Helmut Ditsch, the Argentine painter based in Austria who became the country’s highest-valued artist worldwide, once again shook the political and cultural landscape. In a conference at the Aula Magna of the UBA Law School, the creator of monumental works such as El triunfo de la naturaleza not only lashed out against Javier Milei’s government but also launched, amid laughter and ovations, his presidential candidacy. “I saw there’s an evangelical pastor who wants to be President. Would you vote for me?” he asked the audience, which responded with a resounding yes.
The conflict with the Casa Rosada goes way back. The copy of his painting El triunfo de la naturaleza, inspired by the Perito Moreno glacier, was removed by order of Karina Milei a week before the debate on the glacier law reform. Ditsch, who had lent the work in 2012, did not hold back: “I won’t give in to the government’s extortion. The work will stay as it is, where it is, they can keep it.” The artist said he always maintained good relations with previous governments, from Néstor Kirchner to Alberto Fernández, but that the treatment from the current administration was “very dark.”
During the talk, accompanied by the Secretary of University Extension, Oscar Zoppi, and the Art Coordinator, Zulma García Cuerva, Ditsch was more combative than ever. “They are not Argentines,” he said about Milei’s officials. “A law should be passed to strip traitors to the homeland of their Argentine nationality; Argentine identity is suffering a frontal assault, but the only violence we must accept is that of nature.”
The painter also shared anecdotes from his life, from his youth in Villa Ballester to his consecration in Europe. He spoke about his method: “What I do is not hyperrealism, but experiential realism. To paint the sea, I must first swim in its waters; to paint a glacier, I must first climb it.” He quoted Nietzsche and Heidegger, praised Charly García, and even sat down at the piano to the delight of those present.
In the front row were his father, Walter Ditsch, and coach Raúl Zabala, who helped him prepare to climb Aconcagua. There were also neighbors from his “hometown,” who celebrated the donation of his painting Glaciar Perito Moreno to the Law School, now displayed at the entrance of the Aula Magna.
Ditsch left no topic untouched. On the use of artificial intelligence in art, he stated that technology cannot dominate “our analog condition.” And on soccer, he confessed his mood would be different if the Argentine national team had lost in Atlanta, but predicted they will win the World Cup “if we keep the superstitions.”
The ending was apotheotic: he stepped off the stage and took photos with everyone who wanted, a gesture many interpreted as the first campaign act of a candidacy that, although launched in jest, does not seem so far-fetched for an artist who already sold a work for 1,600,000 euros and dreams of returning to Argentina “the feminine energy of nature.”
para mi este ditsch es un vendepatria un cipayo se cree mas que el pueblo la obra tenia q salir es una cachetada a los laburantes y ahora candidato un facho mas q nos va a llenar de hambre no voy a ceder a la extorsion dice el lacayo viva la lucha de los humildes abajo la derecha @MingoCaceres
Para mí, Ditsch la tiene clarísima: estos zurdos de mierda quieren callarlo porque no bancan el arte patriota. No cedas un carajo, que acá te bancamos. Vamo arriba, presidente carajo! Esto huele a censura kirchnerista, pero no van a poder.