Hugo Demarco
{{Short description|Argentine-born French painter}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Hugo Demarco
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| birth_name = Hugo Rodolfo Demarco
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1932|07|13}}
| birth_place = Buenos Aires, Argentina
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| death_date = {{Death date and age|1995|11|28|1932|07|13}}
| death_place = Aubervilliers, Paris, France
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| nationality =
| education = Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes
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| style = Op art
| movement = Kinetic art, Nouvelle Tendance
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Hugo Demarco (13 July 1932—28 November 1995) was an Argentine-born French painter associated with the kinetic (op art) and Nouvelle Tendance movements.{{cite web|url=https://bebeez.it/arte/kromya-art-gallery-un-ponte-per-larte/|title=Kromya Art Gallery, un ponte per l'arte|date=2021-03-14|publisher=Bebeez|access-date=2021-12-25|language=it}} Demarco's work is concerned largely with color and movement and he often used prisms to reflect light and create movement.{{cite web|url=https://www.lanacion.com.ar/opinion/con-color-y-movimiento-artistas-argentinos-brillan-en-paris-nid1949257/|title=Con color y movimiento, artistas argentinos brillan en París|date=2016-10-27|last=Kantt|first=Nathalie|publisher=La Nacion|access-date=2021-12-25}} His work created "very active structures, in spite of the simplicity of their patterns" by using form, color, texture, and rhythm, including color degradation and chromatic contrasts, to create movement.
Biography
Hugo Rodolfo Demarco was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 13 July 1932.{{cite web|url=http://www.artnet.com/artists/hugo-demarco/|title=Hugo Demarco (Argentine, 1932-1995)|date=n.d.|publisher=artnet|access-date=2021-12-25}}{{cite web|url=http://www.rebon.com.ar/azara/pdf/cuadernillo_arte_imprenta.pdf|title=De pinceles y acuarelas: Patrimonio artístico argentino|last=Di Leva|first=Claudia|date=2010|publisher=Miradas de la Argentina|access-date=2021-12-25|language=es}} He was of Italian descent and later spent time in Brescia, Italy.
After finishing his degree at Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires in 1957, Demarco taught painting and design.{{cite web|url=https://www.jcmac.art/artists/demarco-marco/|title=DEMARCO Hugo|date=n.d.|publisher=jcmac|access-date=2021-12-25}}{{cite web|url=https://www.expertisez.com/magazine/hugo-demarco-art-cinetique|title=Hugo Demarco, art cinétique|date=n.d.|publisher=Expertisez.com|access-date=2021-12-25|language=fr}} Not long after, in 1959, he moved to Paris with Julio Le Parc and Horacio García Rossi, his former classmates, to join the French art scene.{{cite web|url=https://www.gente.com.ar/entretenimiento/arte/julio-le-parc-los-argentinos-sabemos-mirar-al-futuro/|title=Julio Le Parc: "Los argentinos sabemos mirar al futuro"|date=2019-08-31|last=Martin|first=Hugo|publisher=GENTE|access-date=2021-12-25|language=es}}{{cite web|url=https://leonardo.info/blog/2019/05/09/in-memoriam-kinetic-artist-antonio-asis|title=In Memoriam: Kinetic Artist Antonio Asis|date=2019-05-09|publisher=Leonardo|access-date=2021-12-25}} Demarco started creating kinetic artwork with other Latin American expat artists, including Argentinians Antonio Asis, Mariano Carrera, Carlos Agüero, and Armando Durante and Venezuelan Jesús Rafael Soto, in addition to Le Parc and García Rossi. He was among the early members of the Groupe de Recherche d'Art Visuel (GRAV), a group of visual artists including Le Parc, Soto, Sérgio de Camargo, and François Morellet, among others.{{cite web|url=https://thequietus.com/articles/20147-francois-morellet-profile-birthday-mayor-gallery-annely-juda-fine-art-review|title=Off The Grid: Francois Morellet at Ninety|date=2016-04-30|last=Cowart|first=Geoff|access-date=2021-12-25|publisher=The Quietus}} He was also in Position, a group of Argentine geometrical artists living and working in Paris, including Antonio Asis, Carlos Agüero, and Armando Durante, upon its creation in 1971. He also served as a trainer for the PUC rugby club.{{citation needed|date=December 2021}}
