Museo La Recova is an artist’s haven built with love and dedication by Miguelangel Gasparini. It is located in a typical esquina in the streets of Segundo Sombra and Zapiola, San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 1850 this was already a meeting place for people in the neighbourhood. First the local Butcher’s, now turned into the artist’s Atelier and Museum of everything pertaining the evocative Gaucho. Here Miguelangel Gasparini exhibits his sculptures, oil paintings, watercolours, and much more, all works rich in the fascinating history of his land, its culture and folklore.
“I very much respect the authentic image of the Gaucho. I live with my paisanos from Areco and I see how they think, how they work, I am with them by the fire, in the meetings at the pulperías. One could say I paint the campo because that is what I live…”
Miguelangel Gasparini was born in San Antonio de Areco in 1953 and at the age of five we would already draw horses and Gauchos under the supervision of his father, Osvaldo Gasparini, who was his mentor and ‘gran maestro’ and the godchild of the famous Don Segundo Ramírez Sombra (emblematic character in the story written by Ricardo Güiraldes). Gasparini shares with his brothers their respect for their individual talents and their father’s memory. Named with pride after Miguelangel-Buonarotti, Luis Leonardo-Da Vinci, and Rubén Darío-the poet, the three brothers are an expression of the importance of Education, Arts, Literature and the Culture of a great nation.
Miguelangel studied Museología at the Universidad del Museo Social Argentino in Buenos Aires and he was Deputy Director at the Parque Criollo and Museo Gauchesco “Ricardo Güiraldes”, in San Antonio de Areco. Later he trained as Maestro Nacional de Dibujo at Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes. He defines his style as simbolista (Symbolism) and he feels great passion for teaching, something he has been doing for many years.
Miguelangel Gasparini has exhibited widely and he has painted over one hundred murals in Argentina and abroad. He has also illustrated fifteen books, among them Martín Fierro, Don Segundo Sombra y la hazaña de los caballos criollos Gato y Mancha-. At present the artist is writing his book Dejaré el camino sembrado de huellas.
This “Pintor de los Gauchos” has a special ‘talent for tales and stories’ …among friends and neighbours, students and tourists……his works surprise us in all corners of the city and tell us stories that share the lives of past and present inhabitants and of those whose footprints here stayed. And it is here where one finds him, always kind and joyful, with his mate and pencil, his ‘pampitas blancas’ and his ready brush…at the “Vieja Recova/ rinconada de mi vida/ te encontré triste y vencida/ como una mueca fatal/ la mala suerte / te jugó una carta brava/ pero se te dio vuelta la taba/ ¡y te pude restaurar!”
“To know him is undoubtedly to venture into the mind of the Argentine Gaucho. A man of the Arts of the land and its men…” Pablo Etchevers
To Visit Museum La Recova, Zapiola y Segundo Sombra, San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Tel.: 00 54 (0) 2326 15 41 0303