Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

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Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Coleecion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

m

f u n d a c i 6n CISNEROS

Wheaton

Lia Menna Barreto, R e b a n h o (Herd), 1992

Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Acknowledgments

As an alumna of Wheaton College, I am

conjunction with the exhibition, along with

connected to its past with strong ties of

an essay by Mr. Palacios.

affection and gratitude. It is therefore deeply gratifying to be able to sustain

M y husband, Gustavo Cisneros, has always

those ties both in the present and into the

insisted on the importance of education

future in a very tangible way through this

as a foundation of a democratic society

collaboration between Wheaton and the

and, inspired by him, education has

Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC).

been a crucial focus of the programs and outreach of the Fundacion Cisneros

Bringing the exhibition Correspondences:

and the CPPC. With our partners at

Contemporary Art from the Coleccion Patricia

Wheaton, we have created an Educator's

Phelps de Cisneros to Wheaton College,

Guide for Correspondences, utilizing the

along with an accompanying catalogue

methodology of our flagship visual-arts

and related education programs and

education program, Piensa en Arte. This

publications, is especially exciting because

has been accomplished through the efforts

it represents a new direction for the CPPC.

of a group of students from Wheaton's

W e have found that our partnerships with

Department of Education and Department

institutions of higher learning allow for

of Math and Computer Sciences who have

an unparalleled depth of engagement

worked with Maria del Carmen Gonzalez.

with the artworks by the public, and have

The Guide will be used to introduce local

therefore actively sought out opportunities

school groups and their teachers to the

to collaborate with colleges and universities.

works in the exhibition.

Partnering with an academic institution

It is often during one's college years that

enables students and faculty from an array

the interrelatedness of ideas, nations, and

of disciplines to be involved with CPPC staff

history begins to be apparent. It happens

in researching the works of art, writing

partially as a response to being separated

texts, designing education outreach and

from the local — i.e., home— and thrust

symposia, and creating cross-disciplinary

into the center of a more global and diverse

dialogues between the scholarly traditions

community. There, the commonplaces

represented on campus.

previously taken for granted seem alien to one's new acguaintances, and in

Working under the guidance of Carlos E.

turn, others' ideas and traditions have a

Palacios, Curator of Contemporary Art for

novelty and strangeness not apparent to

the CPPC, and Maria del Carmen Gonzalez,

their practitioners. Certainly this was my

the CPPC's Curator of International

experience as a student, and so it was at

Education Programs, Wheaton students

Wheaton that I first began to appreciate

contributed substantially to the research

my native country of Venezuela in a more

and documentation of artworks included in

global context, and to develop a life-long

Correspondences. Their written contributions

admiration for the tradition of democracy

appear in the catalogue produced in

and tolerance in the United States.

Those insights, although not formulated inside a classroom per se, were part of the excellent education I received at Wheaton,

and all combined to broaden my horizons—

member), Jessica Schor (Registrar intern,

quite vividly, and in ways both metaphoric

Summer 2007), and Jennifer Valentino

and literal. I believe that something similar

(International Education Program intern,

happens for everyone who is fortunate

Summer 2007), deserve special mention

enough to be exposed to the unfamiliar and

and thanks for their work. W e also thank

who is committed to the patient process of

the Wheaton students who contributed

learning to erase the boundaries.

to the catalogue: Samuel Brown, Amelia Chaney, Elizabeth Ann Cronin, Maria

It is therefore a very great honor to be

Escudero, Meredith Brinker Ferguson,

able to return to my alma mater and offer

Naihomy Jerez, Chamisa Kellogg, Elisabeth

its faculty and students an opportunity to

Kjellgren, Alicia La Tores, Carrie Peabody,

study and appreciate contemporary Latin

Meghan Quigley, Seth Robinson, Meredith

American art in the expanded context of a

Sanderson, and Christina Whipple; and

scholarly community. We at the CPPC firmly

those who wrote for the Educator's Guide:

believe in the important role academic

Felicia M. Bartosiewicz, Laura P. Blanchard,

institutions play throughout the world in

Andrea D. Bravo, Sara E. Dimick, Meredith

understanding and communicating the

B. Ferguson, Kimberly S. Ford, Lindsay

significance of culture and the arts. Indeed,

E. Forsberg, Elyse M. Fortes, Meredith

it is here where meaning is created, not

A. Hanson, Whitney J. Holland, Lena D.

merely recorded, because it is here where

Isenberg, Katharine A. Kimball, George

future art scholars, researchers, curators,

T. Kunhardt, M. Elizabeth Lyons, Jenna L.

educators, and artists are shaped.

Rabesa, and Sarah B. Steward.

I am extraordinarily grateful to the

I extend my fond gratitude to the

Wheaton community for its embrace of

Fundacion Cisneros team; in particular to

this project. I extend sincere thanks to Dr.

Pedro R. Tinoco T„ President and Executive

Ronald A. Crutcher, President of Wheaton

Director; my daughter Adriana Cisneros

College, and his magnificent team: Molly

de Griffin, Vice Chairman; William Phelan,

Easo Smith, Provost; W endy P. Faxon,

Director, Office of the Chairman; and Rafael

Director of Corporate and Foundation

A. Romero D., Director of the CPPC, and

Relations; Ann H. Murray, Director of the

his professional team: Carlos E. Palacios,

Beard and Weil Galleries and Professor

Curator of Contemporary Art; Marfa del

of Art; Elizabeth Ann Cronin, Manager,

Carmen Gonzalez, Curator of Education

Art Events and Publicity; and Wheaton

Programs; Guillermo Ovalle, Collections

Professors Vicki Carper Bartolini, R. Tripp

Manager; and Rafael Santana, Exhibitions

Evans, Andrew Howard, Rochelle Leibowitz,

Manager, for their enthusiasm and

Kimberly Anne Miller, Leah Niederstadt,

dedication to this collaboration.

Evelyn Staudinger Lane, Harrison Straley, and M ary Beth Tierney-Tello for the warm reception they have given this joint initiative.

Our Wheaton interns, Skye Monson (International Education Programs intern, Winter 2007, now a full-time staff

Ronald A. Crutcher Foreword

The exciting and productive collaborative

This effort represents a wonderful synthesis

relationship that Wheaton College

of a number of connections that are a

and the Fundacion Cisneros have built

source of great pride and satisfaction for

together has culminated in the exhibition

the College.

Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros,

Wheaton provides an undergraduate

on view at Wheaton's Beard and Weil

education that creates a web of

Galleries from February 4 through April

connections— across disciplines, across

10, 2008. This partnership shares the

academic and experiential learning, and

goal of advancing the theory and practice

across cultural and national perspectives—

of art education at a liberal arts college.

that equips our students to be effective in

Bringing together faculty and students

a diverse world. I find it remarkable that

at Wheaton to work with educators and

the collaboration between the College and

curators from the Coleccion Patricia Phelps

the CPPC is helping to fulfill so many of

de Cisneros (CPPC), we have, within a year's

Wheaton's educational goals.

time, created a dynamic team dedicated to teaching, learning, and writing about

Our curriculum is enriched and enhanced

the achievements of Latin American

through this collaboration. Representatives

artists. Participants in this project are using

from the CPPC have been on campus

selected artworks from the CPPC to place

several times during the past year to meet

the artists in their aesthetic, cultural, and

with faculty and students in Art and Art

historical contexts. Some of the student

History, Museum Studies, Education, and

scholarship is reflected in the descriptive

Hispanic Studies to explore how building

entries about the artworks in this catalogue.

knowledge in and through art can stimulate not only aesthetic consciousness but also an appreciation of historical and cultural contexts. These conversations about art empower us to evaluate ideas and core values through active observation and questioning of individual artworks. Students come to appreciate the similarities and differences in artistic expression within the United States as well as among countries and cultures around the globe, thus deepening

and broadening their connection to a

thematic visions that they share, and

diverse, multicultural, ever-evolving world.

create strategies to connect the emotional and conceptual activities within the art and

In our experiential learning program, since

the viewer.

January 2007, three Wheaton students have served as interns at the New York offices of

It is with greatest pleasure that we

the Fundacion Cisneros, where they have

acknowledge the Cisneros family. W e are

gained valuable skills working with the

especially grateful to Patricia Phelps

Curator of International Education Programs

de Cisneros for her interest in and support

and with the Collections Manager and

of the collaboration between the CPPC

Associate Registrar of the CPPC. The first

and her alma mater, Wheaton College. It

Wheaton student to intern continued her

is an honor that the faculty, students, and

work with original sources and contributed

staff at Wheaton, along with teachers and

to a family guide for a CPPC exhibition in

students in elementary and secondary

the Dominican Republic. I was pleased that

schools and the general public in our

she was able to travel to the Dominican

neighboring communities, are working with

Republic to introduce the guide at the

and enjoying access to one of the world's

family festival during the exhibition's

foremost collections of Latin American

opening festivities. This same intern is

art. W e are grateful for this exceptional

now employed full-time at the New York

opportunity to share a stimulating,

offices of the Fundacion Cisneros-quite

satisfying, and illuminating artistic and

an accomplishment for someone who just

human experience.

graduated from Wheaton in M ay 2007!

We extend our thanks to the members of the wonderful team at the Fundacion Cisneros and the CPPC who are responsible for defining and giving shape to the exhibition Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Coleccidn Patricia Phelps de Cisneros. W e appreciate their work to explore and underscore the connections theme by selecting artworks that establish historical links among the artists, portray

Contents

Some Lines of Correspondence

10

Carlos E. Palacios

Essays by Wheaton Students

18

Exhibition Checklist

76

Biographical Notes

80

Som e Lines o f Correspondence

There are two meanings for the word

Carlos E. Palacios

correspondence: one meaning refers to written communication; the other denotes the connection that exists or is established

...I would certainly like to see a drawing, to understand it better.

—I will draw it for you, but do first let me tell

between different elements of a single group. Taking this second meaning, correspondence is an apt concept for

you the other measurements of the wood

exploring works in a multivalent whole

and the column and also of the base.

such as the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de

—Very well, but I definitely want you to draw me one.— Filarete (Antonio di Piero Averlino), Treatise on Architecture (from a dialogue on the structure of a capital), c. 1461-64

Cisneros. M any of the artworks that make up the collection establish relationships with one another1— corresponding, we might say— beyond their formal links, when we approach them from different points of interpretation.

One of the major elements weaving in and out of the associations that can be made between the works included in the exhibition Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros is the line, a recurrent motif.

The line is both the starting point and the thread that runs through all the correspondences. Like a game with mirrors, the line slips from one work to another, creating an echo with resonances that can be felt in different ways, and in different

spaces. Whether as drawing— the technique

young woman, in fact, constitute a drawing

The images correspond to people loved and

in which the line has evolved with real

that corresponds to another, earlier, image

admired by the artist. The black

majesty— on paper (a support historically

created by the sunlight as it fell on her

cutouts resemble the shadow of the lover's

paired with drawing), or in the dynamic

beloved's head.

a critical role.

head in Pliny's story. In addition, similar to the legend, the outlines that Obregon

context of contemporary art, the line plays It is from these conclusions about drawing,

"draws" follow those of photographs of the

which are all interrelated, that the works

subjects, images that are also "shadows" of

brought together in this exhibition come.

the originals.

Furthermore, stories like this— and others The story of the origins of drawing is

which, as we shall see, have drawing or

If the sun outlines the suitor's silhouette on

recounted by Pliny the Elder in his Natural

the line as their central motif— offer a

the rock in the Roman story, in the Greek

History. It is actually a love story: The

faithful description of many works of

myth of Narcissus, it reflects it on the

daughter of a Corinthian potter named

art, disconnected at the moment of their

surface of a lake. The face reflected (the

Dibutades traces the shadow of her lover's

execution from any theoretical text or

image created, one might say) is of another

profile on a rock before his departure.

treatise. For example, Pliny's allegory

young man, in this case, one in love with

The meanings that this tale implies are

offers a beautifully efficient description

his own countenance. The works in Oscar

twofold. First, the drawing in the story

of Venezuelan artist Roberto Obregon's

Munoz's Narciso seco (Dry Narcissus), from

came into existence for the sake of memory.

Niagara VI (Ele A y Erne Be), from 1999.

1996, are in a sense the remains of this

It is an act recording a loss, and as such

Obregon, just like Dibutades's daughter,

portrait of vanity, rendered in powdered charcoal (a material that is emblematic of

is the original process for capturing— and

reproduces the outlines of human

reproducing— a desired image of the world.

silhouettes, which are placed equidistantly,

Second, the action described derives from

at the edges of his complex installation.

an abstraction—the shadow— and not from reality (the lover, who would be the true "model" for the drawing on stone). That is to say, the lines made by the abandoned

(Dry Narcissus), 1996 Roberto Obregon. N ia g a ra VI (Ele A y Em e Be), 1999 (Detail)

1

The presence in the exhibition o f three "m odern" artists— Aiejandro Otero , Gego, and Helio O iticica—illustrates the relationships th a t can arise between the various areas of the CPPC. In this case the modern works help establish a referential bridge between the line in m odernity and in the contem porary works in C orresp on d en ces.

Some Lines of Correspondence

|

portraiture). As in Obregon's work, Munoz's

The boundaries that separate drawing from

of shapes of the world on the pictorial

figures are, in their own way, the shadow

other art techniques have shown themselves

plane. It is what Leon Battista Alberti

of Narcissus's face, left behind when the

to be movable in various historical contexts,

identified in Book Two of his 1435 treatise

reflecting waters have dried up.

however, manifesting different levels of

De Pictura (On Painting) as the contorno

correspondence between the techniques.

(outline), the first of three components

Contemporary art has played down the

that together make up painting. The

importance of these interrelationships, but

outline defines the object and places it in

In the history of painting — one might

has not managed to erase it completely.

pictorial space, and as far as this Italian

go so far as to say, in art history in

The works assembled in the exhibition

Renaissance essayist is concerned, the

general— drawing has been regarded as a

under discussion illustrate the continuing

correct execution of it will result in a good

subordinate preparation for painting. This

validity of these correspondences.

composition: "I would wish that people only

extends as far back as ancient times; one

seek exactitude of outline in a drawing,

only has to look at Pliny's identification

It is commonly accepted that the basis of

of drawing as the origin of painting in his

drawing is the line. Furthermore, the line "is

infinite diligence and care, since one could

Natural History.

more about intelligibility than sensitivity (as

never praise a composition, or good use of

compared to color, for example). The line

lighting, if the drawing is wrong."3

where it is absolutely necessary to use

responds to an intellectual sense of order and is the result of intelligence's power of

This precept finds a contemporary

organization.''2Certainly, drawing is the

interpretation in the Tablon (Board) series

rationalist strategy of precision and layout

from 2006, by Jose Gabriel Fernandez, whose focal point is the outlines of sinuous shapes, which follow the volumetric planes and establish the spatial— and linear— connections that appear between

12

Jose Gabriel Fernandez. Tab/on No. 3

Jose Gabriel Fernandez. Tablon No. 2

(Board No. 3), 2006

(Board No. 2), 2006

| Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

the shapes. The Tablon reliefs— whose

out into the air, creating a perfect Platonic

name comes from a paradigmatic series of

cube. Not conventional drawing, these lines

Drawing No. 12), from 1992— as linear in

Geometric Abstract works by the modern

in space, in nonstop movement, at once

style. Chacon's work presents new ways

Venezuelan artist Alejandro Otero—

transform, proclaim, and disfigure the ideal

of painting, based on grids as a recurrent

represent a highly refined synthesis of

image of geometry.

sculptural volumes, inspired by the fragile

by Dibujo plastificado No. 12 (Laminated

graphic motif. The repeated introduction of this pattern into different plastic contexts

geometry formed by the twisting and

(as seen in Made In, from 1975) organizes

turning of the matador's cape and muleta

the painting's space, a gesture distantly

during a bullfight. W e might say that

Toward the end of the nineteenth century,

Fernandez's Tablon paintings are the

the German art historian Heinrich

perspective projection. Another work that

outlines — according to Alberti's definition—

Wolfflin— in keeping with his principle of

evokes this tradition in the way it visualizes

of these ephemeral bullfighting volumes.

classification according to style— stated

the world as a linear arrangement is Do/s

that the differences between Renaissance

estudos sobre uma dimensao perdida (Two

and Baroque art corresponded to the linear

Studies for One Lost Dimension), from

#

related to the Renaissance technique of

style of the first versus the pictorial style

1996, by the Brazilian Jose Damasceno.

The Latin for the word drawing is delineo,

of the second. Regardless of the validity of

The artist brings into the present the

which means marking out limits, or casting

Wolfflin's claim, using the classical definition

Renaissance convention of perspective

out lines. There is no actual Latin word

of linear drawing,4 we would have to

for a drawn work, the closest being imago

classify Sigfredo Chacon's Post-Conceptual

(image). The idea of throwing out lines

painting— represented in this exhibition

into the void, into space, has echoes in the work of Magdalena Fernandez. Her Cubo movil (Mobile Cube), from 1998, made of polished aluminum "twigs," casts lines

2

G. M. Borras, quoted in Eduard Carboneil i Esteller, “ La Pintura," in Mireia Freixa, Eduard Carboneil i Estellar, et al., In tr o d u c tio n a la H istoria del Arte (Barcelona: Barcanova, 1990), p. 174.

Sigfredo Chacon. Dibujo plastificad o No. 12

Leon Battista Alberti, “ De Pictura" (1435), in Juan Miguel

(Laminated Drawing No. 12) 1992

Munoz, Les fo n ts de I'h is t o r ia de I'a r t d 'e p o c a m ode rna i c o n te m p o ra n ia (Barcelon a: Universitat de Barcelona, n.d), p. 39.

4

D e line a tio n u sin g se g m e n ts o f ge o m e tric lines ge n erally a cco m p lish e d with the a id o f tools su c h a s the ruler, the se t square, c o m p a sse s, d ra w in g pen, a n d s o on. Translated from Spanish Royal Academy, D iccio n a rio de la Len gu a E sp ah o la, 22nd ed. (2001).

Some Lines of Correspondence

j

drawing and painting, realizing it as a

and it cannot be taken off the paper.

not as artists, because they proceed more

three-dimensional, sculptural form in

In Velocidades, Duenas creates a spatial

or less without reason or art, as can be

iron and nylon-covered rubber cord. The

intervention consisting of numerous lines,

seen in their works, where all they care

setting for his projection is not, in this

the material for which is found at the site

about is what they can gain for themselves,

case, the two-dimensional surface of paper

where the work is installed. There is a

rendering themselves unworthy of being

but rather the physical, real space of the

paradox in both works: The limits of the

called painters."5

exhibition room. Both cases reaffirm the

drawing are fixed; however, the line is

rule set down by the Italian Renaissance

insistent, its presence eternally returning, as

The modern painter Alejandro Otero can

architect Vignola in his treatise Le due regole

if every day there must be a new line on the

be considered to have internalized the

della propesctiva practica (The Two Rules

wall, a new stroke of the pen on the paper.

of Practical Perspective): Everything that appears in view will terminate or vanish at a

works bring together every modulation of

single point.

the drawn line. An untitled nude from Francisco Pacheco—the most well-known

1945 develops, with the accuracy

essayist from the Baroque period in Seville

characteristic of academic and "life"

and also mentor and father-in-law of the

drawing, the strengths of the line as an

Nulla dies sine linea ("N o day without a

most famous of Sevillian painters, Don

outline, value, and movement.

line"), asserts Pliny the Elder. This could

Diego Velazquez— in his Arte de la Pintura,

perfectly describe both Analisis (Analysis),

cursed "those who say that in order to

These same characteristics occur (less

from 2000, a video "intervention" in a

paint one does not need to study drawing;

obviously) in Otero's Coloritmo (Colorhythm)

drawing by Alessandro Balteo Yazbeck,

these are bastard offspring of painting,

series, begun in 1955. For an idea of

and Velocidades (Velocities), from 2005,

recently referred to as daubers or pasters;

how this might be so, let us turn once

an installation piece by Danilo Duenas. In

for if you took drawing out of painting, it

again to Pacheco, who quoted the answer

Analisis, a hand (we can suppose it is the

would become a common trade, like any

of another Sevillian painter, the master

artist's) is videotaped drawing free-form

other, as it is in the hands of those who

shapes whose direction is determined by

practice it in such a way. These are rightly

only two guidelines that we might term

called tradesmen, and are treated as such;

"compositional": The pen is obliged to pass through the same starting point,

Danilo Duenas. Velocidades (Velocities), 2005

4

lessons of drawing in a manner that would have passed inspection by Pacheco. His

| Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

Francisco de Medina, when he asked him,

as having had their day. It is from this

"W hat is painting?" To the latter, it was "art

situation that the work of Gego derives its

that through a variety of lines and colors,

significance. Here was an artist w ho— unlike

perfectly presents to one's vision all it could

the Kinetic masters— acted as a lynchpin

perceive of objects."6 Medina goes o n -

between the abstract and modern aesthetic

through Pacheco—to put the objects into

and the new protagonists of contemporary

three groups (genres): natural, artificial, "or

art. She occupied this role, among others,

shaped by thought and consideration of

through her elevation of the line. The

the soul." These last are those "that figure

line serves themes that run throughout

in understanding with wise consideration."

all of Gego's work as well as through the

By extension, one can view Geometric

artist's teachings: "space, volume and

Abstraction as a genre molded by thought,

organization," as she comments in a book

and figured— made a figure— by reason.

of technical drawings by some of her

Otero's Coloritmos embody, using a variety

students.7

of lines and colors, this genre created through pure reflection.

Chief among Gego's linear configurations are her planar and three-dimensional networks, in particular, the grid— a motif that also attracted younger artists. A

It may seem incongruous, but for a good

meeting of generations occurs when one

part of the generation of young Venezuelan

views the grids of her 1973 pen-and-ink

artists who began their artistic journey

drawings Untitled (73-13, 73-14, 73-16,

in the early 1970s linked to the avant-

and 73-17) along with grids by Sigfredo

garde's Conceptual and Post-Conceptual

Chacon or Roberto Obregon, to name just

experiments, it was not necessary to

two examples.

sacrifice either the recent past or its major players. They did not look on the masters

Obviously, there are more differences than similarities in this generational correspondence: for Gego, the reticula

Alejandro Otero. Untitled, 1945 5

Francisco Pacheco, “A rte de ia pintura, su antiguedad, y grandezas,” in Francisco Calvo Serraller, Teoria de la p in tu ra del Sig lo de O ro (M adrid: Catedra, 1991), p. 411.

