CONCRETE MATTERS | ITSLIQUID

CONCRETE MATTERS

Art | April 9, 2018 |

CONCRETE MATTERSImage courtesy of Moderna Museet

CONCRETE MATTERS
Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
From February 24 to April 13, 2018

For a few vigorous decades in the mid-20th century, artists in the rapidly-growing cosmopolitan cities of Montevideo, Caracas, Buenos Aires, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro were exploring concrete art. This exhibition highlights the period when concretism – and thus, the boundaries of art – were being examined. The exhibition Concrete Matters also presents the emerging Brazilian neo-concretism. In the late-1950s, artists such as Lygia Clark, Lygia Pape and Helió Oiticica challenged the concept of the work of art as a static object.

CONCRETE MATTERSImage courtsey of Moderna Museet

In the mid-1940s, movements in Argentina began to reinterpret and develop the European concrete art initiated by the Dutch artist Theo van Doesburg in Paris in 1930. These artists said that figurative, representational art tended to “dampen the cognitive energy of man, distracting him from his own powers”. The concretists rejected the illusionism that artists had used over the centuries to create a three-dimensional pictorial space on the two-dimensional surface of the canvas. Instead, they proposed that people should be surrounded by real things, not illusions. Concrete art was the path forward, since it ”accustoms man to a direct relationship with things and not with the fiction of things”.

CONCRETE MATTERSImage courtsey of Moderna Museet

Over the ensuing decades, concretism was interpreted and reinterpreted by artists in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Venezuela. Despite obvious visual similarities, their works are also partly contradictory in innumerable ways with regard to the artists’ ideas and intentions. Countless artist factions were formed, broke up and reunited in the slightly more than four decades covered by this exhibition. Like the early-20th century avant-garde movements, these groups also occasionally presented utopian visions in texts and manifestos, which were distributed as flyers or printed in their own magazines, or published indaily newspapers.

CONCRETE MATTERSImage courtsey of Moderna Museet

Concrete Matters presents some 70 works made from the 1930s to the 1970s in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Venezuela, and is based on works in the collection Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros.

more. www.modernamuseet.se

Are you an artist, architect, designer? Would you like to be featured on ITSLIQUID platform? Send an e-mail to info@itsliquid.com or fill the form below






    RELATED POSTS


    FEATURED ARTIST: JIAWEI FU

    Art | May 26, 2023

    Jiawei Fu (b. 1998) is an Interior Designer and Painter, born in Guangzhou, China and now living in Los Angeles, USA. She bonded with painting in the beginning of her memories. Along with painting, the word “communication “has never left her life. Read more


    FEATURED ARTIST: TRAN TUAN

    Art | May 24, 2023

    Tran Tuan was born in Vietnam in 1961, he is a distinguished Vietnamese painter whose artworks have been widely exhibited nationally and internationally. Inspired by Eastern spirituality, his abstract pieces appear at first to be wholly minimalist and contained. However, they contain striking intensity and vibrancy, primarily achieved through a vivid colour palette and layering techniques. In conclusion, the Art of Tran Tuan provides each viewer with a glimpse into his innermost thoughts. Read more


    FEATURED ARTIST: SO YOUN KIM

    Art | May 22, 2023

    So Youn enjoys practising abstract paintings in the style of what she calls postmodern contemporary abstract expressionism with an emphasis on intellect from her education and creativity from her talent. So Youn remembers her childhood when her mother took her to the Picasso special exhibition in Seoul, Korea Read more


    FEATURED ARTIST: XIAODIE HUANG

    Art | May 20, 2023

    Featured Artist Xiaodie Huang Originally from China, Xiaodie Huang now resides and operates professionally in Los Angeles, making this vibrant city her home. As a child, she was afforded the chance to delve into numerous subjects, with music and art courses playing a pivotal role in her development. These early educational experiences ignited her passion for design and set her on her current path. Upon concluding her high school education in China Read more


    Sign up for our Newsletter.

    Enter your email to receive our latest updates!