Born in Buenos Aires in 1946. In 1969, he finished his studies at the Escuela de Artes Visuales Manuel Belgrano. That same year, he moved to Paris, where he continued his studies at the Ecole Nationale Superieure de Beaux Arts, Ecole Practique Des Hautes Etudes Sorbonne, Université de Vincennes. There, he makes contact with Victor Vasarely and with the optical art movement, but the vitalism present in his works reminds us to the kinetic works of Soto or to those of the sculptor Marino Marini.
In 1977 he returns to Argentina and resumes his job as a goldsmith, while he stops exhibiting his works for a period of 10 years. He returned to plastic production in the late 80’s, always in the field of sculpture. In the early 90s, the realization of large-scale volumes is a constant resource in his work. A resource that he uses with a great mastery of the technique. His iron and granite works from that period bear witness to this, as do the enormous tools, whose
manual functionality is cancelled out by their large size.
Precision and simplicity are some of the components that, together with monumentality, lay the foundations for his later creations. Among them are the works that make up the “La Ribera” series, to which the sculptures in this collection belong. In them Bastón evokes with a certain nostalgia the figure of the immigrant anchored in these lands. To do so, he starts from the concrete reality, using the figure of the boat as a symbol and starting point.
However, beyond the theme, the work is framed in an aesthetic of abstraction where it is possible to find a certain formal rigorism, given by the asceticism of the structure, despite putting in tension the curve and the straight line. It is precisely in the amalgamation of the poetic character of his works with the constructive aspect, where the richness of his work lies.
Alberto Bastón Díaz has participated in countless exhibitions both in the country and abroad.
Among the distinctions he has received, the following stand out: Second Prize Sculpture, Salón Municipal de Artes Plásticas Manuel Belgrano, Museo Eduardo Sívori (1969); First Prize Sculpture, Salón Municipal de Artes Plásticas Manuel Belgrano, Museo Eduardo Sívori
(1992); First Prize Sculpture, Salón Nacional de Artes Plásticas (1992); Grand Prize of Honor, Salón Nacional de Artes Plásticas (1993); First Prize Monumental Sculpture, Fundación Banco República, Sixth Architecture Biennial (1995); First Prize Monumental Sculpture INET (1997); First Prize Sculpture, Fundación Henry Moore (1998); First Prize Sculpture, Fundación Alberto Trabuco (1998).
He currently lives and works in Buenos Aires.