Demarco's first solo painting and relief exhibition was at Galerie Denise René in 1961. In 1963, he and other Latin American artists received a grant from the French government to stay in Paris and continue creating art.{{cite web|url=https://www.wallpaper.com/art/julio-le-parc-lockdown-interview|title=Disruptive nonagenarian Julio Le Parc is still making waves|date=2020|last=Loiseau|first=Benoît|publisher=Wallpaper|access-date=2021-12-25}} Demarco was featured in two documentaries within the Nouvelle Tendance movement: Le mouvement (1966) and Lumière et mouvement (1967). In 1967, he held a one-man exhibition at both the Op Gallery Esslingen and at Denise René's Hans Nager Gallery in Krefeld, Germany.{{cite web|url=http://dada.compart-bremen.de/item/agent/848|title=Hugo Demarco|date=n.d.|publisher=compart Center of Excellence Digital Art|access-date=2021-12-25}}
In June 1968, Demarco, Le Parc, and Costa Rican artist Juan Luis Rodriguez Sibaja were on their way to a pro-union demonstration in Flins when Demarco and Le Parc were arrested by the French military police.{{cite news|last=Carroll|first=Joseph|date=1968-06-14|title=De Gaulle may free Gen. Salan to appease Right Wing|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/259816716/?terms=%22hugo%20demarco%22%20france&match=1|work=The Guardian|location=London, England|access-date=2021-12-25|via=Newspapers.com}}{{cite thesis |last=Brodsky|first=Estrellita Bograd|date=2009|title=Latin American artists in postwar Paris: Jesús Rafael Soto and Julio Le Parc, 1950–1970|type=dissertation|publisher=New York University|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/304954794|access-date=2021-12-25|id={{ProQuest|304954794}} }} At this time, France was in a state of discontent and student protests were worrying the government, who thought they may go as far as civil war. Demarco and Le Parc were deported and spent several months in exile, initially staying in Belgium but later traveling through Germany, Italy, and Spain.{{cite web|url=https://cabodegata.net/18-viaje-literario-por-el-parque-eco-14/|title=Viaje literario por el Parque|date=n.d.|last=Galindo|first=Miguel|publisher=Amigos del Parque Natural Cabo de Gata-Níjar|access-date=2021-12-25|language=es}} During their absence, a number of foreign artists threatened to leave the country.{{cite news|last=Wicker|first=Tom|date=1968-10-03|title=Continental diary|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/371446432/?terms=%22hugo%20demarco%22%20france&match=1|work=The Evening Sun|location=Baltimore, MD|access-date=2021-12-25|via=Newspapers.com}} The expulsion, however, gave Demarco and Le Parc the attention they were looking for as artists and suddenly found themselves in demand. Within a few months, they were allowed to return to France on the grounds that they would not engage in political activism again.
Demarco and his wife Amalia had children.{{cite web|url=https://www.artsy.net/artwork/hugo-demarco-vitesse-bleu|title=Vitesse Bleu, 1993|date=n.d.|publisher=Artsy.net|access-date=2021-12-25}} He died in the Aubervilliers area of Paris on 28 November 1995.{{cite web|url=https://www.data.gouv.fr/fr/reuses/deces-en-france-de-1970-a-aujourdhui/|title=Décès en France de 1970 à aujourd'hui|date=2020|publisher=Republique Francaise|access-date=2021-12-25|language=fr}} The highest recorded price for one of Demarco's paintings was a 2008 Sotheby's New York auction that sold Relief à Deplacement Continuelle for US$67,000.
==Galleries==
Among the many places in which his artwork has been displayed are:
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Demarco, Hugo}}
Category:Painters from Buenos Aires
Category:Argentine male painters
Category:20th-century French painters