Magalí Herrera, A Spark of Light in this World

The French artist immediately added her drawings to the collection of the Compagnie de l’Art Brut in Paris. Herrera threw herself fervently into the epistolary relationship, which lasted until 1974. She later entrusted her husband with the task of donating both her entire body of drawings and her private archives to the Collection de l’Art Brut upon her death. She is the only Uruguayan artist to feature in our collection. 

Herrera was born in Rivera, Uruguay. In around 1952, she started painting sporadically. By the early 1960s, she had devoted herself exclusively to this means of expression, painting night and day in a sort of trance. In 1967 and 1968, Herrera spent time in Paris. There, she discovered Art Brut and began exchanging letters with Dubuffet. This correspondence helped her find meaning in her pictorial works. 

When making her art, Herrera gave herself over completely to her imagination, creating pieces that reflected a kind of internal cosmogony. Each of her paintings used the same media: black or white India ink on white, black or coloured paper. She worked slowly and persistently, using high-precision Chinese calligraphy brushes to produce works of exceptional artistry - compositions consisting of dots and lines that, together, represent utopias. This exhibition is a unique opportunity to reconsider Herrera’s distinctive body of work through the lens of the letters she exchanged with Dubuffet.