Harvard’s Fogg Art Museum to Present Geometric Abstraction in Latin American Art
Exhibition of Latin American Art Brings New Perspective to Major Collection
Cambridge, MA – January 17, 2001 —The Fogg Art Museum will present more than sixty paintings, drawings, and sculptures in its groundbreaking exhibition Geometric Abstraction: Latin American Art from The Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection. Opening March 3, the exhibition will be on view through November 4, 2001. It offers for the first time in North America an in-depth look at an important dimension of Latin American art that until recently has been under-represented in U.S. collections and exhibitions.
"We are very pleased to be able to present this exhibition from the renowned Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection," said James Cuno, the Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director of the Harvard University Art Museums. "Not only is the work of these important artists too little known in North America, but collaborations between North and Latin American critics, scholars, and institutions are far too rare. With increasing awareness of our cultures’ common histories and interests, it is only appropriate that individuals and institutions from all of the Americas join together to present the work of the most important artists of our common hemisphere."
Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Chairman of the Fundación Cisneros, states, "The Fundación Cisneros is committed to bringing Latin America’s rich and complex cultural heritage to people across the globe. We are enormously proud that the Harvard University Art Museums has recognized the importance of Latin American art, and has chosen to present examples of geometric abstraction from our collection. The diversity and quality of modern Latin American art often surprises those who have not had sufficient opportunity to view its achievements, and we hope that this exhibition will excite, inspire, and challenge new audiences."
The rich figurative tradition of Latin American art is well known. Yet, beginning in the 1940s and 1950s, many artists from Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Venezuela, along with their European counterparts, responded enthusiastically to earlier developments in abstract art, especially the paintings of Piet Mondrian and the De Stijl movement in the Netherlands and the sculptures of the Swiss artist Max Bill. Artists in Argentina gathered around the avant-garde magazine Arturo, and in 1946 formed the Grupo Madí, dedicated to the "absolute values" of "presence, movable dynamic arrangement, development of the theme itself, lucidity and plurality." These artists broke with conventional framed painting, exploring shaped canvases and adding neon lights and movable elements.
The avant-garde activities of artists in Buenos Aires were matched in Brazil by those of the Concretist movement in São Paulo and the Neo-concretists in Rio de Janeiro. At issue here was the materiality of the work of art itself. The Concretists favored the work of art as a made object, using various abstract geometric elements, while the Neo-concretists argued in favor of more expressive and organic forms and advocated the viewer’s interaction with the work of art. At the same time, Constructivist artists in Caracas, Venezuela, were exploring new forms of kinetic art, adding movable objects to their paintings and sculptures and making works of art entirely out of movable parts.
Latin American geometric abstraction developed in an international arena. Many artists, like Alejandro Otero of Venezuela, Lygia Clark of Brazil, and Alfredo Hlito of Argentina, studied and worked in Europe for extended periods between the 1940s and 1960s. Others, like Gego of Venezuela, Gyula Kosice of Argentina, and Mira Schendel of Brazil, were born in Europe but developed as artists in Latin America. In addition, European artists like Max Bill, Fernand Léger, Victor Vasarely, Antoine Pevsner, and Jean Arp either visited Latin America or were well represented in influential exhibitions or public commissions during these years.
The response of Latin American artists to European examples and to their own distinct and diverse cultures will be explored in this exhibition and its accompanying fully illustrated scholarly catalogue Geometric Abstraction: Latin American Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection. The catalogue will be published in both Spanish and English jointly by the Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge and the Fundación Cisneros, Caracas and distributed by Yale University Press, New Haven and London. It will present a selection of the original movement manifestos and artist texts, along with essays by Latin American, European, and North American scholars, including Yve-Alain Bois, Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., Professor of Modern Art at Harvard University; Paulo Herkenhoff, adjunct curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Mary Schneider Enriquez, independent curator and art critic; Luis Pérez Oramas, curator, Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection, Caracas; and Ariel Jiménez, curator, Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection, Caracas.
"The extraordinary scope and depth of the Cisneros Collection offers a North American audience a previously unseen view of the artists who propelled the emergence of geometric abstraction in South America," said guest curator Mary Schneider Enriquez. "Although various exhibitions in the United States have highlighted the figurative art of Latin America, little emphasis has been given the compelling abstract tradition that surged within the region."
