The Estate of Esteban Lisa

Esteban Lisa Morales was born to a modest family in Hinojosa de San Vicente in Toledo, Spain on August 8, 1895. As a young teenager, Lisa emigrated to Buenos Aires, Argentina to live with his paternal aunt and uncle. He attended primary school, worked as a dishwasher at his uncle’s tavern, in addition to working at the Port Customs Office. Lisa later studied art under Fray Guillermo Butler at the Beato Angelico Art School. In 1920, Lisa started his long career at the Correo Oficial de la República Argentina (Central Post Office) where he worked as a messenger, and later became head librarian. This period was a lonely time for the artist as he awaited the 1924 arrival of his parents and siblings. Lisa became an avid reader in the subjects of science, philosophy and mysticism, and eventually assembled a private library of more than 750 volumes on literature, philosophy, art, and aesthetics.

In the 1920s, Esteban Lisa met Josefina Pierini, a Ph.D. in Philosophy and Literature and one of the founders of the Escuelas de Adultos. Pierini introduced Lisa to the field of philosophy. Their intellectual relationship developed into a romantic one, and the couple married in 1938.  

“Late 1944 or early 1945, the latter being the year that Lisa’s father died, marks the date of a major crisis, causing a decisive break between Lisa and his family. We do not know why or what was at issue. Unfortunately, the rift never healed, and Lisa was never able to reconcile with his mother before her death in 1967. As a symbol of this estrangement, Lisa would henceforth refuse to sign his paintings with his surname and instead began to sign using the pseudonym Lila, which was the name of a small dog that belonged to him and Josefina Pierini.”[1]

[1] Elizabeth Thompson Goizueta, “From Spain to Argentina: Reflections on the Influence of Mudéjar in Esteban Lisa’s Art” (Conference, McMullen Museum of Art, Boston, MA, September 17, 2017).

The late 1950s was the most prolific period of Lisa’s artistic and intellectual career. After retiring from the Central Post Office in 1955, Lisa had more time to focus on developing his art and intellectual writings. The Escuela de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires Las Cuatro Dimensiones (School of Modern Art “The Four Dimensions”) and the Instituto de Investigaciones de la Teoría de la Cosmovisión (Institute for Research of the Theory of Cosmovision) are born from this increased dedication to the arts and knowledge.

Cosmovisión, is a theory that is representative of Lisa's core philosophy concerning art and painting. By 1974, Lisa wrote four essays on Cosmovisión, which were used in public conferences to add a spiritual perspective to scientific theories, such as the theory of relativity. To Lisa, Cosmovisión was a concept that could connect the spiritual with the scientific. Art being a manifestation of such unity. Julia P. Herzberg writes, "Lisa held that painting and drawing were creative but also spiritual acts that marked one's very being. He viewed his work not as an object but as a vestige, a trace, a testimony of his ongoing research into what he defined as cosmovision, the unity between the here and the beyond." [1]

Lisa's artistic practice was thus a meditation which reconciled the spiritual and the scientific and was predicated on the individual. The practice of painting  provides the artist with a sense of connectedness with the universe as well as a means for self-discovery. A student of Lisa, Isaac Zylberberg recounts, "For Lisa, art was the most transcendent aspect of man, and therefore art should reflect the expression of the individual's spirit. The work of art was a cosmovision." [2] To Lisa, art was a way in which an individual could directly experience the universe. 

[1] Julia P. Herzberg, "Esteban Lisa: In Search of the Transcendent," in ESTEBAN LISA: Retornos, Toledo, 1895 - Buenos Aires 1983.  Biblioteca Nacional de España, 12 September till 3 November 2013. Museo de Santa Cruz, Toledo, December 2013 till June 2014.
[2] Zylberberg, "Esteban Lisa: Entrevista a Sus Discípulos," Esteban Lisa (1895-1983): Óleos and Pastel, Galeria Palatina, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2007, 7