Luis Tomasello Argentine, 1915-2014

Luis Tomasello studied art while working as a painter and bricklayer. He continued his fine art education in Buenos Aires in the 1930s, where he also developed close relationships with prominent Argentinian abstract artists like Carmelo Arden Quin.

Tomasello moved to Paris in the 1950s and joined the Galerie Denise René. Through René he became interested in avant-garde movements including Op art and Kinetic art. The ST series could be described as “lumino-kinetic” — they don’t actually move, but the colour and shape of the cutouts creates a dynamic, vibration-like effect. Tomasello’s signature works use geometric shapes, repetitive patterns, and solid colours. This absence of form recalls his early career in Argentina as well as his interest in light and space. In the ST works, light appears to emanate from a not-quite-visible interior space behind the hand-cut paper.

Tomasello's work is held in the collections in the Albright-Knox, Buffalo; the New York University Museum, New York; the KrMüller Museum, Otterlo; the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris; and others.