Background
Luis Tomasello was born on November 29, 1915 in La Plata, Argentina, to an Italian family. His father was a bricklayer, carpenter, and painter.
Luis Tomasello was born on November 29, 1915 in La Plata, Argentina, to an Italian family. His father was a bricklayer, carpenter, and painter.
As a teenager, Luis Tomasello began his artistic studies by taking evening drawing classes before joining the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredón in Buenos Aires, Argentina from 1932 to 1938. Two years later, he enrolled at the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes Ernesto de la Cárcova in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he studied until 1944.
Tomasello made his first trip to Europe in 1945 and tackled geometric abstraction. In the mid-1940s, he met painters Emilio Pettoruti and Carmelo Arden Quin, two important figures in the Argentine avant-garde. In 1951, Tomasello came to Sicily to know his father's land, and discovered the work of Mondrian.
He settled in Paris in 1957. Here he exhibited with a group of artists whose research took them from constructivist abstraction to cinetism; an art form founded on optical illusion popular during 1950-1963.
His work was represented by the avant-garde Galerie Denise René and showed at numerous international exhibitions of Op-Art, including the the ground-breaking "The Responsive Eye" organized by the Museum of Modern Art, exhibited in 1965 at the Seattle Art Museum, and the landmark show 'La Lumière et le Mouvement' in 1967. He also exhibited at the Salons de Mai and the "Realités Nouvelles" in Paris.
His solo shows were held at the Museum of Buenos Aires in 1962; the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, in 1976; Museum of Contemporary Art, Madrid, in 1981; and at the Haus Ludwig Museum, Saarlouis, in 1996.
Over the last 50 years, Tomasello had developed a visual language that expresses movement through subtle shifts of color and contour. By attaching angled cubes to create a repetitive pattern on a flat surface, he explored the natural, yet visually illusive, kinetic interplay of light and shadow.
Luis Tomasello died on January 17, 2014 in Paris, France.
Luis Tomasello was best known for his white-on-white abstract geometric constructions that rely on light to create form and image. In 1970, he was awarded the First International Grand Prize at the II Biennale d’Art Coltejer in Medellin, Colombia and the Second International Prize at the VIII Biennale d’Art in Menton, France. Besides, he became a Knight in l’Order des Arts et des Lettres, Paris, France in 1976.
In 1998, Tomasello became the Artist of the Year of the Fondation Emilio Pettoruti in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was also named the Illustrious citizen of the city of La Plata, Argentina.
His works were included in many national and international exhibitions. As well as exhibiting extensively internationally, Tomasello completed numerous large-scale public art commissions in Argentina, France, Mexico, and the United States.
Currently, Tomasello's work is included in public collections in the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, the New York University Museum, the KrMüller Museum, Otterlo and the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris.
Atmosphère chromoplastique N° 342
Atmosphère chromoplastique N° 872
Atmosphère chromoplastique N° 276
Objet Plastique N° 860
La Lumière Noire, n°700
Objet Plastique N° 885
Objet Plastique N° 391
Atmosphère chromoplastique N° 378
Atmosphère chromoplastique N° 381
Atmosphère chromoplastique N° 316
Atmosphère chromoplastique N° 109
Atmosphère chromoplastique N° 187
La Lumière Noire, n°898
Atmosphère chromoplastique N° 250
Atmosphère chromoplastique N° 120
Atmosphère chromoplastique N° 572
Atmosphère chromoplastique N° 210
Quotations:
"I went to relief as an experience and in that process, I discovered the wonderful world of light. The reflection of colour on the surface fascinated me and that is what I’ve worked in from that time on."
"The shape gives rise to the color, which is transformed from vision into sensation; it is projected into space, where it tints the atmosphere, and becomes iridescent on touching the plane."
In 1957, Luis Tomasello joined a large and dynamic expatriate community of Latin American kinetic artists in Paris.
