Open Work in Latin America, New York & Beyond, conceptualism reconsidered , 1967-1978
Open Work in Latin America, New York & Beyond, conceptualism reconsidered , 1967-1978 is the current exhibition at the Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Gallery at Hunter Colleg. The exhibition, which is a must see for all interested in contemporary Latin Art, has been curated by Harper Montgomery, who is the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros professor of Modern and Contemporary Latin American Art at Hunter College.
The exhibition concentrates on the crucial years of creation for contemporary movements in which Latin American artists came to NY and interacted with the development of conceptual art in the city. The artists represented include Luis Benedit, Mel Bochner, Luis Camnitzer, Eduardo Costa, Jaime Davidovich, Antonio Dias, Juan Downey, Victor Grippo, Rubens Gerchman, Joseph Kosuth, Sol LeWitt, CildoMeireles, Ana Mendieta, HelioOiticica, Liliana Porter, Ed Ruscha, and many others who were part of the rich art scene of New York at one of its most brilliant and influential periods and is exceptional in hanging Latin American artists with their American colleagues of the period, demonstrating the cross fertilization of ideas at the time, and revealing a body of work produced by Latin American artists in New York which elucidates a defining turning point in their careers.
The works are also accompanied by extensive material, publications, photographs, and documents that are great aids in explaining the sojourn of the artists and their impressions and interrelations within the art community.
The catalogue includes five scholarly essays that address important issues in the conceptual movement. Harper Montgomery opens the debate with an essay entitled Opening the Work, which informs on the important influence of art curators of the period, like Jorge Glusberg, the long time director of the MuseoNacional de BellasArtes (MNBA) in Buenos Aires, who struggled to position Argentinian artists within an international context in Europe and America, challenging preconceived notions of art from the region.It also provides interesting information on the critical eye the Latin artists exerted on New York's art scene as well as an insightful discussion of their technique.Adetailed analysis of the color preferences and usage of the artists is explored by Hallie Scott in her essay, Chromatic Anxiety in Conceptual Art. Liz Donato addresses the importance of performance art in her essay From the Page to the Street: Corporeality in Edgardo Antonio Vigo's Poetic Practices.Jeremiah W. McCarthy explores the interesting, and little known proposal that HelioOiticica had envisioned for the Informationexhibition, presented at MoMa in 1970 in his essay,The Artist and the Information Machine and Gillian Sneed in her essay "NossosHomensEm Nova Yorke": Brazilian Women in New York exposes the contribution of women artists that came from Latin America at the time, such as Anna Maria Maiolino who was then married to Rubens Gerchman, not only had to contend with the difficulties of being women artists, but also had the additional agenda of being married to artists who were getting more press attention at the time. An issue which had changed little over time and had already occurred in an earlier generation when Frida and Diego Rivera came to New York in the 30's.
The catalogue also includes four interviews with artists that are represented in the exhibition: Luis Camnitzer, Eduardo Costa, Jaime Davidovich and Liliana Porter.
