Argentinian figurative artist Antonio Berni (1905–1981) is known for his aesthetic originality and for art steeped in social commentary. In the 1950s, he inaugurated a series of works that documented the lives of two fictional characters, Juanito Laguna and Ramona Montiel. Through the stories of Juanito, a denizen of Argentina’s shantytowns, and Ramona, who rises from the working class to the upper echelons of society, Berni addressed topics from industrialization to neocolonialism to economic backwardness and their effects on the population of underdeveloped countries.

Written by leading scholars of Latin American art, this handsome volume presents the first comprehensive survey of the internationally acclaimed Juanito and Ramona series. Richly illustrated with more than 250 color images, the volume brings together nearly two decades of Berni’s monumental, mixed-media reliefs and assemblages, experimental works on paper, and sculptural constructions made of found, everyday objects.