León Ferrari
Sin título [Untitled]
1964
Ink on paper
48.3 cm x 30.5 cm (19 in. x 12 in.)
Archer M. Huntington Museum Fund, 2001

Like that of Mira Schendel and Gego, León Ferrari's work examines the overlap between drawing and writing. However, unlike the other two artists, he rooted his practice in a strong left-wing political discourse. In 1964, the same year he made this work, he produced his famous cuadro escrito ("written picture"), in which descriptive text on the drawing surface replaces more traditional visual representation. He also produced a series of "letters to a General," drawings in which the calligraphic writing dissolves into illegible symbols. Rather than pointing to a formal or self-reflexive exploration into line and writing, Ferrari's drawings of the period suggest a more urgent and critical breakdown in communication linked to the military then in power in Argentina. For Ferrari the issues of representation and control cannot be divorced from one another. The decision to produce illegible "quasi-text" like this drawing is part of his ongoing investigation into the many transactions of power involved in looking at a work of art.