Delirious at the Met Breuer: Exhibition of Latin American, European and North American Art

The latest exhibition at the Met Breuer in New York City presents works never before shown or presented together in the same space. Titled "Delirious: Art at the Limits of Reason (1950–1980)," the exhibition explores proposals by North American, Latin American and European artists. Divided into four sections—Vertigo, Excess, Nonsense and Twisted—the show consists of nearly 100 works by 62 artists, including: Antonio Berni, Dara Birnbaum, Tony Conrad, Hanne Darboven, Dean Fleming, Nancy Grossman, Philip Guston, Eva Hesse, Alfred Jensen, Yayoi Kusama, Sol LeWitt, Darcílio Lima, Lee Lozano, Anna Maria Maiolino, Ana Mendieta, Bruce Nauman, Jim Nutt, Hélio Oiticica, Claes Oldenburg, Abraham Palatnik, Howard Pindell, Peter Saul, Mira Schendel Carolee Schneemann, Paul Sharits, Robert Smithson, Nancy Spero, Paul Thek, and Stan VanDerBeek, among others. "Delirious times demand delirious art" is the curatorial argument of an exhibition that explores the social upheaval of the1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s; military conflicts, dictatorships, and the Cold War that generated social and political unrest. Overt censorship, particularly in Latin America, was predominant in many countries as mounting disenchantment with rationalism became evident, as did an interest in escaping reality through fantasy. "Artists responded to these developments by incorporating absurdity, disorder, nonsense, disorientation, and repetition into their work. Ultimately, the show asks whether or not it is possible to comprehensively understand the art of the postwar, or even seemingly rational art, as an exercise in premeditated lunacy." It is an exhibition that offers a fresh take on a historical period, on a hazy social reality and on a moment in time when everyone believed that everything was going to go back to normal after the war, when many even thought that each country was experiencing a separate reality. This exhibition shows how seemingly different realities can actually share many things in common and the manner in which art is used to convey those similarities. http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2017/delirious?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=statusupdate&utm_content=20170913&utm_campaign=delirious