Leonor Cecotto

• Name — Leonor Cecotto • Born — 1918, 1920 or 1922 • Birthplace — Formosa, Argentina • Died — 8 May 1982 (aged 59-64) • Place of death — Asunción, Paraguay • Known for — Engraving, painting

Cecotto was born in Formosa, Argentina, in 1918, 1920 or 1922. Her parents were Vicente González Leiva (Spanish) and Catalina Cecotto (Argentine). Her father was a piano tuner, and she initially studied piano, and taught piano to earn money. From a young age, Leonor Cecotto resided in Paraguay. Cecotto was largely self-educated, in part because her father forbade her to attend the Ateneo Paraguayo. She was taught drawing and painting privately at home, by a French artist, Francis Eugene Charles. In the 1950s she approached João Rossi, a Brazilian professor at a YMCA-hosted arts workshop. Rossi—known as a driving force for a "modernization" of the contemporary Paraguayan plastic arts—introduced Cecotto to professional art. Cecotto was also influenced by Livio Abramo, a Brazilian-born engraver who also resided in Paraguay and taught woodcut courses. As a result of her contributions, Cecotto is considered part of the Grupo Arte Nuevo, a school of influential 20th-century Paraguayan artists. Cecotto was a founder of the Centro de Artistas Plasticos del Paraguay, and taught drawing and painting at the Female Institute of Integrated Culture in Asunción. She died in Asuncion in 1982.

• Year || Exhibition • 1951 — Exhibited her work for the first time in Asunción. • 1953 — Participated in International Exhibitions, most notably of which was the International Exhibition of Painters in Chicago (United States of America) • 1960 — Participated in the First Latin American Competition of Xylography in Buenos Aires. • 1963 — VII São Paulo Biennial Exhibition (Brazil). • 1963 — I International Engraving Biennial in Santiago de Chile. • 1964 — IV Engraving Biennial in Tokyo. • 1965 — South American Art Exposition at the Braniff International, at the University of Texas. • 1965 — II International Engraving Biennial in Santiago de Chile. • 1966 — IV International Exhibition of Black and White in Lugano (Switzerland). • 1967 — South American Engraving Exposition at the Cegrí Gallery in New York City. • 1967 — Exposition of Contemporary Paraguayan Painting at the Panamerican Union in Washington D. C. • 1968 — First Ibero-American Biennial Exhibition of Painting, organized by the Coltejer Factory of Medellín (Colombia). • 1968 — Exposition at the Muestra Internacionale della Grafica at the Unión Florentina of Florence (Italy). • 1969 — X São Paulo Biennial Exhibition. • 1971 — XI São Paulo Biennial Exhibition. • 1971 — Museum of Modern Art, New York • 1972 — III Latin American Art Biennial, organized by the Coltejer Factory of Medellín. • 2009 — Retrospective show, El Centro Cultural Paraguayo Americano y Amigos del Arte.