The rescue of Mariette Lydis, a cult artist who invites you to explore sexual eroticism and diversity

De las ilustraciones eróticas basadas en los poemas de Safo a las marchas del Ni Una Menos, las vírgenes, seres marginales, freaks y adolescentes, entre otros personajes, están presentes en la muestra que rescata la obra de Mariette Lydis. Ilustradora, pintora, dibujante, grabadora, condesa y bisexual, la artista austríaca que vivió en la Argentina atravesó todas esas identidades con libertad y dejó un legado que hoy permite una relectura desde la diversidad. Con más de 200 piezas, el Museo Sívori propone una reflexión que no solo visibiliza su producción sino que también pone de manifiesto su actualidad desde una perspectiva transgénero y transhistórica.

"Lydis was an advanced for his time -the beautiful Époque -had an agitated life, evident in his etching and drawings of erotic art that express the sexual freedom with which he lived and that is reflected in three marriage ruptures and love ties with women with women"He assured TN.com.Ar Teresa Riccardi, director of the museum and curator of the sample.

As modern and contemporary, his life and his work tell us fantastic, surreal, erotic and lyric stories and stories.His childhood in Vienna, his links with the Mediterranean aristocracy, his partners, lovers and successes in Paris, and the last stage of his exile in England and then in Buenos Aires, explain the diversity of projects that the artist embodied throughout herlife both affectively and artistically.

"Surrealism is a transhistoric movement, it does not stylistically follow that the history of art tells us about a chronology.Sometimes we try to fit art and history in genres, and many times it doesn't work like this.Mariette had some of this.His pictorial work, especially since he arrives in Argentina, is very surreal.In 'Transitioning the surreal' there is an exploration within the genre and of the genres both in the field of sexual and artistic identity, "says Riccardi.

Lydis reveals his versatility in drawing, the lithographic techniques used in the illustration and complexity of the Parisian publishing world in which he actively participates throughout his life.The cursed poets, by Paul Verlaine;Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flauvert;Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud...French literature illustrated by Lydis can be "leafing through" in Sívori.

"Malice and hate"

His art was bold for the personal times and events that they had to live.Lydis crossed the first and second World War in Europe, and Anchluss and Turkish war in Greece.A prompt conversion from Judaism to Catholicism would explain certain aspects of its late production.However, these tragic experiences, her work keeps her in suspense to transition and overcome her own stylistic searches, as well as her own identity.

Among many other jewels, the sample allows you to enjoy From Malice and Hatred (of malice and hate), the enigmatic oil of 1940, year in which it decides to embark towards Argentina.The piece talks about the disaster in which she lives and who manages to escape.

"Mariette makes a very vivid story of the Atlantic crossing, on that passenger ship.Long, risky, hot and wet, suffocating crossing, rich in fears (or, more borngeally, rich in fright), "wrote Jorge Luis Correa, historian and collector of Lydis's work.

The artist of Foley Begoña Cortazar ambient a text by Lydis published in 1945, in which he recounts how that journey was.

Cortazar's sound piece composes an ideal frame for "from Malice and...".Sirenas, ships sailing and the cold winter wind can even feel on the skin.

In another sector, the value of Mariette's work in relation to that of the Argentines Alfredo Gramajo Gutiérrez and Ramón Gómez Cornet-the image of Latin America that she saw when arriving in the country;and the daily and professional life of Lydis translated into literary connections with Pedro Forced (whom she makes the illustrations of melancholy), Eduardo Mallea, Raquel Forner and Nora Borges, among others.

It is that same literary crossing, as a turn of destiny, which allowed Argentines (re) to discover their work.It was from the novel La Luz Negra, by María Gainza published by Anagrama in 2018.The author - also criticism of art - recounts a world of counterfeiters in which "La Negra" stands out, a painter specialized in Truci.

A "secret room" for loves, virgins and lovers

The setting of Patricio Gil Flood and Paulina Silva Hauyon makes framework to the illustrations for the flowers of evil, Baudelaire, which are exhibited as a novelty and star of the exhibition.

In the same room you can see a repertoire of virgins, the litanies, the erotic works for the book of Safo and the exoticism of its trips embodied in the '50s.

Artistxs Invitadxs

The exhibition is also articulated with the proposals of Marcelo Pombo, Malena Pizani, Cecilia Szalkowicz, Effy Beth and Bartolina Xixa.The curator asked for very specific pieces based on Mariette's work.

"From the conceptual, Szalkowicz makes an institutional criticism.But it has something absurd that expresses it in objects and that coincides with surrealism, "said Riccardi.It was chosen in relation to the hands, which Lydis shows both in his pictorial and literary works.

In the room dedicated to the painting of recent years - mid -60s onwards - the great intervention of Marcelo Pombo Sunset of Mele Bruniard is highlighted, demonstrating in favor of Mariette Lydis's legacy and the movement or less.

"Each artist stands out and enters into a relationship with a Lydis work characteristic," summarizes Sívori's director.

The sample is part of the "Transurrealismo.Art and diversity of gender "that proposes a series of activities and workshops for families, specially designed tours for older adults, meetings for adolescents and young people, live music, transfminist literature, performatic works and readings of referent texts of feminism.

"Art is no stranger to our lives.The idea is to bring these issues in an honest way.We seek to disagree, understand art - and above all this work - in terms of coexistence and work together, "the curator invited.