The Argentinian artist Nicolás García Uriburu has died, La Nacion reports. Uriburu, who was also a landscape architect and ecologist, was regarded as a pioneer in Land Art and in his environmental awareness. He came to prominence when he was invited to participate at the Venice Biennale in 1968 and dyed the canal with fluorescein, a pigment that turns bright green when synthesised by microorganisms in the water. Within the next two years, he repeated this work at New York’s East River, the Seine, Paris, and at the mouth of Buenos Aires’ polluted southside Riachuelo, in an attempt to call attention to worsening water pollutioDuring his lifetime, n.
During his lifetime, Uriburu received multiple awards, including the Gran Premio de Pintura Nacional (National Grand prize in Painting, Argentina 1968), 1st place Tokyo Biennial (Tokyo, 1975), Premio Braque (Buenos Aires, 1993)
Primer Premio Otium Ecología (Buenos Aires, 1993) and Fondo Nacional de las Artes’ Premio a la Trayectoria (National Fund for the Arts: Career achievement award, Argentina 2000).
24 June 2016
