Vicente Forte
(Lanús, Prov. de Buenos Aires, 1912 - 1980)
More:
La Boca Artists
A panorama of the 20th Century
Vicente Forte
 
Vicente Forte was born on April 4, 1912, in Lanús, Buenos Aires. He graduates from the Escuela de Bellas Artes in 1935, with a teaching degree in Artistic Drawing. He studies engraving with Lino Enea Spilimbergo and plastic composition with Emilio Pettoruti between 1940 and 1945.
In 1931, he attends the Asociación de Estudiantes y Egresados de Bellas Artes (MEEBA) - founded on May 6, 1917. In 1935, he becomes a member of the Grupo Orión, where he exhibits his surrealistic art in 1939 and 1947. In 1951 he takes part in the XX Pintores y Escultores group, with whom he will make several exhibits with between 1952 and 1957.
He makes individual exhibits as of 1947 at Porteño galleries such as Callao, Van Riel, Guión, Plástica and Agrupación Impulso de La Boca. He also exhibits at the Pan American Unionin Washington, USA. As of 1963 he becomes an exclusive exhibitor at the Galería Rubbers in Buenos Aires.
Between 1949 and 1950 he makes several study trips to Portugal, Spain, Italy and France. In 1951, he wins the First Prize at the Salón Anual de Acuarelistas, Pastelistas y Grabadores. In 1952, he is awarded the Third Prize for Drawing at the Salón Nacional, and the following year he wins the First Prize at the Salón de Santa Fe. In 1954, he is invited to the II Bienal in La Habana, Cuba and he also holds an individual exhibit at the Schramms Gallery in Florida, USA. In 1955, he is awarded the Gran Premio de Honor Anual de Santa Fe and the Gran Premio Presidente de La Nación del Salón de Arte de Mar del Plata. The following year he is awarded the Gran Prize of Honor at the Salón in Córdoba and again at the Salón de Arte in Mar del Plata. In 1958, he is awarded the Premio Extraordinario del Salón de Mar del Plata. The following year he obtains the Kraft Award, the Premio Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores del Salón Nacional and the Second Place Award at the Salón Nacional. In 1960, he is invited to take part at the Premio Palanza and at the Primera Exposición Internacional de Arte Moderno, organized by the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires. That year he receives the Second Place Award at the Salón Municipal de Buenos Aires and, in 1962, the Gran Premio de Honor del Salón Nacional. In 1963 he takes part in the Arte Argentino Actual exhibit, at the Museo de Arte Moderno de París. A year later he is elected President of the Sociedad de Artistas Plásticos (SAAP) and is invited to the XXXII Bienal in Venice. Among his participations in collective exhibitions abroad we find Modern Art in New Delhi and Modern Art Exhibitionin Holland.
He works as a high school professor in Artistic Drawing for several technical schools in Buenos Aires.
In the words of José León Pagano, he is "[...] a refined colorist and a sensitive composer that practised abstract painting with poetic accents [...]”.
He dies in Lanús, on November 7. 1980.
His work can be found at the following museums: Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires; Museo Municipal de Artes Plásticas “Eduardo Sívori” de Buenos Aires and the provincial museums of Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires (La Plata), Córdoba and Santa Fe, together with the municipal museums in Rosario and Bahía Blanca.