Biography
"Hugo Balmaceda was born in Frías, Santiago del Estero in 1937.
In Buenos Aires, he does his artistic formation in the time of the student reform in the National Schools of Fine Arts (1955).
He graduated as master in Visual Arts at the "Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Manuel Belgrano" and as 'Profesor Nacional de Pintura' at the "Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredón". He studied there with the following artists: Aarón Lipietz, Rubén Daltoe, Julián Althabe, Aurelio Machi, Antonio Pujía, Naum Goiman and Ideal Sánchez.
He belongs, because of his generation inscription, to a plastic history whose policy is structured out of the artistic engagements of salons and competitions. A decade will pass until he defines his individual work without apostatising his artistic objectives. Later on, he will project these into teaching, in the place chosen as his residence, in the city of Adrogué, province of Buenos Aires, where he will constitute a studio for children and adults. There he makes his plastic and pedagogical labour in the public sphere; his wife Ernestina Arizio and the artist Raquel Goya will accompany him in this cultural enterprise.
In the 80s, his pictorial work is intensified and the examination of our American cultures becomes systematic. He studies the 'Cerro Colorado' caves in the Córdoba province, whose archaeological work is made by the Argentinean anthropologist Alberto Rex González and he investigates the 'chaco-santiagueña' culture discovered by the Wagner brothers. This meeting with his origins is going to outline his future work.
Documental scientific investigations will bring interesting facts to his painting. We can see this production reflected in the last works that refer to the Latin-American problem. The Torres García school and the 'rioplatense' culture will constitute another nucleus that will bring to his work the constructive basis. The syncretism between the river culture and the 'santiagueña' land will be evident in his plastic language..."
Rosa Faccaro
Memeber of the Argentinean Association of Art Critics, AAAC
and the International association of Art Critics, IAAC.