Image: National Museum of Fine Arts, Argentina, Buenos Aires
The National Museum of Fine Arts in Argentina has highlighted Antonio Berni’s 'Juanito Laguna aprende a leer' from 1961 as its latest 'La Obra del Día'. In a post shared by the museum, the work is described as an oil collage showing four children with pencils and notebooks in a precarious setting, with a sheet of metal and threads suggesting the sun.
The museum’s caption places the work within Berni’s long-running Juanito Laguna series, one of the artist’s best-known bodies of work. In 'Juanito Laguna aprende a leer', Berni turns to a scene of childhood and learning framed by rough, makeshift materials. The description emphasizes the collage-like construction and the contrast between the children’s school supplies and their environment.
Antonio Berni remains one of the central figures in Argentine modern art, and the museum’s selection draws attention to a work that links his social imagery with his experimental use of materials. By identifying the piece specifically as an oil collage, the institution underscores the way Berni worked across painting and assemblage to build images from ordinary or industrial-looking surfaces.
The museum’s 'La Obra del Día' format is used to spotlight individual works from the collection or related holdings, offering a brief look at a single artwork and its visual details. In this case, the focus is on a 1961 work in which children are shown in an environment marked by scarcity, while the title frames the scene as one of literacy and education.
The post was published by the National Museum of Fine Arts, Argentina, on August 3, 2026. No exhibition, loan, or public programme was announced alongside the post, and the museum’s message centered entirely on the artwork itself.
The caption gives the work’s title in Spanish, 'Juanito Laguna aprende a leer', and identifies it as an oil collage by Antonio Berni from 1961.
