Background
Juan Castagnino was born on November 18, 1908 in Mar Del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Juan Castagnino was born on November 18, 1908 in Mar Del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Juan studied in the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires, and became a disciple of Lino Enea Spilimbergo and Ramón Gómez Cornet. In 1941 Castagnino enrolled at the University of Buenos Aires and obtained a degree in architecture.
In 1933 Juan joined the first Argentine artists' guild, and later that year he exhibited at the National Fine Arts Hall in Buenos Aires. Together with Antonio Berni, Spilimbergo and Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros, he created a series of murals for a villa belonging to local businessman Natalio Botana, in Don Torcuato. Castagnino traveled to Paris in 1939, where he attended the atelier of cubist painter André Lhote, later traveling across Europe perfecting his art and in the company of Georges Braque, Fernand Léger and Pablo Picasso, among others. His illustrations for a EUDEBA (University of Buenos Aires Press) edition of José Hernández's "Martín Fierro", gained wide recognition. Castagnino died in Buenos Aires in 1972.
By the end of the 1920s, he became a member of the Communist Party of Argentina.
Juan Carlos Castagnino was devoted to the artistic traditions of neorealism. His works depict the people’s struggle for their rights.
