Alberto se inventó a Greco [Alberto Discovers Greco]

As he traveled around Europe in the early 1960s, Argentine artist Alberto Greco produced a series of drawings that functioned as a diary of his experiences and impressions. This small drawing is characteristic of Greco’s graphic work. Beginning with an inkblot—a form created by chance—he generated names, numbers, and automatic writing to narrate his everyday experiences. The phrase “Alberto invented Greco,” written at the top, acts as both title and signature for his work. On March 12, 1962, Greco set out on the streets of Paris with a piece of chalk, signing his name on people, objects, animals, and situations in what he titled the Primera Exposición de Arte Vivo [First Exhibition of Live Art]. Greco’s action radically questioned the idea that lines on a page form the basis of all representation. Transcending the limits of the page to make “drawings” out of real life, Greco even considered his own life a work of art, declaring, “Greco is a work by Greco.”