TIMELINE
(Source: Premio Figari Catalogue)

1924 - Linda Olivetti Colombo was born in Milan, Italy. She was the youngest daughter of Allegra “Rina” Colombo and Guido Olivetti. Her brother Mario Olivetti was born in 1920. Her family was part of the Piedmont Jewish community, one of the oldest in Europe.

1924 - 1938 She attended elementary school and her first years of high school. She had a happy childhood with friends and a family environment full of love that encouraged her early creative vocation. Her father was an engineer who had a great vocation for art. He frequently took her to visit museums and observe historic buildings. Linda remembers her father’s fascination with 19th century painters such as the Induno brothers and Giacomo Favretto

(1849-1887). 1939 - The pressure exerted by Germany during the inter-war years led to the passage of anti-Semitic racial laws in Mussolini’s Italy. Jews were no longer allowed to study or marry Italian citizens and faced other restrictions. Linda’s father had contacts that allowed him to work in South America. The family decided to emigrate to Buenos Aires, finally settling in Montevideo.

In Buenos Aires, Linda met by chance the Argentine artist Sofía Sabsay (19242008), who would later become her friend.
1940 - 1945 - While living in Uruguay, Linda was unable to obtain the Italian documents that would allow her to continue high school. Her parents supported her efforts to learn about art and foreign languages. She became completely dedicated to painting. Linda’s first teachers in Montevideo were French artist Pierre Fossey

(1901-1976), who was known for his urban drawings, which were used as illustrations in numerous magazines and tourism publications. In her studio located across from Plaza Independencia, the young Olivetti practiced landscape and portrait painting.

In 1942, she participated in a group exhibition in Galería Moretti. During this time, she took lessons from Eduardo Vernazza (1910-1991).

1946 - She married Rafael Kohen, who would be her partner and support her career throughout his life. The couple moved to Buenos Aires. Linda studied painting in the Círculo de Bellas Artes and started taking classes with Horacio Buttler

(1897-1983) - thanks to her husband’s efforts. Buttler was an important figure in Argentinean modernist art. Her time studying with Buttler would mark the artist, and his influence is reflected in her work, particularly in the white and ocher tones and definition of the pictorial space.

1947 - Linda’s daughter Martha was born on July 25. Motherhood and her vocation became her main focus.

1948 - The couple returned to Montevideo, where Linda’s family lived.

1949 - Linda joined the studio of Joaquín Torres García (1874-1949), but he died a few months later. Her teachers were Augusto Torres

(1913-1992), Julio Uruguay Alpuy (1919-2009), and José Gurvich (19271974). The artist Eva Olivetti (1924-2013), who married Linda’s brother Mario, joined soon after. It was during this period that the artist began to sign her paintings using the last name Kohen. Taller Torres Garcia (TTG) had a profound impact on her artistic training. Her constant efforts to observe, paint, and draw daily life with great austerity in terms of artistic resources is a legacy of her tutors from that period. The artist was fully aware that she was part of a school that would play a key role in the history of art. She participated in group shows until the studio closed in 1962.92 93

1950 - Linda’s son Roberto was born on March 28, 1950.

1955 - Her father, Guido Olivetti, died, and her maternal grandmother, Nonna Pina, passed away a short time later. Both were very important figures for Linda, particularly her father. His death led her to stop painting until 1958. This three-year period was practically the only time in Linda’s life that she did not produce any work.

1960 - Linda met frequently with her friends, artists Hilda López (1922-1996) and Eva Olivetti. She and Hilda attended exhibits and exchanged opinions about their work. Linda and Eva painted outdoors and practiced portraiture. The three artists learned those practices at Taller Torres García.

1968 - The Kohens purchased a country home, “El Peñasco,” on the border between Maldonado and San Carlos. The property, an old farmstead, was renovated by the renowned architect Julio Villamajó (1894-1948) and was later updated by the Catalonian Antonio Bonet Castellana (19131989). It was a home with open spaces inserted as a terracota purist geometry in the highland landscape. The Kohen family received friends and cultural and political figures at “El Peñasco” for many years. Linda has especially fond memories of her encounters with Argentine artist Sofía Sabsay. On June 14, Uruguayan President Jorge Pacheco Areco implemented the Prompt Security Measures.

1971 - Linda had her first individual show at Galería Moretti in Montevideo. It featured a series of paintings that reflected her palette of ochers and whites. Augusto Torres predicted that that stage would come to be known as her “white period.”

1973 - A military coup took place in Uruguay on June 27, 1973. All democratic guarantees and freedom of opinion and expression were suspended.

1975 - Linda created a series of paintings on paper titled Los caminos inspired by the shapes of the highway between Montevideo and Paysandú. She frequently traveled that road to visit her daughter Martha. This was the first time that she had chosen a theme and generated a series of paintings around it. It was to become her habitual working method.

1976-1978 - During this period, the Kohens considered emigrating again due to the country’s difficult political situation. The artist felt the need to record that intimate family space before it disappeared. She began a series of paintings titled Las horas, in which she represented many household objects such as her clothing, her purse, etc. Rafael and Linda finally left Uruguay in May of 1977.

1979-1984 - Rafael, Linda, and Linda’s mother Rina relocated to São Paulo, Brazil. These would be very prolific and productive years for her painting. She established the main thematic components of her work during her first few years in São Paulo. They included the views of the body in which the artist portrayed herself based on the scope of her gaze and paintings of spaces and geometric stereotyped beings. She lived near the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) and visited it regularly. She later invited its director, Pietro Maria Bardi (1900-1999), to visit her workshop.

