Avant Garde Critical Studies47 Art and Propaganda during Peronist Argentina

This book compares political propaganda and abstract-concretist art, two representational systems at opposite ends of the imagery spectrum that are often studied separately. When analyzed in tandem, they reveal the fascinating visual contest that took place between the government and artists in crafting a modern image of the country. This book chronicles the history of the visual languages developed in Argentina during Peronism, exploring how art and propaganda interacted with and responded to their historical context. At the heart of this study is the term “intentional citations”, a framework that advocates for the socio-cultural specificity of Latin American modernist art, in contrast to models that overly rely on European concepts of modernism and the avant-garde. Readers will discover how Argentinian artists cited European artworks to express particular ideas and goals, how Peronist propaganda employed various artistic traditions—including abstraction—for political purposes, and how ideologues rebranded Perón and Eva as a formidable ruling couple. This book also examines how the Peronist regime and artists competed for control of the cultural field. Despite their stark political differences, however, both factions pursued similar goals.