBA)
2002: Martín Blaszko. Zeichnungen und Collagen, Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität, Frankfurt, Germany
2010: Martín Blaszko. Proyecciones urbanísticas, MALBA Colección Costantini, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires
Blaszko’s work has also been included in numerous group exhibitions, including Sites of Latin American Abstraction, Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach (2009); Arte Abstracto Argentino, Fundación PROA, Buenos Aires (2003); Abstract Art from Río de la Plata, Buenos Aires, and Montevideo, 1933-53, The Americas Society, New York (2001); Exposición de Arte Madí, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (1997); Latin American Artists of the XX Century, Museum of Modern Art, New York 1990); Abstraction in the XXth Century, Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires (1985); Venice Biennale (1960); Third Madí Exhibition, Bohemien Club, Galerías Pacífico, Buenos Aires (1946).
Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, New York
Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA) - Fundación Costantini, Buenos Aires
Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires (MAMBA), Buenos Aires
Von Bartha Collection, Basel, Switzerland For complete CV, please download the PDF below.
