CARLOS CAIROLI

b. 1926 Buenos Aires, Argentina – d. 1995 Chartres, France

Carlos Cairoli studied Fine Arts in Buenos Aires. At the end of the 1940s he met artist Torres Garcia who familiarised him with theories of constructivism and the art of Mondrian (ref. Arte Constructivo he wrote in 1933 dedicated to Mondrian). Becoming increasingly interested by the effects of light on material, he joined briefly the experimental group on spatial research directed by Lucio Fontana, who had returned to Buenos Aires (1946-47). 

Cairoli moved to Paris in 1952 and, from 1955 started exhibiting regularly at the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, Comparaisons and Grands et Jeunes d’Aujourd’hui. His first influence in Europe, visible in his complex Plexiglas constructions, came from his many visits to the artist Vantongerloo, founding member of De Stijl. Cairoli participated in Groupe Espace created in 1951 by André Bloc and Félix Del Marle, both followers of De Stijl. This new group aimed to pursue in a less utopic approach the neo-plastic ideal of the synthetisation of the arts (painting, sculpture and architecture) within an architectural space.  Believing in a purer ideology and more universal form of constructivism, Cairoli joined in 1959 the Groupe Mesure founded by Georges Folmer, along with the painters Jean Gorin and Luc Peire with François Morellet and Aurelie Nemours also taking part. 

Cairoli organised the exhibition Constructivism: Festival 1962 in Paris at Galerie Dautzenberg, pursuing his own ideas with a new group he named Centre International des recherches Spatiales Formelles and participated in the international exhibition at the Stedelijk Amsterdam Experiment in Constructie in 1962 regrouping the followers of De Stijl: Jean Gorin, Anthony Hill, Joost Baljeu, Mary Martin, Charles Biederman, John Ernest and Dick Van Woerkom.