Batuz

Batuz (born May 27, 1933) is an artist, philosopher and cultural activist.

He is the founder of the Société Imaginaire, an undertaking that strives for cultural dialogue.

Batuz' ideas are carried out through the support of his foundations – Batuz Foundation USA and Batuz Foundation Uruguay, as well as Helmets for Peace e.V.

As an artist Batuz developed over the last decades with great consistency works in which a line becomes a mental barrier and acquires a vital function within the picture.

Batuz works with many different media, what remains the same is his vision of a co-existing world that acts as a possible community in which everyone can communicate with everyone else; the intellectuals amongst themselves but also with all others.

High and low has no meaning.

What's important is to create a peaceful world.

The works of art are agents in this world.

Batuz works out of an abstract, conceptually philosophical world that he consistently wants to convey into practical results.

Not to remain as an image but to give the visual world a new reality.

He wants to overcome boundaries, to visually annul the differences between people.

Batuz spent his childhood at the country estate of Matraderecske, Hungary that belonged to the family for generations.

Batuz’ life changed abruptly when the front lines of World War II approached the area.

The family looked for temporary refuge from the horrors of the war and moved to Austria, never to return.

The family in their escape underwent wandering, starvation, and refugee camps.

The contact with people under these circumstances gave him another dimension of life.

He worked hard to help to maintain the family.

In 1949 the family emigrated to Argentina.

During a heart ailment that incapacitated him for a year, Batuz started to paint in a naturalistic style.

Batuz was completely self-taught in art; an entirely autodidact.

He also pursued studies in esthetics and philosophy.

He was perpetually moved between the balance of the artistic world and that of the social.

Such writers as Ortega y Gasset would greatly influence his work.

He shared wide humanistic interests with groups of friends.

His painting moved from a figurative style and became more personal.

Batuz abandoned business in 1964 and dedicated himself exclusively to painting.

Batuz moved to Villa Gesell, a solitary place by the sea, where he spent eight years in complete dedication to his work.

The bright and hard sunshine on this vast extension of sea and sand dunes together with the spaces created by dark bushes, as a consequence to a preconceived notion, influenced his forms and colors.

He turned more and more towards abstraction.

This realization became the leitmotif for his entire lifework; the ‘Interrelation of Forms’.

In 1969 Batuz built his atelier, approaching it like an organic sculpture without previous plans.

He completed the entire construction himself.

Met Leopoldo Presas, the beginning of a lifelong friendship and a year later Batuz met Rafael Squirru with whom began a great collaboration.

Through the generous donation by Carlos Idaho Gesell, in 1971 Batuz founded the Artist Center in Villa Gesell to bring together painters, writers, sculptors and musicians.

Already burgeoning in his mind was the idea to bring together like-minded people, a concept he would only years later realize with his Société Imaginaire.

In 1972 Batuz published his first portfolio of serigraphs with text by Rafael Squirru.

The flat-even surface of silkscreen printing was a revelation to Batuz.

Simplification of his work followed.

John Davis Lodge, at this time the American Ambassador to Argentina, became interested in Batuz’ work.

It was the beginning of a valued friendship.