Oscar Bony

Oscar Bony
Born	Oscar Ruben Bony June 10, 1941 Posadas, Misiones Argentina
Died	2002 Buenos Aires, Argentina
Nationality	Argentian
Education	Graduated From Colegio de Posadas with an undergraduate degree and started his Artistic training with Lucas Braulio.
Notable work	La Familia Obrera (the working-class family), Fue, ni Fue, Nunca lo sabremos (it was him, it was not him, we will never know)
Movement	Conceptual Art

Oscar Ruben Bony (1941–2002) was an avant-garde artist known for his innovative and daring work. Bony was a very active artist who exhibited his work often. He wanted his work to have a huge statement, and have the public experience what was the events occurring in Argentina's culture while capturing innocence, guilty, and the people being trapped. He wanted his people to open their eyes to the injustice that was happening to the people and how life was for the less fortunate.

Biography

Early Life

Born on June 10, 1941 in the city of Posadas, in the northern province of Misiones, the son of Luciano Roman Bony and Emma Martinez. his mother was Emma Martinez was Paraguayan and worked as a teacher, and his father was Argentine, a wrangler and saddle maker. Bony graduated from colegio de Posadas with an undergraduates degree and began his artistic training. he trained at Buenos Aires's prestigious Instituto Torcuato di Tella in the 1960's. as he continued with his career, He held many important public positions for many years revolving around art. At the age of 17, Oscar Bony began studying painting with a local professor. In 1959, he received a grant to travel to Buenos Aires to attend school. He attended the "escuela preparatoria de Bellas artes", but he considered himself a self-taught artist. From 1965 to 1968, he experienced many different movements of art, which ranged from pop art, minimalism, and conceptual art. This positioned him in the midst of a radical movement. This movement was the Avant Garde movement then taking place in alternative Galleries.

Training

From 1959 to 1963, Bony took classes at the Demetrio Urruchua and Juan Carlos Castagnino's studios. Oscar worked as an assistant for Antonio Berni. He focused on imagery, and this phase of his life revealed a certain expression of realism, which then moved him towards the new figuration movement. For his early art, he proclaimed himself to be self-taught but later in life, he stopped working with art and began practicing photography. He was a photographer for a record label group in Argentina between 1967 and 1973. Throughout his career and work, he did many different positions. With those different positions, Bony learned the basics of his Craft from Areco, but he always considered himself to be self taught. Bony moved to Milan after Argentina's military coup in 1976, returning to Argentina only after the end of the dictatorship, in 1988. His work ranged from painting to live installations to video, finally focusing primarily on photography towards the end of his life. His work dealt predominantly with the theme of violence. Bony produced work on the theme of suicide, justice, execution and death.

Awards/Exhibitions

Starting in 1955, Oscar Bony won many awards. He won first student prize for office of culture of the province of Missiones, Posadas. In 1958, he won 1st prize in Semana Del Mar as well as 1st prize in Amigos del Arte. In 1962, he won 1st prize in Salon de Artes Plasticas de Missiones. In 1963, he won honorable mention in Salon de Rosario as well as in Salon de Artes Del Mar del Plata, and Salon annual Museo Provincio de Bellas Artes Rosa Galisteo de Rodriguez. In 1965, he won the honorary prize in Premio de Honor ver estimar. In 1976, he won 1st prize in Marcelo de Ridder Prize, as well as Banco del Acuerdo Prize. In 1999, he won honorable mention in the Costantini 99 prize. In 2001 he won honorable mention in Segundo Premio Banco de la Nation Argentina a las Artes Visuales. In 1996 he won Artist of the Year. In 1997 he won Artist of the Year. In 1998, he won Artistic Creativity Prize as well as Candidate, Abraham Haber Photographer of the year Prize. He also won Aldo Pellegrini Artist of the ear Prize. In 2002, all of the prizes and awards he won in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Bony's work was the subject of a retrospective, "Oscar Bony: el Mago," at the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, from November 2007 to February 2008.

Oscar Bony participated in many exhibitions. Starting from 1958 and ending in 2007, his first exhibition in 1958 was the Ciclo de Becarios to his last exhibition which was El Amigo Abros. His work went on to be exhibited 5 years after his death. He also was involved in many group exhibitions starting in the 1960s on to today. The most popular one that he was involved with, the most well known, was experencias 1968, figurations to system art in 1971, as well as Otra fotografia, in 1997.

Death

Oscar Bony died in 2002 when he was 61 years of age. He did not commit suicide, as most people would think, but rather died of an intestinal disease that was not yet fully diagnosed. This would end up showing through his artwork, because it is embedded with ethical frustration and despair. It seemed like he would use his artwork and photography to display the pain as well as quite possibly depression that he may have been going through due to the disease he was living with. Just before his death, he was working on his suicide series which could be interpreted as him wanting to end his life as well as his suffering.

Artwork

La Familia obrera (The Working Class Family), 1968. His most famous work is La Familia obrera (The Working Class Family, 1968). It was a controversial installation that consisted of an actual working-class family seated on a pedestal for 8 hours. Bony used and payed a working class family to sit in the gallery while recorded sounds of there everyday life played in the background. La Familia obrera Considered subversive, it was closed down by the police. First executed for the influential exhibition Experiencias '68 at the Instituto Torcuato Di Tella, the work was recreated in a 2004 exhibit at the Houston Museum of Modern Art. The performance drew attention to questions of class and inequality not discussed in the mainstream Argentinian press.

60 metros cuadrados y su informacion (60 Square meters and its information), 1967. Bony's installation 60 metros cuadrados y su informacion (60 Square meters and its information) was first shown as part of experiencias visuales 1967. This work comprises a 60 square meters of chain-link fence on the floor of the gallery with film projector screening a detail of the fencing. the spectators experiences walking on this surface is contrasted with the projected image. The visitors and views were encouraged to walk on the fencing, to fully engaged with the experience of being held captive.

Fue, no Fue, Nunca los sabremos (It was him, It was not him, We will never know), 1998. This artwork fell under the series of photographs that he did, titled the suicidios series(suicide). This depicts the death of the subject-author. The images doesn't only evoke or allude violence that cannot be seen but draws to real violence that is in the making. In this series Oscar exposes violence, while leaving the work riddled with bullets. the words fue, no fue is written on a piece of paper held by a mask subjects, these words are used as way to describe the innocence or guilt of the person.

Additional Artwork

Sin Titulo, 1986 (Herlitzaka + Faria

Pan American Art project

- Kriminal, 1998. like fue, no fue. This is a photograph behind glass shot with a 9 millimeter pistol of a man shot dead on a staircase. With this photograph Oscar Bony is alluding to the idea of death and violence.

- La Ley Divina No tiene Porgue ser Justa (The Divine law doesn't have to be fair), 1998.

- Los Cielos (The Skies) 1975

External links

• http://www.arteba.com/es/acciones/sothebys/bony.htm
• https://web.archive.org/web/20080720145225/http://www.diversica.com/cultura/archivos/2007/11/oscar-bony-el-mago.php
• http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_9_92/ai_n6230174/pg_9