Letra y Línea. Revista de cultura contemporánea. Artes plásticas. Literatura. Teatro. Cine. Música. Crítica. [Letter and Line. Magazine of Contemporary Culture. Visual Arts. Literature. Drama. Cinema. Music. Criticism] was a contemporary culture publication edited by Aldo Pellegrini (1903-1973), whose four issues appeared between October 1953 and July 1954. Its collaborators included Edgar Bayley (1919-1990), Osvaldo Svanascini (1920), Oliverio Girondo (1891-1967), Mario Trejo (1926), Enrique Molina (1910-97), Juan Carlos Paz (1897-1972), and Norah Lange (1906-1972), among many others. The survey’s agenda was based on the following questions: 1) What is the fundamental nature of painting in your opinion?; 2) Where is modern painting headed?; 3) Is there such a thing as Argentinean painting?; 4) Do you believe in the previous generation? Tomás Maldonado (1922), Sarah Grilo (1921-2007), José Manuel Moraña (1917-2005), Fernández Muro (1920), Juan Cerdá Carretero, Ideal Sánchez (1916-1988), Lidy Prati (1921), Víctor Magariños “D” (1924-1993), and Miguel Ocampo (1922) responded to the survey.
Ideal Sánchez was an Argentinean artist who, between 1939-1940, was a member of Orión, a group of the surrealist trend that framed its work within the context of ambiguities as well as the collision of the casual encounter. Later on Sánchez distanced himself from this trend and developed a lengthy artistic oeuvre, while at the same dedicating himself to teaching.
This article was selected because it documents a young artist’s opinion regarding the debates that were then mobilizing the Argentinean artistic field at the moment abstraction was being consolidated.