A life full of anecdotes and exploits. Decades dedicated to art and culture. And all that dedication achieved a deserved recognition, and that, at 91 years of age, the painter and sculptor Raul Conti will be distinguished as “Outstanding Personality of Culture”.
The news was received with great joy by the artist, by his family and friends. It happens that it is a more than deserved recognition. His works traveled Latin America and the United Statess, and he is, among many other important things, the creator of the logo for “Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo”, which he made while he was part of “El Grupo de los Thursdays”, made up of artists such as Norman Briski, Nacha Guevara and others.
“We met in the house of an Argentine woman who had a loft, and from there we helped those who escaped from here. When one of them arrived, we welcomed him, found him a job and helped him get settled. There was even a psychologist to help them recover. That was our mission, although one day my son Carlos called me from Argentina to tell me that the group was said to be a revolutionary training camp here.. Then came the Malvinas war, and another aid group was formed. At that time, the Mothers had been going around the Plaza de Mayo for a long time, and I received the proposal to make a poster for the International Week of the Disappeared. I did three, and one was approved. It was done anonymously, because we knew that in our meetings there was always a spy… Years later I returned to Buenos Aires, went to the institution of the Mothers, and brought them a signed poster. They told me that they had always believed that it had been made in Switzerland,” Conti revealed in an interview with NOTICIAS.
Conti was born in 1930 in the province of Córdoba, Argentina. He lived his childhood in the town of Morteros. In 1977 he moved to New York, becoming a US citizen. There, he graphically painted the scenes he saw, mixing signs, buildings, and people. In Argentina he helped teaching painting to children from the Villa 31 with Father Mujicaas in New York City on Ward’s Island to rehabilitate psychiatric patients. And for decades he donated works for humanitarian causes in Argentina and the US.
Due to his career and contribution to culture, the artist, who at 91 years of age continues to create, will be recognized at the San Martín Hall of the Legislature of the City of Buenos Aires on June 6 at 6:00 p.m.
Tales from Raúl Conti’s paintings (from Maud Daverio de Cox)
One day in February 2012, leaving a recital at the Sottile Theater in Charleston, South Carolina, Bob and I introduced ourselves to the director of the program, “International Piano Series,” to congratulate him on the work in programming this series of concerts. . The director was the pianist/concertist, Enrique Graf. From that day he began a great friendship with Enrique and his partner Bob Rummerfeld. We took advantage of one of our trips to Buenos Aires to cross the river in the Buquebus and arrive in Montevideo to visit Enrique and Bob in that city. With them we toured Enrique’s homeland, Uruguay. We got to know its beaches and mountains. On another trip they came to Buenos Aires where we walked through the streets and restaurants of the city.
Already, after a year, Enrique decided to retire and plan a festival in Colonia del Sacramento. the old and traditional city of Uruguay. These lands on the banks of the Rio de la Plata were disputed between Portugal and Spain since the 16th century and in 1828 they were awarded to Uruguay.
In 2018, Enrique’s dream came true and the First International Music and Art Festival was organized in this city, Cologne. There we went.
We spent a few spring days walking through the streets, listening to sounds that burst from the theater. At night, sitting at a table in a garden, we listened to Juan Nevani delighting us with old romantic songs from the American repertoire of the 20th century.
It was at one of the concerts that I met Mirian Conti, an international pianist who had already met and admired her when she gave a tango recital. After concerts 2 and 3 of Rachmaninoff performed by pianists Ciro Fodere and Sean Kennard, Mirian approached and exclaimed with a smile, “Oh, how many notes!” A dialogue followed, and we found certain similarities and connections between us, even though we are from different generations. Mirian was Argentine, she had met Carmen Gómez Carrillo at an early age when her mother took her to learn singing. I was a friend, companion of Carmen and I sang in her choir “Sursum Corda.” Mirian told me about her going to the United States with her father, the painter and sculptor, Raúl Conti, and her mother, who wrote poems. They settled in New York and there Miriam continued her studies at the prestigious “Juilliard School,” where she currently teaches. When we said goodbye, we set a date to visit her father’s workshop in Buenos Aires. Raúl Conti had decided to return to his pay after many years abroad because he wanted to finish his last years working in his country.
