The BCRA Awarded the Great Prize for Distinguished Painters to Marta Minujín

Marta Minujín is a plastic artist, pioneer of happenings, performance art, soft sculpture and video. She received the Great Prize for Distinguished Painters in the XVI Central Bank National Painting Award, aimed at promoting Argentine contemporary art.

Minujín's work, that is now part of the BCRA’s collection, is a drawing of one of her most emblematic productions, El Partenón de los Libros (1983) (The Parthenon of Books). The restoration of democracy in Argentina is celebrated in the artist' s work.

She is a key artist in the history of Argentine art. Since the 1960s, her innovative and avant-garde attitude has drawn attention. An attention that grows and continues until today. Her leading role inside and outside the institutional context turned her into one of the most outstanding creators of local art, receiving numerous awards. Minujín's public recognition exceeds the limits of the art sphere, being one of the most loved, followed and appreciated artists.

At the ceremony, out of the 36 finalist works, distinctions were granted to the winning works of the 2023 Central Bank National Painting Award.

In this edition, more than 1,220 artists took part in the contest with 3,660 works. The members of the jury were Ernesto Ballesteros, Daniel Fischer, Bárbara Golubicki, Delfina Helguera and Julio Sánchez with Rodrigo Alonso as curator.

Artists older than 35 years of age

FIRST PRIZE | Verónica Gómez, La papisa de las babosas y los cuatro humores (The Pope of the Slugs and the Four Moods).

SECOND PRIZE | Ariel Cusnir, The Southern Star / La Estrella del Sur.

THIRD PRIZE | Jimena Travaglio, Sin título, de la serie Monitoreo y control (Untitled, from the Monitoring and Control Series).

Honorable Distinction: Ariel Mora, Sin título (Untitled)

Honorable Distinction: Belén Romero Gunset, Poma la tiene clara (Poma Has It All Figured Out).

Artists younger than 35 years of age

FIRST PRIZE | El Pelele, POSE.

SECOND PRIZE | Leonardo Guardianelli, Rueda de fuego (Wheel of Fire).

THIRD PRIZE | Renata Juncadella, La trampa sagrada (The Sacred Trap).

Honorable Distinction: Francisca Amigo Heras, Capitel (Chapiter).

The exhibition of the selected and the winning works of this edition of the Central Bank National Painting Award, can be visited free of charge until March 29, 2024, Monday to Friday, from 10 am to 4 pm, at the Museum of the BCRA (San Martín 216, City of Buenos Aires).

Over the years, the Central Bank National Painting Award has received several prizes: in 2010, it won the Eikon Award in the sponsorship campaign or cultural sponsorship category; in 2017, it was declared of interest by the Ministry of Culture; and in 2018, it received the international distinction in pptArt Patronage in the 21st Century for the sustained promotion of Argentine visual art.

The itinerant exhibition of the Award with the selected and awarded works of each edition traveled across the country. Moreover, this year an exhibition was organized to commemorate the 15th year of the Central Bank National Painting Award which took place from October to November at the Kirchner Cultural Center and Rodrigo Alonso was also the curator. In this exhibition, the 40 selected works of the Award reflect the diversity of the Argentine art scene.

Since the launch of the Central Bank National Painting Award in 2007, 13,000 artists from all over the country have submitted around 40,000 works, out of which more than 100 works have been acquired by the BCRA, representing the recent history of visual art in Argentina.

December 5, 2023.