Julio Llinás (Buenos Aires, 1929) was an essayist, poet, and novelist that collaborated in the A partir de Cero [Starting from Zero] magazine (1952–56), founded by both poet Enrique Molina (1910–97) and critic Aldo Pellegrini (1903–73). Llinás is a remarkable man in the 1950s Argentinean Surrealist generation. He also was the editor of the Boa journal (1958)—corresponding in Argentina of the Phases movement—of which only three issues were published. Married to visual artist Martha Peluffo (1931–79), he participated in 1957 of the Siete Pintores Abstractos [Seven Abstract Painters] group, which enticed a gestural surrealistic approach supported by both Pellegrini and Llinás. During the same year as this essay, Llinás published La Ciencia Natural [The Natural Science] (Buenos Aires: Boa, 1959). In Llinás’s activities as an art critic, his performance in 1963 as commissioner of the Argentinean curatorial project to the VII Bienal de Arte de São Paulo [Seventh São Paulo Biennial] was outstanding. Roberto Aizenberg (Entre Ríos, 1928–Buenos Aires, 1995) studied with Argentinean painter Juan Battle Planas. His highest moment was the outstanding exhibition organized by Instituto Di Tella in 1969. Víctor Chab (Buenos Aires, 1930) experimented in the 1960s with both matter and dreams, thus bringing the surrealist focus closer to painting that stresses the matter. Osvaldo Borda (Lomas de Zamora, Bs. As., 1929) was a member of the Boa group, as well as Chab. In the 1960s, the paintings of Bord turned around the idea of “ the machine.” Borda and Chab were part of the show 7 pintores abstractos [Seven Abstract Painters] at Galería Pizarro in 1957. Julio Silva (Buenos Aires, 1930) settled in Paris in 1955, and became the designer for the covers of his friend Julio Cortázar’s books. This document is important to have a grasp of the Surrealist movement regrouping in the 1960s, with Roberto Aizenberg as its pivotal element, at this stage when his general traits were being sketched. This exhibition precedes the one held at Instituto Di Tella in June of 1967: Surrealismo en la Argentina [Surrealism in Argentina], organized by Aldo Pellegrini, and trying to establish a broad definition of Surrealism.
