THEORIES OF THE NONOBJECT Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, 1944-1969 Ménica Amor TA UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS26 Thee ate User ola ero erg Cosine es Neer astnetry. 5 Oe este ie eapcbady 2006 eee nd oon Ci amt He Olen Wek yy 984° tached ee nm cha ae pulled thane ene Cpr Rt 96982" Ore "ym aes tos 9 © 004 Ober tage Lhe enchant cay ‘ae. gputeace) mance ae CONTENTS ‘Acknowledgments vi Introduction: Theories ofthe Nonobject [A Painting’ Edge: Ate Conreto invencén, 1944-46 26 ‘The Concrete Idea on Its Way tthe Nonobject, 1949-59-64 From Work to Frame, In Between, and Beyond: ‘The Topology ofthe Nonabjec, 1959-66 - 91 Forms of Afect: Hélo Oiiic's Parangoés, 1964-65 - 37 Another Geometry: Gogo's Retiulérea, 1969-77-72 Notes . 219 Image Credits 287 Index 283 Plates follow page uéACKNOWLEDGMENTS “This book has been in the making or many more years than I want to acknowledge. Its outline was delineated while {wrote my doctoral dissertation at the Gradua Center of the City University of New York under the effec ofan intellectual excitement that was motivating but lacked predictable framework a symptom ofthe interdiscpinary and theoretical intoxication ofthe eatly 1990s. Plus, thre Iwas in New York, fresh off the ‘boat as they say, with an acceptable command ofthe English anguage that however did notallow me to blink in class or write polished papers. By the te dissertation writing came about, the problem was not so much one oflanguage but of concepts Fow to think about a group of artists considered Latin American constructivist or under the rubric of Latin American geometric abstraction, while complicating those categories, as well as many othets dear to my immediate discursive framework: modernity, medium specific ity, environmental art, paticipstion, prformatvty, center, periphery. ‘Those days at CUNY, almost the whole decade of the 19908, to be precise, were filled with discoveries, surprises, encounter, and engagement with afield that was in constant transformation and whose rapid pace Ian only equate tothe intensity of New York at the turn ofthe twentieth century. I could not have navigated that intensity with- ‘ut some important people who populated my CUNY universe: Alessandra Goldner, ‘my dearest and first friend; John Angeline; Natasha Kuschanova; Fernando Azevedo: Marek Barteik; Michele White; Noah Chasin, my first editor and stil one ofmy favorite Imvelocuors; Rhea Anasts, whose peripheral but constant presence has aways een an inspiration; and Janet Kraynak, who left CUNY soon after I arrived ony to become,years ace, a sympathetic friend whose intellectual igor ad work ethic Italy admire Carol Armsteong's theoretical breadth and love for the materiality ofthe object were cxemplary tomy work: Jack Flam was steady and comforting presence during my time ft the Graduate Center and remains a supporter; and Anna Chave joined my disserta tion committee to coadvise with Carola dissertation that must have been a mystery 10 everyone, inclading me! Beyond CUNY, at Cokumbia University, where ! tok and audited as many classes asthe system allowed, I found nonstop intelectual stimulus through a network of ea leagues whose effets om may profesional development are everyday visible: specially ‘Margaret Sundel and T.J. Demos, who have been encouraging and enthusiastic about ry work, and also Judith Rodenibeck and Stephanie Schwartz, I want to thank George Baker, Tom McDonough, and Branden Joseph for letting me test some of my ideas in October and the incredible journal Grey Room. At Columbia, thanks also to Bens ‘min HD. Buch, whose rigorous approach to history and its aesthetic products as ‘ber a beacon af erllenee my generation. But no doubt my art history training and ‘work is indebted 40 many more gestures of generosity and dialogues with friends and. calleagues: Lisa Blackmore, Tom Cunnmins, Leah Dickerman, Alexander Dumbadze, ‘Okwui Enwezor Jodo Fernandes, Joe Gabriel Fernnde, Andrea Giunta, Robin Gree ley Suzanne Hudson, Mivon and Sowon Kwon, Pam Lee, James Meyer, Neola Pezolet, ‘Vicente Todal, and Frazer Ward Ta 2004, after an instrumental postdoc atthe David Rockefeller Center for Latin “American Studies at Harvard, | joined the fcuty ofthe Maryland Institute College of [Art to teach modern and costemporary ast in the Art History Department. I want to thank my incredibly supportive collesgues there, specially Joe Basle, fenny Carson. Suranne Garrgues, Jennie Hirsh, and Keer Houston; our administrative assistant, Judith Lie; our provost, Ray Allens us vice provost for research and graduate studies, Guynne Keathley, as well as our ibrarian, Cheis Drolsum. Special thanks to Daniela Sandler, our missed architectural