Fernando Birri Archive of Multimedia Arts - Pinturas, 1948-2009

John Hay Library, University Archives and Manuscripts
Box A
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
Telephone: Manuscripts: 401-863-3723; University Archives: 401-863-2148
Email: Manuscripts: hay@brown.edu; University Archives: archives@brown.edu

Published in 2014

Collection Overview

Title:	Fernando Birri Archive of Multimedia Arts - Pinturas
Date range:	1948-2009
Creator:	Birri, Fernando, 1925-
Extent:	22.0 Linear feet
Abstract:	This series contains the paintings, drawings, collages, photomontages, posters, and mixed media artworks created and collected by Argentinian filmmaker Fernando Birri during the course of his career. This is Subgroup 4 of the Fernando Birri Archive of Multimedia Arts. The other subgroups are Subgroup 1: Escritos, Subgroup 2: Fotos, and Subgroup 3: Audiovisual and Objects.
Language of materials:	Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, English, and German
Repository:	John Hay Library, University Archives and Manuscripts
Collection number:	Ms.2010.050

Scope & content

This is Subgroup 4: Pinturas and contains Birri's artwork in a wide variety of media: paintings, sketches, collages, photomontages, and mixed media. Fernando Birri organized his files, photographs, documents, artwork, and films in broad categories. He created the system based on how he worked and the major projects that occupied his time. See the Arrangement page to get an overview of his classification scheme. He was not always consistent in the way he applied the categories to items and many naturally belong to many different categories. He chose the one most applicable.

Subgroup 4: Pinturas is divided into 4 Series based on Birri’s classification system. The items are arranged alphabetically with the exception of Series P1: Serie Matérica.

Series P1: Serie Matérica – This series contains his paintings, drawings, collages, photomontages, and mixed media artworks. It is organized in 3 sections. The first section is artwork created for a particular project and is organized alphabetically by the name of the project. The second section is artwork not created for a specific project and is organized chronologically. The third section is artwork with neither a project nor a date and is organized alphabetically by the title of the work.



To see the original explanation and inventory list created by Birri for his artwork click here.

Birri created his artwork with a wide range of media: markers, pens, pencils, photographs, pastels, charcoal, watercolors, and tempura paint among others. His artwork is often abstract and free form. Sometimes his work is sparse using only a pen or pencil and other times riotous with colors and forms in a great profusion. In addition to drawing images related to his films, many drawings are social and political commentary. Another major theme in his work is the phallus.

Series P2: Fotoglifos – The word Fotoglifo was created by Birri to describe the artwork in which he uses glyphs (glifos) of his own devising in various combinations.

Series P3: Glifotronics – This artwork was created by Birri using computer software. The images are mostly abstract and very colorful.

Series P4: Prensa y difusión – This series contains information about the publicity and advertising for his artwork and exhibitions. It also includes posters created for films – Birri’s and other film makers – and for film festivals.

Access Points

Subject Topics

• Art--Exhibitions
• Artists
• Computer art
• Phallicism in art

Document Types

• Collages (visual works)
• Drawings (Visual works)
• Mixed media
• Paintings
• Photographs
• Posters
• Watercolors (paintings)

Subject Topics

• Performing Arts

Arrangement

The arrangement of the Fernando Birri Archive of Multimedia Arts follows the classification system created by Fernando Birri. It contains 4 Subgroups. This portion of his collection is Subgroup 4: Pinturas.

To see the inventory for another Subgroup click on the name of that Subgroup below.

• Subgroup 1: Escritos
• Subgroup 2: Fotos
• Subgroup 3: Audiovisual and Objects
• Subgroup 4: Pinturas

Subgroup 4: Pinturas is divided into 4 Series based on Birri’s classification system. The items are arranged alphabetically with the exception of Series P1: Matérica.

• Series P1: Serie Matérica – This is organized in 3 sections. The first section is artwork created for a particular project and is organized alphabetically by the name of the project. The second section is artwork not created for a specific project and is organized chronologically. The third section is artwork with neither a project nor a date and is organized alphabetically by the title of the work.
• Series P2: Fotoglifos
• Series P3: Glifotronics
• Series P4: Prensa y difusión

Biographical/Historical note

Film director and theoretician Fernando Birri (Santa Fe, Argentina, 1925), who Colombian novelist and Nobel Prize recipient Gabriel García Márquez calls Gran papá del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano, is one of the founders of the new Latin American film movement, often described as a form of revolutionary or Third Cinema.

