Libero Badii (Arezzo, Italy, 1916-Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2001) primarily developed sculpture with symbolic meanings. In the1950s, his work was impacted formally by Pre-Columbian art after a trip through Latin America. He elaborated his concept of "the sinister," both as a form of knowledge and of feeling. He called his studio-workshop Almataller [SoulShop].
Ricardo Dagá (1931) was Líbero Badii's assistant from 1955 until the mid-1960s. His artwork—mainly made in marble and bronze—was exhibited in the 1960s at Witcomb and Rubbers galleries. Later, he developed an abstract imagery, based on hitting the material. Dagá received the Great Prize of Honor in the Salón Nacional, in 1983.
The 1960s Argentinean art is usually read through the very same pair of networks: first, the one shaped by the Center for the Visual Arts at Instituto Di Tella, and the other, the network of artists that come together in the growing politicization process. Nevertheless, it is interesting to think about the existence of another network created out to connect the specificity of an art language like sculpture. This last network goes through the aesthetic and the political as well as generational pigeonholing. This letter by sculptor Ricardo Dagá is an interesting document as it highlights the nexus built by Argentinean artists in Paris in the early-1960s, thus establishing among them unexpected connections despite their diverse artistic research. In addition to this, it shows the spread of Badii's aesthetic ideas throughout Latin America and, above all, his concept of "Sinister art."
