Antonio Segui

Painter – Printmaker – Sculptor – A Major Figure of the Latin American and European Art Scene

Born in Córdoba (Argentina) in 1934, Antonio Seguí was one of the most prominent artists of the 20th-century South American contemporary art scene. After studying art in Europe, particularly in France and Spain, he embarked in the 1950s on an extensive journey across Latin America, Central America, and Mexico, where he trained in printmaking.

Settling permanently in France in 1963, Seguí developed a unique and immediately recognizable graphic universe. His paintings, prints, and sculptures depict crowds of characters — small men in suits, hats firmly in place — moving through labyrinthine urban landscapes. One of them, “El Señor Gustavo,” became an iconic figure in his work: an ironic representation of the modern man — solitary, standardized, and lost in the crowd.

Inspired by artists such as George Grosz, Fernand Léger, and Otto Dix, Seguí blended humor, social satire, and visual storytelling in an aesthetic reminiscent of comic art. Through dynamic compositions, he questioned the human condition and the mechanisms of contemporary society.

Multidisciplinary and versatile, Seguí mastered painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, and even tapestry. He exhibited in over 200 institutions worldwide, and his works are featured in major public collections such as MoMA (New York), Centre Pompidou (Paris), the National Library of France, and the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires.

Antonio Seguí passed away in 2022 at the age of 88. His body of work remains striking for its vibrancy, coherence, and his critical yet poetic gaze on the urban world.