The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Black ink cursive in Spanish that extends in arching freeform lines from the lower left side of the white page, creating a wing-like structure with veins of texts running through it and occasionally breaking out of the structure. The text begins "Hoy un ángel me llevo a los precipicios..." and ends "escusarse diciendo no existe el infierno." "infierno" is the largest word, written at a diagonal in the lower left corner.

Santa Faustina Kowalska 1931

2005

León Ferrari

(Argentinian, 1920–2013)
Argentina
pen and black ink on wove paper
Sheet: 29.5 x 21 cm (11 5/8 x 8 1/4 in.)
Gift of the Leon Ferrari Foundation 2019.196
© León Ferrari
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

León Ferrari created several works that incorporated texts authored by Maria Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun.

Description

Created during the last decade of Argentinian artist León Ferrari’s life, this drawing presents a decorative flourish of cursive text. Beginning in the 1960s, the artist created a series of drawings that presented or evoked the written word in response to censorship in his native country. Here, Ferrari presented the Polish nun Maria Faustina Kowalska’s (1905–1938) description of Hell, evoking a juxtaposition between otherworldly tortures with those enacted during the political turmoil he had witnessed during his lifetime.
  • 2005-2013
    Studio of the artist
    2013-2019
    Estate of the artist, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH through Sicardi Ayers Bacino, Houston, TX
    2019-
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • A Graphic Revolution: Prints and Drawings in Latin America. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 14-August 2, 2020).
  • {{cite web|title=Santa Faustina Kowalska 1931|url=false|author=León Ferrari|year=2005|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2019.196