Visual artist Ignacio Bertetich Follow.Art Card

About me

My practice begins in silence — not as a concept, but as a physical state. The empty surface is not a threat. It is a place of expectancy, full of possibility. But you have to enter it carefully, the way you move through a room at dawn, turning on soft lights so as not to wake the beloved still sleeping nearby, preparing yourself quietly, letting the morning fill slowly with light.
My process begins with automatism: a free mark, with intention present — then lines with soft or strong energy, depending on what I feel. Then I place color in the space. From there, forms start to emerge. I surround them with soft brushstrokes and watch. Then I decide: do I press deeper to give a shape more weight, or do I veil it, letting it live at the threshold of the visible? The image is never imposed. It is recognized.
In Buenos Aires, while studying at the Universidad Nacional de las Artes, I worked in the studio of Oscar César Mara, who developed his approach to form alongside the painter Juan Batlle Planas. His library opened other doors: Zen texts, Eastern philosophy, the idea that emptiness is not absence but the condition for something to appear. He took my hand and taught me to walk — all the way to the lake. What I drink from it is my own.
I am drawn to organic forms: the female body, flowers, objects in stillness — not as subjects to capture, but as exercises in understanding light, shadow, gesture, color.
Since moving to Berlin I have begun working in black and white — not stark, but alive with vibrant gradation, with grays that breathe. A certain peace. A palette that, for now, feels like the right one.
If someone stands before one of my paintings and their mind quiets — even briefly — that is enough.
I am a visual artist based in Berlin.