Meet the Women Shaping Argentina's Art Scene: Historias Entre Lienzos

In conversation with Barbara Niveyro

Historias Entre Lienzos (Stories Between Canvases) is the first virtual archive of Argentine women artists. It features biographies, documents, and images of artists' works from the 19th and 20th centuries. Founded by Guadalupe Lobeto (Columbia University) and Paloma Etenberg (Goldsmiths, University of London), the project followed their experience at institutions like the Guggenheim Collection in Venice, the Museo de Arte Moderno in Buenos Aires, and Praxis Gallery in New York. In 2019, they partnered to create Historias Entre Lienzos, which was declared a project of national interest by the National Congress in 2022.

Guadalupe Lobeto and Paloma Etenberg

What is the project Stories Between Canvases?

Historias Entre Lienzos began as a research project in 2019 due to the lack of information on Argentine artists, especially women artists from the 19th and 20th centuries. This gap led to a bias in their study and recognition. The initial research involved surveying museum collections, galleries, libraries, and archives. We also reached out to art historians, managers, artists, and their families to create a comprehensive archive of these women artists born or living in Argentina. Today, our team visits institutions, archives, collectors, and interviews artists' descendants to continuously enrich the archive.

1) Raquel Forner, Mujeres del mundo, 1938, Fundación Forner-Bigatti
2) Sofía Posadas, El sueño de San Martín, Museo Histórico Naciona
3) Lía Correa Morales, Retrato de Madame de L., 1929, Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes Franklin Rawson
4) Léonie Matthis, Descanso, ubicación desconocida

What are the stages that the project had?

At first, we were working side by side, just the two of us. This lasted about a year until we were able to launch our website and decided to expand our team. Since then, we have been coordinating an internship program with students from the Universidad de San Andrés in Buenos Aires. We receive around three interns per year, which has been a brilliant experience so far and has helped optimize our process and expand our database more rapidly and effectively.

Our current goal, given that we have more of a structure, is to dive deeper into the life and work of a selection of artists, and include testimonies, interviews, primary sources, and so on. Additionally, we would like to revitalize our website and add filters and new tools that make the overall navigation experience and the browsing process easier for users.

What is the journey of finding a new artist like?

Over the years we have put together a very large list of names we retrieved from the Salones Nacionales, from archival materials, from the press (current and historical), exhibitions we visit, and, of course, very valuable suggestions that we receive over email from people who reach out. So, when we are ready to start looking into a new artist, we open that list and choose from there. That’s typically our starting point.

Can you share an example of an artist that you added to Historias Entre Lienzos and how that process went?

One of our favorite artists is Andrea Bacle, a Swiss artist who moved to Buenos Aires during the first half of the nineteenth century and became the first woman to engage in lithography. Not only that, but she was also a key figure in the formation of the Argentine national identity as she developed the first images of illustrious characters of the time such as Belgrano, Rivadavia, Alvear, Paz, Dorrego, Guido, Saavedra, Vicente López, Figueredo, Agrelo, Pedriel, Cavia, and Arenales, among others. The process of researching her involved reading all the available bibliography and papers already done on her, as well as contacting specific museums to review their material. In this case, the Museo Histórico Nacional in San Telmo was truly gracious and shared with us lithographs that we had never seen before.

Andrea Bacle's portraits of 19th-century Argentinian próceres

What other projects/artists/thinkers do you collaborate with?

We are constantly in touch with museums, galleries, foundations, private collections, and the family of the artists we research. The Museo de Bellas Artes de La Boca de Artistas Argentinos Benito Quinquela Martín truly helped us a lot in researching artists from the historic neighborhood of La Boca, such as Cata Mórtola de Bianchi. The Complejo Museográfico Provincial Enrique Udaondo generously shared their complete list of women artists with us. The archivist from the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes was also of tremendous help, and the Museo Casa Yrurtia taught us a lot about Lía Correa Morales and Julia Wernicke. These are just a few examples of museums that collaborated with us, but the list is much longer (you can read the entire list on our website), and I’m happy to say that they have all been extremely generous.

Historias Entre Lienzos would not have been possible without the generosity of the descendants of the artists and many artists who very kindly support us in many ways. In the process, we have become quite well known in the local scene and, in 2022, we were approached by the National Congress to receive a condecoration: they declared Historias Entre Lienzos a project of national interest!

Paloma Etenberg and Guadalupe Lobeto receiving the condecoration by the
National Congress when Historias Entre Lienzos was declared of national interest

Suggestions for people in similar initiatives who don't know where to start?

Our recommendation would be to start slowly and on a smaller scale, to identify very clearly what is the issue you are trying to address or help resolve and see where that goes. Also, creating solid and enthusiastic teams is key! It’s always great to have support, from the inside and from the outside – a good network to collaborate with makes the difference.

︎ MY LOVE TO DISTORTION BY SHIS UNUSUAL

Meet the Women Shaping Argentina's Art Scene: Historias Entre Lienzos