6

Francisco Caivo Serrader, Teoria de la p in tu ra del S ig lo de O ro (M adrid: Ediciones Catedra, 1991), p. 375.

7

Gego, "Presentacion,” in Ruth Auerbach, Pedro Mancilla, and Leonei Vera, E sp a cio Volum en O rg a n iz a cio n 2 (Caracas: M onteavila Editions, 1979), p. v.

Some Lines of Correspondence

|

had the ambitious mission of transforming

The American Conceptual artist Sherrie

idea of finding a use for the scraps left over

three-dimensional space. For Chacon and

Levine, in an untitled painting from 1986,

from the material used to write on,"10 T'sai

Obregon this pattern of pure linearity

reaffirms, through these ideas, "the radical

Lun turned this waste into paper.

presupposes, on the one hand, a structure

negation of authorship,"9 as Benjamin

applied to organize a rhetoric of plastic (in

Buchloh reminds us. Thus, by not knowing

Between T'sai Lun's act and the group of

the case of Chacon) or semantic (in the case

who created the work whose fragment

small sculptures created out of discarded

of Obregon) images; on the other hand,

we see reproduced in Levine's "montage,"

paper that make up Brazilian artist Cildo

it reflects vestiges of graphic design, an

we see the painting as a formal device

Meireles's A Diferen^a enfre o circulo e a

area that both artists were involved in at

composed of colored vertical lines, which,

esfera e o peso (The Difference between

the beginning of their respective artistic

"corresponding" with other works in the

the Circle and the Sphere Is Weight),

careers. The grids are linear, technical

exhibition, takes over a legitimate area of

from 1976, there is both equivalence and

structures that are inserted, as Venezuelan

ownership, like an immaculate Geometric Abstract drawing.

something positive. Meireles changes T'sai

art critic and historian Lourdes Blanco

continuity. Both transform refuse into

points out, into "a pictorial theme that

Lun's historic invention into residue. In a

comes from the materials themselves used

sense he transforms paper into the scraps of

by the designer-artist and the painterartist."8

material that so obsessed its inventor. The Venezuelan art historian Miguel Arroyo

gesture that creates this work corresponds

explains that "according to stories both

to the action of discarding a bad drawing,

ancient and modern, paper was invented in

resulting in an analysis of sensory

the year 105 A.D. by an intelligent Chinese

relationships that go beyond the visible,

It is commonplace to define contemporary

eunuch called T'sai Lun. Dead set against

art in terms of its continuing intertextual

any kind of waste, and obsessed with the

mission. Going beyond the fact that this historical tradition has a specific weight, various levels of interdiscursivity can be established in contemporary art. The crisscrossing of borrowed narratives means that artists develop their own strategies of appropriation and montage.

Sherrie Levine. Untitled, 1986

6

| Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

giving the waste paper— like the scraps in

to the linearity of a single stroke."11 In

contemporary examples as a sort of crucible

the Chinese story— a new, and now poetic,

Ernesto Neto's Piff, piff, piff, from 1997, we

of previous visual experiences, connected

use. Through this action, Meireles endows

cannot avoid seeing the basic definition

as much to the practices as to the discursive

the material with a particular behavior,

of a line in the thickness of the volumes of

and theoretical tools that are spread over

giving unexpected values of density and

pure color; that is, the projection of a single

the whole of art history, beginning with

weight to the pure, light, geometric shapes,

point through space. Neto materializes

that original gesture of representation:

whose sign of identity has always been

this idea through sensuous, fluid, oblong

drawing.

historically connected with the clear and

bodies incorporating pigment and spices.

the subtle.

These patches of color— and scent— are also

Drawing— lines grouped within a two-

particularly decisive linear projections.

dimensional space— is at the beginning of the history of the human relationship with

cjjo The divisions between the elements of

the world and has been present ever since in the visual chronicle of that connection,

drawing and other media are blurred

This discussion has attempted to

all the way through to contemporary art.

More often than not, hidden within the

in many other works, creating new

uncover and identify correspondences

correspondences. According to art historian

between various works in the exhibition.

huge catalogue of technical and conceptual

Eduard Carboneil i Esteller, "The theoretical

Relationships that go beyond formal

strategies presented by contemporary

distinction between graphic delimitation

coincidences— and this does not preclude

art— such as video, installation, and

and coloristic material cannot guarantee

or downplay their inherent or casuistic

photography— drawing, or the line as

any criteria for differentiation, because a

beauty— extend the works' expressive

paradigmatic matrix of visual creation,

thickish line can be considered a colored

strengths along a common axis around

emerges like an island covered with

area, just as an area of color can be reduced

which turn such powerful and transformable

historical memories in the middle of a

concepts as drawing and the line. Similarly,

confused geographical panorama. This

we have examined the intertextual

continuing appearance of drawing in today's

relationships between works and explored

complex visual world reminds us of that prehistoric human who, when depicting a bull or bison, synthesized in one gesture of perfect simplicity the brutish world beyond the cave entrance. In the same way, we return again and again to drawing in order to establish, through the creation of a linear image, our correspondence with the world.

Lourdes Blanco, "Sigfredo Chacon y el signo de Apeles de Cos," in Sigfredo C h aco n: Dibujos y pinturas recientes, exhibition catalogue (Caracas: Sala RG-CELARG Foundation, 1989), unpaginated.

Cildo Meireles. A Diferenga entre o circulo e a esfera e o peso

Benjamin Buchloh, "Procedim ientos alegoricos:

(The Difference between the Circle and the Sphere Is W eight), 1976

apropiacion y montaje en el arte contemporaneo," (Allegorical procedures: appropriation and montage in contem porary art), in Form alism o e Historicidad (Madrid: Akal Editions, 2004), p. 104.

Miguel Arroyo, El A B C de la c o n s e r v a tio n de o b ra s de a rte h e c h a s en p a p e l& C ue n to del p a p e l (Caracas: C. A. Tabacalera Nacional, 1978), p. 29.

11

Carboneil i Esteller, et al., "La Pintura," p. 173.

Some Lines of Correspondence

|

Essays by W heaton Students

Alejandro Otero: Painting Melodies Coloritmo (Colorhythm), 1956

WHAT COLOR DOES A SOUND MAKEP

of white canvases. These paintings

this concept further into abstraction by

is one of the many questions posed by

formed a series of works entitled Lineas

organizing space into a set of parallel lines.

the Venezuelan artist Alejandro Otero's

indinadas (Inclined Lines), which explore

In the first Coloritmos, Otero initially plays

Coloritmos (Colorhythms), a series of

the expressive potential of organic line in

with the arrangement of forms into stacked

paintings made from 1954 to 1971. One

conjunction with color. However, the style

lines. As the series advances, these shapes

of the foremost exponents of Geometric

found in this group of work would change

seem to become progressively elongated.

Abstraction, Otero explores the possibilities

drastically. Later that year, Otero traveled

Consequently, the dominant form found in

of synesthesia, which merges elements

to Holland and became familiar with the

the last of the Coloritmos is the line.

associated with different senses— in this

Neo-Plasticist work of Piet Mondrian. As

case, those of color (seeing) and rhythm

a result, Otero's visual vocabulary would

The stacked lines unify the Coloritmos as

(hearing). The Coloritmos represent the

mature, as the artist concluded that the

a series by giving the surface of the work

effort to transcribe emotional input into a

subject matter found in Lineas indinadas

a sense of repetition and therefore visual

visual experience.

could be contained in an approach that

rhythm. Similar to a pentagram in music,

was organized in significant ways.1 In

the black lines allow Otero to confine

In 1945, Alejandro Otero, a student at

1957, Otero exhibited his newest creations,

the expressive material in a coherent

the Escuela de Artes Plasticas (School of

entitled Coloritmos (Colorhythms)—paintings

space. Therefore, if the parallel lines act

Plastic Arts) in Caracas, ventured to Paris to

that embodied Geometric Abstraction, a

as a structural element, then the color

find what he then considered avant-garde

movement crucial in the development of

is analogous to musical notes, charged

art. At 24 years of age, the young artist

modernist Latin American art.

with emotional qualities. To Otero, color,

quickly learned that unlike the Venezuelan

applied spontaneously by following the

art community, Parisian artistic circles

According to Otero, the Coloritmos are

free course of this artist's intuition,3 is

were no longer interested in what they

"simply large elongated panels, crossed

of tremendous importance since it has a

deemed to be outdated movements, such

from side to side by white and dark parallels

specific connotation and function. In an

as Post-Impressionism. In light of this,

between which the space was filled with

interview, he said:

and additionally inspired by the work of

forms of pure brilliant colors."2 It is in what

Picasso, Otero was pushed to dematerialize

this artist modestly calls simplicity that we

There is an association that I always find

forms using a Cubist approach, as seen

can recognize his great achievement; Otero

between the thing and color. All the memories

in his series Cafeteras (Coffee Pots), from

reduces two dimensions (forms) to a one­

of that period, the essence of the period, of

1946-47.

dimensional plane (line), and yet through

the people I knew and their ambiance are tied

By 1951, Otero's work was no longer

the positioning of the painting layers

up with those reds and those blues. So I feel

he manages to create a sense of depth.

that when I put a red or a blue in one of my

representational. For the first time, the

Departing from the idea of the grid, which

works, it isn't red or blue only but all of those

artist plunged into the realms of pure

through the principle of tension structured

associations.4

abstraction. Otero's new paintings featured

Mondrian's geometric shapes, Otero took

hand-drawn colored lines at the borders

22

j Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

Even when these works use the same

varied and particular sensations. It is truly

rhythmic format, the colors and forms

remarkable that through what Otero called

radically change the interpretation of

the "simplicity" of merely a number of lines

Otero's work. Despite the fact that there

and colored shapes, the viewer is able to

is no single universal interpretation for a

understand and relate, at a very abstract

particular painting, since each "Coloritmo"

level, to the sensory responses of another

speaks to each individual differently,

human being.

definite variations occur over the course of the series. As the artist himself explained,

Alejandro Otero was one of the first

this change occurred because style in the

avant-garde Latin American artists, and

paintings varied:

his artwork introduced the Venezuelan public to abstract art, an alternative mode

From 1955 to 1960...the colorhythm was

of visual understanding. At the same time,

modified. At first there were very evident

Otero's Coloritmos are revolutionary because

geometric forms that would appear among the

the artist moved away from the scientific

lines. Then the forms became small lengths

use of hues, which was employed by many

of a more subtle tone. Later still, those forms

abstract artists in the early 20th century.

group into large plans in which the parallels

Unlike the cerebral work of Mondrian,

almost disappear, until finally the color and

which attempts to achieve compositional

white and dark bands constitute a single

unity and balance through the use of

sonorous block.5

color and line, Otero's art finds expression through rhythm and broader tones. But

For example, luminous colors in rectangular

most important, Otero charges his work

and trapezoidal shapes are neatly organized

emotionally by streaking it with color. In

into a lively composition in Coloritmo 12,

this way, his Coloritmos transcend the notion

of 1956. On the other hand, Coloritmo,

of paintings as stagnant objects; instead,

of the same year, only employs primary

they become pulsating surfaces that

colors, and its surface is crowded by heavy,

communicate through the beat of color.

irregularly shaped "sonorous blocks,"6 which seem to drown the black parallel lines. The Coloritmos have been described by Otero

Maria Escudero

as a "body of experience,"7 and these two

M ajor: Studio Art/Art History

paintings inform the viewer of the artist's

1

Ariel Jim enez, "H e vivido por los ojos," C orresp on d en cia A le ja n d ro O te ro -A lfre d o B o u lto n 1946-1974 (Caracas: Museo Alejandro O tero-Alberto Volimer Foundation, 2001), p. 16.

2

Alejandro Otero, "Artist's Statem ent," R e a d in g s in Latin A m e rica n M o d e r n Art, ed. Patrick Frank (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004), p. 168.

3

Jo se Balza, Ale ja n d ro Otero (Caracas: Ernesto Armitano, 1977), p. 54.

4

Rachel Adler, "An Interview w ith Alejandro Otero," In fo rm a tio n o n A le ja n d ro Otero, C h ro n o lo g y Interview, (The Museum o f Modern A rt, Latin American Archive), n.p.

5

Balza, A le ja n d ro Otero, p. 54. (Translation mine).

6

Ibid.

7

Alejandro Otero, “A rtist’s Statem ent," p. 168

Alejandro Otero: Coloritmo (Colorhythm), 1956

j

23

Helio Oiticica M etaesquem a (Meta-scheme), 1958

The trompe I'oeil effect in the painting is

W H ILE MOST CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS

"pure visibility"4 of his rectangles reflect

stand ready to defend the legitimacy of

Oiticica's adoption of the reductionist

created as much by the viewer's response

their work against detractors, the Brazilian

principles characteristic of the Brazilian

to the work's color field as it is by Oiticica's

Helio Oiticica openly discounted his earliest

Concrete art movement during the 1950s.

arrangement of the color in space. How

works in a 1972 retrospective catalogue:

But this work does not stop at Geometric

is it that the viewer, not the artist, thus

"There is no reason to take seriously my

Abstraction; it is far more dynamic. In

opens up the painted structure of the work, which is closed and turned inward in the

pre-'59 production."1 Given this sentiment,

most of his Metaesquemas, Oiticica uses

why should the viewer pause before this

the color potential of negative space on a

Metaesquema series' earlier paintings?

Metaesquema (Meta-scheme), since it was

cardboard ground as a foil for the high-

Attuned to the central role of the "living

produced in 1958? Evaluating Oiticica's

intensity hue of the applied gouache. The

spectator" in his art, Oiticica regarded

dismissal of the Metaesquema requires a

intimate interplay between support and

the viewer as a co-creator of his objects'

look into the work itself, the influences

paint contains the energy of the painted

meaning7— a progressive approach with

behind its creation, and its place in Oiticica's

forms within a "closed structure."5 In the

radical social implications.

remarkable artistic and social trajectory.

1958 Metaesquema, parallel white striations run the length of this reflexive structure,

An analysis of Oiticica's later career

Born to a privileged family of intellectuals,

imitating the corrugations of the cardboard

illustrates the power inherent in this

Helio Oiticica was educated at home by his

on which it is painted— a visual pun and

concept of participatory art. Oiticica's

father, an entomologist and photographer;

an evolution of the simpler orthogonal

delight in the "experimental exercise of

his multilingual mother; and, likely, his

lines that frame diffuse rectangles in, for

liberty"8 found ample romping ground in

grandfather, Jose Oiticica (1882-1957), a

example, the 1957 Metaesquema in the

his grandfather's ethic of geleia geral, the

renowned anarchist thinker and philologist.

Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros.

"general mix-up of the modern world."9 In the early 1960s, the artist chose to emulate

His direct encounter with his father's adaptive science and his grandfather's

But among all the works in the

his own Penetraveis (Penetrables)— walk­

expressive politics would exert a push-pull

Metaesquema series, this 1958 rendition is

through installations— this time penetrating

on Oiticica throughout his artistic career,

unique. Here, Oiticica maintains the slight

the Brazilian class divide. Living on

particularly as he made his first tentative

tapering, shifting effect of his rectangles,

the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, Oiticica

steps from the family fold and into art in

while at the same time coalescing these

observed down-trodden shanty-dwellers

1950s Brazil.

forms— not too close, not too far apart—

dancing the Samba: a fervid unrestrained

into a central locus. Suddenly the viewer's

ritual in which dancers improvise against

In 1957, Oiticica began a two-year series

eyes, panning the image, perceive a

the backdrop of their depressed living

of experiments in paintings that he would

faint amorphous dot at the center of the

spaces.10 Involving himself in the Samba in

later (in his dismissive catalogue of 1972)

composition's inexact grid. Should the

the poverty-stricken Mangueira Hill district,

call Metaesquemas (Meta-schemes).2

eyes lock onto the slightly scintillating

Oiticica climbed the ranks to become an

An admirer of the Dutch artist Piet

dot, it fades before them in a matter of

eminent passista, a leading carnival dancer.11

Mondrian— who practiced Neopiasticism,

seconds; only as the eyes scan the grid

In this role he re-created the interactivity

with forms "elegant and controlled in their

dynamically do the dots in the negative

of those who had years before engaged his

severe geometry," and Dadaism, "which

interstitial spaces between four off-corners

Metaesquemas and Penetraveis as spectators,

embraced chaos and rebellion"3— Oiticica

project outward, encroaching into the

more accurately "participants"— in this case,

applied color in his Metaesquemas as a

space between viewer and painting. Bi­

on a social plane. As a passista, Oiticica

dimensional property in itself. The "exact,

dimensionality is shattered. As "form and

burst forth from the static comfort of his

scientific, mathematical precision" and

background interpenetrate one another" in

bourgeois past. Empathizing with the

an atemporal entity shaped principally by

marginalized and at his own peril,12 he

the viewer's experience, they lightly touch,

reappropriated the same defiant dynamism

"suggesting a quasi web which oscillates

on the brink of explosion evident in the

floating above the plane."6

1958 Metaesquema to alleviate the malaise of poverty and to ease the tension between Rio's haves and have-nots.

26

| Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

As Oiticica developed a populist bent within

to "certain fixed 'Brazilian images.'"19 He

the crucible of the Samba dance culture,

compromised by abetting others who in

Mangueira became for him a symbol of

turn sought social liberation. He guided

revolt— "his personal revolt against his

the people of Mangueira to understand the

own background and values"13 as well as,

impulse behind their Samba dance ritual,20

by visual extension, against established

just as he had once encouraged viewers

aesthetic frameworks. With the leaping

to discover the motion of the eyes over

figures of oppressed Brazilians around him

the surface of the Metaesquema. He then

transcending constraints of class, authority,

empowered the people to emerge from a

and education, all became "one with the

life in situ to explore the potentialities of the

music, with others, with the universe."14

post-colonial world before them, just as he

Oiticica recalls the ecstasy of this moment:

had set viewers in motion to investigate the

1

Ralph Camargo, 1972), p. 27.

2

Freedom," in G ru p o Frente M e ta e sq u e m a s (Rio de Janeiro:

3

from a great height their scheme...and at the

Having once devised experimental

same time [I discovered] my "individual place"

settings for his fellows' leisurely vivencias,

as a whole person in the world, as a social

or genuinely lived experiences, Oiticica

being in the complete sense, not belonging to

now offered his countrymen a brilliantly

any layer or elite, even an artistic one...social

colored, true-to-life means of freedom from

in its most noble sense.15

two-dimensional schemes of authoritarian oppression.21 No paradigm other than

Jacqu eline Barnitz, "Concrete and N eoconcrete Art and Their O ffshoots in the Brazilian Context," TwentiethC e n tu ry A r t o f Latin A m e rica (Austin, TX: University o f Texas Press, 2001), p. 223; Lynn Zelevansky, B e y o n d G eom etry: E xpe rim e n ts in Form, 1 9 4 0 s - 7 0 s (Cambridge, M A : MIT Press, 2004), p. 12.

4

Barnitz, "Concrete and Neoconcrete Art," p. 216; Caroline Menezes, "O iticica Returns to London," Studio International, A ugust 21, 2007. http://www.studiointernational.co.uk/reports/oiticica.asp (accessed

his Penetraveis.

artificial for me, as if I was suddenly seeing

Fernando Cocehiarale, “ HO—Experimental Exercise in Jo el Edeistein, 1996), n.p.

participatory, three-dimensional spaces of [The social layers] became somehow schematic,

Helio O iticica, M e ta e s q u e m a s 57 /5 8 (Sao Paulo: Galeria

Septem ber 27, 2007).

5

Menezes, "O iticica Returns to London."

6

Cocehiarale, "H O —Experimental Exercise in Freedom," n.p.

7

Guy B rett, "H elio O iticica: The Experimental Exercise of Liberty," C arn iva l o f Pe rcep tion : Se le cted W ritin gs o n A rt (London: Institute o f the Visual Arts, 2004), p. 53.

8

Ibid.

9

Guy B rett, "H elio O iticica: Reverie and Revolt," Art in Am erica 71, No. 1 (1989), p. 120.

This phenomenon of social liberation

the Metaesquema, whose name itself

through dance, however momentary,

means "beyond the scheme," could have

inspired Oiticica to develop his Parangoles,

transformed Oiticica's static "that's-too-

or "mulitsensory" capes. Twisting and

bad" social awareness into a dynamic

11

Brett, "Helio O iticica: Reverie and Revolt," p. 116.

turning in the Parangoles, Samba dancers

"let's-do-something" social consciousness.

12

Ibid.

draped in layers of cloth, burlap sacks,

In the true spirit of vivencias— when "all

and found objects defied the stasis of the

that within me feels, is thinking"22— Helio

13

Ibid.

14

Brett, "Helio O iticica: The Experimental Exercise of

15

Helio O iticica, "A Dan^ana Minha Experiencia," R io de

conventional work of art. "Search [ing] for

Oiticica proposed23 exploding artistic and

'situations' to be lived,"16 the Parangole

social limits. Reaching out to the viewer-

dancers were indistinguishable from the

citizen who alone could realize his work,24

art they wore, symbolizing for Oiticica a

he inflamed the creativity "inherent in

Brazilian "culture in formation, the open

everyone": a light that may one day go out,

possibility of a culture," in spite of the

"but while it lasts...is eternal."25

10

Brett, "Helio O iticica: The Experimental Exercise of Liberty," p. 60.

Liberty," p. 60.

Janeiro, R o c c o (1986), p. 74, quoted in Brett, “ Helio O iticica: The Experimental Exercise o f Liberty," p. 61.

16

Helio O iticica, quoted in M ary Schneider Enriquez, "Cartografia del Cambio," in Yves-Alain Bois et a!.,

philistine military dictatorship in power in

G eo m e tric A b str a c tio n : Latin A m e rica n A r t from the Pa tricia P h e lp s d e C isn e ro s C ollection (Cambridge, MA:

Brazil from 1964 until the end of the artist's

Harvard University A rt Museums; Caracas: Fundacion

life.17 But what to do, politically, beyond all

Seth Robinson

this theory and experimentation? Oiticica

Major: Religion

Cisneros; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 32.

17

stood ambivalent between a proactive

Brett, "H elio Oiticica: The Experimental Exercise of Liberty," p. 62; Paulo Herkenhoff, "The Hand and the Glove," in Inve rte d U top ias: A v a n t - g a r d e A r t in Latin

revolt fueled by the outrage of seeing

A m e rica (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004), p. 332.

his compatriots suffer18 and a brooding distrust of a nationalist movement that would reaffirm Brazilian folk culture but not

18 19

Barnitz, “ Concrete and N eoconcrete A rt," p. 225.

