Luis Perlotti

LUIS PERLOTTI (Buenos Aires, 1890-Punta del Este, Uruguay, 1969).
"Return to the homeland - Embrace of San Martin and Olazabal". 1950.
Patinated bronze.
Signed and dated.
Marble base.
Measurements: 38 x 24,5 x 20 cm.

Luis Perlotti was an Argentine sculptor. The house where he lived in Buenos Aires, located at 644 Pujol Street in the Caballito neighborhood, has been converted into the city's Museum of Sculpture. Born into a family of Italian immigrant workers, he did his first studies as a craftsman and sculptor at the Unione e Benevolenza mutual where he prepared his entrance to the National Academy of Fine Arts. He was part of a group of artists with Benito Quinquela Martín, Alfonsina Storni (to whom he erected his famous monument), among others, who used to meet at the famous "peña" of Café Tortoni. He was influenced by Eduardo Holmberg, Juan B. Ambrosetti and Ricardo Rojas, to incorporate traditions and original artistic lines taken from the American traditions. To this end, in 1925 he began to travel around America, especially to the Andean Altiplano, which is very present in all his work, inspired by indigenous art. He has made large-scale works for public exhibition, such as the famous monument to his friend the poet Alfonsina Storni, located in front of the place where she committed suicide, in Mar del Plata; the Monument to Mitre, in the city of Corrientes; the monument to Los Libres del Sur, in the city of Chascomús; The Return to the Homeland, in the Uco Valley, in the town of Tunuyán, (Mendoza); the monument to Los Andes, in Los Andes Park, in the city of Buenos Aires, etc. In 1969, Perlotti donated his house-workshop to the City of Buenos Aires to turn it into a museum. Shortly after, he died in an automobile accident in Punta del Este, Uruguay.