Feliciano Centurión

Between 1992 and 1996, as Centurión's health and energy progressively diminished, so did the scale of his work. This blanket, made in the year of his diagnosis with HIV and at over two metres tall, represents a fulcrum between his earlier work which was brighter, bolder and larger and his latter work which focused more on smaller embroideries.

‘Flores Negras’ consists of thick and twisting stems painted over a vivid red blanket, and decorated further with intricate Ñandutí flowers. Ñandutí, which takes its name from the Guaraní word for ‘spider’s web’, is an indigenous Paraguayan form of lacework. This work demonstrates the artist’s connection to his heritage. He regularly depicted the flora and fauna of Paraguay in his works and similarly often incorporated Ñandutí. Having moved to Buenos Aires, Centurión found comfort in these sentimental reminders of his home country.

Paraguay has a particularly strong connection to its indigenous heritage. The region of Centurión’s birth, Misiones, take its name from the missions established by colonising Jesuits from 1609 onwards. Unlike other colonising forces on the continent, the Jesuits aimed to preserve the indigenous culture and language; partly as a result of this, Guaraní is one of the few officially recognised indigenous languages in Latin America, it is spoken by a majority of the population.