historian, for her help with some tricky transla tions from Portuguese to English, Throughout the years several of my students have cersbeaced the materi in this book with enthusiasm. I want to thank them for showing se how truly rewarding teaching canbe ‘when a sabbatical finally came twas thanks toa generous grant frm the Ameri- can Philosophical Society that {was allowed to take the whole academic yar. Then Tconftonted a radically different feld, shaped and transformed by the serious and ‘exciting work of younger colleagues who generously shared their wrk with me: Marita (Garcia, Karin Kyburz,Aleca Le Blanc, Adele Nelson, and Irene Small. That wonderful seat of dedicated research and writing was spent at the Fisher Fine Arts Library of the University of Pennsylvania: 1 want to thank Holly Pittman and Katen Beckman for extending my visitng lecturer privileges and the excellent and wonderful staff at the library whose work makes ous posible: Kirby Bel, Ed Deegan, Ken Graitaer, and Bob Lawley. ‘Beyond the United States, owe much to calleagues and lifelong fiends who genes ously shared information and facilitated research at atime when the Xerox machine ‘ruled my life and who, tothis day, remain crcialintrlocwors: Gy Bret, Sylvia Cede, Katherine Chacén, Fernando Cocchisrale Brenda Danilowtz, Fernanda Engle, Heloisa Espada, Henrique Fari, Jess Fuenmayor, Hanala Gomez, Karen Kundig, Daniela Matec Lins, Gabriela Range, Tahia River, Felipe Savino, and Guilherme Wisnik, The Gago Foundation, in Caracas, and“O Mund de Lygia Clark" and Projito Heli Oiticica, {in Rio de Janeiro, were incredibly kind wit time and mateials. My deepest thanks go to Barbara Gunz, Josefina Mantique, Priscilla Abecasis, Claudia Gaeé, Mariana Reyes, eather Crespin, Alvaro Clark, Alessandra Clark, Sonia Meneses, Cesar Oticia, Cesar Citic Fil, and Ariane Figueredo ‘Once the manuscript was ready, the preproduction pase benefited from many more individuals. want o thank my anonymous reader for her detailed reading of the ext and invaluable recommendations, to Susan Best for her precise suggestions, and for 4 last minute fullled request to read chapters and 410 Sérgio Martins and Michae) “Asbury, respectively. Their work to hat been instrumental to mine, Tranks so much to “Tom Fredrickson fr helping me refine the text and for the enthusiasm and hard work of the UC Press ten: my frst editor, Kari Dahlgren, wi embraced the project s 000 28 she received ty proposal her successor, Karen Levine; assistant editor ack Young: pro} ‘ectecitor Rose Vekon copy editor Lindsey Westbrook; and designer Lia Tjandra. The Alaunting task of cllecting images and permissions fr repreduction would have been {impossible without Jess Ethers incredibly attentive, responsible, and detailed work T want to thank those who relinguished reproduction fees andjor approved the repo duction of images: wan Catdogo, Ana Espinosa, Paolo Gasparini, Gysla Kosice, Carlos Rail Lozza, Tomas Maldonado, Claudia Molenberg, Angela Thomas Schmid, Kenneth Snelson, Atelier Soto Anne Soto, Cecilia de Toeres, Moderna Mustet in Stockholm, the Maseode Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, the Museum oFine Arts Collec tion in Houston, the Fundacidn Archivo Fotogriico, the Fundacién Archivo Fotografis Uchana, the Fundacién Villanueva, the Fundaclin Gego, and the Jose and Anni Albers Foundation, Thanks also to Mauro Hertz, Ral Nao, and Alejandro Faggioni for helping me track down images and peoplein Buenos Aires Many thanks tothe Colecc Isabel and Agustin Copp! for helping me defray pro ction costs, and tothe Jewish Foundation forthe Education of Women forgiving me ‘my firstimpoctant grant while Iwas working on my dissertation. The David Rockefeller Centr for Latin American Studies at Harvard, the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, and a Lucas grant rom the Maryan Insitute Collegeof Art allowed fur- ther research and writing and Iam fever indebted to these grants and fellowships for the precious gift of tne to read, think, and write—one ofthe greatest privileges in life Finally, | want to thank some dear friends not mentioned above who have been ‘ually important to my life work: Molly Rat, Teery O'Hare, Clarissa Alcock Broninan Boyd Johnson, Nicholas Baume, an Allison Aref. And last but certainly not least,‘thanks to my fan for joining inthe adventure and supporting it every step ofthe ‘way sometimes in doubt concrete results my tana, Morela de Amor; my da Caos ‘Amor; my sister, Maria Alejandra Amor; nd the brethe I never had but somehow got Roberto Redondo. Every line written in thie book I owe tothe pusion I share with my partner in life and though, Carlos Basualdo forthe material prsented here, He keeps ‘ny mind and imagination