This interview by writer Fausto Pannesso (b. 1953) with sculptor Édgar Negret (b. 1920) is one of the most thorough written discussions of Negret and his work. The conversation—an amusing discussion of Negret’s private life—sheds light on the origin of his work in sculpture. Negret speaks of his family life, of his relationship with his father (a well known member of the Colombian military), and of his early years in the town of Popayán (Valle del Cauca). He also speaks of the prolonged stays abroad that so influenced him: Negret lived in New York from 1949 to 1950 and from 1955 to 1963; in Paris from 1951 to 1952; in Madrid and Barcelona from 1952 to 1953; and in Mallorca from 1953 to 1954. In all of those places, he encountered environments and individuals that would prove essential to his professional development.
While many texts on Negret discuss the importance of his stays in New York and Paris, few speak of his time in Spain (from 1952 to 1954). In this interview, though, Negret describes experiences in Spain important to his career. He speaks of the influence of Mallorca on his development as an artist, stating that it was there that he “found color.” Negret asserts that, thanks to the bright colors of the boats docked in Palma de Mallorca, he gradually “fell in love with color” and came to use it in his work. It was also in Mallorca that he began to make sculptures in vertical format with metal waste like pipes and posts. He constructed structures reminiscent of carousels, weathervanes, telescopes, and road signs.
In Spain as well, Negret encountered the work of Catalan architect Antoní Gaudì (1852–1926). In the interview, Negret describes Gaudì’s structures as “inhabitable sculptures.” Negret asserts that Gaudí’s modular system had a decisive influence on his relationship with the sculptural material and on the techniques he used to assemble his work.
In 1954, Negret went from Spain to the United States. With Gaudì’s work in mind and in hundreds of sketches for sculptures, Negret came upon another major influence in the realm of architecture when he arrived in New York: the Guggenheim Museum designed by North American architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959). In this interview, Negret asserts that the ascending spiral structure of the Guggenheim Museum and the staircases and modules in Gaudì’s work were the two most important foreign influences on his later production.