Brett, "H elio O iticica: The Experimental Exercise of Liberty," p. 62.

without trivializing it and reducing Brazil

20 Ibid., p. 61.

21 22

Ibid., p. 60.

Fernardo Pessoa, quoted in Brett, "H elio O iticica: The Experimental Exercise o f Liberty," p. 53.

23

Cf. the concept o f art as proposal, as "open proposition."

See B rett, "H elio Oiticica: The Experimental Exercise of Liberty," p. 63.

24 25

Herkenhoff, "The Hand and the Glove,” p. 332.

Guy Brett, Helio Oiticica, exhibition catalogue (London: W hitechapel Gallery, 1969), quoted in Guy Brett, "Helio O iticica: Reverie and Revolt," A r t in Am erica, January 1989, p. 163.

Helio Oiticica: M etaesquem a (Meta-scheme), 1958

|

27

Leon Ferrari Untitled, 1962

A N ACTIVE PRESENCE IN ARGENTINIAN

The series "produced pages that looked like

arts, letters, and politics, Leon Ferrari had

musical notation, electrocardiograms, Asian

several great shifts in style over the course

calligraphy and penmanship practice."3The

of his career. According to fellow artist Luis

following discussion focuses on an untitled

Camnitzer, "Ferrari saw himself as having

1962 work from the series that incorporates

tended toward formalism between 1955

ink and paint on a wood support.

and 1962, exploring combinations between 1963 and 1965, and focusing on political

Ferrari's goal in these paintings was

art between 1965 and 1 9 7 2 . During the

to rejoice in the act of writing and not

middle period, reacting against the rules

ultimately in its immediate message. While

and style of the European formalism he

the actual writing in works like the untitled

had been practicing, Ferrari began to

1962 example is illegible, the effect of the

explore forms of plastic expression using

scribbles is to help viewers feel the artist's

writing. Flis experimentation with different

need to communicate, even if they do not

lines, inks, widths, curves, and a variety of

know what he is intending to write.

other forms would later become the series Escrituras deformadas (Deformed Writing),

Ferrari has said, "Art won't be beauty

the "result of texts that have been altered

nor novelty; art will be efficiency and

to the extreme of becoming unintelligible."2

disturbance."4 The supposed lack of organization and the confrontation with the viewer in the untitled work can indeed cause feelings of disturbance. This piece, as well as the other works in this series, can be "understood as Ferrari's most intimate work, as if in the end those lines, those squiggles, were all about loneliness, about that essential condition of being locked inside one's own head."5 The frantic scribbles with a horizontal flow, the different ink colors, thicknesses, directions, lengths, and position of the lines transmit

Untitled, 1962 (Detail)

a sense of the artist's struggle to free

collages and drawings in which he re­

himself from tradition and his urgency to

created, again and again, the concept of

communicate. The untitled work shares the

writing, his work legitimized the inclusion

effort of communication with the public,

of contemporary reality as a source for the

producing a sense of discomfort because

renewal of language.''6 In finding his artistic

of the viewer's inability to comprehend the

tongue, Ferrari converts his art from simple

"writing." While the paintings in this series

decoration or aesthetic experience to the

are barely decipherable, the viewer sees

realm of the real and gives it social and

and feels the labor of communicating.

political significance.

As Ferrari moved into his third period,

From the beginnings of Escrituras

however, his art found a way to clearly

deformadas, including the 1962 untitled

communicate its message. During this

painting discussed here, to his later, more

period, he produced artworks that begin

radical artworks, some of which mixed

using more and more legible writing. In

politics and religion, a great evolution can

fact, most of them carry a clear political

be seen and eventually read in Ferrari's

message. One of his first legible paintings

works that truly speaks to the viewer.

is El cuadro escrito (The Written Painting).

Created in 1964, it criticizes the abuses of the Argentinian military dictatorship

N aih om y Jerez

and forced Ferrari to go into exile; he

Major: Hispanic Studies

moved with his family to Brazil, where he lived for fourteen years. M any of his exhibitions and artworks from this period were banned because of their clear stand against the dictatorial regime and the complicity of the Catholic Church. "[In] the

1

Luis Camnitzer, "Lettering, Latrines and Literati," in Leon Ferrari, R e tro sp e ctive : O b ra s 1 9 5 4 - 2 0 0 4 (Buenos Aires: Centro Cultural Recoleta, 2004), p. 354.

2

Andrea Giunta, "D isturbing Beauty,” in Leon Ferrari, R e tro sp e ctive : O b r a s 1 9 5 4 - 2 0 0 4 (Buenos Aires: Centro Cultural Recoleta, 2004), p. 345.

3

Lyle Rexer, "The Case o f Leon Ferrari," M o d e r n Painters (2005), p. 52.

4

Leon Ferrari quoted in Graciela Kartofel, "Leon Ferrari," A r t N e x u s (January- M arch 2005), p. 157.

5

M aria Gainza, "Leon Ferrari: Ruth Benzacar Galena de Arte," A rtfo ru m In te rn a tio n a l (Sum mer 2004), p. 256.

6

Mari Carmen Ramirez, C a n to s Pa rale lo s: La p aro dia p la stica en el a rte a rg e n tin o co n te m p o ra n e o / V isu al P a r o d y in C o n te m p o ra ry A rg e n tin ia n A r t (Austin, TX: Jack S. Blanton Museum o f Art, University of Texas at Austin; Buenos Aires: Fondo Nacional de las Artes, 1999), p. 203.

Leon Ferrari: Untitled, 1962

| 31

Gego: Freeing the Line from a Perspective Prison Untitled (73-13, 73-14, 73-16, and 73-17), 1973

G e g o , b o r n g e r t r u d l u is e g o l d s c h m id t ,

between the lines and the sparkling when they

is in the lower half of the picture; we are

was raised in Hamburg, Germany. She

cross, when they are interrupted, when they

meant to observe more closely how the

studied architecture and engineering

are of different colors or different types.'

on a vibrancy and more of a hand-drawn

the Technische Hochschule, now the

These 1973 works repeat the motifs of a

Universitat Stuttgart (Stuttgart University).

handmade grid, a plain background, and

quality when outside the grid. Within

She immigrated to Venezuela in 1939.

other lines drawn throughout. Each work

the grid, however, the thickness of all the

Mining her experience as an architect and

in the group combines these elements

lines seem to have the same value, and

draftsman, Gego created many ink line

differently. In the example Untitled 73-

are straight and precise. There is almost a

13, the grid is on the upper half of the

sense of Gego's opinion in this work; she

picture, creating a focal point. Each of the

seems to prefer the line when it is free of its

In one untitled group of ink-on-paper

corners has a line that only goes a few

constraints.

drawings dating from 1973, Gego

squares deep into the grid with a tiny X

experiments with the concept of the line.

near the middle, but none of these lines

However, Gego discovers that the line

Her configurations employ handmade grids,

intersect. Our perception of this piece,

completely by itself is not a strong enough

repetitive geometric forms and irregular

however, is that of two full lines intersecting

entity. In another work in this group

constructions to examine how the line

at one point in the middle of the grid. It is

Untitled 73-16, we again see the grid on

reacts both inside and outside of a grid.

a bow to the perspective drawing in which

the lower half of the picture plane, perhaps

drawings as well as wire sculptures.

Within the group, we can see the artist

Gego was trained; she sets up how line has

meaning we are to focus not on the grid

experimenting with the line and its

been perceived historically in art. W e are

but rather outside of it. We can see faintly

relationship to the grid. As a draftsman,

so accustomed to seeing lines extending

in this image a thin line, which does indeed

Gego understood the academic practice

to meet at a single point that our mind

meander on its own. Yet, this line is so weak

of confining the line to fit perspective

automatically makes the jump; the lines in

that it cannot support itself. There are

drawings but came to see the line as an

this context are not even necessary. The

thin lines tying it to the sides of the grid,

entity in itself.

line is also the same color as the grid,

much like a balloon tied to a banister; the

therefore denying it its own identity. Gego,

banister keeps the balloon from floating

Thirty years ago, I was trained as an architect,

from here, tries to free the line from its

away, and the grid looks as if it keeps the

committed to draw lines with a definite

perspective prison.

line from floating away. Gego has come

meaning, lines that determine forms or spaces as symbols of limits, never with a life

In the work Untitled 73-14, Gego explores

of their own.

how the line reacts when it is inside and outside of the grid. The grid in this work

Many years later I discovered the charm of the line in and of itself—the line in space as well as the line drawn on the surface and the nothing

34

line is reacting outside of the grid. As we can see, the line, both bold and thin, takes

and was trained as a draftsman at

| Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

to the conclusion here that the line cannot

minimalist appearance of the work; it

exist completely divorced from its history in

is like a mathematician's notations on a

the grid; it is too fragile an entity. To fully

chalkboard. Gego has written.

appreciate the line, one must experience it in both environments.

Line as medium indicates materially

In the example Untitled 73-17, Gego seems

the relation between

to reach a different sort of conclusion. It

points in space,

is as is Gego is proclaiming "Ah-ha!" In

expressing visually

this work, she marries the irregular line

human descriptive thought.

and geometric line in both environments.

Line as object to play with.2

"Reading" left to right, the lines moving from high to low are the academic

These works convey her theories succinctly,

geometric lines, while the lines moving

and we experience Gego's joy upon arriving

from low to high are the meandering ones,

at a distinct conclusion.

both in the grid and outside it. Both types of line reach their ultimate goal, only taking different paths. The line within the grid

Sam uel Brow n

is bolder than the line outside it, which

Major: Art History/Asian Studies

appears to indicate Gego's realization, that the grid is a strengthening technique for the line.

Viewing these four works, we can observe that Gego created subtle varying patterns within the drawn grids. We also sense Gego's urgency to convey the liberation of the line, reflected in the

1

Gego quoted in S a b id u r o s y o tro s te xtos c/e G ego/ S a b id u r a s a n d O th e r Texts b y G ego, ed. Maria Elena Huizi and Josefina M anrique (Houston: Museum o f Fine A rts/ International Center fo r the A rts o f the Am ericas; and Caracas: Fundacion Gego, 2005), pp. 170-71.

2

\ \

Untitled 73-14, 1973 (Detail)

Ibid., pp. 52-53.

Gego: Untitled (73-13, 73-14, 73-16, and 73-17), 1973

Luis Camnitzer Sentence Reflecting the Sentence That States the Reflection, 1975

T h e f ir s t t h i n g o n e m a y n o t ic e a b o u t

de Bellas Artes de la Universidad de

imagery within the viewer."3 In other

this work is the title: "Sentence Reflecting

la Republica), where he adopted the

words, it was the fact of people talking

the Sentence That States the Reflection."

Expressionist style that he would work in for

about his work that was important—the

No doubt, it sets many thoughts in motion,

many years.

communication that resulted from its creation. Getting his artwork out to the

which is exactly the intention of the creator of the piece, the Uruguayan-American

In 1966, living in the United States, he

masses in whatever way possible became

artist Luis Camnitzer. Much like a composer

had his first contact with the work of

an important mission. For Camnitzer, the

conducting an orchestra, Camnitzer strives

Dada and Surrealist artists, such as Rene

"only thing that mattered was art that made

to direct the viewer's attention not only

Magritte and Marcel Duchamp.2 Following

a statement."4 What he discovered was

to his work but also to his mind and

his introduction to their art, Camnitzer

something, as he put it, "akin to magic"5 in

the viewer's as well, insisting on active

changed his artistic direction and began to

the power of words and logic.

participation.

work with the written language, with the goal of capturing and communicating raw

Since the 1970s, Camnitzer has been

Camnitzer was born in 1937 in Lubeck,

and creative thoughts and ideas. Formal

creating a series of wooden boxes with

Germany, but he and his parents fled

attributes became secondary to content, as

glass, or "windows," that bear a phrase

the Nazis when Luis was only a year

Camnitzer's life-long view of art as political

engraved on a brass plate attached to

old,1 immigrating to Uruguay. Since 1964

expression— one from which he hoped to

the wooden window frame. Even a close

he has lived and worked in New York City

elicit a strong and dear reaction from a

examination of the piece does not reveal

but still identifies himself as Uruguayan.

broad public— became more pronounced.

the hand of the artist. Camnitzer chose

His parents encouraged the young Luis to

He was thus naturally drawn to the

industrial typography so as not to show his

pursue art by sending him at the age of

Conceptual art movement, later stating of

individual handwriting style. The phrase

sixteen to the School of Fine Arts at the

his production during this time that the

"Sentence Reflecting the Sentence That

University of Uruguay (Escuela Nacional

"[mjaterial possession of art would lose

States the Reflection" provokes questions.

its meaning since possession would take

The artist then goes one step further and

place through reading. The ideal was the

reverses the sentence in the frame of the

newspaper headline: a simple reading

glass window as if it is its own reflection.

allowed appropriation which then unleashed Devoid of spectacle, the work offers a chance to ponder meanings introduced through a few simple materials: wood.

38

| Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

glass, and bronze. Perhaps the artist

But why does the artist choose to display

wants to occupy the borderline between

these phrases in a glass and wooden box?

creator and teacher, straddling two roles

If the artwork is only about the written

that defined him for decades: artist and

word, then why display them in this way?

educator. Like a mystery novel or Hitchcock

The answer lies in another idea Camnitzer

film, his work invites the viewer to be a

wants viewers to think about. The shape of

part of it, rousing ideas and constructing

the object— a rectangular wooden frame

a hidden narrative from simple "clues."

that surrounds a sheet of glass— brings a

This narrative is not revealed; it has infinite

reference back to mind: a window. There is

possibilities, depending on the personal

an interplay between the symbols, that of

experience of the viewer.

a frame, which spatially defines a work of art hanging in a museum, and a window,

The text, in superseding the objects, sets

representing a new vantage point from

the tone of the physical work of art. Only

which to see and consider the larger world.

in the interplay with the viewer's thought

In the course of the viewer's interaction

process do image and text result in a

with this work, as with other similar works

narrative whole, and the puzzle becomes

by Camnitzer, the artist "reflects on the

complete in the viewer's mind. It is the

insufficient and partial relationship existing

job of the viewer to finish the work. In

between museum and world, museum

fact, Camnitzer states, "[Ijdeally I want

and contemporary life, museum and living

the work to be produced in the mind of

culture and, definitively, between museum

the spectator, not in the object I present.

and visitor."7

M y goal is that one day that the observer becomes his own artist, not needing me, and that I can dedicate myself to

M e redith Brinker Ferguson

other things."6 By allowing the viewer to

M ajor: Hispanic Studies

supply his or her own meaning and ideas, communication becomes immediate, and the viewer becomes the artist.

1

Luis Camnitzer, “ Introspective/Retropective," A r tN e x u s 3, No. 53 {Ju ly 2004), p. 52.

2

Luis Camnitzer, e-mail interview w ith Jennifer Valentino, Ju ly 19, 2007.

3

Luis Camnitzer, "Chronology," in Ja n e Farver, Mari Carmen Ramirez, and Luis Cam nitzer, Luis Cam nitzer: R e trosp e ctive Exhib itio n 1 9 6 6 -1 9 9 0 , exhibition catalogue (New York: Lehman College A rt Gallery, 1991), p. 52.

4

Camnitzer, V alentino interview.

5

Ibid.

6

Ibid.

7

M aria Elena Ramos, In te rve n cio n e s en el e sp acio / In te rve n tio n s in Sp ace , exhibition catalogue (Caracas: Museo de Bellas Artes, 2002), p. 156.

Luis Camnitzer: Sentence Reflecting the Sentence That States the Reflection, 1975 |

39

Cildo Meireles M alh as da liberdade (Meshes of Freedom), 1976

ClLDO M EIRELES, CREATOR OF THE 1976

with gunpowder itself."3 Many of Meireles's

Malhas da liberdade, whose title can be

works, including Malhas da liberdade,

translated as Meshes of Freedom} was

reflect this poignant statement. The artist

inspired to produce politically charged

brings his political convictions to life in his

art during the late 1960s, when a brutal

artworks by using real materials rather than

military government suppressed freedom of

their mere representations. For Meireles,

speech and of the press throughout Brazil.

real ideas need real materials to support

Many forms of communication, such as

them. In the case of Malhas da liberdade,

radio, film, television, and printed materials,

he chooses the commonplace, utilitarian

fell victim to this censorship.2 As a result of

materials of iron and glass.

his exposure to this oppressive regime, a defiant response to fascist institutions is a

Composed of vertical and horizontal iron

theme that runs throughout Meireles's art.

rods that merge, as well as an iron mesh

Meireles once recalled that "in 1968, '69,

that runs across its entire length, Malhas da

'70...we were already no longer working

liberdade's simple yet strong grid carries

with metaphors (representations) of

powerful connotations. Iron, the material

situations. W e were working with situations

that comprises the grid and mesh, suggests

themselves, real...to work no longer with

the strength of an inclusive democratic

the metaphor of gunpowder, but to work

government in which all have a say.

Meireles states, "Sometimes certain objects acquire this 'something else'; they become impregnated, and transcend themselves as utilitarian objects, achieving a paradigmatic quality. They almost become symbolic."4 While the iron was originally intended for practical use, it has been transformed from its original purpose into symbols. The

M a lh a s d a liberdade (Meshes o f Freedom), 1976 (Detail)

42

| Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

intersection of the rods and mesh creates

Brazilians to look past the sharp limitations

a repetitive pattern that visually signifies

imposed by their oppressive government.

many ideas converging at once, an event that is made possible by a democratic

In Malhas da liberdade, Meireles has

government.5 Meireles's confidence in

combined two unrelated materials,

democracy and civic freedom is intertwined

producing a paradox, as he does in many

within the symbolism made possible by the

of his other artworks.6 Glass and iron

iron grid and mesh.

embody opposite qualities. The former is fragile and easily damaged, while the latter

A large sheet of glass, the only other

is strong and seemingly indestructible. The

material in Malhas da liberdade, also

fragility of the glass is juxtaposed with the

transcends its functional purpose to become

unbreakable iron. This play of opposites

a symbol for a concept close to Meireles's

can be summarized in the title of the work:

heart. The transparency of the glass urges

Meshes of Freedom. W e think of mesh as a

us to look past institutional boundaries.

tool for trapping or capturing, yet the other

As we peer through the sheet of glass, the

word in the title is "freedom," or release

artist is reminding us to see through the

from constraints.

obvious in order to seek other possibilities.

His message is reinforced by the fact that

Carrie Peabody

he created this work for his fellow Brazilians,

Major: Art History

many of whom shared his experiences with the military regime. With Malhas da liberdade, Meireles hoped to encourage

1

Dan Cameron, Cildo M eireles, exhibition catalogue (New York: New Museum o f Contem porary Art, 1999), p. 1.

2

Jacqu eline Barnitz, "Political Art, Graphic Art, Painting, and Conceptualism as Ideological Tools," in Twentieth C e n tu ry A r t o f Latin A m e rica (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2001), p. 279.

3

Susan M. Anderson, “ The Consumption o f Paradise," in B o d y to Earth, Three A r tis ts From Brazil: Cildo Meireles, M a r io C ra vo N e to a n d Tunga, exhibition catalogue (Los Angeles: Fisher Gallery, 1993), p. 6.

4

Editors o f Phaidon Press, Pre ssPL A Y : C o n te m p o ra ry A rtists in C o n ve rsa tio n (N ew York: Phaidon Press, 2005), p. 463.

5

Cameron, C ildo M eireles, p. 2.

6

Anderson, "The Consumption o f Paradise," p. 10.

Cildo Meireles: M a lh a s da liberdade (Meshes of Freedom), 1976

|

43

Ana Mendieta: In ca n ta c io n a O lu k u n -Y e m a y a Silueta (Silhouette) Series, Works made in Mexico, 1973-77

Mendieta's Silueta Series, which was

worship of spirits or deities known as orisha.

I go on to make my work upon the earth

produced from 1972 to 1982 in Iowa

This particular work is dedicated to the

to go on is victory—Ana Mendieta, 19921

and in Mexico, documents many of the

orisha Olukun-Yemaya, who is called upon

...as my whole body is filled with want of Cuba

emotions she experienced during this

when a lost child desires to return home.

period of exile and isolation. Feeling torn

This goddess is also often associated with

A SILHOUETTE APPEARS IN THE SAND.

between Cuba and the United States, Ana

Havana Bay, presenting an additional link

As body and earth interact, an outline

Mendieta struggled to achieve a sense of

to Mendieta's homeland.

emerges. Body and earth become one

belonging. She yearned to return to or at

in that moment of contact and in the

least reestablish ties with the Cuban land

Each of the Silueta works invokes a strong

emptiness that results when they separate.

she had called home. Incantacidn a Olukun-

sense of loneliness and desolation. By

The outline of a hand surrounds the figure,

Yemaya touches directly on this desire.

creating outlines of her body— whether in earth, against a tree, or in the air—

its fingers stretching past the feet as if The Silueta photographs document

Mendieta establishes a physical connection

A photograph depicting this encounter,

Mendieta's efforts to reunite with the land.

to that from which she feels alienated. In

Incantacidn a Olukun-Yemaya, is one of the

The artist worked with natural materials,

one of her journals, she paraphrases an

works the Cuban-born artist Ana Mendieta

such as blood, flowers, leaves, and earth,

essay by Octavio Paz to express her feelings

made in Mexico during the 1970s as part of

all of which decay. Additionally, Mendieta

of isolation and separation;

her Silueta (Silhouette) Series.

would sometimes erase the record of her

reaching toward a specific point or person.

work by burning it or pouring water on it.

All detachment provokes a wound. A rupture,

Born in 1948 into an aristocratic family in

She is often referred to as a performance

whether it is with ourselves or what surrounds

Havana, Mendieta began thinking about

artist, and the fleeting nature of her earth-

us or with the past or present [,] produces a

identity and homeland at a very early

body sculptures attest to this. Her lasting

feeling of aloneness. In my case where I was

age. Her father, Ignacio Mendieta, was a

art, then, consists in the photographic

separated from my parents and my country

prominent supporter of Fidel Castro and

documentation of these works.

at the age of 12, this feeling of aloneness identified itself as a form of orphanhood.3

the overthrow of the Batista government, but when Castro began promoting

Although Mendieta's experience with exile

communist ideals, Mendieta's father

greatly influenced her work, she was also

ended his support and began engaging in

affected by her childhood exposure to the

Mendieta engages in a dialogue with

counterrevolutionary activity.2 Mendieta's

Afro-Caribbean religion Santeria and later,

nature, establishing a sense of personal

father was subsequently blacklisted by

to the feminist movement. The influence

connection to the air, earth, and water.

