PEDRO FIGARI

www.pedrofigari.com

sitio web de Fernando Saavedra Faget

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fernandosaavedra@pedrofigari.com - figarisaavedra@hotmail.com

ARCHIVE

The archive, that I started organizing over 16 years ago, is my biggest concern. It is a clear need with any artist, but specially  with Figari, who has painted so much, and so much circulates among galleries and auction houses.

         The need is increased because there are so many fakes, which have damaged the prestige of authentic work.

         Many circumstances, mostly family related, have helped me carry on with the job.

         Basically, I use the clasification very well done by Architect Carlos Herrera Maclean, who had been trusted by the six offspring that outlived Figari to deal out the 2.400 paintings they inherited.

         Such an amount leads to believe that as much has been sold or given as presents by Figari himself during the years in which he painted and after, when having given it up, went on putting on shows even until the day before he died.      Even if the paintings with which he parted had been less, they were his choice as presents, or the choice of the buyers, which surely prevailed over any desire to keep the works. The volume of what he gave to his children in life is not considerable. So: I think it is wise to estimate he painted about 4.000 pictures. This archive must help define those amounts, but it will surely take more than one generation to advance that much.

         Each file is dedicated to one painting. Some, as I know one painting suits it, might have only a title, number, measures, writen on its cover. The aim is that the file will contain complete photographic and digital information, which would eventually fill the needs of a catalogue (which I rather call “index”). The more complete the archive is, less will be the need to depend on subjective opinions to determine the authenticity of paintings.

         When I started, I worked for many months up to 12 hours daily, as I had so much material to work with, having started from naught. Now, weeks can go by without my adding one file. Still, I have a fulltime job improving existing files, or on the website.

                                                               Fernando Saavedra Faget.