Meet the artists : Cecilia Vicuña
2022NOWNESS
Meet the artists by Art Basel: Cecilia Vicuña
Explore Cecilia Vicuña's creative practice that pays tribute to the preciousness of all life.
Chilean-born poet and artist Cecilia Vicuña’s career spans half a century – and throughout, she has been focused on a few central themes: human-generated environmental crisis, extinction, and human rights. In this episode of ‘Meet the artists’, we delve into her work, which profoundly connects the earth, body, and the human experience. In the 1960s, she created the term ‘Arte Precario’. These works are an ‘acknowledgement of the precariousness of life, the precariousness of the beauty of being,’ she says.
“‘The world of nature all over the planet is suffering, because we are murdering it’ - Vicuña”
Her half-century career was only rediscovered within the last decade, ‘A few years ago, my paintings were being destroyed, even by my family and friends,’ she says. In the film, she recounts her creative journey from Santiago to New York, where she lives today.
Cecilia Vicuña is represented by Lehmann Maupin.