Castro, and Ana and her older sister

of both is reflected in Incantacidn a Olukun-

were forced into exile while still young.

Yemaya. A blend of Spanish Catholicism

Separated from their parents, they were

and Yoruba traditions brought to Cuba by

sent to live in a series of orphanages

West African slaves, Santeria involves the

In creating this series of silhouettes,

in Iowa, until they were later reunited with their family. Mendieta, who had a particularly close relationship with her mother, often reflected on her emotional hardship and her longing to return home after she was separated from her parents.

Silu eta (Silhouette) Series. Works made in Mexico, 1973-77

46

| Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

Commenting directly on the Silueta Series, she said:

with her identity because of her cultural and ethnic background. Her Silueta Series can be seen as a response to this struggle.

I have been carrying on a dialogue between

Difference is obliterated in her work,

the landscape and the female body (based

as race, ethnicity, and class cannot be

on my own silhouette).../ am overwhelmed

determined from the neutral outlines left

by the feeling of having been cast from the

by her body. Only gender can, arguably, be

womb (nature). M y art is the way I re-establish

determined. Her body is gone and only the

the bonds that unite me to the universe. It is a

imprint remains. Mendieta said, "I realized

return to the maternal source.4

that I lived in a little world inside my head.

Not only do her works reflect Mendieta's

it's just that I never realized that people

desire to return to Cuba, they also reflect

were different. So trying to find a place in

It wasn't that being different was bad,

social changes occurring in the early

[sic] the earth and trying to define myself

1970s, when Mendieta first began the

came from that experience of discovering

Silueta Series. In an effort to return "to the

difference."6

maternal source" after having been "cast from the womb" of Cuba, the series also

Ana Mendieta died in 1985 when she

concerns itself with feminism, gender, and

fell from her apartment window in New

the mother-child relationship.

York City. Although the circumstances surrounding her death remain unclear,

Through my earth/body sculptures I

Mendieta saw her work as a victory over

become one with the earth... / become an

death and difference and over her longing

extension of nature and nature becomes an

for her homeland, Cuba.

extension of my body. This obsessive act of reasserting my ties with the earth is really the reaction of primeval beliefs...[in] omnipresent

Jennifer Valentino

female force, the after-image of being

M ajor: Hispanic Studies

encompassed within the womb.5 Additionally, the work reflects Mendieta's realization of and response to difference.

As a person living in exile, Mendieta was considered different and she struggled

1

Quoted in Kaira M. Cabanas, “Ana M endieta: 'Pain of Cuba, Body I Am ,"’ W o m a n 's A r t J o u rn a l 20, No.1 (SpringSummer, 1999), p. 12

2

Cabanas, "Ana M endieta: ‘Pain o f Cuba, Body I Am ,'" p. 12.

3

Ana Mendieta, quoted in Laura Roulet, "Ana Mendieta entre dos mundos/Between Two Worlds,” in A n a M end ie ta: B o d y Tracks (Lucerne: Kunstmuseum, 2002), p. 43.

4

Ana M endieta, quoted in Danielle Knafo, "In Her Own Image: Self-Representation in the A rt o f Frida Kahlo and Ana M endieta," A r t Criticism 11, No. 2 (1996), p. 10.

5

Ibid.

6

Ana M endieta, quoted in Laura Roulet, "Ana Mendieta entre dos mundos/Between Two W orlds," p. 36.

Ana Mendieta: Silueta (Silhouette) Series. Works made in Mexico, 1973-77

j

Liliana Porter From the Drawing Book, 1982

IN THE CENTER OF LILIANA PORTER'S

Focusing on painting in the early 1980s,

objects are familiar from storybooks. Here,

1982 work on paper From the Drawing Book

Porter used images of boats as a way to

the small globe may suggest a world within

is a spherical object with blue markings that

explore the subject of traveling. The idea of

a world, similar to Alice's dream-world

suggests a globe, another world, another

travel crystalizes in From the Drawing Book,

wonderland. The images that make up

reality. Two aspects of what constitutes

in which the artist's imaginary journey

From the Drawing Book can be considered

"reality"— time and space— have been

symbolizes passage through the stages

discarded objects, seemingly unrelated

essential components of Porter's works since

of life. An important stage, and one that

fragments, which children typically use to

the 1970s. Influenced greatly by literary

would mark Porter's work from this point

create their fantasy worlds.6 Porter feels that

figures Jorge Luis Borges (also Argentinian)

on, was childhood.

she carries all stages of growth within her at all times.

and Lewis Carroll, Porter plays with reality and images, through her narrative-like

In From the Drawing Book, a work that

pieces, to create a magical atmosphere.1

incorporates painting and silkscreen

[W ]hen you are a child, you can really relate to

Like Carroll, Porter strips objects of their

printing, the artist presents us, from left

a toy, a person, and a tree on the same level.

original meanings, creating a continual

to right, with a sketchbook (including a

But then you lose that wisdom because people

metamorphosis of images in which new

drawing of a boat) reminiscent of a child's

lose their faith and, as a consequence, their

meanings are created. Furthermore, like the

coloring book, a pyramid form that recalls

power over things, but that power is really

two writers she admires, for Porter there are

toy building blocks, a globe, and, finally,

inside you. I think that what I am trying to do

no boundaries: space merges into ground,

discarded pieces of paper with sketches

is keep that in order to function.7

and time and space can be viewed as a

of the previously mentioned shapes.

continuum.2

The piece is a still-life in execution but

Through the artist's exploration in From

almost narrative in its suggested dialogue

the Drawing Book, the viewer gains an

Porter explored the idea of movement

among the images. Porter references the

appreciation of Porter's investigation into

between real and unreal spaces in the

relationship between humans and the toy

space and time. The background consists of one hue, and even color within the objects

1970s, using photography, which influenced

objects to explore the ways in which human

her ideas about space. She says that "space

beings have projected their humanity onto

is scarce. This bareness creates a sensation

is a very important factor. In a way, space is

all objects.4 At the same time, the work

connecting the viewer with the fluidity of

almost the subject" because, "the emptiness

evokes the memory of childhood for the

time. One cannot decipher the beginning,

probably represents that part we cannot

viewer.5

define and that we are trying to come to terms with."3

middle, or end. It is as if the viewer is thrown into Alice's wonderland, where

A deliberate playfulness, even a child­ like quality, can be detected in Porter's work. The artist believes that the earliest memories lie in one's childhood. Often her

•.

f -.

~

: \ /

I

>

50

| Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

perception is dislodged by one's looking

reality is never clear. Porter believes that

through glass into a "subjective universe."8

the acceptance of our inability to ever fully

In the "subjective universe" of From the

understand is essential to life. She says that

Drawing Book, the questioning of reality is

"the work is an awareness of the fact that

created partly through the use of shadows

there is something we didn't get, of the fact

under the ripped-out pieces of paper. The

we didn't know what the whole thing was

top piece of paper simultaneously gives a

about."10 Rationalization in connection with

sensation of floating to and rising off the

reality exists on a place that humans cannot

ground. Did Porter mean to imply that the

reach.11 In Porter's work, the intent is for

piece of paper was lying on the other two

viewers to experience a strong connection

fragments, but let the use of shadow and

between themselves, the objects, and

space become part of a puzzle the active

reality through time and space. As a result,

viewer must interpret? The only concrete

the viewer is led to question reality on all

suggestion she offers is that time and

levels.

space are closely connected. She states that "empty space is a silence that precedes the image," and this space also acts as a "time

Christina Whippie

lapse between the viewer and the subject."9

Major: Art History/Hispanic Studies

In Porter's work, new realities are created because personal experiences are abandoned. Memory, especially images from childhood, assists in this reassemblage of reality. Yet, in From the Drawing Book,

1

Luis Camnitzer, "Liliana Porter: The Po etry of Com m unication," A rtN exu s, No. 35 (2000), p. 68.

2

Charles Merewether, Liliana Porter: The R o m a n c e a n d R u in s o f M o d e r n is m (N ew York: Bronx Museum o f the Arts, 1992), p. 54.

3

Liliana Porter, L iliana Porter: A rte P o e t ic a - A Selection o f W o rk s from 19 68 -1 99 7, exhibition catalogue (Stony Brook, NY: Stony Brook University, Staller Center for the Arts, 1998), p. 2.

4

Ines Katzenstein, "The Gap between the Stone and the Line," originally published in catalogue o f the third Lima Iberoamerican Biennale (2002) and reprinted in Liliana Porter: U n a p u e sta en im a g e n e s (San Jose, Costa Rica: TEOR/eTica, 2003), p. 26.

5

Mari Carmen Ramirez, Illusive F ra gm e n ts: Liliana Po rter's A r t o f M e m o r y (N ew York: Bronx Museum o f the Arts, 1992), p. 29.

6

Ibid., p. 16.

7

Porter, Lilia na Porter: A rte Poetica,

8

Ramirez, Ibid.,

9

interview w ith Liliana Porter by Carol M cCranie in

p. 4.

p. 14.

Object: Sym b o l. Pa tricia Bellan-G illen, Ph yllis Bram son, P a tric LoCicero, Liliana Po rter (Associated American Artists: Meriden, CT: Hull Printing, 1996), n.p.

10

Jo se Luis Blondet, "A Conversation w ith Liliana Porter and a Honey Jar," A r t N e x u s 5, No. 60 (2006), p. 64.

From the D ra w in g Book, 1982 (Detail)

11

Ibid., p. 66.

Liliana Porter: From the Draw ing Book, 1982

|

51

Sherrie Levine Untitled, 1986

Th r o u g h o u t h e r c a r e e r ,

a creative individual to the recognition

reading what I was doing as photographs

Sherrie Levine has questioned the

of art as the construction of symbols with

or drawings or watercolors but as position

possibility of artistic originality within a

"culturally ascribed meaning."3

perceived as commodities to be sold,

During the early 1980s, Levine continued

enticing and attractive but which also

reproduced, and recycled by other artists.

to pursue the issue of artistic originality,

forced the viewer to question notions of

She believes that contemporary artists are

gradually introducing a more personal

originality and artistic influence.

inevitably influenced by previous images;

presence into her body of work through

thus, no artwork can be considered

her watercolors "after" Mondrian and Leger

wholly original. Although many artists

in 1983.4 Although these too were direct

paintings to appropriate a more generic

obscure influences on their work in order

appropriations of famous artists' works,

geometric symbol rather than an

to preserve the notion of the artist as

the medium of watercolor and the intimate

explicit art-historical reference. Although

creative genius, Levine chooses to overtly

scale gave them a personalized quality

interviewers and critics have drawn

emphasize these factors by stressing the

distinctly different from the originals. In

connections between her stripe paintings

Significantly, Levine chose in her stripe

necessary interplay of the artist with the

1985-86, Levine altered her medium from

and Suprematist and Minimalist paintings,

extensive canon of art history.1 In the early

watercolor to acrylic and casein on wood,

the generic geometric pattern implies

1980s, she daringly recycled images by

yet maintained her critique of originality

a multitude of visual associations.7 The

appropriating famous photographs and

and the ownership of images.

multiplicity of possible references leaves the interpretation of her specific influences

claiming them as her own, thus directly questioning the ownership of images.2 The

An untitled work from 1986 marks this

up to the viewer, thereby rejecting the

critic Rosalind Krauss has noted that this

significant shift in her style of production.

possibility of artistic ownership of such

act of appropriation indicates an important

The painting is part of a series of twelve

a generic symbol by individuals or art-

shift in art history away from the prevailing

works entitled "Broad Stripes"; in these

historical movements.

modernist notion of art as the product of

works Levine altered her approach partly because of the way in which her work was

The medium of the work also reveals an

being perceived by critics.5 Describing her

added material presence that her earlier

emotions, she explained that the critical

appropriations of photographs lacked. The

reception of her earlier work had made her feel "boxed in," adding that "it had gotten to the point where people couldn't see the work for the rhetoric. People weren't really

54

papers."6 In altering her medium to acrylic she wanted to create work that was visually

consumer culture in which images are

| Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

1986 untitled work reproduced here is

and end with the same color, a sense of

The composition of the painting asserts

painted in acrylic on an approximately 24-

incompletion and instability is produced.

that an artwork can never be fully

by-20-inch mahogany plank, a combination

Levine described her "Broad Stripes" series:

of materials that endows the work with

comprehended in isolation from the work that came before it. Marzorati states

an enticing physical presence. (Levine has

I don't think that they will give you that kind

that the incomplete pattern may imply

described this physical potency as "the

of satisfaction—the closure, balance, harmony.

the possibility of its continued repetition

auratic quality" of the work.8) Elaborating

There's that sense of things being all there, all

outside of the "frame."13 Therefore, the

on the importance of the physical power of

sewed up, that you get from classic formalist

artwork conceptually extends beyond the

her work, Levine states that "there's a level

painting. I wanted the ones I was making to be

physical limits of the painting, comprising

of seduction in the work that keeps you...

very uneasy. They are about death in a way:

the various meanings and associations that

It's visceral, sensual seduction....I want

the uneasy death of modernism.'0

have been ascribed to the stripe pattern.

rich materials and the lush green and red

Thus, the image contains a subversion of

product of the influences of previous styles

complementary pattern are vivid, projecting

expectations. The critic Gerald Marzorati

and cultural symbols. Consequently, art

an energy absent from the artist's

has argued that the stripe pattern has

must routinely interact with the previous

photographic and watercolor work. While

frequently been associated with the

meanings ascribed to such symbols and in

attracting the viewer's attention through

"elegance" and "confidence" of modernist

questioning these symbols imbue them with additional meaning within a new context.

[the artwork] to be an experience."9 The

Levine suggests that any artwork is the

luxurious materials, however, the work, by

abstraction.11 Additionally, Levine's

the nature of its structure, denies the viewer

materials by themselves seem vivid and

Levine defines the very nature of artistic

an ultimate sense of visual stability.

energetic, yet the structure of the painting

production as a process that continually

Although the painting at first appears to

is unstable and incomplete. Curator Susan

refers to itself, questions itself, and in so

Krane has argued that "[Levine's] works

doing redefines itself.

be a simple repetition of complementary

in one sense are memento mori: They toll

stripes, it is in fact unbalanced, an element

the departure of the inherent spiritualism

that invests the work with a disturbing

of imagery and mark the passing of our

A m elia Chaney

quality. The composition consists of ten

comfortable presumption of the all-

Major: English

stripes repeated in an alternating pattern,

redeeming power of creativity."12

beginning with green and ending with red. Since the pattern does not begin

1

Gerald Marzorati, "A rt in the (Re) Making," A r t N e w s (M ay 1986), p. 96.

2

David Deitcher, "Sherrie Levine: Rules o f the Game," Sh e rrie Levine (Zurich: Kunsthalle Zurich, 1991), pp. 9-10.

3

Bonnie Clearwater, M y t h ic P ro p o rtio n s: P a in tin g in the 1 9 8 0 s (N o rth Miami, FL: Museum o f Contem porary Art, 2001), p. 43.

4

Roberta Smith, "It's Not Fake A n yth in g - lt's Real Levine," V illage Voice (December, 1983), p. 107.

5

Marzorati, “A rt in the (Re) Making," p. 98.

6

Ibid., p. 93

7

Constance Lewellen, "Interview with Sherrie Levine," J o u r n a l o f C o n te m p o r a r y A r t [ http://www.jca-online.com/ slevine.htm l], Ju n e 13, 2007.

8

Ibid.

9

Ibid.

10

Marzorati, “A rt in the (Re) Making," p. 96.

11

Ibid., p. 99.

12

A r t at the E dge : Sherrie Levine, texts by Susan Krane and Phyllis Rosenzweig, exhibition brochure (Atlanta, GA: The High Museum o f Art, 1988), p. 14.

13

Marzorati, "A rt in the (Re) Making," p. 99.

Sherrie Levine: Untitled, 1986

j

Imi Knoebel WeiB Blau Rot Gelb II (White Blue Red Yellow II), 1994

Geometry is a prominent theme in

AT FIRST GLANCE, WEIB BLAU ROTGELB II

techniques eventually leave the viewer

(White Blue Red Yellow II), from 1994,

questioning whether the piece is a painting

Knoebel's work as a whole. The majority

by the contemporary German artist Imi

or a sculpture.

of his pieces contain recognizable geometric shapes— squares, circles, diamonds,

(Wolf) Knoebel, looks like nothing more than a three-dimensional picture frame.

WeiB Blau Rot Gelb II is constructed from

rectangles— that give the paintings visual

An experiment with shape, space, and

painted aluminum slats stacked and glued

weight. At times, he incorporates organic

color rather than a traditional painting or

together to create a frame-like structure that

shapes, making the visual effect lighter.

sculpture, it springs from Knoebel's impulse

extends from the wall: The vibrant white, Another distinct feature of Knoebel's work

to look at abstract art as a whole and

blue, red, and yellow boards catch the

choose among its various elements to create

viewer's attention immediately, while the

is its palette. While the use of bright pure

a distinct style.

empty white wood board surrounded by

colors is commonly found in abstract

the "frame" invites the viewer to question

art, Knoebel uses even more dazzlingly

Knoebel is interested in creating a dialogue

and imagine what the space could hold. In

intense colors.

between painting and sculpture— a

fact, the space holds a different image for

distinctive mix of the two. His method of

each viewer, depending on how the piece is

Space is also central to Knoebel's work.

layering painted materials gives his work a

mounted. An important feature of Knoebel's

The space in which his works are displayed

sense of depth and perspective, while the

work is the play of light and shadow. The

and the space from which they are seen

novel use of texture as well as irregular

spaces between the slats of aluminum in

are both meant to encourage viewers to

forms and objects challenges the traditional

WeiB Blau Rot Gelb II cast different shadows,

come to their own conclusions about the

notion of a "picture." These unusual

depending on the lighting in the exhibition

works. Unlike many of his contemporaries,

and the angle at which the viewer stands in

Knoebel chooses not to focus on the subject

relation to the piece.

matter of a piece but rather on the space created by it. The blatantly open areas in Knoebel's works invite the viewer to imagine what space in general can hold and to focus on the light and shadows that the spaces create.1

WeiB B la u R o t Gelb II (W hite Blue Red Yellow II), 1994 (Detail)

58

| Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Coleccion Patricia Pheips de Cisneros

Knoebel's early works are characterized

Although, superficially, Knoebel's work

by their stark simplicity. For example, the

seems tied to geometric form, some organic

Linienbilder (Line Paintings), from 1966-68,

aspects appear, particularly the human

are made up merely of black lines on a

form. In certain works Knoebel cleverly

white canvas. What Knoebel wanted the

used his arm as a measurement for many of

viewer to see is the simplicity that renders

his cutout pieces and boards, underscoring

the piece beautiful. The lines in Linienbilder

the importance of ideal proportion for the

are so perfectly regular, and the black

artist and contributing to its beautifully

of the paint and the white of the canvas

simple execution and format.

remain so pure, that it is difficult to imagine that they were painted by human hands.

Ultimately, the viewer is left asking "W h y ?"

Later, Knoebel began producing art that

true meanings behind his pieces, and their

was more textural. The pieces slowly

significance is still murky. He approached

Knoebel was notoriously quiet about the

changed from simple paintings to painted

his works as separate experiments, leaving

slides that were projected onto walls, and

the results to the mind and eyes of the

then eventually to small, wall-mounted

beholder.

sculptures. He also began to experiment with the mounting of his works and with how a different angle for each piece would

Elisabeth Kjellgren

affect the viewer in an entirely new way. In

Major: Psychology

addition, his new focus became the color in his works, which can be seen in his 24 Farben fur Blinky (24 Colors for Blinky), from 1977, and in this work, WeiB Blau Rot Gelb II (Blue Red Yellow II), created, much later, in 1994.2

1

Hubertus GaBner, "Four Course Field Rotation: Black, W hite, and Coloured," Im i Knoebel, W o rks 1 9 6 8 -1 9 9 6 (Am sterdam : Stedelijk Museum, 1996), p. 50.

2

Ibid., p. 54.

Imi Knoebel: W eiB Blau Rot Gelb II (White Blue Red Yellow II), 1994

|

59

Jose Damasceno Dois estudos sobre um a dim ensao perdida (Two Studies for One Lost Dimension), 1996

attached to the table's edges. The two

JO SE DAMASCENO'S DO/S ESTUDOS SOBRE

white, and notes that Do/s estudos sobre

LIMA DIMENSAO PERDIDA (Two Studies for

uma dimensao perdida is a classic two-point

points on the wall where the cords attach

One Lost Dimension), from 1996, can be

perspective drawing after the Renaissance

signify the horizon by specifically marking the two vanishing points.

described as an installation sculpture— a

precedent.2 Perspective drawings were first

three-dimensional form created with a

used in Italian Renaissance art of the 15th

specific location in mind, incorporating

century.

