Federico Manuel Peralta-Ramos (1939–92) was a paradigmatic artist of the 1960s generation, chiefly in the nexus between art and life. From his production, what is outstanding involves the precariousness of matter in painting, the installation Nosotros afuera [We, the Outsiders] shown at Instituto Torcuato Di Tella, in 1965, and a broad idea of conceptual art that stems from writing. In 1968, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. He used the scholarship funds for a lavish dinner at Hotel Alvear and the acquisition of some artworks; this provoked an internal bickering with the North American institution. Then he wrote the Mandamientos Gánicos [Feel-like-it Commandments]. Since 1969, Peralta-Ramos appears and carries out performances in TV shows. In 1970, he records what he names his non-figurative songs: “Soy un pedazo de atmósfera” [“I am a little piece of atmosphere”] and “Tengo algo adentro que se llama el coso” [I have something in my innermost called the thingumajig”].In 1972, Peralta-Ramos unveiled his art at the CAyC (Centro de Arte y Comunicación) [Art and Communication Center] in order to state his concept “the object is the subject”.
This is an important document for the choosing of its trifle subject to single out a life understood to be artistic. It is hard to pigeonhole these letters in a genre whichever, however, they should be understood from the impact provoked by Alberto Greco’s (1931–65) arte vivo [live art] in Peralta-Ramos’ work. The document is indeed writing as art-life practice and operating on issues of daily life. Shiny shoes were a symbol of class distinction, a bourgeois attribute associated with cleanliness and very much a part from the blue-collar workers’ world. Peralta-Ramos grew up in a family of lineage in Argentina.