PURCHASE, NY.- The Neuberger Museum of Art of Purchase College, one of the country’s premier museums of modern, contemporary, and African art, has organized a new exhibition, Fifty Years of Latin American Art: Selections from the Neuberger Museum of Art, that brings together for the first time a selection of nearly sixty works in various media from the Museum’s extraordinary permanent collection of Latin American art.
The show includes work that dates from the 1960s to the present day, by some of the most renowned artists of the twentieth century, working inside and outside of their homelands, such as: Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Wifredo Lam, Roberto Matta, José Clemente Orozco and Rufino Tamayo, as well as contemporary artists including Julio Antonio, Leda Catunda, Carlos Cruz-Diez, José Luis Cuevas, Arturo Duclos, Florencio Gelabert, Betsabeé Romero, Nicolás De Jesús, Carlos Garaicoa, Eduardo Mac Entyre, Arturo Mallmann, Maria Martinez-Cañas, Marta María Pérez Bravo, Jesús Rafael Soto, Gerardo Suter, and Eugenia Vargas.
Rather than being organized by chronology or geography, the exhibition is organized into nine distinct sections, both monographic and thematic, including a two-part section on kinetic art and its descendants. Purchase College students registered in the course Introduction to the Structure and Function of Museums will provide regularly scheduled tours of the exhibition.
Fifty Years of Latin American Art will be on view at GALLERY 1285 Avenue of the Americas Art, located between 51st and 52nd Streets in Manhattan, from February 28 through May 30, 2012. There is an Opening Reception on Monday, March 5, from 6-8 pm. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. The exhibition is curated by Patrice Giasson, Associate Curator of Art of the Americas, and Annabel Rhodeen, a Neuberger Curatorial Fellow. It is sponsored by GALLERY 1285 Avenue of the Americas in partnership with Jones Lang LaSalle as a community-based public service.
According to Mr. Giasson, Latin American art of the twentieth century is characterized by the awakening of modernist strategies, which eventually laid the groundwork for contemporary expression. “During the past fifty years, many Latin American artists began to move away from traditional modes of art production, exploring forms such as kinetic, optical, and conceptual art,” he says. “These investigations reflect an interest in pure color and form, as well as self- expression.” He notes that many of the concerns that Latin American artists address today – identity, sexuality, political struggle, expression and repression – appear in the work of artists from all over the world. “In this sense, Latin America has become a center of artistic production that participates in a global view of living here and now.”
Support for Fifty Years of Latin American Art: Selections from the Neuberger Museum of Art comes from: GALLERY 1285 Avenue of the Americas; Friends of the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York; Edith L. Calzadilla and family; George and Edith Rickey; Donna and Marvin Schwartz; Dina and Alexander E. Racolin; Janet Jaffin; Virginia and Herbert Lust; Fritz Landshoff; Arthur A. Goldberg; Betsabeé Romero; and Nicolás De Jesús.