Perspective drawings are typically executed

The goal of two-point perspective drawing

case of Damasceno's work the walls act

the surrounding space is an important part

is to show the dimensions of a three-

as the support for the "drawn" study in

of the artist's investigation. Consisting of

dimensional object on a two-dimensional

perspective. In addition, the color of the

an iron table lying on its side, with nylon-

surface as accurately as possible. The lines

cords and iron table is dark gray, the color

in pencil or pen on paper and in the

into the work of art the area in which it is displayed. The relationship of sculpture to

covered rubber cords connecting each of

that make up the drawn object all recede

of the lead and graphite used in pencils.

the four legs to the walls of the gallery,

toward two vanishing points, one on either

By rendering in three dimensions what is

the sculpture takes up a large part of

side of the object. The vanishing points are

usually drawn in two dimensions, the artist

the gallery space, enabling the viewer to

framing points along the horizon at which

challenges the viewer's preconceptions,

walk around the table and within the area

all horizontal lines seem to meet. In two-

operating in the realm, as one critic

defined by the cords.

point perspective, vertical lines do not have

has remarked, of "visual mysteries and

any perspective: They are seen as flat. The

conceptual ploys, which can be both brainy

The walls that the cords attach to are,

drawn lines of the object continue out to

and evocative..."3 Another critic mentions,

according to Damasceno's instructions,

meet the vanishing points, thus connecting

"Damasceno proposes some exciting new

painted white. This white background serves

the object to the vanishing points.

relationships between form and process," as he uses the form of sculpture to depict a

as the paper on which the artist "draws" his sculpture. Exhibition curator Carlos Palacios

All of these conditions are met in

reiterates this fact when he observes that

Damasceno's installation: the cords

the walls should be "blanqui'simas,"1 or pure

connected to the wall extend inward

The title of the work— Two Studies for One

from the horizontal portions of the three-

Lost Dimension— provides clues about its

dimensional table on the floor to the

meaning. The word "studies" is important

vanishing points on the wall; no cords are

process used primarily in painting.4

in that two-point perspective drawings are used as preliminary drawings for a final painting, which shows only the object and not the lines or vanishing point. Perspective

62

| Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

drawings are used to map out what the

the artist as a structuring condition of his

object should scientifically look like, and

work."5 Damasceno's installation crosses the

then are used as a guide in a final work.

boundary between painting and sculpture

At first, Damasceno's work looks like a

by using as his subject a technique used

single study, as the artist includes the two

in painting. Moreover, he created an

necessary vanishing points for a two-point

installation sculpture, a twentieth-century

perspective. However, the scale of the

art form, to reflect on an artistic process

object allows for two studies. Since only one

that was discovered more than five hundred

half of a three-dimensional object can be

years ago. Damasceno uses this non-

rendered in two dimensions in a two-point

traditional modern art form to look back at

perspective drawing, Damasceno overlays

the tradition of perspective in art.

two studies within the one sculpture: the front and the back of the table. Because the sculpture is so large and the viewers are

Alicia LaTores

easily able to walk around to see all sides,

Major: Art History

two distinct perspectives, thus two different studies, are present in the one object.

The title also mentions "one lost dimension" in attempting to describe two dimensions in three-dimensional space, Damasceno "loses" the third dimension.

Many of his works look back to other artistic traditions for inspiration. Art historian Marcio Doctors notes, "The experiences which pre-date his work are regarded by

1

E-mail to author from Carlos E. Palacios, Curator of Contem porary Art, Coleecion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Septem ber 24, 2007.

2

“ Ella es un dibujo real desde el esquema clasico de la perspectiva desde dos puntos de fuga, propio del renacimiento." Carlos E. Palacios, e-mail to author, Septem ber 24, 2007.

3

Anth ony Downey, "Jose Damasceno," Flash A r t 39 (M ay- Ju n e 2006), p. 127.

4

David Ebony, "Jose Damasceno a t the Project," A r t in A m e ric a 91, No. 9 (Septem ber 2003), p. 122.

5

M arcio Doctors, “Artist/Philosopher," in Jo se D a m asce no , exhibition catalogue (Rio de Janeiro: Instituto BrasilEstados Unidos Galeria de Arte, 1994), p.13.

Jose Damasceno: Dots estudos sobre um a dim ensao perdida (Two Studies for One Lost Dimension), 1996

i 63

Anna Maria Maiolino Untitled (A M M 443), 1996

A n n a m a r ia

m a i o l i n o ' s w o r k is

The large surfaces of canvas impregnated with

widely varied and always inspiring. As an

intense color receive the ink. Some canvases

artist she is at once subtle and flamboyant,

remain white. The uniform, compact color

voicing the obvious and forcing the

transforms the canvas into a body of geometric

unwanted image upon the eye. Maiolino

form. White is a sheet of almost immaterial

has explored many mediums and materials

light that receives the ink that runs and

in her work throughout her artistic career,

condenses... The control of the work depends

including but not limited to film, paper

upon its having a conscious, experimental

cutouts, engravings, drawings, paintings,

artifice rather than its being a passive

sculpture, and performance. While her

instrument of the ink and the imperious force

experiments and statements created with

of gravity.'

film could alone fill many books, it is her series of paintings entitled Agoes matericas

Maiolino also gives us a description of

(Material Actions) that exemplifies the

how the painting was created, and of the

artist's ability to create something visually

difficulties of that process:

interesting and yet incredibly simple.

Untitled (AM M 443)— part of the series—

These canvases are a challenge to the body,

is strikingly large, about three feet high

which acts as the chief support for vital

and two feet wide, considering how simple

impulses connected to the hand and arm at

it is. Her description of this series opens

work in the tracing of the ink... The body tires

a window onto understanding this

from moving around the canvas, holding it,

type of work:

and accompanying the course being traced by the drop of ink.2

Untitled [ A M M 443), 1996 (Detail)

66

| Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

Untitled (AM M 443) represents is a

from a very young age she "yearned for

demanding and painstaking combination

death," perhaps revealing an important

of physical effort and mental planning. We

aspect of her childhood experiences. Being

can see how carefully the canvas had to

the youngest child in a large family that

be held and turned, as Maiolino worked

seldom had enough of anything, she may

with with paint and gravity. At the same

have harbored confusing or angry thoughts

time, we can see how the painting was

at being left out or left behind. These

balanced as a composition: Even though

emotions transferred to her work later on,

three stark lines leave half the canvas bare,

when she discovered the "path of art" and

the energy of the horizontal drips fills the

"finally found shelter" there.3

space, helping the painting to achieve an equilibrium.

Untitled (AM M 443) presents an intriguing look into the work of an extremely

Formally challenging, in many ways,

influential artist and demonstrates how

Untitled (AM M 443) can be seen as a

intensity and complexity can be conveyed

reflection of Anna Maria Maiolino's difficult

in a very simple way.

and eccentric personal history. Born in Italy in M ay 1942, Maiolino and her family

Chamisa Kellogg

sought refuge beyond war-ravaged Europe,

M ajor: Hispanic Studies/Studio Art

and immigrated to South America when she was twelve years old. They spent four years in Venezuela before moving to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Maiolino writes that

1

Anna M aria M aiolino: "Afoes m a tericas," Arco-Arte Contemporanea exhibition catalogue (Sao Paolo, 1984), p. 273.

2

Ibid.

3

Anna Maria M aiolino: "Artist statem ent," in Arco-Arte Contemporanea, exhibition catalogue (Sao Paolo, 1984), p. 199.

Anna Maria Maiolino: Untitled { A M M 443), 1996

j 67

Ernesto Neto Piff, piff, piff, 1997

i

S m e l l is t h e s e n s e m o s t s t r o n g l y

multiple senses. The simple materials—

tied to memory, a relationship that the

three nylon bags containing spices— capture

Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto incorporates

the viewer's eye and then invite each

into his installation pieces. Inspired by time

person to make connections on his or her

spent in the interior of his native country

own. "[PJeople should relate to the work,

and frequent visits to spice shops in Rio de

but this does not necessarily mean that

Janeiro with their intense fragrances, he

this relation involves touching the work. I

came to be attracted to the spices "because

open a door for people to develop a more

they come from the earth, and especially

intimate relationship with the projects I

because they come from Brazil."1Ultimately,

conceive."2 This "intimate relationship" with

he created a multisensory sculpture in

the viewer is important to Neto. Some of

which all viewers can engage their senses.

his works even involve music and sounds, and others invite the viewer to touch. In

In Piff, piff, piff (1997), the aromas of

removing the gap between the viewer and

turmeric and clove fill the nostrils of

the work of art, Neto allows room for a

passersby, evoking emotions and possibly

range of interpretation.

memories, creating a close connection between the viewer and the work. Neto's

Piff, piff, piff is part of a series of works

primary goal is to permit the viewer to use

created in 1997 and marks the first time spices are utilized. The titles of all the works in the series imitate sounds related to the artworks. In Piff, piff, piff, the title evokes the sound of a sack of spices as it is dropped to the floor from ceiling height.

Piff, piff, piff, 1997 (Detail)

The elongated nylon sack, tied to the

Oiticica, a fellow abstract Brazilian artist,

spices seem to permeate the air through the

ceiling, emphasizes the work's verticality,

Neto has used Oiticica's phrase "penetrable

nylon fabric, a further allusion to the body.

but it also has a malleable sculptural

sculptures," referring to pieces that can be

quality, allowing the artist to manipulate

entered, to describe his own art. Many are

Neto's simple forms invite multiple

the three bags of spices. According to Neto,

actual spaces that invite people into a more

interpretations. The pieces are meant to be

"When you put different things together,

ethereal world.4

contemplated and discussed. Neto cautions us, however, that, "Written and spoken

there is an interaction. Each thing puts the other in a new situation, and it is within

In Piff, piff, piff, Neto uses soft forms

language is not enough to understand

this interaction that art happens."3 Not only

that, subjected to gravity, take on

what is going on...I believe that if it were

do elements of the work interact with each

various qualities of color and texture.

'talkable' I would not need to conceive a

other intriguingly but they also relate to

The stretched nylon allows light to pass

project."5 In Piff, piff, piff, the bright, bold

their environment, and the bags of spices

through the colors, emphasizing the

colors of blue, yellow, and red attract

appear to have grown from the ceiling to

quality of translucence. The nylon seems

the eye, while the aromas of the spices

the floor.

to be stretched to its limit, ready to break.

engage one's olfactory sense. Neto creates

Adding to the fragility of the sculpture,

a multisensory experience for the viewer,

Typical of Brazilian art since the middle of

gravity weighs the piles of spices down,

inviting each person to make connections

the twentieth century, Neto's sculptures

allowing the nylon to extend to the

and find different ways of understanding

have a sense of geometry, order, and

maximum. Because it is holding the weight,

the artwork.

balance. In Piff, piff, piff, the artist uses

and stretching so far, the fabric appears

three simple lines suspended from the

translucent and almost skin-like.

ceiling in a specific order. Because his

M e g h a n Q u igley

piece is a sculpture, it encourages multiple

In many of his pieces, Neto incorporates the

perspectives. With no right way to view this

body; his fascination with the human form

piece, the viewer is invited to look at it from

stems from his favorite subject, biology. The

Major: Art History

different angles. Neto's work follows the conventions of the Minimalist movement, in which forms are reduced to the barest essentials. Strongly influenced by Helio

1

Rochelle Steiner, W o n d e rla n d (St. Louis, MO: St. Louis Art Museum, 2000), pp. 86-87.

2

Cecilia Pareira, “ The Fragility o f the W orld,” Ernesto Neto o corpo, n u tem po (Galicia, Spain: Cento Galego de Arte Contemporanea, 2002), p. 303.

3

Steiner, W onderland, p. 86.

4

Pareira, "The Fragility o f the W orld," p. 303.

5

Ibid., p. 308.

Ernesto Neto: Piff, piff, piff, 1997

|

71

Magdalena Fernandez Cubo movil (Mobile Cube), 1998

The poetics of Magdalena Fernandez pursues

and mentor, the late Bauhaus architect A.G.

...a novel material does not signify anything if

the finer lyricism of forms in space. Her

Fronzoni, as a dramatic point of influence

you do not do anything with it, if you do not

installations work toward suggestive perceptive

in her work. Fernandez was especially

put of your soul in the material, because no

effects: her pieces are the moving shapes she

motivated by fellow Latin American artists

matter how marvelous it is, it does not offer

creates from her imagination.'

of the twentieth century, including Jesus

you anything emotionally or affectively nor

Rafael Soto (1923-2005), Carlos Cruz-

does it open things to you if you do not make

Dfez (1923- ), and Gego (Gertrud Luise

it speak...2

THE VENEZUELAN ARTIST

Goldschmidt, 1912-94), all of whom were

Magdalena Fernandez is recognized

also practitioners of Geometric Abstraction

In the artist's hands, inorganic materials

as one of the most significant exemplars

as well as of Op Art and Kinetic Art.

become objects that assume organic

of Geometric Abstraction. Fernandez's

qualities. Geometric forms that are static

education includes a strong background

In her sculptures and installations,

and finite thus become versatile and infinite,

in physics and mathematics, and the artist

Fernandez utilizes industrial materials,

while Fernandez's use of light and shadow,

was trained in graphic design from 1985

without particular regard to their durability,

altered by the possibility of movement,

to 1993, first at the Instituo de Diseno

transforming them into patterns or shapes

permits each viewer to experience a unique

Neumann (Neumann Institute of Design) in

that divide and reinvent space. Her works

engagement with her work.

Caracas, then at Inscape Design College in

are simple in structure yet kinetic, allowing

South Africa and at the Fronzoni Studio in

the viewer to engage physically with each

Cubo mdvil (Mobile Cube), from 1998,

Milan. She acknowledges her time in Italy,

piece by manipulating the moving parts.

is clearly an homage to the minimalist

which she spent working with her teacher

Light, limitless space, and simplicity of form

Bauhaus style, which focused on

are ever present in her work, as is a creative

pure, simple elements, materials, and

and innovative use of material. Fernandez

composition. The piece is comprised of

believes that her work is defined by the soul

aluminum rods hinged in each corner to

and emotion she puts into every piece:

enable the viewer to transform the work into new shapes and forms. Rather than a solid, impenetrable mass, the cube is a sleek, kinetic skeleton that allows light to

74

| Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

pass through it and reflect off the metal

work. Fernandez lends respect to raw

rods, casting an ever-changing shadow.

form and certain aspects of its static

Through the interactive quality of Cubo

quality while at the same time encouraging

movil, Fernandez enables viewers to

us to defy the laws of permanence,

experience a physical connection with a

resulting in an experience that becomes

work of art. She, in fact, "recuperates the

less about the structure and definition of

sense of vision, a visuality which, although

the work and more about reinvention of

beautiful, also involves the spectator by

the space it occupies.

placing him in a communion with the work, and offering exceptional moments

Magdelena Fernandez's work taken as a

of pleasure, reflection, and meditation."3

whole is a tribute to the Latin American

The artist invites our touch, allowing us

artists who blazed a trail for younger

to respond to the work in a way that

contemporary artists like herself. In the

feels comfortable to us in the moment,

example of Cubo movil, the sculpture's

heightening our awareness of the piece,

transformative characteristics both symbolize

and altering how it appears to those

the artist's connection with the past and

who next encounter it. She challenges

interact with the viewer in the present.

us to observe how the cube exists in space and time, and then, as a result of our manipulation, to acknowledge how

Elizabeth A n n Cronin

the piece can be altered, how the space

Major: Art History

surrounding it can change, how our perception is shifted by its movement. By directly interacting with Cubo movil, we become the artist, if only for a moment, and redefine for ourselves and for others what can be seen and experienced in the

C u b o m ovil (Mobile Cube), 1998 (Detail)

1

Nydia Gutierrez, "De diseretas autorias," De D e scritas A u to r io s (M araeay, Venezuela: Museo de Arte Contem poraneo de M araeay M ario Abreu, 1998), p. 69.

2

"...un material por novedoso no significa nada si tu no haees nada eon el, si tu no pones de tu alma en el material, porque por mas maravilloso que sea no te aporta nada emocionalmente o afectivamente o no te abre cosas si tu no lo haces hablar..." Magdalena Fernandez, unpublished interview with Ingrid Melizan (translation mine), August 9, 2007.

3

Susana Benko, "M agdalena Fernandez. Sala Mendoza," A r tN e x u s 32 (1999), pp. 139-41.

Magdalena Fernandez: Cubo movil (Mobile Cube), 1998

|

75

Exhibition Checklist

Juan Araujo Reflejo en Coloritmo 4 8 (Reflection in

Sigfredo Chacon

Coiorhythm 48), 2006

M a d e In, 1975

Oil on wood

A crylic and ink on paper

19 9/16 x 15 3/4 x 7/8 in

16 9/16 x 11 13/16 in

Jose Damasceno Alessandro Balteo Yazbeck

Dois estudos sobre um a d im ensao perdida

Analisis (Analysis), 2 0 0 0

(Two Studies for One Lost Dimension), 1996

Video intervention in an ink-on-paper drawing

Iron and nylon-covered rubber cord

Variable dimensions

90 9/16 x 189 3/4 x 425 3/16 in

m

Luis Camnitzer Sentence Reflecting the Sentence That States

Danilo Duehas

the Reflection, 1975

Velocidades (Velocities), 2005

W oo d , bronze, and glass

Installation using various materials

13 3 / 4 x 9 3/4 x 2 in

Variable dimensions

TJ

i M ' AT

It i

Sigfredo Chacon Dibujo plastificado No. 12 (Lam inated Drawing No, 12), 1992

Leon Ferrari

Industrial acrylic paint and transparent resin

Untitled, 1962

on canvas

Ink on acrovinyl paint on wood

66 15/16 x 51 15/16 x 1 15/16 in

16 1/8 x 9 1/16 x 5/16 in

Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Coleccion Patricia Pheips de Cisneros

Dulce Gomez Autorretrato an on im o (Anonymous

Gego

Imi Knoebel O d ysh a p e V, 1994

waste sheets Variable dimensions

Untitled 73-13 1973 Ink on paper 39 3/8 x 27 9/16 in

Jose Gabriel Fernandez

Gego

V/eiB Blau Rot Gelb II (White Blue

Tablon No. 2 (Board No, 2), 2006

Plaster on fiberboard 67 x22 1/2 x 2 1/4 in

Untitled 73-14, 1973 Ink on paper 39 3/8 x 27 9/16 in

Red Yellow II), 1994 Acrylic, aluminum, and wood 455 1/2 x 451 3/16 x 5 1/2 in

Jose Gabriel Fernandez

Gego

Sherrie Levine

Tablon No. 3 (Board No. 3), 2006

Plaster on fiberboard 67 x22 1/2 x2 1/4 in

Untitled 73-16,1973 Ink on paper 39 3/8 x 27 9/16 in

Untitled, 1986 Acrylic on wood 24 x 20 1/16 x 1 3/16 in

Magdalena Fernandez

Gego

Anna Maria Maiolino

Cu bo movil (Mobile Cube), 1998 Polished aluminum rods 9 3/8 x 39 3/8 x 1 9/16 in

Untitled 73-17, 1973

Untitled (AMM 443), 1996 Acrylic on paper 9 3/8 x 27 9/16 in

Self-Portrait), 1995 Die, paper-shredder, and printers'

Industrial paint on aluminum structure 30 1/8 x 30 1/8x6 3/16 in

Imi Knoebel

Ink on paper 39 3/8 x 27 9/16 in

Exhibition Checklist

I 77

Lia Menna Barreto Anna Maria Maiolino

R eb an h o (H erd ), 1992

Untitled ( A M M 425), 1995

Fabric, canvas, leatherette, glass bowls, and

Acrylic on paper

synthetic fiber

39 3/8 x 27 9/16 in

33 7/16 x 70 7/8 x 14 9/16 in

Cildo Meireles A Diferen^a entre o circulo e a esfera e o peso (The Difference betw een the Circle and the

Oscar Munoz

Sphere Is W eig ht), 1976

N a rc iso se co (D ry Narcissus), 1996

Paper of different types and sizes

Charcoal pow der and silicon affixed to Plexiglas

Variable dimensions

27 15/16 x 27 15/16 x 1 3/16 in

Cildo Meireles

Oscar Munoz

M alhas da liberdade (M eshes of Freedom ), 1976

Narciso seco (D ry Narcissus), 1996

Iron and glass

Charcoal pow der and silicon affixed to Plexiglas

47 1/4 x 4 7 1/4 in

28 1/16 x 28 x 1 5/16 in

Ana Mendieta

Piff, piff, piff, 1997

Ernesto Neto Silueta (Silhouette) Series. W orks m ade in

N ylon stockings, graphite powder, clove powder,

Mexico, 1973-77

and turm eric powder

Color chrom ogenic Each 13 x 20 in

Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

prints

Variable dimensions

t »f f I f f t X *

Roberto Obregon Niagara VI (Ele A y Em e Be), 1999

Alejandro Otero

36 scalpel-cut Durasol silhouettes, red yarn, and

Untitled, 1945

steel nails

Conte crayon on paper

78 3/4x251 15/16 in

16 15/16 x 22 13/16 in

mi

iiii BBS m iS B Helio Oiticica

Liliana Porter

M etaesquem a (Meta-scheme), 1958

From the D raw ing Book, 1982

Gouache and ink on cardboard

Silk screen and acrylic on paper

19 11/16x24 in

22 7/16 x 30 3/16 in

Helio Oiticica

Beto de Voider

M etaesquem a (Meta-scheme), 1957

Untitled, 2003

Gouache and Chinese ink on paper

Industrial enam el on fiberboard

17 11/16x21 1/16 in

4 13/16 x 26 x 9/16 in

Alejandro Otero Coloritmo (Colorhythm ), 1956 Industrial enamel on wood 16 9 /1 6 x 6 7 1/16 x 1 3/16 in

Exhibition Checklist

i 79

Biographical Notes

Juan Araujo (b. Caracas, Venezuela, 1971}

A contemporary interpreter of Venezuela's landscape-painting tradition, Araujo emphasizes the use of appropriation, reproduction, and repetition in his work. He studied art at the Instituto Universitario de Estudios Superiores de Artes Plasticas Armando Reveron and began exhibiting his paintings in 1994, before graduating from the institute. He currently works in Caracas.

By reproducing modern iconic art images— primarily landscapes by well-known artists— taken from book covers, postcards, and catalogues, Araujo explores the role of work's original identity and the relationship between viewer and art in series of smallformat works using classic oil-painting techniques. His paintings investigate questions of modernism versus tradition while pointing out the debt that our perceptions owe to methods of reproduction.

Among Araujo's best-known works are Version del paisaje magico de Reveron (Version of Reveron's Magic Landscape, 1998); the series Relampagos del Catatumbo (Lightning on the Catatumbo: 1991); Pequeno museo imaginario (Little Imaginary Museum, 2001); Valles y ventanas (Valleys and Windows, 2000); El libro de Alejandro Otero (The Book of Alejandro Otero, 2002); and the series Cielos violeta (Violet Skies, 2003), Torres del Silencio (Towers of Silence, 2005), and Flores fantasmas (Ghost Flowers, 2006).

Araujo's work has been exhibited in the Sixth Mercosul Biennial in Porto Alegre, Brazil (2007), and the 27th Sao Paulo Biennial (2006), and at the Americas Society Art Gallery, New York (2005), and the Museo de Arte Moderno Jesus Soto, Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela (2005), among other venues.

Alessandro Balteo Yazbeck (b. Caracas, Venezuela, 1972)

A mixed-media artist, Balteo Yazbeck studied design at the Universidad Nueva Esparta from 1989 to 1991, after which he concentrated on sculpture at the Instituto Universitario de Estudios Superiores de Artes Plasticas Armando Reveron until 1998. He graduated with a degree in architecture and city planning from the Universidad Central de Venezuela in 2000.

