Marino Di Teana in front of the National Museum of Fine Arts of Argentina

Born amongst a family of peasants, Francesco Marino di Teana was successively a shepherd, a mason in Italy (Teana), site foreman, architect and student at the Art University of Argentina before moving to Paris in 1953. He was a painter, sculptor, architect, poet and philosopher and becomes one of the major sculptors of the 20th with his theories on “tri-unitarian” logic and architectural sculpture. Represented for more than 20 years by the mythical Denise René gallery and winner of prestigious artistic prizes, he was acclaimed by some of the greatest creators and art critics of his time. Precursor of the Monumenta’s at the Grand Palais with the exhibition of his monumental fountains (9 m high for 16 long), that he made with Saint-Gobain (Glass and industrial materials company), he has raised more than 40 monumental sculptures throughout France, one being the highest iron sculpture in Europe, “Liberté“ (Liberty), that is 20 meters high (at Fontenay-sous-bois). His lifetime work was the object of a retrospective in 1975 at the Paris Museum of Modern Arts, he represented Argentina at the Venice biennial of 1982, and won the academy of fine arts prize in 2009.