Untitled

Ernesto Deira was a member of the Nueva Figuración [New Figuration] group that he helped form in Buenos Aires in 1961 with Jorge de la Vega, Luis Felipe Noé, and Rómulo Macció. While the movement is best known for its large-scale, expressionistic, and figurative painting, members of the group produced a number of works on paper, many of which are in the Blanton Museum. In this untitled drawing, we see the Nueva Figuración interest in expressive line and distorted figures, but with the delicacy of line and scale that is characteristic of the drawing medium. This drawing provides an important link to the tradition of cartoon and caricature in Argentina, which was also experiencing a revival at this time.