Balteo Yazbeck first showed his work in the 1994 exhibition Indice (Index) at the Museo de Artes Visuales Alejandro Otero in Caracas. That same year, he was awarded first prize at the 2nd Camille Pissarro Biennial, held at the Centro Cultural Consolidado, also in Caracas.

Since that time, his work has been included in major contemporary art exhibitions in Venezuela, as well as in the United States, Spain, Peru, and Brazil.

Balteo Yazbek's art can be described as Constructivist, informed by Conceptualism. In Esquino, an experiment begun in 1995, the artist opened a "store," with branches in each venue displaying the work. The store sold a single product: the esquino— a little pyramid­ shaped china object. Balteo Yazbeck registered every sale, keeping detailed records of each purchaser and entering the time and geographic location of the sale on maps hung on the walls of the various installation venues.

Pedacito de cielo (A Little Piece of Heaven), from 1998, comments ironically on the indifferent treatment given to art in public spaces and raises questions about the process and sustainability of the "modernization" on which the country embarked during the 1950s.

For this work, Balteo Yazbeck conceived an "intimate museum," in which he assembled a number of Venezuelan Geometric Abstract works, both well-known and neglected. These

are anchored by one of his own works, created from pieces of a deteriorating ceramic-tile mural made by Alejandro Otero as part of that "modernization" process.

Almost a decade later, under the title UNstabile-Mobile (2007), Balteo Yazbeck turned to the theme of war, and its indictment. Using diverse materials including magazines, documents, carbon fiber, acrylic, metal, and a compass, he created a model of Iraq's oilfield infrastructure in the style of an Alexander Calder mobile.

The artist has divided his time between New York and Caracas since 2002.

Lia Menna Barreto (b. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1959)

Brazilian artist Lia Barreto studied drawing at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul and went on to create radical assemblages and installation works that, with their strange, unexpected— and occasionally repulsive— forms, challenge our way of perceiving the world. The theme of childhood has informed her aesthetic discourse since the early 1980s, through the use of dolls, stuffed toys, small plastic objects, children's games, and fabric, combined with organic elements. Since her first exhibition, held in 1985 at the Museu de Arte do Rio Grande do Sul. Barreto's work has been shown at a wide range of venues, including the Museu de Arte Moderna, Sao Paulo; the Mercosul Biennial, Porto Alegre; the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; House of World Cultures, Berlin; and the Sixth Havana Biennial.

The apparent innocence of the materials the artist uses conceals the work's contradictory, transgressive readings. Assemblages include dolls that have been taken apart or dismembered, sewn together, pierced with metal bars, or placed inside other dolls. She puts plants into doll's heads as if they were pots, exhibits them as trophies from a hunt, or melts dolls, plants, and animals onto sheets of silk. In Bonecas derretidas (Melted Dolls, 1995), a large piece of silk organza is covered with plastic dolls that have been melted onto it with a hot iron. Maquina de bordar (Embroidery Machine, 1999) stitches together corn shoots growing out of a baby's damp diaper. The performance Fabrica (Factory, 2003) features three people at work producing a kind of tablecloth out of toy animals. Glass screens surround the workers, transforming them into specimens under observation.

Through her work, Barreto evokes the violence, loneliness, and fear that threaten contemporary existence, criticizing what she sees as individualistic society and the dehumanizing march of technology. She currently lives and works in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Luis Camnitzer

Known as a Conceptual artist, Camnitzer was born in Germany but immigrated with his

(b. Liibeek, Germany, 1937)

family to Uruguay when he was a year old. He graduated with a degree in in sculpture from the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes de la Universidad de la Republica, Uruguay, after which he studied architecture at the same university, and sculpture and engraving at the Academy of Fine Arts, in Munich. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1961 and 1982, and in 1998 he received the annual critics' prize in Latin-American art awarded by the Asociacion Argentina de Crftica de Arte, followed by the Konex Prize at the Mercosul Biennial in Brazil in 2002.

Camnitzer sees art as a political tool, and uses it to explore power, violence, and Latin American identity. Masacre de Puerto Mont (1969) recounts in words and lines drawn on the floor the murder of peasants in Chile under the government of Eduardo Frei Montalva. In

Biographical Notes I

81

the later Serie de tortura uruguaya (Uruguayan Torture Series, 1983), the artist's subject is the horrific methods of torture used by the dictatorship established in 1974 by Juan Marfa Bordaberry. Leftovers (1970) consists of 80 boxes wrapped in gauze stained with red ink, a reference to mutilated bodies.

Camnitzer was the subject of a retrospective exhibition held at Lehman College Art Gallery in New York in 1991. In 2007, a survey of his work was on view at the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de San Jose, in Costa Rica. He has lived and worked in New York since 1964. Since 1999, he has been curator of the work of emerging artists at The Drawing Center in New York City. He is a Professor Emeritus of Art at the State University of New York, Old Westbury.

Sigfredo Chacon

The Venezuelan painter, draftsman, and designer Sigfredo Chacon was trained in fine

(b. Caracas, Venezuela, 1950)

art at Escuela de Artes Visuales Cristobal Rojas in Caracas from 1963 to 1966 but left before graduating because of his differences with what he saw as the institution's archaic teaching methods. From 1966 to 1970, he studied graphic design at the Institute de Diseho Neumann also in Caracas, continuing his studies at London's Chelsea School of Art (1972-73) and the London College of Printing (1974-75). In 1966, he had a solo exhibition at the Galena Gamma (Caracas), and between then and 1971 he was included in the Third Salon Cfrculo Pez Dorado (Ateneo de Caracas, 1965), the Salon de la Joven Pintura, 1965, the Second Festival del Zapato Roto (Universidad Central de Venezuela, 1965), and the Joven Actualidad Venezolana I (Galena Estudio Actual, 1969), all in Caracas. From 1972 to 1989, Chacon concentrated on graphic design, earning a reputation as one of the best in the field.

In 1971, along with Venezuelan artists Ibrahim Nebreda and William Stone, he created the installation El Autobus. An early event that signaled Chacon's avant-garde direction, the work consisted of a full-size bus salvaged from a junkyard and installed at the cultural center Ateneo de Caracas. At the Sala Romulo Gallegos in Caracas, in 1989, the artist presented a series of drawings and oil-on-canvas paintings executed between 1984 and 1987 using unconventional materials such as industrial enamel and asphalt, combined with encaustic paint, paper, and acrylics. These marked the beginning of his unique abstract language.

The solo exhibition Pinturas parlantes (Talking Paintings), held in 1995 at the Museo Jacobo Borges in Caracas, reflected Chacon's experiments in Conceptual and Minimalist art.

The exhibition featured series of polyptychs that take as their starting point the Spanish names for primary colors, along with black and white, creating a kind of chromatic word association-disassociation game. Between 1995 and 2006, Chacon used drips and collaged layers of acrylic paint to construct a series of work he called Pure Abstract Paintings. He is currently based in Caracas.

Jose Damasceno (b. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1968)

Known for his expansive installations and sculptures that incorporate a variety of unconventional materials and processes, the Brazilian artist Jose Damasceno was trained as an architect. This exerts an important influence on his art.

Since it was first shown in 1990, Damasceno's work has been exhibited frequently throughout Latin America, including at the Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro; the Museu Alofsio Magalhaes, Recife, Brazil; and the Centro Cultural Sao Paulo. In 2002, the artist was invited to participate in the 25th Sao Paulo Biennial, and the following year he exhibited at the Fourth Bienal do Mercosul, in Porto Alegre. In 2005 and 2007, respectively, his work appeared in the Brazilian Pavilion at the 51st and 53rd Venice Biennales.

I Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

Damasceno's aesthetic strategies attempt to alter the viewer's perceptions by playing with preconceived notions of spatial ordering and materials, transforming familiar processes and objects into something new. In Observation Plan, for example, created for the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art in 2003, the artist stuck 30,000 yellow number 2 pencils into a wall, which when viewed from a distance, appeared to be 30,000 dots that took the form of a "drawing" of people viewing artworks in a museum. He used a similar approach in the 1998 work Paisagem crescendo (Growing Landscape), a sculptural wallscape made out of cigarettes. In 2001, for Durante o caminho vertical (During the Vertical Trail), he erected 32 floor-to-ceiling columns made out of telephone books in a gallery space. In Cinema elastico (1998), Organograma (1997), and Arbore inconsciente (2000), the artist built mazes out of cigarette butts, plastic, and sponges.

Damasceno is currently based in Rio de Janeiro.

Danilo Duenas (b. Cali, Colombia, 1956)

A Colombian artist, Duenas studied law at the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogota from 1975 to 1979, but turned to painting and installation art full-time in 1981. From 1990 to 2003, he was a professor in the art department of the Universidad de Los Andes and a member of the arts faculty of the Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano, also in Bogota.

His assemblages typically consist of objects and such detritus as pieces of wood and Formica, packing tape, and cardboard boxes found at or in the vicinity of the exhibition venue. The artist then arranges these in a manner that blurs the distinction between installation and painting.

Duenas is widely represented in major art collections in Colombia and elsewhere in Latin America. His work was featured in a solo exhibition in 1987 at the Guggenheim Gallery in Miami, as well as in group exhibitions in Chile (1991) and Costa Rica (1995), and received a prize in the Sixth Salon Regional de Artistas de Bogota in 1993. In 2005, a retrospective of his work was held at the Museo de Arte de Bogota and at the Museo de Arte de la Universidad Nacional, also in Bogota, where he currently resides.

Jose Gabriel Fernandez (b. Caracas, Venezuela, 1957)

The Venezuelan mixed-media artist Jose Gabriel Fernandez, known for his provocative investigations of themes ranging from nature and the body to violence, mythology, rituals, and culture, studied art at Middlesex Polytechnic in London in the late 1970s. The first exhibition of his work took place at the Espacio Aiterno (Alternative Space) of the Galena de Arte Nacional in Caracas, at the beginning of the 1980s. Returning to London, he studied at the Slade School of Fine Arts and London University in 1986-88. He is an alumnus (1989) of the Whitney Museum of American Art's Independent Study Program.

In 1990, Fernandez was awarded the Eugenio Mendoza Prize (Sala Mendoza, Caracas) for a Minimalist work based on the myth of Narcissus, and in the same year his installation piece featuring pinhole projections of the Venezuelan landscape, Ojos magicos (Magic Eyes), was included in the exhibition Venezuela: Nuevas cartografias y cosmogonfas (Venezuela: New Cartographies and Cosmogonies) at the Galena de Arte Nacional, in Caracas. During the 1990s, he participated in exhibitions at major cultural institutions in Caracas, New York, Chicago, and Miami. Beginning in 1998, and continuing through the early 2000s, he developed a series of sculptural installations that explored bullfighting and the aesthetic of the matador.

Fernandez has lived and worked in New York City since 1988.

Biographical Notes I

83

Magdalena Fernandez

After completing her studies in graphic design at the Instituto de Diseno Neumann in

(b. Caracas, Venezuela, 1964)

Caracas in 1989, Fernandez trained at the studio of the well-known product and graphic designer A.G. Fronzoni, in Milan, Italy, from 1990 to 1993. Under his mentoring, she began to explore spatial relationships in both two- and three-dimensional work. Connected to the Venezuelan artistic traditions of Op Art and Geometric Abstraction, and influenced by artists like Gego, Jesus Soto, and Alejandro Otero, Fernandez typically produces mobile sculptural constructions. Inspired by natural elements, these emphasize purity of form, and the space that form creates, as well as viewer interaction.

Her earliest installation work, Estructuras (Structures), created in 1993 for the Sala Mendoza in Caracas, featured hundreds of black rubber spheres connected by nylon thread and suspended from the ceiling equidistantly but from different heights, creating distinct planes in the exhibition space. In the artwork 7/995, from 1995, at the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo in Caracas, she scattered 113 black steel springs on a white platform; the movement of viewers passing by caused the springs to vibrate.

Since 1989, Fernandez's work has been exhibited in Italy, Spain, Brazil, France, the United States, Colombia, Israel, and Venezuela. In 1996, she received the Arturo Michelena Award (Salon Arturo Michelena) and the Eugenio Mendoza Prize (Sala Mendoza, Caracas). In 1999, she was awarded the Christian Dior Biennial Prize and named the Best Foreign Artist at the Atlantic Forum in Pontevedra, Spain. From 2002 to 2004, she taught in the master's program at the Instituto Universitario de Estudios Superiores de Artes Plasticas Armando Reveron in Caracas, and during those years exhibited at the Museu de Arte Moderna in Sao Paulo and the Museo de Artes Visuales Alejandro Otero in Caracas.

She currently resides and works in Caracas.

Leon Ferrari (b. Buenos Aires, 1920)

A poet and Conceptual artist who has worked in sculpture and printmaking, Ferrari began his art career around 1955 as a self-taught sculptor, and by 1959 he was producing soldered-wire sculptures, collages, and drawings. With the writer Rafael Alberti, he published the book Escrito en el aire (Written in the Air) in 1964. His exploration of the ties between written language and images is exemplified by his seminal series Manuscritos, begun in 1964, in which Ferrari turned written notations into an image and image into written narrative.

Politically active and provocative from early on, in 1965 Ferrari exhibited his controversial work La civilizacion occidental y cristiana (Western-Christian Civilization) at the Instituto Di Telia in Buenos Aires. This assemblage, featuring an image of Christ crucified on an American Air Force bomber, was created in protest of the Vietnam War. Pressure from the Catholic Church forced the exhibition to be censored. The work was presented again at the 52nd Venice Biennale, at which Ferrari was awarded the Leone d'Oro. Other works from the 1960s include the events Tucuman arde (Tucuman Burning, 1968) and Malvenido Rockefeller (Rockefeller Unwelcome, 1969) and the manifesto El Arte de los significados (The Art of Meanings, 1968). After the 1976 military coup in Argentina, Ferrari moved in Sao Paulo, where he remained until returning to Buenos Aires in 1991. During his time in Brazil, he experimented with photocopy and mail art as well as heliographs, and explored the theme of musical instruments. He also produced "written visual art pieces," in which he presented an enlarged written description of his artwork. In 1997 he began the irreverent series Brailles, using the poems of Borges, printed over Man Ray nudes, as well as classical religious images and news stories perforated by Braille versions of biblical verses.

In late 2004, at the age of 84, a retrospective of his work was held at the Centro Cultural Recoleta and the Museo de Arte de Buenos Aires.

Ferrari currently lives and works in Buenos Aires.

I Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

Gego (b. Hamburg, 1912; d. Caracas,1994)

The Venezuelan artist Gertrud Goldschmidt worked under the pseudonym "Gego." Born in Hamburg, Germany, she studied architecture at Stuttgart University. With the rise of the Nazis, she immigrated to Venezuela in 1939 and became a Venezuelan citizen in 1952.

From 1940 to 1944, Gego worked as an architect and industrial designer. Taking pure abstraction as a starting point, guided by Constructivism, she began exploring problems of sculptural space in 1956. In 1958, she investigated the formal possibilities of projecting planes, modules, and parallel lines onto curved surfaces, and exhibited her first iron sculptures at the gallery-bookstore Cruz del Sur. The following year her work was included in the Venezuelan Pavilion at the Brussels International Fair, and The Museum of Modern Art in New York bought her 1958 piece Esfera (Sphere).

During the 1960s, while creating sculptures for architectural projects, Gego also experimented with printmaking techniques, teaching at the Universidad Central de Venezuela and the Escuela de Artes Visuales Cristobal Rojas in Caracas. In 1961, she had her first solo exhibition, at the Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas. In 1969, she began her series Reticulareas, in which she "wove" delicate stainless steel rods into web-like patterns, creating room-sized environments. During the early 1970s, she began two series of sculptural environments inspired by nature, the aluminum-rod Chorros (Streams, 1970) and Cuerdas (Cords, 1972), consisting of suspended strips of nylon and stainless steel. In the same vein, in 1974, she produced Troncos (Trunks) and Esferas (Spheres), featuring schematized geometrical shapes. Around 1976, she started her series of Dibujos sin papel (Drawings without Paper), delicate structures of iron and wire hanging from the wall that explored the properties of the line in three-dimensional form.

The artist produced the wire sculptures B/chos (Creatures) during the 1980s, a decade that also saw the creation of her final, and one her most significant series, Tejeduras: small fields of orthogonal lines woven from pieces of paper.

Gego has been the subject of numerous exhibitions and her work is included in the collections of major museums and cultural institutions in Venezuela, Colombia, the United Stares, Germany, Belgium, Italy, and Spain, among many other locations. A retrospective of her work was held in 2003 at the Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas.

Du Ice Gomez

A Venezuelan artist who currently lives and works in Caracas, Gomez began her studies in

(b. Caracas, 1967)

that city at the Escuela de Artes Visuales Cristobal Rojas in 1983. She made her exhibition debut in 1986, at the Bienal de Artes Visuales de Oriente, in Cumana, Venezuela, where she showed Espacio aislado-espacio figurado (Isolated Space— Figurative Space), an installation that would serve as her thesis project.

Gomez's work can be characterized by an aggressive hand— a seeming disdain in the treatment and selection of the materials she uses, evidenced by her tearing the canvas, incorporating organic materials, and leaving the work with an unfinished appearance. Her gestural, visceral, and reflective paintings touch on themes of privacy, routine, loneliness, the idea of the infinite, and the transitory nature of humanity's time on Earth. Moving freely between mediums and disciplines, she experiments with flat colors and materials not traditionally associated with plastic arts.

Among her works are Muelle (Pier, 1992) and La inmersion (Immersion, 1993), both executed in ink and acrylic on canvas and incorporating color photographs of miniature furniture floating in a mixture of water and ink. In Dibujo en proceso (Drawing in Process, 1992), the artist recorded the sound a pencil makes drawing on paper. Autorretrato anonimo (Anonymous Self-Portrait), made in 1995, consists of a paper-shredder that continuously spews out quantities of cutout paper dolls. In another work, Tintoreria de lujo

Biographical Notes

| 85

(Deluxe Dry Cleaners, 2000), her subject is an artwork that previously had been rejected by exhibition venues and which she displayed with a plastic covering, bill, and receipt, just as if it had been sent to the dry cleaners.

Gomez is co-editor, along with the architect Francisco Villanueva and graphic designer Alvaro Sotillo, of the book Arte Contemporaneo Venezolano, published in 2006.

Imi Knoebel (b. Dessau, Germany, 1940)

Imi Knoebel (pseudonym of W olf Knoebel) has achieved prominence for his monochromatic abstractions that use the stretcher and the canvas, as well as other unconventional materials, to analyze the components of painting: its surface, structure, and the wall on which the work hangs. Knoebel studied at the Dusseldorf Academy of Art from 1964 to 1971, working under the Conceptual artist Joseph Beuys, and had his first exhibition in 1968 in Copenhagen. His early series Linienbilder (1966-68), black and white paintings featuring grids of lines, was heavily influenced by Russian artist Kazimir Malevich's Suprematist work Black Square (1915). Russian Constructivism would also have a significant impact on Knoebel's artistic conception and practice.

In Knoebel's paintings, form, line, and color are superimposed, diluting the boundaries between painting, installation, and sculpture. In work such as his Odyshape series from the 1990s, Knoebel uses industrial paint in a Mondrian-like range of elegant colors spread on sheets or strips of aluminum.

Knoebel's work is represented in numerous major museums and other collections. In 1996-97, a retrospective of his work was mounted at the Haus der Kunst, Munich, traveling to the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and the Julio Gonzalez Art Center, Valencia, Spain.

Knoebel is based in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Sherrie Levine (b. Hazleton, Pennsylvania, 1947)

This American Conceptual artist belongs to the first generation of artists— which also includes Jenny Holzer, Cindy Sherman, and Richard Prince— for whom the critique of representation, and the accompanying exploration of the meaning of originality, authenticity, and authorship, was an important subject. Levine received an MFA in graphic art and design from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1973.

She first became known for work that featured the reappropriation of existing art and images. In 1979 she produced eight collages and watercolors based on the works of Andreas Feininger, and that same year experimented with rephotographing nudes by Edward Weston and landscapes by Eliot Porter. She received critical acclaim in 1981 with a solo exhibition at New York's Metro Pictures gallery entitled After Walker Evans, in which she rephotographed Evans's famous Depression-era photographs from an exhibition catalogue and exhibited them without any further manipulation of the images.

Levine abandoned appropriation for a few years and produced a series of paintings that, as she herself said, "not only had to do with art history, but also with personal history and memory. I wanted to make paintings that were both formal and allegoric." This group includes both her 1985 series of plywood boards, characterized by geometric blocks of color and inspired by the Minimalist paintings she had rejected in her earlier years, and her later representations of game boards.

The artist would return to appropriation methods, using watercolor and painting, and today even uses a computer to reproduce works by Duchamp, Man Ray, and others in three dimensions. She signs these pieces as "stolen," continuing to raise the question of authenticity.

Levine lives and works in New York City.

| Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

Ana Maria Maioiino

The Italian-born multimedia artist Ana Maria Maioiino immigrated to Venezuela in 1954

(b. Scalea, Italy, 1942)

and began her studies at the Escuela de Artes Visuales Cristobal Rojas in Caracas. In 1960 she went to Brazil, and continued her studies there at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes de Rio de Janeiro. She became a Brazilian citizen in 1968.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Maioiino produced work associated with various styles, including Neo-Concretism, New Figuration, Minimalism, and, toward the end of the 1960s, the movement that became known as the New Brazilian Objectivity. Her work, which encourages viewer participation, fuses the personal and the political and often incorporates the written word. This is evident in the series Mapas Mental's (Mental Maps, 1971-74) and the object-drawings Buracos negros (Black Holes, c. 1974), as well as in a number of the artist's books. Using a range of supports, techniques, and materials, the artist investigates issues connected with the human body, particularly female sexuality, and modern-day urban congestion.

Maioiino focused on painting in the 1980s, and at the beginning of the 1990s her interest in materials prompted her to also create wall-sculptures and reliefs in clay, plaster, and even cement. Her installation work allowed her to express more overt political notions: Entrevidas (1981) proposes crossing a space that has been "mined" with 70 dozen chicken eggs. The work touches on danger, death, life, resistance, fragility, continuity, and territory.

During the 1990s, influenced by the Argentinian Conceptual artist Victor Grippo (1936— 2002), Maioiino produced a group of works using huge quantities of clay. In both Muitos (Many, 1991-95) and Sao Estes (These Are the Ones, 1998), a large room filled with molded balls of clay suggests an analogy between the use and recycling of this material and the processes of life.

