“These works express the absurdity of contemporary society, that sort of daily madness necessary for everything to look normal,” Ferrari wrote about his series of “heliographic” drawings, made with a technique traditionally employed by architects for reproducing plans. That “daily madness” most impacted Ferrari when, in 1976, he and his family escaped the terror of the Argentine military dictatorship by moving from Buenos Aires to São Paulo. He produced these drawings with Letraset rub-on architectural symbols and printed numerous editions to be sent throughout the world as mail-art posters. With his characteristic dark humor, Ferrari explores the relationships between individuals and multitudes, alienation and chaos—while also considering the frequently asphyxiating nature of entrenched power structures.

Gallery label from

2019

Medium Diazotype
Dimensions composition: 37 3/8 x 37 5/8" (95 x 95.5 cm); sheet: 38 9/16 x 38 3/4" (98 x 98.5 cm)
Publisher León Ferrari, São Paulo
Printer León Ferrari, São Paulo
Edition unlimited (few known printed sets)
Credit Gift of the artist
Object number 255.2007
Department Drawings and Prints

Explore more

León Ferrari

León Ferrari

Argentine, 1920–2013 229 works online

What is the political capacity of art? How should artists address injustice and violence? In 1965, the Argentine artist León Ferrari had a clear answer to these questions: “Art will be neither beauty nor novelty; art will be efficacy and agitation.

Learn more →
All works by León Ferrari →

From MoMA Design Store

Installation views

We have identified this work in the following photos from our exhibition history.

How we identified these works
In 2018–19, MoMA collaborated with Google Arts & Culture Lab on a project using machine learning to identify artworks in installation photos. That project has concluded, and works are now being identified by MoMA staff.

If you notice an error, please contact us at [email protected].
Licensing
To reproduce installation views, please contact Art Resource (publication in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic locations). You will need to include the object identification number found in the caption.
Feedback
This record is a work in progress. If you have additional information or spotted an error, please send feedback to [email protected].

Licensing

Artwork or archival images

If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in MoMA's collection, or an image of a MoMA publication or archival material (including installation views, checklists, and press releases), please contact Art Resource (publication in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic locations).

Audio and film clips

MoMA licenses archival audio and select out of copyright film clips from our film collection. At this time, MoMA produced video cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. All requests to license archival audio or out of copyright film clips should be addressed to Scala Archives at [email protected]. Motion picture film stills cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. For access to motion picture film stills for research purposes, please contact the Film Study Center at [email protected]. For more information about film loans and our Circulating Film and Video Library, please visit Circulating Film and Video Library.

Text from a publication or the archives

If you would like to reproduce text from a MoMA publication, please email [email protected]. If you would like to publish text from MoMA's archival materials, please fill out this permission form and send to [email protected].

Feedback

This record is a work in progress. If you have additional information or spotted an error, please fill out this feedback form.