The exhibition has been organized in conjunction with the Fundación Cisneros and the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University.
Founded by Patricia Cisneros, Gustavo Cisneros, and Ricardo Cisneros, in association with the Cisneros Group of Companies, the Fundación Cisneros initiates and supports a wide range of innovative programs that focus on Latin American issues in the areas of education, culture, the environment, and social services, and works to increase global awareness of Latin American culture. According to its president, Pedro R. Tinoco, the Fundación reflects the international vision of its founders, and many of its programs are created and run in partnership with other organizations and institutions.
The Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection is a core visual arts program of the Fundación Cisneros. Directed by Rafael Romero, its mission is to collect, preserve, study, and exhibit the artworks and related archives of the Collection, which consists primarily of modern and contemporary art, with particular emphasis on Latin America. The Collection’s dynamic lending program, as well as its ongoing educational projects, are fundamentally aimed at promoting global awareness of modern and contemporary art from Latin America.
Symposium
Geometric Abstraction in Latin American Art
Friday, March 9, 6 p.m.
Saturday, March 10, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.; coffee will be served in the
Sackler lobby at 8:30 a.m.
Sackler lecture hall
Free admission
In conjunction with the exhibition, Geometric Abstraction: Latin American Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection, this two-day public symposium explores the rich and diverse development of Geometric abstraction in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Venezuela from the late 1940s through the 1980s. The symposium begins on Friday evening with a lecture by Paulo Herkenhoff, Brazilian critic and adjunct curator of Latin American art at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. This will be followed on Saturday morning with lectures by the English critic and scholar of modern Latin American art, Guy Brett; Yve-Alain Bois, Joseph Pulitzer, Jr. Professor of Modern Art, Harvard University; and Luis Pérez Oramas, Curator, Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection, Caracas, Venezuela. The morning will conclude with a discussion among the participants and with the audience. The exhibition will be open for viewing from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Harvard University Art Museums
The Harvard University Art Museums is one of the leading arts institutions
in the United States and the world. It is distinguished by the range and
depth of its collections, its groundbreaking exhibitions, and the original
research of its staff. For more than a century, it has been the nation’s
premier training ground for museum professionals and scholars and is renowned
for its seminal and ongoing role in the development of the discipline
of art history in this country.
The three art museums at Harvard – the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, the Busch-Reisinger Museum, and the Fogg Art Museum – are all outstanding institutions in their respective fields. The Fogg also houses the Straus Center for Conservation, long a leader in the research and development of scientific and technology-based analysis of art, as well as the U. S. headquarters for the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis, an ongoing excavation project in western Turkey. The 150,000 objects in the art museums’ collections range in date from ancient times to the present and come from Europe, North America, North Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia. Each museum also has an active program of special exhibitions that promotes new scholarship in its areas of focus.
As an integral component of the Harvard University community, the three art museums serve as a resource for all students, adding a special dimension to their areas of study. The public is welcome to experience the collections and special exhibitions as well as to enjoy lectures, symposia, and other programs in the various museums.
The collections are divided among ten curatorial areas: Ancient and Byzantine Art and Numismatics; Architecture and Design; Asian Art; Busch-Reisinger Museum; Drawings; Islamic and Later Indian Art; Modern and Contemporary Art; Paintings, Sculpture and Decorative Arts; Prints; and Photographs. Developed with an emphasis on their value for teaching and research, these holdings are a uniquely broad and rich resource that is continually enhanced through gifts and acquisitions. Together, the holdings of the three museums comprise one of the finest university art collections in the world, with resources rivaling those of many major public museums.
The Straus Center for Conservation is the oldest fine arts conservation treatment, research, and training facility in the United States. The Center specializes in the conservation of paintings, sculpture, decorative objects, historic and archaeological artifacts, and works of art on paper. Its team members are pioneers in developing new applications of digital imaging in conservation. The Center’s state-of-the-art facilities support a broad range of analytical services.
All three art museums are open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m., and Sunday, 1–5 p.m., and are closed on national holidays. Admission is $5.00; $4.00 for senior citizens; $3.00 for students; free under 18 and for all individuals on Saturdays until noon and all day on Wednesdays.
For general information, call 617-495-9400 or visit www.artmuseums.harvard.edu. All groups of seven or more must schedule in advance by calling 617-496-8576. The Harvard University Art Museums receives support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
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