Abstraction Abstracción Abstração: Sophistication in Brazilian Art

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) presents the exhibition Abstraction Abstracción Abstração: Sophistication in Brazilian Art as a preamble and special tribute to Brazil, host of the 55th Annual Meeting of the IDB's Board of Governors that was held at the end of March. The exhibition will remain open to the public until May 16, 2014. Abstraction Abstracción Abstração: Sophistication in Brazilian Art consists of a group of paintings created by 16 of the most prominent Brazilian abstract artists of the Twentieth Century. It is a balanced exhibition that presents works by eight women and eight men. Most of the artworks in this exhibition are both non-objective and abstract. They were created for aesthetic reasons and relied on the use of academic painting techniques or printmaking mechanisms that are essential in the formality of contemporary art. The results reveal a deep exploration and analysis of light, color, textures, and technical processes to achieve a unique connection between the artworks and the viewers. "This art is neither defined by its representations of vernacular culture, religion, history, or, in general, context itself; nor by the use of symbols, but through a specific way of making contemporary art," affirms art critic and historian Gerardo Mosquera. "It is about an identity detached from 'identity;' an identity based on action not on representation. It also refers to the praxis of art as work that establishes identifiable constants, and in which a cultural typology is constructed through the manner in which it is executed, without insisting on its inherent cultural factors." Brazil has always demonstrated exceptional originality, creative renovation and artistic innovations within a universal context that reaches beyond stereotypes. The exhibition consists of a selection of works—that are part of the IDB and Art Museum of the Americas collections—that showcase the aesthetic complexity in Brazilian art. The exhibition includes works by Roberto Burle Marx, Danilo di Prete, Wega Neri, Tomie Ohtake, Tikashi Fukushima, Fayga Ostrower, Manabu Mabe, Dionisio del Santo and Anabela Geiger, among others.