(La Plata, Argentina, 1931)

An essential figure of the Latin American avant-garde, César Paternosto has built a distinguished career across Europe, the United States and his native country since the 1960s. Both his painting and his pioneering research into the artistic expressions of Andean civilizations have earned him wide recognition.

In his painting, Paternosto has set out to test the picture as a support across a number of series. His early compositions on shaped canvases placed him within the orbit of the so-called geometría sensible; later, works with large blank expanses and painted edges gave form to his proposal of an oblique vision (visión oblicua), inviting the viewer to incorporate the movement of their gaze into the experience of the work. That off-center way of looking, together with an economy of line, made him a precursor on the New York scene of the 1970s.

Alongside his artistic practice, Paternosto has devoted much of his work to the study of Andean civilizations and their visual expressions, particularly textiles and the archaeological remains of ancient ceremonial centers. This research, set out in numerous essays, led him to formulate key propositions about Andean geometric abstraction. In his painting, that work is recognizable in the Pórticos series, near-monochrome canvases alluding to the architectural structures that mark off sacred space and separate it from the profane.

Today he lives and works in Segovia, Spain.