The Geometry of Hope: Latin American Abstract Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection
Feb. 20-Apr. 22, 2007
Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin
MLK at Congress
Austin, Texas 78701
www.blantonmuseum.org
THE GEOMETRY OF HOPE: LATIN AMERICAN ABSTRACT ART FROM
THE PATRICIA PHELPS DE CISNEROS COLLECTION
OPENS AT THE BLANTON MUSEUM FEBRUARY 20, 2007
On February 20, 2007, the Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin opens a major exhibition comprising some 130 works of art from the acclaimed Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC). Together with its catalogue, The Geometry of Hope: Latin American Abstract Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection will provide the most comprehensive scholarly overview to date of Latin American Geometric Abstraction from the 1930s to the 1970s. The exhibition remains on view through April 22, 2007.
The Geometry of Hope, its publication, and related public programsincluding a major international symposiumare initiatives of the Cisneros Graduate Research Seminar at The University of Texas at Austin, a multi-year scholarly collaboration between the New York- and Caracas-based CPPC and the Blanton. Generous funding for the exhibition and catalogue is provided by the Eugene McDermott Foundation and Mr. and Mrs. Richard W. Moncrief. The catalogue is made possible by the support of the Fundación Cisneros.
The Geometry of Hope is organized by the Blanton. Project Director is Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, Curator of Latin American Art at the museum. In the fall of 2007, a variation of the exhibition will be presented in New York City, in collaboration with the Grey Art Gallery, at New York University (NYU).
Exhibition
Organized chronologically, The Geometry of Hope focuses on key cities in the development of abstraction in the Americas: Montevideo (1930s), Buenos Aires (1940s), São Paulo (1950s), Rio de Janeiro (1950s60s), Paris (1960s), and Caracas (1960s70s). In tracing the development of ideas from one socio-geographic context to another, the exhibition challenges the view of Latin American art as a single phenomenon.
The exhibition includes work by approximately forty artists. Among them are Joaquín Torres-García, from Montevideo; Gyula Kosice and Tomás Maldonado, from Buenos Aires; Geraldo de Barros and Waldemar Cordeiro, from São Paulo; Hélio Oiticica and Lygia Clark, from Rio de Janeiro; and Jesús Rafael Soto and Carlos Cruz-Diez, from Paris and Caracas.
Publication
The Geometry of Hope is accompanied by a richly illustrated, 300-page, bilingual (English-Spanish) publication, published by the Blanton Museum of Art. This includes an introduction by Dr. Pérez-Barreiro, scholarly essays on each of the cities explored in the exhibition, and extended essays presenting new research on forty individual works of art.
Symposium and Public Programs
On February 17, 2007, The University of Texas and NYU present the first part of a major two-part symposium created on the occasion of the exhibition. Organized with the support of the Fundación Cisneros, this brings international scholars to Austin to discuss the work on view in the exhibition. In fall 2007, in conjunction with the New York presentation of the exhibition, NYU hosts the second part of the symposium. In addition, the two universities will organize diverse exhibition-related events aimed at engaging both scholars and a broad public.
Blanton Museum
The Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin is one of the foremost university art museums in the country. The museums permanent collection of more than 17,000 works is recognized for its European Old Master paintings, an encyclopedic group of prints and drawings, and its comprehensive collection of American and Latin American art. The latter includes works by many artists not represented in other U.S. collections, and is particularly strong in Mexican graphics of the early twentieth century and post-1970 paintings and drawings.
Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros/Fundación Cisneros
The Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros focuses on modern and contemporary art from Latin America, and includes as well Latin American landscapes from the seventeenth century to the present day and Venezuelan colonial art. The CPPC is the primary visual-arts program of the Fundación Cisneros, which initiates and supports innovative programs focusing on education and culture, frequently leveraging the resources of the Cisneros Group of Companies to reach ever-greater audiences. For additional information, please visit www.coleccioncisneros.org.
For further information please contact:
Jeanne Collins & Associates, LLC, New York City,
646-486-7050 or info@jcollinsassociates.com.