In 2002, a retrospective exhibition of Maiolino's work entitled A Life Line was held at The Drawing Center in New York.

Maioiino currently lives and works in Rio de Janeiro.

Cildo Meireles (b. Rio de Janeiro, 1948)

The Brazilian Cildo Meireles who is today internationally recognized today for his sociopolitically charged installations, paintings, drawings, objects, and performances, was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. At age 15, he moved with his family to Brasilia, the country's new capital. That same year, 1963, he had his first solo exhibition at the Museu de Arte Moderna in Salvador, Bahia. The following year, shortly after the military seized control of the Brazilian government, Meireles enrolled at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes in Rio de Janeiro.

In response to the brutal military regime, and inspired by the Neo-Concrete artists before him, Meireles began to produce art that subverted commonplace assumptions and grappled with violence and repression, with an emphasis on public participation. He often used unconventional materials and exhibition methods. In 1970, he produced the key series /nsergoes em circuitos ideologicos (Insertions into Ideological Circuits), in which he confronted totalitarianism in Brazil by writing subversive messages on national banknotes, telephone tokens, and carbonated drink bottles, which he put back into circulation.

Meireles lived in New York from 1971 to 1973, creating multimedia installations that encouraged the involvement of the viewer. He has been based in Rio de Janeiro since 1973.

His work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions at major museums and venues in Brazil and Venezuela, the United Sates, and Europe. Among these are the Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro (1969, 1975, 1981, 1984, and 1987); the Mercosul

Biographical Notes

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87

Biennial, Porto Alegre, Brazil (1997); The Museum of Modern Art, New York (1970 and 1990); the Venice Biennale (1976), the Sa Paulo Biennial (1981, 1989 and 1998); the Musee National d'Art Moderne Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1989, 1996, and 1997); and the Institute of Contemporary Art, London.

Ana Mendieta (b. Havana, Cuba, 1948; d. New York, 1985)

The American artist Ana Mendieta was sent by her parents from her native to Cuba to orphanages and adoptive families in Iowa in 1961 when Fidel Castro began to consolidate power. She went on to study at the University of Iowa, where she attended the Intermedia Program and Center for New Performing Arts, developing her unique formal language. In the mid-1970s, she moved to New York City.

During her short but intense artistic career, she explored many different techniques— performance art video, photography, drawing, printmaking, installation art, and sculpture— but primarily experiments in Body Art and Earthworks. Because of the ephemeral nature of her work, much of her output has been documented in photographs, films, and videotapes.

Mendieta obsessively used her own body as both a subject and object of creation.

The series Body Traces (1974), performances documented in photographs, shows the artist dipping her hands in a mixture of animal blood and red ink, then dragging them down a wall, leaving traces. In the Silueta (Silhouette) Series, 1972-82, among her bestknown work, Mendieta's figure is photographed as it interacts with the earth in some way: covered with tree branches, mud, or other natural elements, as a burnt outline, or tattooed. She appears nude, invoking the image of a goddess or a virgin and mixing aspects of African, Afro-Cuban, and Indo-American rituals with those from the ancient cultures of Asia and Europe.

Mendieta's metaphorical, autobiographical abstractions explore the artist's personal history in the Caribbean, while also addressing the broader themes of identity, sexuality, violence, feminine exclusion, and cultural alienation.

Since the artist's death as the result of a fall from her New York City apartment window in 1985 at age 36, Mendieta's work has been increasingly hailed for its breakthrough achievements. In 1996, the Galician Contemporary Art Center, in collaboration with the Tapies Foundation, organized a retrospective of Mendieta's work that traveled to the Kunsthalle Dusseldorf, the Miami Art Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

Oscar Munoz (b. Popayan, Colombia, 1951)

The Colombian Conceptual artist Oscar Munoz concentrates on photography-based work, using materials as diverse as charcoal powder, plaster, shower curtains, bars of soap, crumpled or torn paper, manipulated aerial photography, and natural elements such as light, water, and air.

Munoz's particular interest is the portrait. In Narcisos (Narcissi, 1994-2003), a series of selfportraits executed in powdered charcoal, suspended on a watery surface inside transparent containers, Munoz records the effect of time on the "drawn" faces, a reference to life processes. As the water begins to evaporate, the outlines of the faces begin to deform, slowly wrinkling and dissolving.

Transmutation, fragility, instability, impermanence, and deterioration are present again in Aliento (Breath, 1996-2002). Here, a viewer's voluntary breath animates, for a few seconds, the face of a deceased person, which the artist has "printed" onto a mirror.

Configuration and de-configuration follow one after another as they are exposed to changes in temperature in a cycle that is repeated every time the viewer breathes onto

| Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

the mirror. Biografia (2002) highlights and dramatizes those concepts that connect life and death. Executed in video and photography, this series features the artist's self-portrait, projected onto the surface of a pool of water in a washbasin, and then flushed down the drainhole in a disturbingly violent gesture.

Since 1968, Munoz's work has been included in various solo and group exhibitions in Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba, France, Argentina, Brazil, Belgium, South Korea, Costa Rica, Germany, and Spain. In 2004, he was awarded first prize at the 39th Salon Nacional de Artistas de Colombia. In 2006, he opened the innovative gallery/lecture space for young artists Lugar a Dudas (Place of Doubts, or "Room for Doubt") in Calf. His work was shown at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007.

Munoz currently lives and works in Calf Colombia.

Ernesto Neto (b. Rio de Janeiro, 1964)

Ernesto Neto explores the path set out by Neo-Concretists Lygia Clark and Helio Oiticica, members of the previous generation of Brazilian artists. Creating organic multimedia structures that allude to the human body, Neto invites the viewer into a sensual, physically participatory relationship with his work.

Neto studied sculpture at the Escola de Artes Visuais Pargua Lage in Rio de Janeiro in the late 1980s and has been a fixture on the national and international art scene ever since.

His 2001 textile installation 0 bicho (The Creature) was the centerpiece of the 49th Venice Biennale.

Neto's abstract sculptures and installations, with their soft and lavish textures, often take up an entire indoor exhibition space. They question traditionally accepted arguments by introducing smell and touch, challenging the primacy of the sense of sight in twentiethcentury art, and emphatically encouraging, as the Neo-Concretists did, physical interaction on the part of the viewer.

In the pieces he calls Naves (Vessels), begun in 1997, Neto fills elastic material with aromatic spices (turmeric, cloves, saffron, cumin, and so on) and sand, lead, or Styrofoam pellets colored with pigments from the Amazon The material may then be sculpted into different forms: oval shapes with umbilical-cord shapes, caves with sensual undulations that one can put a hand into or lie down on, constructions that evoke lush tropical forests, spatial mazes, or cloudy ambiences that one can enter or walk around. These pieces are either anchored to the floor or hung from the ceiling. The spices seep through the pores of the material and scatter onto the floor, filling the museum space with their aroma. These environments, which can be touched and smelled, only come to life when they enter into direct contact with the visitor. Their shapes change as the visitor passes through them and thus becomes part of the work.

Solo exhibitions of Neto's work have been held at the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Carrillo Gil, Mexico City (1998); The Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC (2002); Institute of Contemporary Art, London (2000); Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio (2000); and Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston (1999).

The artist's work has also been included in the Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2000); and in group exhibitions at The St. Louis Art Museum (2000); The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut (1999); 24th Sao Paul Biennial (1998); Sydney Biennial, (1998); and Serpentine Gallery, London (1998).

Neto currently lives and works in Rio de Janeiro.

Biographical Notes

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Roberto Obregon

Colombian-born Roberto Obregon was a painter and Conceptual artist who became

(b. Barranquilla, Colombia, 1946;

a member of the Venezuelan avant-garde during the 1970s. He studied business by

d. Tarma, Vargas, Venezuela, 2003)

correspondence at the Continental School in Havana (1957) and art at the Escuela de Artes Plasticas Julio Arraga in Maracaibo, Venezuela (1959-61). In 1967 he was recognized by the 27th Salon Oficial de Arte Venezolano. In 1997, he represented Venezuela at the 47th Venice Biennale and the following year he was invited to the Fifth Istanbul Biennial.

In the early 1970s, Obregon began to experiment with new paths, leading him away from the figurative style of his early works. At that time, in line with much of the era's Conceptual art, Obregon became interested in the concept of time and the natural life cycle, which he explored in works incorporating rose petals— a motif that would become emblematic of his work.

In D/secc/ones (Dissections), a series produced between 1974 and 1982, the artist assembled rose petals like a Conceptualist herbalist, as in Cronica de una rosa No. 4 (1974), which depicts the twenty-four developmental stages of the flower. In his series Agua como ciclo (Water as a Cycle, 1978), he used drawing, watercolor, and photocopies to document rose petals in different natural water sources (rivers, the rain, puddles, lakes, and so on).

In Trilogfa (Trilogy, 1981) he recorded three different ways of representing the rose: living, dried, and painted.

Around 1990, Obregon turned to silhouettes painted in acrylic on monochrome backgrounds, eventually cutting the silhouettes from rubber, vinyl, and linoleum. During the same period he took up large formats, experimenting with the mural and threedimensional effects, as in the series Proyecto Niagara (Niagara Project, 1989-99), which includes letters and silhouettes of petals and individuals associated with the artist, rendered in black Durasol on white surfaces up to six meters long; or the mural WDT (1991), which presents a cross section of one of the rose petal silhouettes in a format measuring more than 27 square meters. By scaling up one anonymous element, he deconstructs all roses down to their elemental components, magnifying and demystifying the object.

Helio Oiticica (b. Rio de Janeiro, 1937; d. Rio de Janeiro, 1980)

Considered one of the most innovative Brazilian artists of his generation, Oiticica studied at the Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro in 1954, and in 1955 he joined and participated in exhibitions of the Rio-based Concrete art collective Grupo Frente. During these years, influenced by Malevich and Mondrian, he began to produce his Metaesquemas (Meta-schemes), which destabilized the pictorial plane with a precise yet irregular composition of squares and rectangles on a white background.

In 1959, Oiticica rebelled against the mathematical aesthetic of Concrete art when he participated in the first exhibition of the Neo-Concrete movement and supported the Manifiesto written by Ferreira Gullar, who criticized "the ever-growing rationalization of the processes and objectives of painting."

At the beginning of the 1960s, Oiticica broke away from the two-dimensional aspect of the canvas in order to carry out phenomenological and perceptual experiments in art.

Preoccupied with creating an interactive relationship between the artwork and the viewer, he produced the first Nudeos (Nucleii), mazelike successions of colored panels. In 1958, he had already created the series Bilaterais (Bilaterals) and Relevos Espadais (Spatial Reliefs), large-scale, three-dimensional colored sheets, affixed to one another and suspended in space. In 1960, he began his Penetraveis (Penetrables), fabric environments that visitors walked through, and in 1963, his Bolides (Fireballs), boxes and glass containers filled

I Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

with earth and pigments that had multiple compartments that could be opened and explored. This experiment led to the 1964 Parangoles, or capes, in which members of the public could drape themselves. Through all of these pieces, Oiticica aimed to increase the connection between his work and the viewer.

The first solo exhibition of Oiticica's work was held in 1969 at the Whitechapel Gallery in London, after which Oiticica remained in England for a year as resident artist at the University of Sussex. With a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, he moved to New York City in 1970, and in the same year took part in the Conceptual Art exhibition Information at The Museum of Modern Art. He remained in New York City until 1978, when he returned to Rio de Janeiro and continued his investigations into the body as a unifying example of art and life by using music and dance combined with photography, performance, and film. He also wrote experimental critical texts about his works and those of other artists. His later works continued to encourage participation by the public, which he "invited" to reflect upon the state of culture in modern Brazil.

Alejandro Otero (b. El Manteco, Bolivar, Venezuela, 1921; d. Caracas, 1990)

Alejandro Otero was one of the early leading proponents of Geometric Abstraction. From 1939 to 1945, he studied at the Escuela de Artes Plasticas in Caracas. There, he painted landscapes in the style of Cezanne and, while still a student, exhibited paintings and stained glass. W hen he graduated in 1945, he was awarded a scholarship that allowed him to live on and off in Paris until 1964. During this time he produced the series Cafeteras (Coffee Pots), in which he presented the still-life object as a schematic structure.

During a short stay in Caracas in 1949, Otero attended exhibitions and debates held by the Taller Libre de Arte, which brought him into contact with the works of the Argentinian movement Arte Concreto-lnvencion. He took the opportunity to show Cafeteras, in 1949 in the Museo de Bellas Artes. This controversial exhibition heralded the arrival of Geometric Abstraction, marking a break with the Venezuelan school of landscape painting and the 19th-century figurative tradition. W ith this single exhibition, Otero contributed significantly to the introduction of modernism into Venezuela.

Back in Paris, Otero studied the work of Piet Mondrian and Neo-Plasticist ideas. He frequented avant-garde artists' circles and took on the theoretical leadership of a group of abstract Venezuelan artists known as Los Disidentes, who were radical defenders of Geometric Abstraction amid Venezuela's provincial and conservative cultural milieu. At this time, Otero stripped his art of all "nonessentials," using primarily color to structure his works.

Not long after, in Caracas once more, Otero developed rigorous abstract compositions based on a series of black lines superimposed on random color fields. In 1955, he began the series Coloritmos (Colorhythms), compositions of bands and planes of color on wood panels. The Coloritmos served as his transition to sculpture, assemblage, and collage.

At the same time, he was designing murals and stained glass windows for the Proyecto de Integracion de las Artes run by Carlos Raul Villanueva for the Universidad Central de Venezuela. In 1958, Otero received the National Painting Prize and in 1959 he was awarded an honorable mention at the Fifth Sao Paulo Biennial.

Influenced by Neo-Dadaism, from 1960 to 1964, Otero experimented with found objects, collages, and assemblage. At the end of the 1960s, he began planning the series Estructuras espaciales (Spatial Structures), huge kinetic sculptures made for open-air public spaces. These included Rotor (1967), Delta solar (Solar Delta, 1976), Torre solar (Solar Tower, 1986), and Abra solar (Solar Bay), presented at the Venice Biennale in 1982.

Biographical Notes

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91

Liliana Porter (b. Buenos Aires, 1941)

Originally from Argentina, Liliana Porter was trained in printmaking at the Escuela de Bellas Artes Manuel Belgrano in Buenos Aires under the Colombian printmaker Guillermo Silva Santamarfa. In 1958, Porter moved with her family to Mexico, where she became involved with an experimental art space established by the German-born artist Mathias Goeritz.

Since 1964, she has resided in New York City. In 1965, with the Uruguayan-American Luis Camnitzer and the Venezuelan Jose Guillermo Castillo, she founded the New York Graphic Workshop, which explored alternative forms of printmaking and distribution.

Through her masterful use of etching, silkscreen, and photogravure, as well as drawing, collage, and film, Porter constructs a poetic language that investigates the paradoxes of representation. By playfully juxtaposing in her work kitsch (small toys, vacation souvenirs, decorations) and "high" culture (paintings, prints, and drawings— her own and those of others; books that have influenced her; political symbols; and quotations from the canons of art history and literature), she mines the question of the original versus the copy, aiming to establish correspondence between reality and fiction, the possible and the impossible.

Porter was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1980. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is represented in many signficant collections, including those of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museo Tamayo, Mexico City; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museo de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires; and Fundaqao Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon.

She is currently a professor of art at Queens College, City University of New York, and has lived in New York City since 1964.

Beto de Voider (b. Buenos Aires, 1962)

A "postmodern" Argentinian artist, de Voider was at the center of creative ferment that characterized Buenos Aires in the early 1990s. He studied at the Escuela de Arte Manuel Belgrano in Buenos Aires and in 1989 undertook an art history research program at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Buenos Aires. Two early exhibitions at the Centro Cultural Ricardo Rojas, in 1991 and 1993, and a residency at the first Taller de Barracas (Barracas Artists' Workshop) with a scholarship from the Fundacion Antorchas during 1994 and 1995 mark the beginning of de Volder's artistic career. In 1993, he received first prize for painting at the Third Biennial of Young Art (Bienal de Arte Joven) in Buenos Aires.

The core of de Volder's work is drawing, which— used as a central motif of curved lines that cover the support or to define the contours of the piece— conveys an immediacy reminiscent of the Surrealists' Automatism.

Incorporating color into what he described as firuletes (adornments), in 2004, he exhibited the first of his works in which the viewer was intended to assemble and dismantle pieces of the composition which were attached to magnetized sheets. The artist called these works "brain-healers," in a reference to children's "brain-teasers."

In addition to participating in national and international exhibitions, since 2003, de Voider has served as coordinator— with Mariano Dal Verme and Fernando Brizuela— of La ReCo/ecc/dn, a contemporary Latin-American art collection project at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, in which more than 200 works in a range of mediums are "re-collected." The project was also on view at Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires and Arte Ba in 2004.

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Correspondencias Arte contemporaneo de la Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

A lgunas lineas en correspondencia Carlos E. Palacios —Ciertamente, me gustaria ver

i

La palabra correspondencias tiene dos significados, por un lado alude a la comunicacion epistolar y por el otro a la vinculacion que realmente existe o se establece convencionalmente entre distintos elementos de un mismo grupo.

Tornado en su segunda acepcion, correspondencias es un buen concepto para instituir

uno dibujado para entenderlo mejor.

vfnculos entre objetos de un conjunto multiple, como lo es la Coleccion Patricia Phelps de

—Os lo dibujare, pern dejadme deciros

Cisneros. Muchas de las obras de arte que la integran establecen relaeiones entre ellas1 -se

antes las otras medidas del fuste de

corresponden, podrfamos decir- mas alia de sus vfnculos formales, cuando las abordamos

la columna y tambien de la base.

desde diversos ambitos de la interpretacion.

—De acuerdo, pero quiero a toda costa que me dibujes uno.

En esta ocasion, el elemento que hemos escogido para asociar las obras incluidas en esta exposieion es la Ifnea, un motivo recurrente en todas las propuestas. Ella es el punto de

Final del Tratado de arquitectura de Antonio

partida e hilo conductor de nuestras correspondencias. Como en un juego de espejos

Filarete (dialogo peripatetico sobre la

contrapuestos, la linea se desliza entre las obras, generando un eco cuyas resonancias se

estructura de un capitel), c. 1461-64.

exteriorizan de variadas maneras y en distintos espacios, bien sea desde el dibujo -tecnica privilegiada donde la linea se ha desplegado con verdadera majestad-; desde el papel -un soporte historicamente hermanado con el dibujo- o desde su permanencia en el efervescente y poliedrico escenario de la creacion contemporanea, donde la Ifnea -o el dibujo- coronan un espacio trascendente.

II La leyenda sobre el origen del dibujo que narra Plinio el Viejo en su Historia Natural es en realidad una historia de amor: La hija de un alfarero corintio llamado Dibutades perfila sobre una roca la sombra que proyecta la cabeza de su amante antes de su partida.

Lo que esta historia supone tiene una doble significacion. En primer lugar, que el dibujo nace para el recuerdo. Es un gesto que registra una perdida y por tanto, es el mecanismo originario para atrapar -y reproducir- una imagen deseada del mundo. En segundo lugar, la accion que se narra es derivativa de una abstraccion -la sombra- y no de la realidad (que serfa, claro esta, el novio: verdadero "modelo" del dibujo sobre piedra). Es decir, Ios trazos de la novia abandonada son en realidad un dibujo que corresponde a otro previo: el que realiza la luz solar en su proyeccion sobre la cabeza del amado.

Desde estas conclusiones en torno al dibujo -correlativas entre sf- es por donde discurren las obras reunidas en esta exposieion. Inclusive relatos como este -y otros que como veremos de seguidas, hacen del dibujo y la Ifnea su motivo principal- parecen describir con fidelidad muchas obras de arte, ajenas en el momento de su realizacion a textos teoricos y tratados. ^Acaso esta alegorfa que relata Plinio, no describe con hermosa eficacia la obra del artista venezolano Roberto Obregon intitulada Niagara VI (EleA y Erne Be)? Veamos. Obregon, como la hija de Dibutades, reproduce Ios perfiles de dos siluetas humanas, dispuestas en Ios extremos equidistantes de su compleja instalacion. Estas imagenes corresponden a seres queridos y admirados por el artista. Son igualmente unas siluetas negras, como la sombra de la cabeza del novio en la historia de Plinio. Inclusive, como en la leyenda, los perfiles que "dibuja" Obregon repasan el perfil de imagenes fotograficas: son la "sombra" de sus admirados personajes.

Si el sol perfila la silueta del pretendiente sobre la roca en la historia latina, en el mito griego de Narciso, esta se manifiesta en las aguas de un lago. Se refleja el rostro (se hace la imagen, podrfa decirse) de otro joven, en este caso enamorado de su propia faz. Los Narcisos secos de 1

La presencia de tres artistas "m odernos" -eomo son

Oscar Munoz son de alguna manera el residuo de este retrato vanidoso hechos en polvo de

Alejandro Otero, Gego y Helio Oiticica- en esta exposieion,

carbon (un material, por lo demas, paradigmatico de esta tecnica). Una vez mas, las figuras

ilustran estas relaeiones que se pueden desarrollar entre

de Munoz son, a su manera, la sombra que queda del rostro del Narciso, secas las aguas reflectantes.

ios diversos nucleos de la CPPC, aun cuando sus obras aqul incluidas tienen como finalidad establecer el caracter referencial de I3 utilizacion de la linea en la modernidad, para Ios temas por Ios que discurren las obras de arte contem poraneo contenidas en C orresp on d en cies.

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Para la historia de la pintura -podri'a decirse, inclusive, que para la historia del arte en su totalidad- el dibujo se considera como su preambulo subalterno. Desde antiguo se establece este nexo de manera indisoluble: recordemos que ya Plinio en su Historia Natural identifica al dibujo como el origen de la pintura.

Las fronteras que delimitan al dibujo frente a las otras tecnicas artfsticas se han movilizado en diversos contextos historicos y se han puesto de manifiesto diversos niveles de correspondencias entre ellas. Un circuito de relaciones que el arte contemporaneo ha relativizado, aun sin llegar a borrarlo del todo. Esta exposicion es una manifestacion de la vigencia de estas correspondencias.

El fundamento del dibujo es, como bien se sabe, la linea. Esta a su vez "se manifiesta de manera mas inteligible que sensible (frente al color, por ejemplo). La Ifnea responde a un ordenamiento intelectual y es el resultado del poder de organizacion de la inteligencia"2.