Returning to the city of Buenos Aires one morning we decided to go out and visit the Saavedra neighborhood and visit Raúl Conti’s workshop/house. We talked on the phone and set the date. We arrived at the house where we were received by his son, Carlos, who is a teacher of ‘intuition’ courses at his own school.
Entering the dark room, surrounded by sculptures, I felt like I was inside an ancient temple with altars. A sensation in which a silence dominated. Minutes later, the owner of these wonders, Raúl, approached us. He invited us to tour his house and we went to a bright courtyard where sitting on a lectern was a painting of two cardboard-cutter children. Their mouths taped shut, and their eyes staring into endless space. We kept walking towards a staircase that would take us to the workshop. Piles of fabrics, infinite colors and shapes. Great surprise to discover this magical place. We talked, and we learned what was the key to the birth of these objects. Perhaps it was Itatí, a city from Corrientes on the banks of the Paraná River where nature holds the secrets of the earth and of humanity. At the end of the tour, the conversations and anecdotes, when we left we realized that we had acquired other dimensions.
We said goodbye, but the meeting became part of us.
Charleston, SC, 2020
In those years, the director of PEN, Argentina, Gabriel Seisdedos, suggested that I reissue my first book, saved from hell, where I wrote about life under the Argentine dictatorship. We decided to add prologue and epilogue and change the cover. I immediately thought of the paintings of the cartoneros who have their voices silenced. I chose to ask the author for permission to use it. Gently, Raúl gave it to me.
Charleston, SC, 2017
Our friends Eileen and Michael Nolan invited us to a jazz concert where a friend of theirs was going to sing. Her name was Maggie Worsdale known for singing, and imitating Patsy Kline, the Beatles and others. She was accompanied by her husband, Tom, a connoisseur and historian of twentieth-century American music and musical comedies. Maggie and the excellent pianist who has accompanied her for many years took me back to the mid 20th century years when those romantic melodies used to be performed. I remember one in particular: “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square.” After the concert we went to the hotel bar to chat and have a drink. There we arranged to get together again for musical evenings. Every week we started meeting with friends who played guitar, piano. Frank Wooten, Charlie Wyke-Smith, Michael Nolan among others participated. We sang, danced and left happy intoxicated with sounds. But in 2019 the pandemic arrived and each one locked himself in his house. Some read, others cooked, or tended to their garden. We separated.
Three years passed and one day in February we received a message from Maggie. “What are you doing May 3? If you are free we would like to invite you to dinner. We have a surprise.” We wrote back and agreed that they would come home for dinner. We forgot about the surprise.
Charleston, SC, 2022
But yes, it was a surprise when on May 3 they arrived with an Argentine. Her name was Marcela Durham. They met in New Jersey and he had met Maggie at one of the theater acts. They became friends, and when Maggie mentioned Robert Cox’s name to her, she was interested in meeting him.
Already talking we understood the connection. She had been a friend of Renné Epelbaum and companion of her children. Renné lost her three children during the dictatorship. Renné was an exceptional woman. The family was musical and every weekend they made music, one played the violin, another the piano and another the cello. This case was tragic.
We talk a lot. Before he left, I gave him my latest book, Saved. I showed him the cover and mentioned the name of the painter, Raúl Conti. He looked at me, a few seconds of silence, and slowly said, “I have a painting of him.” He didn’t understand. She kept talking and intrigued she said, “When I was ten years old, my father asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I told him I would like a painting. He took me to a gallery and I choose a painting. I have taken this painting everywhere I have lived. The signature was Raúl Conti.”We were both speechless. She did not know who the painter was and she did not know the origin. Causality or coincidence?
by RN
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