La invención concreta: Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

January 23–September 16, 2013
Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid

The Fundación Cisneros/Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (FC/CPPC) announces its first major exhibition in Europe, La invención concreta: Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros at the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid, from January 23rd through September 16th, 2013.

La invención concreta [Concrete Invention] traces the development of geometric abstraction in Latin America from the 1930s to the 1970s. Jointly curated by the respective directors of the Reina Sofia and the CPPC, Manuel Borja-Villel, and Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, this exhibition covers a period of optimism for Latin America as its economies grew after World War II, bringing a sense of confidence and an independence from the European influence that had characterized Latin American culture before the war.  The show will be organized around the idea of the intentions of these artists who produced works that they believed could change the world, sometimes socially and sometimes more intimately. The works connect to a belief system and a broader cultural project, and ask fundamental questions about the nature of art and its place in the world. This exhibition is based on the premise that geometry is a language used by artists to express a broad range of often contradictory intentions, including works by Lygia Clark, Jesus Soto, Tomás Maldonado, Joaquín Torres-García, and Hélio Oiticica among many more.

The five groupings around which the exhibition is organized—illusion, geometry, vibration, dialogue and universalism—respond to philosophical premises about geometry and its significance, ranging from the material to the spiritual, the metaphorical to the objective.