Rafael Squirru...

To delve into the world of Candioti is to delve into a dimension that, although harsh, is still real, with respect to certain aspects of our land and those who inhabit and work it. I have written on several occasions about her work, drawing attention to her interest and the growing development of her painting in the social environment, in the best traditions of Mexican muralists and our Antonio Berni, in this line or style, in which she has been inspired.

She has traveled through the northeast of Argentina and Bolivia, where she has interpreted our typical indigenous people, in addition to an important period where she has painted the workers of the Port of Buenos Aires, their faces, their expressions.

I do not know of any artist today who follows the traditions of Social Painting with the same impetus and reaping such important fruits as the art of Ana Candioti. Happy is anyone who can enjoy her growing mastery.

Pérez Celis...

The importance of a portrait lies in the artist's expression, it is the only way for it to transcend as a work of art. The "likeness" alone does not make it transcendent, if it does not transmit the spirit and soul of the artist that manifests itself through the figure. On one occasion, after finishing a portrait, the model asked Picasso: Is that me? and he answered, "No, that's me."

Ana Candioti settles in the realm of realism, far from naturalism as a mere illustration. In her portraits, she takes the risk of finding her own voice, through her own spirit, forging and pouring into them the character and expression of the portrayed person. With solid drawing and sensitive and thoughtful color, her works truly transcend as paintings beyond similarity and that is what will make them permanent.

Héctor Giuffré...

La síntesis superadora

Más allá de las falsas antinomias entre "tradición" y "renovación", entre lo "nacional" y lo "internacional" y entre tantos otros componentes del devenir del arte que en su diversidad se complementan para alcanzar el "corpus" de la praxis artística, sabiendo que las verdaderas antinomias son entre simulación y creación, entre profesar la vocación del arte o adoptar las poses estereotipadas del oportunista buscador de prestigio, Ana Candioti, como lo hace el artista verdadero, asumió el riesgo de buscar su propia voz a través de su propio criterio, forjando y volcando su propia opinión.

Instalada en el ámbito del realismo, tan lejos del naturalismo como de la ilustración servil, se sintió atraída por las imágenes del entorno social allí donde este muestra sus más humildes y, tal vez, más puros matices.

Desde las obras realizadas hace algunos años, en las que mostraba haber asimilado el enfoque social de aquel Nuevo Realismo de los años '40 del que Berni y Siqueiros fueron dos exponentes notables, hasta estas obras que hoy exhibe se ha operado un intenso y positivo proceso que llevó a Ana Candioti a alcanzar la expresión de esta imagen potente y de nítida y personal coloratura, donde la composición, esa gran vía del pensamiento figurativo da justa significación a la simbología formal que teje Ana Candioti con dibujo sabio y colorido sensible y meditado.

La artista nos muestra estas obras maduradas hasta alcanzar el justo punto, y yo acerco mi voz para celebrar su éxito que consiste, nada menos, que en haberlas logrado, superando las falsas antinomias.

Josefina Racedo...

A SOUTH FLORIDA ARTISTS' PERSPECTIVE

I've known Ms. Candioti since 1978, a time of hardship for Argentine culture, a time when I could appreciate her commitment and sensitivity to the reality most Argentinian people were going through.

Her solid academic formation, attained and nurtured in the finest art schools in Argentina, both official and private, had granted her an excellent technique and formal display which were gradually used to reflect our social reality in a committed way.

Thus, I define Ana Candioti's work not only as a social, but also as a testimonial pictorial art that positions her, in my opinion, as its best representative and the only one who can be pointed as such.

Carol Damian...

There are few artists today who have dedicated their professional careers to documenting the proud and noble faces of people often forgotten in the representations associated with contemporary portraiture. However, Ana Candioti has long been fascinated with the beauty and dignity of the different peoples of the Americas. Her travels throughout the American continent, including the Caribbean, have given her the tools to not only capture the physical appearance of people but also to portray their souls.

Guillermo Losteau...