Before entering the world of cinema, Birri worked in poetry, theater, and puppetry. In 1950, he traveled to Italy, the Birri family’s native land, and studied filmmaking at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia di Roma where he was greatly influenced by the style of the Italian Neorealists and in particular the work of Vittorio de Sica and Cesare Zavattini, for whom he worked as assistant director in his film Il tetto (“The Roof”). In 1951, he shot his first documentary film Selinunte in Sicily. Upon returning to Argentina in 1956, Birri was determined to create a national cinematic style based on a more realistic portrayal of the fringes of Argentine society. In his native Santa Fe he began teaching a class in experimental film that later evolved into a complete cinema school – the Instituto de Cinematografía de la Universidad del Litoral. There he filmed the documentary Tire dié (1954), and a neorealist feature film Los inundados (1961). Both films centered on the Argentine lower social classes and denounced their conditions. In the early 1960s, Birri was forced to flee Argentina due to his political views and controversial work. He lived in Brazil for a few months until the government fell under a similar military regime. He eventually ended up settling in Italy until the late 1970s when he returned to Latin America and resumed his teaching career in Mexico and Venezuela. In 1982 he founded the mobile poetic film school Laboratorio Ambulante de Poéticas Cinematográficas in the Universidad de los Andes in Venezuela. In 1984, he was elected honorary member of the Committee of Filmmakers of Latin America. In 1986, he co-founded, with Gabriel García Márquez, the Escuela de Cine y Televisión de Tres Mundos (EICTV) in San Antonio de los Baños, near Havana, Cuba. In the same year he directed Mi hijo el Che ("My Son Che"), a film portrait based on an interview with Che Guevara’s father, Don Ernesto Guevara Lynch. Two years later, in collaboration with García Márquez, he filmed Un señor muy viejo con unas alas muy grandes (“A Very Old Man with Very Large Wings”), which premiered in the United States at the Sundance Film Festival.

In 1995, Birri produced a documentary film for German television entitled Süden, Süden, Süden (“South, South, South”), followed in 1998 by El siglo del viento: un noticiero latinoamericano (“The Century of the Wind: A Newscast from Latin America”), a film based on Eduardo Galeanos’s trilogy Memoria del fuego.

Birri continues his cinematic career in the 21st century. In 2007, he filmed a documentary entitled Elegía Friulana, homage to his grandfather, Giambatista, anarchist bricklayer, peasant and miller who left Italy in search of a better life in South America. He is presently working on a new feature film that will be shot on location in the pampa litoral region of Argentina — El Fausto criollo, an adaptation of the poem by Estanislao del Campo from 1856. He is also developing two new productions — Mal d’America, co-written with the famous Italian novelist Vasco Pratolini, and Gaucho Pampa, a mito-film (mythical film).

Fernando Birri has authored numerous books on film theory and poetry. He is also a prolific artist working in a wide range of media from pencils, watercolors, and collage to computer graphics. He is a founder of the Fundación del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano and a Member of Honor of its Executive Board. He was a Tinker Visiting Professor at Stanford University in 2001-2002, and a visiting professor at Tufts University in 2009. Birri has been and continues to be honored at numerous film festivals around the world. He is married to Carmen and has no children.

Access & Use

Access to the collection:	There are no restrictions on access, except that the collection can only be seen by prior appointment. Some materials may be stored off-site and cannot be produced on the same day on which they are requested. Owing to the large size of some pieces of artwork, digital images are provided through hyperlinks in the Inventory. The purpose of this is to minimize the possibility of damaging the artwork in transporting it from its storage location to the Special Collections Reading Room at the John Hay Library. Researchers with a compelling research need to view original pieces may make arrangements with the curator of the collection to view them.
Use of the materials:	Although Brown University has physical ownership of the collection and the materials contained therein, it does not claim literary rights. Researchers should note that compliance with copyright law is their responsibility. Researchers must determine the owners of the literary rights and obtain any necessary permissions from them.
Preferred citation:	Fernando Birri Archive of Multimedia Arts, Ms.2010.050, Brown University Library.
Contact information:	John Hay Library, University Archives and Manuscripts Box A Brown University Providence, RI 02912 Telephone: Manuscripts: 401-863-3723; University Archives: 401-863-2148 Email: Manuscripts: hay@brown.edu; University Archives: archives@brown.edu

Administrative Information

ABOUT THE COLLECTION
Acquisition:	Gift of Fernando Birri in 2009.
ABOUT THE FINDING AID
Author:	Finding aid prepared by Karen Eberhart.
Encoding:	This finding aid was produced using the Archivists' Toolkit 2014-09-16
Descriptive rules:	Finding aid based on Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Additional Information

Alternative guide:

The arrangement of the Fernando Birri Archive of Multimedia Arts follows the classification system created by Fernando Birri. It contains 4 Subgroups. This portion of his collection is Subgroup 4: Pinturas.To see the inventory for another Subgroup click on the name of that Subgroup below. Subgroup 1: Escritos Subgroup 2: Fotos Subgroup 3: Audiovisual and Objects Subgroup 4: Pinturas

Inventory

---