"Avenida Arbolada" from 1930 is a unique, landscape work from famed Argentinian avant-garde artist, Emilio Pettoruti. The work employs themes of cubism and abstraction, of which the artist is famous for. This particular painting measures 27.95 x 22.04 inches (71 x 56 cm) and is unframed in excellent condition.
Emilio Pettoruti was born in 1892 in the La Plata, Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Encouraged by his grandfather, Pettoruti began painting at the age of 11. By 14, he was enrolled at La Plata Provincial Academy of Fine Arts, but dropped out as he felt he could learn more on his own. He later attended the Academia de Bella Artes, Florence, Italy. The artist was heavily influenced by Cubism, Abstract Expressionism and avant-garde movements during his stay in Italy. After participating in exhibitions throughout Italy, Germany, and France in the early 1920's, he planned an exhibition in his home country of Argentina at Galería Witcomb in 1924, which caused a great deal of controversy because of its avand-garde subject matter.
In 1927, Pettoruti was appointed Director of the Museum of Fine Arts of La Plata and in 1940, Friends of Art of Buenos Aires organized the first retrospective of Pettoruti, whose works, once cruelly criticized, are now admired by the public and critics. The artist had a prolific career, exhibiting throughout the Americas at the Círculo de Bellas Artes, Montevideo (1939); Amigos del Arte, Buenos Aires (1940); the Museum of Art of San Francisco (1944) and at the National Academy in New York (1944) and well as abroad Il Milione, Milan (1952); Numero, Florence (1952), and San Marco, Rome (1953), Durand-Ruel Gallery (1954); in Abstract Art, First Generations 1910-1939, at the Musée d'Art of Saint Etienne (1957); in 50 Years of Abstract Painting, organised by Michel Seuphor, and in other individual shows.
After 1959, he participated in the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles and in 1960, he took part in the Primera Exposiciòn Internacional de Arte Moderno held at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Buenos Aires and also in Construction and Geometry in Painting, exhibition held in New York. In 1961, he exhibited in International Constructive Abstract Art exhibition held at Galerie Denise René in Paris with the most important international abstract artists.
Pettoruti also received a number of important awards, including the Guggenheim Continent of the Americas Prize (1956) and the Grand Prix awarded by the Fondo Nacional de las Artes (1967). In his last years, he exhibited in Bonn, Berlin, Brussels and Geneva, among other European cities, and represented Argentina in the XI São Paulo International Biennial in Brazil (1971). He died in Paris in the fall of 1971 at the age of 79.
