Magali Herrera - A spark of light in this world

Exhibition Catalogue Magali Herrera. A spark of light in this world, presented at The Collection de l’Art Brut (March 8 - September 1st, 2024).

Herrera was born in Rivera, Uruguay. She came from a family of notables and taught herself dancing, acting and photography. She also organised poetry evenings. She wrote poems herself, as well as science-fiction stories, some of which have not been published. 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.

A selection of items from her personal archives will also go on display, including an intense series of letters between Herrera and Jean Dubuffet, the first of which was written in 1967. 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.