In 1981, Professor Bardi invited her to have a solo show at MASP, an important milestone in the artist’s career. Her brother Mario Olivetti died that same year.

1985 - Following a long period of totalitarianism, the military government finally ceded power to the political parties, paving the way for free and democratic elections.

1986 - The entire family returned to Montevideo following the return of democracy except for Linda’s son Roberto, who moved to Buenos Aires. They split their time between Montevideo and “El Peñasco.” Linda was able to focus entirely on painting in the peace and quiet of her home in Maldonado.

1988 - She held her first retrospective at the invitation of the director of the MASP. It was titled “1943-1988: 45 Years of Painting,” and it included 100 works from different periods. The artist was surprised to see how far she had come. The retrospective gave her the opportunity to consider the volume of her creative work.

1998 - Linda’s mother died at the age of 103. Linda has portrayed her in many different periods and situations, and she was a key presence in the artist’s work.

2000-2001 Linda experimented with three dimensional art for the first time. It was a natural evolution of her large paintings, in which space is defined by vanishing points in mysterious architecture, hallways, and partially open doors. Her large scale piece El Gran Biombo, which is comprised of 14 1.25-meter high panels, was exhibited in October 2001 in Uruguay’s Ministry of Education and Culture. The large folding screen let her play with perspectives within and outside of the piece.

2005 - Linda organized an immersive installation at the Spanish Cultural Center composed of 197 2.5-meter high by 60-centimeter wide black panels linked by hinges that form an enormous labyrinth through which spectators could wander. It marks her work’s definitive move to the physical space. The labyrinth and its construction can be considered a natural evolution of her screen paintings, in that they shape the passage through the work of art.

2007 - Linda Kohen exhibits a selection of the best paintings of her 45 years of work at the Borges Cultural Center of Buenos Aires under the curatorship of her longtime friend, art critic Sarah Guerra.

2008 - A major exhibition called Laberinto was held at the Palais de Clace in Buenos Aires. It included the installation of the same name as well as El Gran Biombo and the series Los caminos. The artist worked with renowned musician and researcher Coriún Aharonián (1940-2017) on the effort, and he composed a special musical setting for the labyrinth. The exhibit was a success with the public and was also very well received by art critics.

2009 - Linda’s life partner Rafael Kohen died. Linda reacted to his passing with emotional strength and a feeling of profound loneliness that was reflected in her paintings.

2012-2014 - She exhibited her work in August 2012 in the National Museum of Visual Arts at the invitation of its director, Enrique Aguerre. Jorge Abbondanza (Montevideo,1936-2020) curated the exhibition, which included a significant sample of her work and latest pieces as well as a replica of her studio with her Olivetti typewriter, which the artist painted several times. The exhibit was titled “Sola” and was dedicated to Rafael. It was during this period that Linda Kohen’s career became firmly established. She had numerous solo retrospectives in various countries between 2011 and 2014. The most important were held at Fundación Atchugarry in Manantiales, the American Collection Gallery in Miami, Dan Galleria in Sao Paulo, and Galería Guelfi in Vicenza, Italy.

In 2014, Linda Kohen: Private Life: my house, my table, my bed, my self was inaugurated in the Cecilia de Torres Gallery in New York. The gallery’s owner worked with artists from the Escuela del Sur.

2015-2019 - She was invited to be included in Galería Latina’s publications on Uruguayan artists. The book Linda Kohen, Poéticas reveladas del pensamiento by Sonia Bandrymer was presented at the MNAV. She again exhibited her work at Galería Guelfi in Vicenza, Italy with a show titled Amanti and her work was featured at The Americas Collection in Florida (USA).

In 2015, she exhibited the series Los caminos at Museo Mazzoni in Maldonado, Uruguay and Natura y el Hombre at Fundación Atchugarry Maldonado, Uruguay.

In 2019, the National Visual Arts Prize was renamed “Premio Nacional Linda Kohen.” The awards exhibit was held at Espacio de Arte Contemporáneo (EAC) and featured a selection of Linda’s paintings and the installation El Laberinto. It was titled Una Salida para el Laberinto (An exit for the labyrinth) and was installed in the EAC’s open air patios. The exhibit was designed to serve as the final intervention of El Laberinto, which had been damaged while outdoors.

2020-2022 A global pandemic reached Uruguay in March 2020. Kohen remained confined to her apartment due to the risk that Sars Cov 2 poses to older adults. The artist continues to paint and has created a series on social isolation.

In November 2021, a jury comprised of María Eugenia Grau, Elena O’Neill, and Daniel Gallo decided to award the Figari Prize sponsored by the Central Bank of Uruguay to Linda. It is the highest award recognizing the career of an active Uruguayan artist. In the context of that prize, the Figari Museum organized the exhibit Linda Kohen. La persistencia de lo íntimo, (Linda Kohen. The persistence of the intimate) a retrospective curated by Federico Arnaud.

2023 - Solo exhibition ´Exilios´ at the Juan Manuel Blanes Museum.

2024 - Guest artist at the 60th Venice Biennale, entitled Stranieri Ovunque, curated by Adriano Pedrosa.

2024 - Linda Kohen is named Illustrious Citizen of Montevideo city, awarded by the local government.