Luis Felipe Noé

Life & Legacy

Luis Felipe Noé (26 May 1933 – 9 April 2025) was an Argentine artist, writer, intellectual, and teacher. He was known in his home country as Yuyo. In 1961 he formed the group Otra Figuración (Another Figuration) with three other Argentine artists. Their eponymous exhibition and subsequent work greatly influenced the Neofiguration (Neo-figuration/New figuration) movement. After the group disbanded, Noé relocated to New York City, where he created and exhibited assemblages which stretched the boundaries of the canvas.
In 1965 he published his groundbreaking theoretical work, Antiestética. He then took a ten-year hiatus from painting and upon return to Buenos Aires opened a bar, taught, wrote and created installations with mirrors. His painting comeback coincided with the start of Argentina's last military dictatorship (1976-1983), and in 1976 Noé migrated to Paris to escape the dictatorship's widespread persecution and State-sponsored terrorism. In France he continued to experiment, both with canvas re-texturing and the drawing process. His later paintings move away from the figure and focus on elements of landscape.
Noé lived and worked in Buenos Aires, New-York and Paris. His son, Gaspar Noé, is a Franco-Argentine filmmaker. His daughter, Paula, is a painter. He died in Buenos Aires on 9 April 2025, at the age of 91.