“Now, those who fail, who hanker alter posterity without making the effort, without studying, unconditionally and a-morally, have a refuge: abstract art, morbid art, perverse art, the infamy of art. These are stages in the degradation of art. They show and document the visual, intellectual and moral abominations of a group, fortunately small, of failures.” Fragment of Oscar Ivanissevihis speech at the opening of the XXXIX Salón Nacional, published by the Ministerio de Educación de la Nación under the title El arte morboso, Buenos Aires, 1949.