Ciertamente, el dibujo es la estrategia racionalista de precision y disposicion de las formas del mundo en el piano pictorico. Lo que Leon Battista Alberti identified en el segundo libro de su tratado De Pictura como el contorno, primera de las tres partes que constituyen este arte. El contorno define el objeto y lo ubica en el espacio pictorico y para este tratadista del Renacimiento italiano, de su correcta realizacion resultara una buena composicion: "Yo quisiera que en el dibujo solo se buscase la exactitud del contorno, en lo cual es preciso ejercitarse con infinita diligencia y cuidado, pues nunca se podra alabar una composicion ni una buena inteligencia de las luces si falta el dibujo"3.

Si tuvieramos que identificar esta estrategia compositiva -de acuerdo a los preceptos albertianos- en alguna de las obras presentes en esta exposicion, sin duda nos podrfamos detener en los Tablones de Jose Gabriel Fernandez, en donde los contornos de las sinuosas formas tienen un papel protagonico: perfilan sus planas volumetrias y establecen las conexiones espaciales -y lineales- que acontecen entre ellas. Estos Tablones -que deben a su vez su nombre a una paradigmatica serie de obras abstracto-geometricas realizadas por el artista moderno venezolano Alejandro Otero- representan una sfntesis muy depurada de unos volumenes escultoricos que Fernandez realiza, inspirado en una sensible geometrfa que forman los giros que el torero le imprime al capote y la muleta durante la corrida de toros.

Podrfamos decir que estos Tablones son los contornos -de acuerdo a la definicion albertianade esos "effmeros" volumenes taurinos.

IV La acepcion latina de la palabra dibujo es delineo que significa tirar lineas. Igualmente no existe una palabra para identificar una obra dibujada, la mas proxima serfa imago (imagen).

Tirar lineas como quien las lanza al vacfo. Asf, de este modo, Magdalena Fernandez lanza sus lineas al aire y crea un cubo perfecto, aereo, platonico. No es efectivamente un dibujo, son lineas en el espacio que en continuo movimiento transforman, anuncian y desfiguran una imagen ideal de la geometrfa.

\/

2

’’La Pintura" en: Freixa, M ireia; Eduard Carbonell et al.

Senalaba el historiador aleman Heinrich Wolfflin hacia finales del siglo XIX -de acuerdo a

In tr o d u c tio n o la H istoria del Arte, Barcelona, Barcanova,

su principio estilfstico de categorizacion de la historia del arte-, que las diferencias entre el Renacimiento y el Barroco se correspondfan con el estilo lineal en el primero versus el estilo

Carbonell i Esteller, Eduard (citando a G. M. Borras).

1990; p. 174.

3

pictorico del segundo.

Alberti, Leon Battista: “ De Pictura" en: Munoz, Juan Miguel : Les fo n ts de I'h is t o r ia de I ’a rt d 'e p o c a m o de rna i co nte m p ora nia, B a rce lo n a : Universitat de Barcelona (Departam ent d'Historia de I'A rt), s.f., p. 39.

Mas alia de la vigencia del postulado wolffliniano y de acuerdo a la clasica definicion de dibujo lineal4, a la pintura postconceptual de Sigfredo Chacon (presente en esta exposicion con su Dibujo plastificado N °. 12) nos corresponderfa rubricarla dentro del estilo lineal. Habrfa que

4

"Delineacion con segmentos de lineas geometricas realizada generalmente con ayuda de utensiiios como la regia, la escuadra, el compas, el tiralineas, etc.".

D ice io n a rio de la R e al A c a d e m ia E sp a n o la , 2001. (22 ed.).

Aigunas lineas en correspondencia

j

95

senalar en primer lugar, que la obra de Chacon impulsa nuevas maneras de la pintura, desde un motivo grafico recurrente como es la cuadrfcula. La constante introduccion de esta trama en diversos contextos plasticos (como ocurre en Made In, tambien en esta muestra), tiene como principio organizar el espacio de la pintura: un gesto que posee en los mecanismos de proyeccion de la perspectiva del Renacimiento, un lejano antecedente. Es igualmente muy evocativa de esta tradicion por visualizar el mundo desde una ordenacion lineal, la obra del brasileho Jose Damasceno: 2 Estudossobre I dimensao perdida. Damasceno materializa la invendon renacentista de la perspectiva con dos puntos de fuga, desde lo tridimensional y desde la corporeidad material. El escenario de esta proyeccion no es en este caso el piano bidimensional del papel sino el espacio ffsico, real, de la sala de exposicion. En ambos casos se reafirma la regia que dictara J. B. da Vignola en su tratado Le due regole della propesctiva practica: todas las cosas que aparecen a la vista van a terminar en un solo punto.

VI Nulla dies sine linea. "Ningun dfa sin una Ifnea", afirmaba Plinio El Viejo. Esta sentencia parece describir idealmente tanto Analisis de Alessandro Balteo Yazbeck como la instalacion de Danilo Duenas intitulada Velocidades. Analisis registra en video una accion aparentemente intrascendente. Una mano (suponemos la del propio artista) va dibujando formas libres cuya orientacion la dictan dos unicas pautas, llamemoslas "de composicion": la obligatoriedad de pasar el bolfgrafo por un mismo punto de origen y la imposibilidad de despegarlo del papel.

En Velocidades, Danilo Duenas propone una intervencion espacial compuesta por tantas Ifneas como material para hacerlas se encuentre en el lugar de su realizacion. En ambas propuestas se nos presenta una paradoja: los Ifmites y las fronteras del dibujo son muy axiomaticos; sin embargo, la Ifnea se presenta en porfiada y reiterada utilizacion, en un eterno retorno de su presencia, como si todos los dfas debiera aparecer una nueva Ifnea en la pared, un nuevo giro del bolfgrafo sobre el papel.

VII Imprecaba Francisco Pacheco (el mas famoso tratadista del barroco sevillano y a su vez, maestro y suegro del mas famoso pintor sevillano del barroco, como lo fue don Diego Velazquez) en su Arte de la pintura a "los que dicen que para ser pintores no han menester estudiar en el debuxo; estos hijos bastardos de la pintura, llamados nuevamente empastadores y manchantes; pues quitado a la pintura el debuxo, sera oficio comun como los demas, y como lo es en estos que asf la exercitan, y con razon son llamados oficiales, y tratados asf; no artistas, por que proceden sin razon y arte, a poco mas o menos, como lo muestran sus obras, en que solo atienden al vil guadano, haciendose indinos de llamarse pintores"5.

No es verdadero arte aquella pintura que no tiene cimientos en el dibujo. Ni siquiera se pueden considerar artistas quienes no lo practican. Asf, tal parece que Alejandro Otero no entrarfa en la indigna categorfa de "bastardos de la pintura". Sus dos obras, exhibidas en esta exposicion, reunen todas las modulaciones de la Ifnea dibujada. Su desnudo sin tftulo despliega, con la correccion propia de un dibujo "al natural" y academico, los vigores de la Ifnea en tanto contorno, valor y movimiento. <;C6mo estas mismas caracterfsticas se proyectan en su Coloritmo de 1956? Para buscar una respuesta, acudamos una vez mas a Pacheco, quien citaba a otro pintor sevillano, el maestro Francisco de Medina, preguntandose: "que cosa sea pintura". Esto es para el segundo: "arte que con variedad de Ifneas y colores representa perfectamente a la vista lo que ella puede percebir de los cuerpos"6.

Continua Medina -a traves de Pacheco- definiendo los cuerpos en tres grupos (generos): 5

6

Pacheco, Francisco: "Arte de la pintura, su antigiiedad y grandezas..." en: Calvo Serraller, Francisco. Teona de la

naturales, artificiales "o formados con el pensamiento y consideracion del alma". A estos

p in tu ra del S ig lo de Oro, Madrid, Catedra, 1991; p. 411.

ultimos les corresponde ser aquellos "que figura el entendimiento con sabia consideracion".

Francisco Calvo Serraller, Teona de la p in tu ra del S ig lo de Oro, Madrid: Ediciones Catedra, 1991, p. 375.

96 j Correspondencias: Arte contemporaneo de la Coleccion Patricia Pheips de Cisneros

<>No es acaso la abstraccion geometrica un genero moldeado por el pensamiento y figurado -hecho figura— por la razon? Y este Coloritmo: ^no corporiza con variedad de h'neas y colores a este genero formado con la pura reflexion?

VIII Parece una extrana incongruencia, pero para buena parte de la generacion de jovenes creadores venezolanos que a inicios de Ios anos setenta comenzaron su singladura artistica ligada a Ios conceptualismos y postconceptualismos de vanguardia, no era menester sacrificar ni al pasado reciente ni a sus actores principales. No vieron caducidad en Ios maestros. De alii la importancia de Gego, quien -a diferencia de Ios maestros cineticos- fue una figura-bisagra entre Ios nuevos protagonistas del arte contemporaneo y la estetica abstracta y moderna. Lo hizo -entre otras cosas- a traves de la Ifnea. Un motivo que discurre tanto por su obra como a traves de sus clases: "Los trabajos que aquf se publican constituyen una extension de lo tratado en un seminario que dicte (...) sobre espacio, volumen y organizacion", comenta la artista en un libro de dibujo tecnico realizado por algunos de sus alumnos7.

Entre esas configuraciones lineales predilectas de Gego, que duda cabe, estan las redes planas y tridimensionales, como la reticula. Un motivo que igualmente emplearan Ios mas jovenes.

Allf estan, como prueba sumaria de un "encuentro de generaciones", las cuadrfculas de sus dibujos en tinta llamados Sin tftulo (73-13, 73-14, 73-16 y 73-17) frente a las mismas de Sigfredo Chacon o de Roberto Obregon, por citar solo un par de ejemplos.

Evidentemente hay mas diferencias que coincidencias en esta correspondencia generacional: para Gego este motivo, principalfsimo de su obra, tenfa la ambiciosa vocacion de transformar el espacio tridimensional. Para Chacon y Obregon suponen por un lado, unas estructuras aplicadas para la organizacion de una retorica de imagenes plasticas, en el caso de Chacon o semanticas, en las obras de Roberto Obregon. Por otra parte constituyen vestigios del diseno grafico, rama de las artes visuales que practicaban ambos artistas al comienzo de sus respectivas carreras. Son unas estructuras lineales y tecnicas que se insertan, como sefiala Lourdes Blanco, en "una tematica pictorica surgida de Ios materiales mismos del artistadisenador y del artista-pintor"8.

IX Es ya un lugar comun de la crftica definir al arte contemporaneo en funcion de su permanente vocacion intertextual. Mas alia de que la tradicion historica tenga un peso especffico, en el arte contemporaneo se pueden establecer diversos niveles de interdiscursividad. La encrucijada de prestamos de diversas narrativas supone que Ios artistas desarrollen estrategias de apropiacion y de montaje.

Asf, la pintura de Sherrie Levine reafirma desde estos presupuestos, "la negacion radical de la autorfa" como reafirma Benjamin Buchloh9; de tal modo que al desconocer al autor del fragmento de la obra que vemos en el montaje efectuado por Levine, su pintura deviene en un dispositivo formal compuesto por Ifneas verticales de colores, que en correspondencia con las demas obras de la exposieion, conquista un lugar legftimo de pertenencia como un inmaculado dibujo abstracto-geometrico.

7

Gego: "Presentacion" en: Auerbach, Ruth; M ancilla Pedro y Leonel Vera. E sp o cio Volu m e n O rg a n iz a cio n 2, Caracas, M onteavila Editores, 1979; pp. v.

X

8

Cuenta el investigador de arte venezolano Miguel Arroyo que "de acuerdo con relatos

Blanco, Lourdes. “ Sigfredo Chacon y el signo de Apeles de Cos”. Texto del catalogo de la exposieion Sigfre d o Chacon.

D ib u jo s y p in tu ra s recientes, Caracas: Saia RG-Fundacion

antiguos y contemporaneos, el papel fue inventado en el aho 105 de nuestra era por un

CELARG, 1989; s.n.

inteligente eunuco chino llamado T'sai Lun. Enemigo de todas las formas del despilfarro y obsesionado por la idea de encontrarle utilidad a Ios retazos que quedaban de las telas

9

Buchloh, Benjamin. "Procedim ientos aiegoricos: apropiacion y montaje en el arte contemporaneo" en:

empleadas para escribir"10... T'sai Lun convirtio estos desechos en papel.

F o rm alism o e H istoricid ad , M adrid: Ediciones Akal, 2004; p. 104.

Entre su accion y la del artista brasileno Cildo Meireles, con su juego de pequenas esculturas intituladas A Diferenga entre um Circulo e uma Esfera E o Peso, hay una equivalencia y una

10

Arroyo, Miguel. El A B C de la co n se rv a cio n de o b ra s de a rte h e c h a s en p a p e l & C ue n to del papel, Caracas: C. A. Tabacalera Nacional, 1978; p. 29.

Aigunas lineas en correspondencia

j 97

continuidad. Ambos transforman un desecho y le encuentran beneficio. Meireles transmuta el historico invento de T'sai Lun en residuos. Lo convierte de cierta manera en los retazos de telas que obsesionaban al inventor del papel. El gesto que genera esta obra corresponde a la accion de despreciar un dibujo equivocado, promoviendo un analisis sobre las relaciones sensoriales de la materia que van mas alia de lo visible, otorgandole al papel malgastado -como los retazos de la historia china- una nueva utilidad, esta vez, poetica. Con esta accion, Cildo Meireles Ie otorga un nuevo comportamiento al material y le confiere inusitados valores de densidad y peso a las formas puras y livianas de lo geometrico, cuya sena de identidad estaba historicamente relacionada con lo cristalino y lo sutil.

XI ^Cuales son los Ifmites entre el dibujo y la Ifnea? "La distincion teorica entre delimitacion grafica y materia colorfstica no puede garantizar un criterio de diferenciacion, pues el trazo mas o menos espeso puede ser considerado mancha de color, a la vez que la mancha de color puede reducirse a la linealidad del trazo"11 <;No sucede acaso lo mismo con Piff, piff, piff! de Ernesto Neto? No podemos dejar de ver en la espesura de estos volumenes de puro color, la definicion esencial de una Ifnea. Esto es: la proyeccion de un punto en el espacio. Neto materializa esta idea en unos cuerpos oblongos de pura sensorialidad, casi plastica. Unas manchas de color -y de olor- que son a su vez unas proyecciones lineales muy determinantes.

XII Hemos querido identificar correspondencias entre varias obras reunidas en esta exposicion.

Relaciones que van mas alia de las coincidencias formales (sin desdenar la belleza inherente y casufstica que se puedan dar entre ellas) y que dilatan sus fortalezas expresivas, desde un eje comun que gira en torno a conceptos tan flexibles y vigentes como son el dibujo y la Ifnea.

Asimismo, intentamos en algunos textos que se relacionan entre si -y que a su vez es uno solo- reflejar las posibilidades que el arte contemporaneo condensa en tanto que crisol de experiencias visuales previas, relacionadas tanto con las practicas como con las herramientas discursivas y teoricas que se explayan a lo largo de la historia del arte, desde ese gesto originario de representacion visual que se concentra, como sabemos, en el dibujo.

Un dibujo -un conjunto de lineas en el espacio bidimensional- inaugura la relacion del hombre con el mundo. Desde entonces se ha constituido en la cronica visual de este vinculo y logicamente el arte contemporaneo no se escapa de esta circunstancia.

Oculto la mas de las veces en medio del amplio catalogo de estrategias tecnicas y conceptuales que propone el arte contemporaneo como son el video, la instalacion o la fotograffa, el dibujo -o la Ifnea en tanto que matriz paradigmatica de la creacion visual— surge como una isla llena de reminiscencias historicas en el medio de una confusa geograffa.

Esta permanente aparicion del dibujo en el complejo mundo visual de nuestros dfas nos recuerda a aquel hombre primitivo quien al representar un toro o un bisonte, sintetiza en un gesto de simplicidad perfecta, el arduo mundo que acontecfa mas alia de la caverna. Asf, de esta misma forma, siempre recurriremos al dibujo para establecer, con la creacion de una imagen lineal, nuestra correspondencia con el mundo.

11

98

Carbonell i Esteller, Eduard. Op. cit., p. 173.

j Correspondencias: Arte contemporaneo de la Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

m

f u n d a c io n

CISNEROS

Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Co-founder a n d Chairman Pedro R. Tinoco T. President a n d Executive Director Adriana Cisneros de Griffin Vice Chairman W illiam R. Phelan Director, Office o f the Chairman

COLECCION PATRICIA PHELPS DE CISNEROS (CPPC) Rafael A. Romero D. Director Ariel Jim enez, M o d e rn a n d Contem porary Art Jo rg e Rivas, Colonial Art Carlos Palacios, C ontem porary Art Curators Natalia Afanasiev Program Coordinator Katiuska Rivas Assistant Rafael Santana Exhibitions M a n a ge r Lucett Foata Assistant Guillerm o Ovalle Collections M a n a ge r M arfa del Carmen Gonzalez Curator, International Education Program s Ingrid Melizan Coordinator, Venezuela

Registrar and Conservation lleen Kohn Sosa Associate Registrar Fedora Cisneros Assistant Registrar Natalia Espinosa Assistant Registrar for Decorative Arts Skye Monson Assistant Registrar for Docum entation Fernando Padron Assistant Registrar for Photogra phy Nicolas Perez Conservation a n d Installation Technician

Library Marfa Esther Pino Coordinator, Art Docum entation Laura Herrera Coordinator, Photographic Archive Dina Gouveia Assistant

Advisers Paulo Herkenhoff Curatorial Adviser Fernando de Tovar Conservation Adviser

The Fundacion Cisneros wishes to thank all the people and institutions involved for their valuable contribution and for making this exhibition and editorial venture a reality. W e especially w ant to express our gratitude to the W heato n College team and to all those individuals w ho were mentioned in the Preface and Acknowledgm ents of this publication.

Pedro R. Tinoco T. President a n d Executive Director

Wheaton

OFFICERS OF ADMINISTRATION Ronald A. Crutcher President Professor o f M usic

Sue A. Alexander D ean o f Students

Gail Berson Vice President for Enrollment a n d M arketing D ean of Adm ission a n d Student A id

Mary M. Casey Vice President for College Advancem ent

Terry Metz Vice President for Library a n d Information Services

Molly Easo Smith Provost Professor of English

Roderick G. Wallick Vice President for Finance a n d Operations Chief Financial Officer

R. Tripp Evans Chair, Departm ent of Art a n d Art History Associate Professor of Art

Ann H. Murray Professor o f A n Director of Beard a n d Weil Galleries M a ry L, H euser Chair in the Arts

Leah Niederstadt Assistant Professor o f M u seu m Studies/ Art History Curator o f the W heaton College Permanent Collection

Ann Sears H euser Professor of M usic Director of H aas Visiting Artists Program Director of Perform ance Program

Michael Graca Assistant Vice President for Com m unications

W e at W heato n College are grateful to Jen nifer Valentino ('0 9 ), w ho served as the W heaton Research Coordinator for this publication and for her work as an author of one of the entries included in the catalogue.

In addition w e wish to thank the following students for the catalogue entries they contributed to this publication: Samuel Brown ('0 9 ) Am elia Chaney ('1 0 ) M aria Escudero ('10 ) M eredith Brinker Ferguson ('0 8 ) N aihom y Jerez ('0 8 ) Chamisa Kellogg ('11) Elisabeth Kjellgren ('11) Alicia LaTores ('0 9 ) Carrie Peab o dy ('1 0 ) M eg h an Quigley ('11) Seth Robinson ('11) Christina W h ip p le ('0 9 ) Thanks go to Elizabeth Ann Cronin, M anager, Arts Events and Publicity, for her public relations work on this exhibition as well as for her work as an author of an entry for this catalogue.

W e also wish to thank the follow ing faculty mentors both for recom m ending students to participate in this exciting w riting project for the exhibition and for review ing the students' texts for this catalogue: R. Tripp Evans, Chair, D epartm ent o f Art a n d Art History a n d Associate Professor o f Art Francisco Fernandez de Alba, Assistant Professor of H ispanic Studies Evelyn Staudinger Lane, Associate Professor o f Art Ann H. M urray, Professor o f Art a n d Director, Beard a n d Weil Galleries Leah Niederstadt, Assistant Professor of M u seu m Studies/Art History a n d Curator o f Perm anent Collection M a ry Beth Tierney-Tello, Professor o f H ispanic Studies W e acknow ledge the entire faculties of the art and art history, Hispanic studies, and museum studies departm ents, and the Filene Center for W ork and Learning for helping to achieve the goals of the collaboration betw een the Fundacion Cisneros and W heato n College.

Our gratitude goes to m em bers of the Communications Departm ent and the Division for College Advancem ent for their work in furthering the collaboration and for helping to organize and publicize the exhibition: Sandra Coleman Barbara Dill W e n d y Faxon Michael Graca Susan Kobayashi Finally, we thank Provost M o lly Easo Smith for her vision in support of the work of the collaboration and for her active participation in m aking this exhibition a success.

Ronald A. Crutcher President

Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

February 4 through April 10, 2008 Beard and Weil Galleries Wheaton College, Norton, Massachusetts Exhibition No. 29

Carlos E. Palacios Curator Rafael A. Romero D., Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Caracas Wendy Faxon, Wheaton College, Norton, MA General Coordination Rafael Santana, Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Caracas Ann H. Murray, Wheaton College, Norton, MA Exhibition Design Guillermo Ovalle, lleen Kohn, Skye Monson Artwork Shipment, Conservation and Installation Kelsy Koch Editorial Coordination Maria del Carmen Gonzalez Research and Editorial Assistance Carlos E. Palacios Curatorial Essay Maria Esther Pino Artist Biographies Margarita Arias Spanish Proofreading Ben Rowden English Translation Mayerlin Ramirez M. Graphic Design Oscar Balducci Rodrigo Benavides Mark Morosse Petre Maxim Carlos German Rojas Courtesy of Jose Fernandez Courtesy of Bienal do Mercosul Artwork Photography Jairo Chavarro Digital Im age Preparation Universal Millennium Printing Permission to reproduce the works of art that appear in this catalogue has been given by the Fundacion Cisneros and authorized by the individual artists.

ISBN 978-0-9801874-0-3 ® 2008 Fundacion Cisneros ® 2008 Wheaton College All rights reserved No part of this publication, including the cover design, may be reproduced or transmitted in any way by any medium, whether electronic, chemical, mechanical or optical, or by recording or photocopying, without the permission of the publishers.

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