One day the phone rang at home Peter Roth, The leading photographer of Argentine art, he was a powerful image bank in North America Getty. They wanted to buy his archive, but Pedro did not even want to listen to the financial offer, which was surely important. Cut early, determined. “This is ours, he is from here,” he says now, happy because he is assured that his legacy will remain as a national heritage. Yesterday was completed the signing of the agreement according to which the General Archive of the Nation (AGN) will protect the negatives and digitization carried out by Fundación Proa of all the photographs it took around the Center for Art and Communication (CAyC), Three decades were golden years for Argentine art.
CAyC has been a pioneering space in connecting art, technology and experimental thought. Pedro witnessed and cherishes photos of performances, exhibitions, parties, conferences and artist meetings such as Federico Klem, Marta Minugin, Alberto Heredia, Antonio Berni, Clorindo Testa, Gyula Kossisi, Yoyo Noe And many others, between 1960 and 1990. He continues to take pictures to this day, but this collection is a gem of great historical value. Seventy boxes combine black and white negatives, photographic prints, slides, glass plates and contacts. Now its preservation and free access for researchers, artists and students are guaranteed.
“They offered me money and I didn’t take the money. I disagree with many others who have sold files to the US. “It doesn’t seem fair to me,” Roth tells LA NACION, convinced that his children support this generous decision.
Four years ago, Ruth’s works were kept in a closet 59 boxes and bibliographies. Now he is in one of 30 km from AGN shelves (This is the unit of measurement for files). Everything is categorized, clean and organized, so you can find more 8000 negative The desired image thanks to an effective catalog.
The work that Barwa contributed to was administration, management and finance. The meticulous (and loving) work they did Anna Clara Giannini and Maria D’Ambrosio, Every Wednesday for four years. First they took one of those boxes to Broa, where they digitized, organized, and attempted to annotate each negative frame. Then, the following Wednesday, Giannini took Roth at the bar where he had breakfasted with his colleagues from the Estrella dell’Oriente artist group, to go to Broa, where they looked at each picture together and Pedro meticulously corrected definitions, anecdotes and some secret stories, which they only enjoyed at lunches on the terrace of the institution with which they ended their days. Only Pedro can recognize places, characters, dates and exhibits at a glance.
“Although digitization took a large part of the work, the fundamental contribution to this project was from Pedro Roth himself, without whose participation it would not have been possible, not only as a producer of the images, but as a witness to all these events,” says D’Ambrosio, an archivist who also works at the Fondazione Clorindo Testa, in the Helft Collection and in other private archives, and was called upon by Broa in 2022 to assist Giannini, the project coordinator. The result is a hard drive that stores data in bits. 8,000 negatives, with 315 research subtopics and 77 documented events and exposures.
“The entry of this documentary collection is a milestone because it is the first time that an artist like Pedro has decided to deposit his documentary collection in the AGN. It is also the first time that we have done so in collaboration with another institution, which allowed us to make this entry in a very professional way, because the ability to talk to the donor of the archivists allows us to reconstruct the context of the production of the documents,” says Rocío Caldente, coordinator of the Photographic Documents Department of the AGN. To celebrate the event, an exhibition was created featuring copies of newly received negatives.
“We believe that we are also collaborating with a great history, contributing a small grain of sand, but also with openness so that we can continue working,” Adriana Rosenberg, President of Proa, said at the event where the agreement was signed. AGN will be the owner of all the negatives, but its management and publication will continue to be in its hands Ruth family, father and sons, Damian and Matthias.
Roth also said a few words before signing: “I want to thank you for accepting the donation. I feel that everything I give is part of the history of Argentine art, and it is necessary that this is recorded and that everyone is a part of it. I feel that I am part of that family that represents the history of Argentine art. I go to the National Museum of Fine Arts (MNBA) and I feel at home, I go to BROA and I feel at home.”
“We introduced him National Award for Artistic Profession. He built the character of Pedro Roth with a painful past in exile and became an icon of Argentine culture. Your life is your work. “Like Peralta Ramos, Pedro was of his own invention,” he commented. Andres Duprat, MNBA Director, Attendance, along with other references such as Eleonora Jaureguibere, Malba Puertos Coordinator; Gallery owners Mauro Herlitska and Maria Casado; Director Julia Converti; María Inés Justo Borga, President of the Espigas Foundation, and Cecilia Kavanagh, Director of the Fine Arts Pavilionamong other things.
“For me, it was a great pleasure to read one day, December 10, 2024, in the newspaper La NACION that Pedro, after visiting and touring the archive, decided that this was the best place to keep this type of collection,” he said. AGN Director, Emilio Perina. He said: “What made the archive the largest documentary collection in the history of Argentina was private donations, adding topics that did not come from the state, thus forming a more complete social and political history.”
Completing the move from the old headquarters to the brand new Rondeau 2270, AGN is focusing on working on the archive that has been forgotten for sixty years, Whitcomb Collectionthe oldest photographic archive in Argentina. “It was in a basement that was flooded,” Perina details. “It was said there were 350,000 glass panels, but now we estimate there were 400,000. This is what the archive is about, the dimensions of everything. Ultimately, the archive aims to shed light on our past, serve our present and build our future.”
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