Mariano Akerman (

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

, 1963) is an Argentinean painter, architect and art historian. Working as a researcher and a lecturer, Akerman also develops educational activities that encourage free expression and communitarian involvement of participants while considering their cultural background.

Life and education

Akerman studied at the School of Architecture of

Universidad de Belgrano The University of Belgrano ( es, Universidad de Belgrano, commonly referred to as UB) is a private university established in 1964 and located in the Belgrano district of the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Overview The university has nine de ...

(Argentina), completing his formation in 1987. In 1995 he received a

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...

Grant to research the artwork of

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both ...

Marlborough Fine Art Marlborough Fine Art was founded in London in 1946 by Frank Lloyd and Harry Fischer. In 1963, a gallery was opened as Marlborough-Gerson in Manhattan, New York, at the Fuller Building on Madison Avenue and 57th Street, which later relocated i ...

and the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

in London.

Career

In Asia, Mariano Akerman developed the educational series of conferences ''The Belgian Contribution to the Visual Arts'' (2005), ''In the Spirit of

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

'' (2007), ''Discovering Belgian Art'' (2008-9), ''Raisons d’être: Art, Freedom and Modernity'' (2010), ''German Art'' (2010), and ''The Gestalt Educational Program'' (2011). In the American continent, the series of lectures ''Art and Identity'' (2013) includes a conference devoted to Bacon's idiosyncratic imagery—"To be and not to be." Specializing in Visual Communication, Akerman lectures on modern art at institutions such as the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires, the

National Museum of the Philippines The National Museum of the Philippines ( fil, Pambansang Museo ng Pilipinas}) is an umbrella government organization that oversees a number of national museums in the Philippines including ethnographic, anthropological, archaeological, and vis ...

in Manila, the Star of Hope School in Taytay, the

National College of Arts The National College of Arts (colloquially known as NCA) is a public university located in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Overview National College of Arts - A Federal Chartered Institute is the oldest art school in Pakistan and the second oldest i ...

in Lahore, the

Quaid-i-Azam University Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad ( ur, ; commonly referred to as QAU), founded as University of Islamabad, is a ranked 1 public research university in Islamabad, Pakistan. Founded as the University of Islamabad in 1967, it was initially dedi ...

in Islamabad, UNIRIO and the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro.

Exhibitions

* 1986 RG Gallery, Buenos Aires * 1988

University of Belgrano The University of Belgrano ( es, Universidad de Belgrano, commonly referred to as UB) is a private university established in 1964 and located in the Belgrano district of the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Overview The university has nine de ...

, Buenos Aires * 1989 Bank of Boston Cultural Foundation, Buenos Aires * 1990 General San Martin Cultural Centre, Buenos Aires * 2005

, Manila * 2005 Total Gallery, Alliance Française, Manila * 2010 Residence of Belgium, Islamabad * 2016 Alcazar–Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro

Lectures and Educational Activities

* ''The Belgian Contribution to the Visual Arts'', Manila and Quezon City, 2005. * ''Argentinean Art'', Manila, 2006. * ''In the Spirit of Linnaeus: The Tercentenary Lectures on Science and Art'', Manila and Taytay, 2007. * ''Discovering Belgian Art'', Karachi and Islamabad, 2008, and Lahore, 2009. * ''Raisons d'Être: Art, Freedom, and Modernity'', Islamabad and Lahore, 2010. * ''German Art: Its Peculiarities and Transformations'', Islamabad and Rawalpindi, 2010. * ''Shape and Meaning: The German Contribution to the Visual Arts'', Islamabad, 2010. * ''Tradition and Innovation: Art and Architecture as Structures of Consciousness'', Islamabad, 2011. * ''Gestalt Educational Program: Theory and Design in the Age of New Objectivity'', Islamabad and Rawalpindi, 2011. * ''Art and Identity'', Buenos Aires, 2013. * ''Cultural Heritage and Identity'', Rio de Janeiro, 2014. * '' Vesalius Rio Program: Anatomy of Art'', Rio de Janeiro, 2015. * ''Tradition and Innovation: Meeting the Visual Arts'', Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 2017-18.

Visual Imagery and Design

File:Kaninchen und Ente.png, "Rabbit and Duck" from ''Fliegende Blätter'' (1892), an

ambiguous image Ambiguous images or reversible figures are visual forms that create ambiguity by exploiting graphical similarities and other properties of visual system interpretation between two or more distinct image forms. These are famous for inducing the ...

often used by Akerman to exemplify the ''both-and'' phenomenon in the visual arts. File:Renaissance Grotesques Composition.jpg, Renaissance Grotesques, digital composition. File:Gestalt in the Eye.jpg, ''Gestalt in the Eye'', digital montage File:Gestalt Principles Composition.jpg, Gestalt Principles, digital composition

Publications

* 1996. "The Evocative Character of Louis Kahn's Hurva Project." * 1999. ''The Grotesque in Francis Bacon’s Paintings''. * 2012. "Bacon: Painter with a Double-Edged Sword." * 2012. "A Passion for Hope through Imagination," in collaboration with Hannyia Abid.''Blue Chip Magazine'', 2012, pp. 18-22.

References

External links

Un pintor argentino educa a través del arte en Pakistán
— EFE, Spain, 20 April 2010
German Art: Its Peculiarities and Transformations
— German Embassy web site, May 2010
Shape and Meaning: The German Contribution to the Visual Arts
— German Embassy web site, November–December 2010
"Mariano Akerman: Bridging Cultures"
excerpts from a note by Sara Mahmood, 2011

by Sara Mahmood — ''Blue-Chip'', January–February 2012, pp. 20–24.

by Ilona Yusuf — ''Blue-Chip'', January–February 2012, pp. 16–19. {{DEFAULTSORT:Akerman, Mariano 1963 births Artists from Buenos Aires Argentine painters Argentine male painters Architects from Buenos Aires Argentine art historians Contemporary painters University of Belgrano alumni Living people