Sur moderno: Journeys of Abstraction―The Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Gift at Museum of Modern Art, October 21, 2019, through March 14, 2020

“The Museum of Modern Art announces Sur moderno: Journeys of Abstraction―The Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Gift, a major exhibition drawn primarily from the paintings, sculptures, and works on paper donated to the Museum by the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros between 1997 and 2016. Sur moderno celebrates the arrival of the most important collection of abstract and concrete art from Latin America by dedicating an entire suite of galleries on the Museum’s third floor to the display of artists from Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, and Uruguay. The exhibition highlights the work of Lygia Clark, Gego, Raúl Lozza, Hélio Oiticica, Jesús Rafael Soto, and Rhod Rothfuss, among others, focusing on the concept of transformation: a radical reinvention of the art object and a renewal of the social environment through art and design. The exhibition is also anchored by a selection of archival materials that situate the works within their local contexts.” — MoMA

Photographs by Corrado Serra.

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Installation view of Sur Moderno

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Installation view of Sur Moderno

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Installation view of Sur Moderno

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Installation view of Sur Moderno

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Installation view of Sur Moderno

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Left: Hélio Oiticica, Neoconcrete Relief (Relevo neoconcreto), 1960. Right: Lucio Fontana, Spatial Concept: Expectation (Concetto spaziale: Attesa), 1960

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Jean Tinguely, Meta-Mécanique, 1954 

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Right: Omar Carreño, Relief 1 (Relieve 1), 1952

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Left: Raúl Lozza, Invention no. 150 (Invención no. 150), 1948. Right: Carlos González Bogen, Untitled, 1949

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Installation view of Sur Moderno

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Installation view of Sur Moderno

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Jesús Rafael Soto, Double Transparency (Doble transparencia), 1956

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Installation view of Sur Moderno

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Left: Theo van Doesburg, Composition VIII (The Cow), c. 1918. Center: Alfredo Hlito, Chromatic Rhythms III (Ritmos cromáticos III), 1949. Right: Antonieta Sosa, Visual Chess (Ajedrez visual), 1965

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Left: GEGO (Gertrud Goldschmidt), Eight Squares (Ocho cuadrados), 1961. Right: Lygia Pape, Untitled, 1956

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GEGO (Gertrud Goldschmidt)

Sur moderno is organized by Inés Katzenstein, Curator of Latin American Art and Director of the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Research Institute for the Study of Art from Latin America, The Museum of Modern Art, and consulting curator María Amalia García, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET)–Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Argentina, with Karen Grimson, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Drawings and Prints, The Museum of Modern Art.