Cayetano Córdova Iturburu was a writer and art critic of leftist ideology. He acted as one of the principal defenders of modern art and modernism beginning in the 1930s, opposing realism as a dominant aesthetic of Communism. His activity as an art critic was quite outstanding until the late 1970s.
Kenneth Kemble (Buenos Aires, 1923–1998) was one of the key artists of the Informalist movement in Argentina. Since 1956, he experimented with collages, assemblages, reliefs, and informal and sign painting. Kemble participated in the exhibitions of the Asociación Arte Nuevo [New Art Association], a bastion of abstract trends. In 1959, he was part of the exhibition Movimiento Informal [Informalist Movement] at the Van Riel Gallery. In 1961, Kemble was the driving force behind the exhibition that presented "arte destructivo" [destructive art]. He practiced art criticism, mainly at the Buenos Aires Herald (a newspaper for the English community in the capital, founded in 1876) between 1960 and 1963. Afterwards, he continued his written reflections, with an emphasis on the theory of the creative process.This exhibition presented at the Galería Lirolay, directed by Germaine Derbecq—French art critic married to Pablo Curatella Manes—was Kenneth Kemble’s second individual exhibition in 1960. It was sponsored by the Museo de Arte Moderno, then under direction of Rafael Squirru. He exhibited collages and oil paintings produced since 1956, along with his own written introduction. This document is of interest since it demonstrates the change in Córdova Iturburu’s point of view regarding the work of Kemble, an artist who had received negative criticism from the critic himself due to the exhibition at the Galería Peuser in July of that same year (see “Experiencias de Kenneth Kemble” record 741593).