Delia Cugat Biography

Delia Cugat

Argentine

1930-2020

Biography

Delia Cugat was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1935. Since 1963, Cugat has exhibited in Latin America, Europe and the United States. Her formal art education began at the School of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires.

In the mid 1950s she began working in theater as a set, stage, and costume designer, and experimented with directing plays and ballets. In 1958 she traveled throughout Europe, and her exposure to the arts there inspired her to return to the School of Fine Arts Buenos Aires, where she studied under Horatio Butler and eventually worked as his assistant. This led to a position at the Studios of the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janiero for two years, and in 1971, together with her husband, artist Sergio Camporeale, Cugat joined forces with Pablo Obelar and Daniel Zelaya to found the group GRABAS (Graphics from Buenos Aires). In this capacity she established herself as a printmaker, working in lithography, intaglio, and silkscreen.

In 1976 Cugat and Camporeale moved to Paris, France, where they remained until their return to Argentina in 2000. In the 1980s Cugat began focusing primarily on oil painting. These works reflected the style she developed in her Abstract Expressionist intaglio prints, emphasizing color and sharp, fragmented shapes, even within her representational subjects.

Cugat exhibited throughout South America, Europe, and the U.S. in numerous group and solo shows, her most recent in 2007 at the 16th Exhibition of Latin American Painting and Sculpture at Galeria Espacio San Salvador, El Salvador. She died in Argentina on May 11, 2020 (Graciela Smith, Revista Magenta, May 15, 2020). Her work is held at the Museo la Tertulia, Cali, Colombia; the Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende, Santiago, Chile; the Biblitheque Nationale de France; amd the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX, among others. 

Note: We have found Delia Cugat's birth year at 1930, 1932, and 1935.