Left image: Lisl Steiner, José Antonio Fernández-Muro in his studio on East 50th Street, New York, New York City, 1964. Chromogenic print from original negative, 2019 (1964), 8 1/2" x 11". Right image: Lisl Steiner, Sarah Grilo in her studio on East 50th Street, New York, New York City, 1964. Chromogenic print from original negative, 2019 (1964), 8 1/2" x 11". Both images: Courtesy of the Estate of Sarah Grilo and José Antonio Fernández-Muro and reproduced with permission from Lisl Steiner. On loan at the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA).
The Estate of José Antonio Fernández-Muro is honored to announce the archive loan from the Estate of Sarah Grilo and José Antonio Fernández-Muro to the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA). Both international figures of Post-War abstraction, the works of Grilo and Fernández-Muro integrate signs, symbols, and language, and dialogue with the cityscape.
Painters Sarah Grilo (Buenos Aires, 1919 – Madrid, 2007) and José Antonio Fernández-Muro (Madrid, 1920 – Madrid, 2014) met in Buenos Aires as students of fine arts and married in 1944. They traveled extensively, exhibited their work internationally, and were acquainted with some of the most important art-world figures of their time.
The archive is composed of a unique array of materials that includes negatives by photographers such as Lisl Steiner, original photographs by Grete Stern, Hans Namuth and Henry Grossman, international press clippings, and exhibition catalogues in several languages. In addition to their solo careers, these materials also reference the artists' participation in the groups Grupo de Artistas Modernos de la Argentina (GAMA) and Grupo de Los Cinco. The archive pertains to the time Grilo and Fernández-Muro spent in Buenos Aires, New York, Paris, and Madrid, and spans three decades from the 1950s through the 1980s. It represents their respective artistic progressions as they experimented with different painting styles and forged forward in their own careers, and simultaneously reveals the deeply personal side of their shared familial life.
The loan began in 2019 and will initially last for a period of three years. The archive is currently in its first phase of preparation and is still being researched.
Please email ISLAA to schedule an appointment if you would like to visit the archive.