NORAH BORGES For those who have an interest in Argentine art, Norah Borges, was more than just the younger sister of the great Jorge Luis (Borges). Her work is highly regarded and considered to be an excellent interpretation of the emerging opulent society of Buenos Aires in the early 20th Century. Leonor Fanny Borges, “Norah” was born in 1901 in the Argentine “barrio” of Palermo where, alongside her brother, she created a fantasy world within the walls of their gated family garden. Their creative childhood games were to play an important part both in his writing and her artwork. As a young girl, Norah revealed an interest for the scenes reproduced in paintings but her formal training began in her early teens when the family moved from Buenos Aires to Switzerland. At the Ecole de Beaux Arts in Geneva she learnt the strict geometric principles of the Academy yet her work was quickly recognized as innovative and prompted her teacher Maurice Sarkisoff to urge her to follow her own unique style. Throughout the time she spent in Europe, Norah came under the influence of such varied artists as Leonardo Da Vinci, German Expressionism, Picasso and Cubism and the daring imagery and symbolism of the Spanish ultraist movement. In Madrid, Norah furthered her studies with the Andalusian artist Julio Romero de Torre. By that time, she and her brother had identified with the German expressionist movement: Jorge Luis with expressionist literature and Norah with such artists as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rotluff of the Dresden Die Brucke movement. In 1921, Norah moved to Seville where she became an active part of the ultraist movement illustrating such magazines as “Grecia”, “Reflector” and “Ultra” which conveyed the aesthetic image of the literary movement. Later in Buenos Aires, her illustrations in Prisma and Proa were to continue to divulge the work of the movement throughout Latin America and Spain. Both Jorge Luis and Norah’s husband to be, Spanish literary critic Guillermo de Torre were part of the core of this movement that opposed Modernism. Norah was often called upon to illustrate the works of her intimate circle of friends which included amongst many other personalities of the time, writer Adolfo Bioy Casares. The illustrations on the book covers can be found in the Southern Cone Literature Collection. In 1923, Borges’ first selection of poems was published: “Fervor of Buenos Aires” which included magnificent illustrations by Norah Borges. On the occasion and for the first time, she ventures into cubism to become a pioneer in the movement’s dissemination in Buenos Aires alongside the likes of Emilio Pettoruti and Xul Solar. At the time, her drawings are also published in the “Martin Fierro” magazine and the French surrealist publication “Manometre”. Her marriage to Guillermo de Torre in 1928 distances her from the avant-guard art scene- her new status as a married woman, which in that day and age implied resigning other activities in the name of motherhood, does not however prevent her from experimenting in the art of engraving in the early 30s and drives her to venture into the world of theatre in a pre Civil War Spain. In his book “Norah” published in 1974, Jorge Luis recalls his close relationship with his talented sister and the games and books they shared during their childhood. Norah Borges painted well into her nineties. She died at the age of ninety seven on July 20th, 1998. Mariano Levat Translated by Pamela Gowland