Pettoruti's career was thriving during the 1920s when "Argentina witnessed a decade of dynamic artistic activity; it was an era of euphoria, a time when the definition of modernity was developed.

"[2] When Pettoruti was only fourteen years old, he enrolled in the local Academy of Fine Arts, only to drop out shortly after because he felt he could learn more on his own.

He then studied with Emilio Coutaret, an architect, and teacher at the Drawing School in the Museum of Natural History, where he developed a style in favor of caricature portraits.

In 1913, he was awarded a travel scholarship to Italy, where he studied Renaissance painters in Florence, including Fra Angelico, Masaccio, and Giotto.

Of all the interests Pettoruti could have chosen to pursue, he selected art after his maternal grandfather, Josè Casaburi discovered his potential artistic talent.

[4] In Italy, Pettoruti developed a growing sense of European Modernism and studied Italian Renaissance art of the fourteenth century.

His fame spread even to North America, and in 1942, Pettoruti visited San Francisco for his first major United States show.

[5] Pettoruti decided to step down as director of the museum, which was limited to a more conservative direction during the administration of President Juan Perón.

He wrote his autobiography, Un Pintor Ante el Espejo (A Painter Before the Mirror) in Paris in 1968,[6] and Pettoruti remained there until his death on October 16, 1971.

His first exhibition was not widely received by conservatives, however, in regards to Pettoruti's work, his good friend Xul Solar wrote that "the Buenos Aires public can either admire or disdain him.

"[7] His work was considered shocking since "themes of gauchos, landscapes, cattle, sheep, and horses were in those days the delight of big landowners who imposed their taste in painting.

When Pettoruti arrived back in his native country, he was not unheard of, since many articles had been written specifically for local Argentine publications.

The compositions created by Pettoruti "insist upon references to local, specifically Latin American, themes within a thoroughly modern, European-inspired stylistic context.

Emilio Pettoruti's work was "a prototype of the modern concept of harmony, of order, and of geometric precision, near-scientific in its severity, but oscillating between the lyrical and the purely spiritual.

[13] Early European Period While in Italy, Pettoruti was influenced by the growing Futurist movement, as well as the fourteenth-century Italian Renaissance.

Not being limited to one medium, Pettoruti incorporated various materials found in garbage dumps into his mosaic to add texture and catch the light in diverse ways.

"[18] Of the many paintings Pettoruti worked on, one of his first is titled Arlequin (1928), showing one harlequin wearing a mask over his eyes and playing a musical instrument resembling an accordion.

His use of light is evident in many of his still lifes, like Sol Argentino (1941), where the sunlight acts as "an essential life-giving element"[22] and is obviously a solid effect to the painting.