Ana Candioti has not chosen an easy path. It is clear that her technique opens up alternatives to any path she might have chosen. However, she preferred to give a harsh but authentic testimony to a reality that is not always perceived and is often forgotten. It is a world faced with the phenomenon of globalization and the philosophical dispute between universalism and communitarianism, which calls into question the value of different cultures. Ana goes even further: she rescues from oblivion ethnic groups in danger of extinction, not only through her art, but as a privileged witness of habits and customs, the product of living with these groups that she wants to reflect. But there is still another remarkable dimension. As President of the Argentine Cultural Center in Miami, whose objectives are the dissemination and promotion of Argentine culture, I greatly value Ana Candioti's contribution; her presence in Miami, where her work is based, makes her a living example of the center's objective. The paradox of her career is that, through the emphasis placed on particular and closed communities, Ana Candioti's painting achieves an unusual universality. And it fills us with pride.

Gregorio Luke...

I will never forget the first time I saw Ana Candioti's work. We were in Buenos Aires, after a bus trip and several metro stops, we arrived at her large studio in the Central Park Barracas. In the center of the studio, behind some canvases, there was a huge painting of seven women who seemed to look at me from centuries ago. I felt as if I was seeing the history of America, in their impassive eyes was everything: the conquests, the sadness, the oppression, but also the stoicism and fighting spirit of our people. The painting shook me. I was before a masterpiece. As I discovered more works, this feeling of wonder took root in me. In some I saw Andean musicians and the studio was filled with imaginary music. There were also Indians, blacks, peasants... in short, that "colorful, nocturnal, solitary America that sings throughout the continent with the same sadness and disillusionment."

Ana Candioti is the heir of the Mexican muralists and of her compatriot Antonio Berni, according to the Argentine critic Rafael Squirru. It must be remembered that muralism is also a cry for artistic independence, the first pictorial movement originating on this continent. Today we find that many of our artists have returned to a "neocolonial" status. It is sad to see one exhibition after another, which are nothing more than variations of what is done in Berlin or New York. It is astonishing that the works are completely alien to the reality in which they were created.

It is an art that, as Siqueiros would say: "sees nothing, hears nothing and says nothing." Against this bleak backdrop, Candioti's work stands out as a rare jewel. Her work is based on research. She spends time in the communities she paints. But her works are not mere transcriptions of reality; they go beyond photographic realism. Just like a novelist who draws on many individual realities to create a deeper and more universal reality, Candioti creates true human archetypes. There is also a subjective vision, as Squirru indicates, in the manner of medieval painting; in his paintings we sometimes find slight variations in the scales of the characters according to their importance. Candioti does not limit herself to a geographical area; she has painted the Samis in Norway, the Mayans in Yucatan, the dockers in Buenos Aires, the children in the streets. She also paints characters he admires such as Mother Teresa or Nelson Mandela. In addition to artistic commitment, there is a social commitment. She never closes her series, she returns to them as if they were permanent conversations and shares profits from her works with the communities portrayed.

Like Neruda, Ana Candioti understands that "we have inherited the torn lives of people who have been suffering from centuries of punishment... people who were suddenly devastated and silenced by the terrible times of colonialism that still exist... Many refuse to share the past of shame and plunder." She has chosen "the difficult path of shared responsibility."

Ana Candioti takes up and renews the great libertarian tradition of Latin America. She is one of the great artists of our time..

Orson Andersen...

The portrait genre is present throughout the History of Art. It has always been a genre closely linked to the commission, from Egypt. In the Middle Ages, the Byzantine icons, Giotto is a great painter of this period. In the Baroque, the dynamics of the portraits of the bourgeoisie as a symbol of social position continued and increased. Van Dick and Rubens were outstanding portrait painters. Rembrandt, Zurbarán, Velazquez, were also court painters. In the 19th century, neoclassical painting also exalted heroic characters from history. In the 20th century, the avant-garde movements were transforming figuration, the Cubists the form, the Fauves the colour. When Pop burst onto the scene with its graphic art, it was to evoke stars of the world of entertainment, politicians, etc. In the 60s, a new trend of figuration appeared in England with Bacon or Lucian Freud with psychological art, but always with a westernised and Eurocentric view of the human figure.

The transcendence and historical transgression in the portrait genre that painter Ana Candioti provokes positions her as an artist of rupture in the history of world painting. The painter's gaze points to personalities from the deep land of America and the world, those who were not portrayed or forgotten by the indifference of the colonialist history of the Western centers of power.

This is a pioneering and “anti-classical” quality, although his pictorial technique ironically uses the virtues of “great easel painting” to noticeably strip and decolonize the painter's style and attitude as a postmodern anthropologist or sociologist.

The evolution of the ethno-visionary consciousness of art history will place the great female painter Ana Candioti in the place she deserves.