Monsters of Inequality and Waste: The New Realism of Antonio Berni

Abstract

This article examines the ways in which the work of the Argentine artist Antonio Berni (1905–1981) proposes renewed forms of realism engaged both with aesthetics and the socio-political order. Through the examination of Berni’s trajectory and with a special focus on Berni’s monsters made from reclaimed waste, this study draws on Jacques Rancière’s notion of dissensus to argue that art and politics come together in Berni’s monstrous constructions in the way in which they overturn customary modes within the realist representational order and simultaneously engender a transgressive and controversial art. In this, Berni’s work constitutes an original and daring proposal speaking to then-urgent political problems, such as unequal capitalist relationships and poverty, as well as delivering new insights on current ecological calamities.