Oscar Bony

Who was Oscar Bony?

Oscar Bony was an avant-garde artist known for his innovative and daring work. Born in Posadas, in the northern province of Misiones, he trained at Buenos Aires's prestigious Instituto Torcuato di Tella in the 1960s. Bony moved to Milan after Argentina's military coup in 1976, returning to Argentina only after the end of the dictatorship, in 1988. His work ranged from painting to live installations to video, finally focusing primarily on photography towards the end of his life.

His most famous work is La familia obrera, an installation which consisted of an actual working-class family seated on a pedestal. Considered subversive, it was closed down by the police. The work was recreated in a 2004 exhibit at the Houston Museum of Modern Art.

Bony's work was the subject of a retrospective, "Oscar Bony: el Mago," at the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, from November 2007 to February 2008.