Artist Jorge Nigro dies at 82

He had lived in the Danish capital since the 1980s; he created a work in which Latin American and European artistic traditions coexisted; he was the twin brother of the artist Adolfo Nigro, who died in 2018
This Friday, at the age of 82, the artist Jorge Nigro died in Copenhagen, his family reported. He was born in Rosario on September 24, 1942. The funeral will be held in the Danish capital where he had lived since the 1980s, welcomed as an exile, and his remains will be buried there. He was the twin brother of the artist Adolfo Nigro, who died at the age of 75. As young men, the Nigro brothers had attended the workshop of the Uruguayan artist José Gurvich, in Montevideo.
At the age of ten, Nigro had taken a classical drawing course; At the age of fourteen, he entered the School of Visual Arts in Buenos Aires, where his four-year training was based on the Bauhaus tradition: he learned drawing, graphics, sculpture, painting, art history, philosophy, composition systems, morphology and geometry. Between 1966 and 1969 he lived in Montevideo, where he was part of the school of the artist Joaquín Torres García, the School of the South, and devoted himself to the study of the philosophy of art of “Universal Constructivism.”

In Montevideo, his teacher was Gurvich, a direct disciple of Torres García. “From him he learned that art is a tool for telling stories, that it must be worked with precision and simplicity, and that inspiration must come from the daily life of the people,” Gabriel Nigro, one of the artist’s sons, told LA NACION. “In addition, Gurvich taught him to work with joy, an essential concept of Hasidism, which was also reflected in his teacher’s work. After these formative stages, Jorge followed his own path towards a more concrete life, always seeking to create a dialogue with it. Thus, for more than ten years, his style was intimate, analytical and realistic.”

From 1982 to 1983, he lived in Rio de Janeiro, an experience that added a new cultural influence to his work. In 1983 he moved to Denmark, and from then on, his paintings were influenced by the encounter with European culture. From that moment on, he developed the “late style” that characterizes him. Since the 2000s, he had systematized his work around twelve basic symbols, in harmony with the cycles of nature and the seasons of the year. His work focused on developing the possibilities that these symbols offered him. His works have roots in both the pre-Columbian and Latin American tradition as well as in the European classical tradition.
Since 1971, he has exhibited his work in galleries and cultural centers in Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Copenhagen. He also illustrated several anthologies of Latin American poetry and has participated in various projects and workshops.
“My father was much more than an artist,” concludes Gabriel Nigro. “I grew up surrounded by his creative world, and every time I smell serpentine, I am transported to my childhood full of art, philosophy and positive energy. He was a philosopher, a lover of history and culture, with a smile that defined him. I will always remember his phrases: ‘Serenity and joy’ and ‘Consciousness and confidence. ’ Sometimes I did not understand what he said, but today those words are a profound legacy, like those of a modern Socrates. I carry him in my heart for his creativity, his walks through museums and his love of nature. My father, my friend, has passed away, but his legacy lives on, along with that of my mother. I grew up with an artist father and a politician mother [the Uruguayan Francia Magallanes who passed away in December 2024, in Montevideo] in the 70s, difficult times, but the beautiful things they gave me are what I keep. In addition, I will remember him for his love of tango, Gardel and classical music. Every night, he told me stories about my grandparents from Rosario, of Neapolitan origin, full of nostalgia and wisdom. All of that is still a part of me.”
On Instagram, the researcher and essayist Andrea Giunta wrote a profile of Jorge Nigro. “Jorge Nigro, the twin brother of Adolfo Nigro, my daughter’s father and partner for fourteen years, passed away in Denmark. The brothers were identical. You couldn’t tell the difference between one’s voice and the other’s. When they were young, they were also physically identical. Then life changed them. Their stories are part of an era that is coming to an end: that of artists and intellectuals who imagined a different world and who understood their art, their works, as shaping a utopian, fair, committed future. They saw their work as part of society. They were born in Rosario, to an immigrant family. When they arrived in Buenos Aires, they lived in a tenement, the three brothers and their parents in one room. For the twins, art was an escape from that world. At a very young age, they had traveled to Brazil. Then they went to Uruguay and adored the culture and artistic traditions of that country.

They started their first families there and lived as artists. Jorge had to leave Uruguay during the dictatorship and he left with his family. Denmark took them in. He never fully adapted to life in that very different country. He always painted, a more intimate, symbolic and cryptic painting, perhaps, than Adolfo's. The brothers wrote to each other every day. While we lived together, for Adolfo it was part of the day to write to his brother and receive his letters. I imagine there are hundreds of letters that tell what they did every day. [...] The brothers lived a transoceanic relationship, staying close, united, as if the distance did not exist. A month ago, the younger sister passed away. Jorge's departure leaves me with the feeling that Adolfo has finally left completely. The two had such a deep and strange relationship. They loved art, they built an idea of fusion between aesthetics and ethics that was rare then, and that no longer exists today. They left behind an immense, playful and extremely delicate work.”
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