Born in Resistencia, Gotleyb lives and works in La Boca; His main technique is xylography with which he describes the urban landscape, rather, the entrails of the buildings, the leitmotif of an extensive body of work.
He was inspired by the buildings that make up the industrial landscape, those that are under construction or those that are in ruins that abound around us and that for the artist are a jungle of iron. And La Boca is an example in which this material is visible, for example, the famous Nicolás Avellaneda ferry, Gotleyb calls it “our Eiffel Tower” and to which he dedicated an important exhibition at the Quinquela Martín Museum in 2017.
Another event that marked him deeply was the attack on the Israeli Embassy. Upon encountering its destruction, “the exposed wound of the building”, the terrible tragedy and its dead in the heart of Buenos Aires, the collapse of walls, columns, the remains of twisted iron, was a trigger to continue, in the manner of an archaeologist, unraveling all humanity locked up there.
In this exhibition we see that iron framework, the entrails of the buildings in deep black and white, a language that identifies him, it is his thinking and feeling. His technique is the xylography that appeared in the West around 1300 and in the East 600 years before. It is associated with the book since it enabled the expansion of knowledge until the appearance of Gutenberg in 1450 and also with politics through satirical posters and posters.
In this space it would be impossible to list his participation in national and international competitions, his awards, for example, in 2006 he obtained the Grand Prize of Honor from the National Hall, the Prize for Excellence from the Senate of La Nación and in 2021 the Honorary Special Award for the Development of World Contemporary Art in the last International Engraving Triennial held in Bitola, North Macedonia, unanimously awarded for its development and contribution to contemporary engraving in the world.
Gotleyb confesses that his choice for wood engraving or xylography is due to two great artists from his native Chaco, Ricardo Jara and Fabriciano Gómez who taught him to use gouges, the engraver’s brush and the sculptor’s tools.
As a tribute to the Chaco, he erected an 8-meter-high “urban totem” with an obelisk structure, covered with 19,000 venecitas and surrounded by a framework of construction iron that has been located in front of the University of Architecture in Resistencia.
The critic Ticio Escobar pointed out that Gotleyb “traces beneath its constructions, the intimate pulse, the absent place, the absolute behind of the façade and the scaffolding.”
But from that oppressive black and white climate that the man from the city knew how to build himself and in which he remains trapped, Gotleyb demonstrates with backgrounds of colored fabrics where an ominous black cat moves and in the manner of a divertissement, that he can move away with a bit of humor, from the intense content of the entrails and ruins of his urban archaeologies. (Daim- Usina Cultural, Nicaragua 4899. Monday to Friday from 12 to 20. Saturdays from 14 to 20).
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
