Antonio Seguí
1934–2022 · Argentine painter, printmaker and sculptor
Antonio Seguí (Villa Allende, Córdoba, 1934 – Buenos Aires, 2022) was an Argentine painter, printmaker, sculptor and illustrator whose work combines expressionist figuration with a sharp, ironic view of society. His recurring men in hats and the sculptural series Familia Urbana made him one of the most recognisable Argentine artists of his generation.
Self-taught in academies in Córdoba, he made his first trip to Europe at seventeen and studied in Madrid and Paris. He settled in Paris in 1964. After a Mexican period and a pop-inflected phase around 1964-1967, his painting grew darker in the 1970s. Key works include Icarus (1965), Elephant with Light Background (1972) and The Distance and the Gaze (1976-1977), held by the National Museum of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires.
The Argentine military dictatorship turned his voluntary residence in France into forced political exile, and his French home was machine-gunned in 1982. His legacy includes large donations to Argentine and French institutions and a permanent mural at Independencia station on the Buenos Aires subway.