Esteban Lisa (1895-1983) Spanish / Argentine Composicion [Composition], 1953

Item Details

Oil on board
9 x 11-1/2 inches
Signed at lower right and dated : ‘LiLA / 6 – 9 – 1953’.

Excellent original condition
Outside dimensions of the frame 12 x 14 inches
Original frame

Esteban Lisa was born in Hinojosa de San Vicente (Toledo, Spain) on August 8, 1895.

At the age of twelve he emigrated to Argentina to live with his paternal uncles. He worked as a dishwasher, then as a messenger and later as a librarian at the Central Post Office in Buenos Aires. At the same time he completed his primary education. He entered the Beato Angélico School of Art, where he studied with Fray Guillermo Butler. He worked as a painting teacher at the School for Adults, located at Serrano 900 (Buenos Aires), and joined the Argentine Teachers’ Association. He married the Doctor of Philosophy and Letters, Josefina Pierini.

He developed his pictorial production almost uninterruptedly from the 1930s until 1978, an activity that he complemented with his studies in philosophy and science. He was always accompanied by a mystical conception of life and art, and abstraction was the visual medium he chose to communicate it.

He was not interested in pursuing a career as an artist-painter, as he perceived that his role within society would be to contribute to the spiritual development of human beings through teaching painting techniques. He thus carefully preserved his work for new generations.

His little book Kant, Einstein and Picasso, published in 1956, which he circulated among friends and cultural institutions, would underline his major preferences. His literary production includes 14 written and published books, among which are “Four-Dimensional Psychophysical Theory” and “Plato’s Theory of Worldview and Vision”.

Lisa had an extensive personal library consisting of more than 900 books on philosophy, Eastern religions and art, which is currently located at the headquarters of the Esteban Lisa Foundation.

In 1955, the year she retired from her official teaching job, Lisa founded – with the support of her students – her own center called “The Four Dimensions School of Modern Art”, located at Rivadavia 1966, Buenos Aires. Later, at Alsina 1535, her “Institute for Research on the Theory of Worldview” operated.

Between 1956 and 1979, Lisa gave numerous lectures in Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Paraná, Gualeguay and Azul on his Theory of Worldview, his way of linking aesthetic experiences, ethics and modern science.

He traveled to Spain to reunite with his family in 1981.

He died in Buenos Aires on June 19, 1983.