Ernesto Deira

Life & Legacy

Ernesto Deira ( July 26, 1928- July 1, 1986) was an Argentine artist associated with the Nueva Figuración (New Figuration) movement in Latin America. Together they called for a return to figurative art, rejecting both abstraction and traditional forms of representation. Deira's own style was highly expressive, linear, and often grotesque. Deira went to the Universidad of Bueno Aires and became a lawyer, but later turned to art. He studied with Leopoldo Torres Agüero and Leopoldo Presas in the 1950s. Then, in 1961, he joined Jorge de la Vega, Rómulo Macció and Luis Felipe Noé in an exhibition entitled "Otra Figuración". After the exhibition, they formed a group of the same name (Otra Figuración), which shared studio space and exhibited together until 1966. He later moved to Paris, where he died in 1986.