in» constant state of urgoney Thi byl is dedicated tn him and our two smazing kids: Leas and Maya, INTRODUCTION Theories of the Nonosject ‘The imminenc of tha, te abndnment of proces fant the hie te very dela of th concept of work and are a Ft lunged nent vee i tha had long be cane sachin fo. n1962.the Brazilian artist Helio Otcica disparaged the erm geometricartas "horrible and deplorable... [superficial formation that... lary indicates its formalise ‘meaning His aversion, expresed in the context ofisreconceptualization of the term constructive and his reconsideration of constructivism, calls to mind the German Vene- ‘rela artist Gego rejection of the word sculpture in favor ofbichos ("bugs in Spanish) todefine her three- dimensional works, Ths, in turn, evokes the Brazilian artist ygia CCuk’s own Bichos‘xters” in Portuguese) a series of metal sculptures iniited in 1960, In 1959, the Brailian poet and critic Ferreira Gulla formulated the emcept ofthe ‘nonobjet” to address the demise ofthe frame and the base in the painting and sculpture ofthe neoconcrete artists he supported atthe time. As Gullar repeatedly ‘plained, the term nonobject was inspired by a work of Clark’ that be later described ‘sa “dismembered picture” He also called this work #og0—a Portuguese slang term ‘meaning an undefined thing, something, stu. Its unclear which specific wok trig: ‘red these terms, but by October 1959, Clark appears to have embarked on a new series of works that Gulla identified inthe press as evading the qualities of traditional ‘medivme: not painting, not lief nt sculpture! “These semantic negotiations speak to a crisis of mediums and representaticn that strate a series of aesthetic investigations by artists in Argentina, Brazil, and Ven ‘ruela—investgations that departed from the trajectories of Soviet constructivist and Exropean geometric abstract art that influenced the cultural landscapes of those coun tres in the 19408, 19505, and 1960s, At that time and in those places, myriad international rferences—Kazimir Malevich's suprematism, Dutch De Stil Piet Mondria’s reoplasticsm, Soviet constructivism, Bauhaus, Parisian concrete art, Swiss conerete a and the work f sich artists Alerander Calder and Max Bill—shaped the efforts of ‘South American artists o negotiate local cultural elites and construct an avant-garde ‘practice based on the pure forms of geometry. In discussing these artists I use such, teems as constructs, canstructviom, and geometric abstraction to refer to these various Russian, Soviet, and European influences, and I use the term concrete art to refer tothe workand influence of Theo van Doesbusg and Max Bil especially when discussing the [Argentine and Brazilian artists who developed carefully crafted responses to pre-and postwar concrete art In turn, the chapters ofthis book address the dialogues that arose mvong specific artists and works from these foreign locales and the work ofthe South “American artists considered in this study. ‘This books not, however 2 history ofthe constructivist trajectories that developed in Latin America during the postwar period-a subject about which much has been _nrtten in the last fteen years, fllowing the invaluable work done regionally by Figuces such at Atacy A. Amaral, Frederico Morais, Ronaldo Brito, Nelly Perazz, and Marta ‘Trabs, and internationally by Guy Brett! Instead, {take as my starting point Ferscira Gulla’s concept ofthe nonobject and trace, trough case studies, the disintegration of comentional approaches to painting and sculpture in work that was symptomatic ofthe ‘uneven spaces and chythms of modernity in the region. Specifically! investigate the [Asocacia Arte Conereto Invencidn in Angentin (1944-46) the conceptual makeup of concrete art and the intellectual sources ofthe neoconcrete writings (t959~61) by Ferreira Gulla in Bazil b,x930}; the neoconcrete and postneoconcrete works and writings (959-66) ofthe Brazilian ats Lygia Clark (1920-1988) and Helio Giticica {u937-198o);and the late-19603 work ofthe German-bocn Venezuclan artist Geg (Get ‘wud Louise Goldschmidt, 1912-1994). These artists and critics were invested in rein ‘venting a constructivist raion that was seen, in Paris and New York a inadequate tothe realities of the devastation wrought by Woeld War IL® But what distinguishes the eoconcrete work of Lyi Clark for example, from that ofthe Brazilian concrete artist ‘Waldemar Cordeiro, or the work of Gego from that of the kinetic artist esis Rafael Soto ists profound distrust ofboth ats reliance on the language of mathematics and bjectivism and its steadfast faith in universalism, While Clark, Orticca, and Gego employed a geometric vocabulary they privileged the afectivealliancesof work, subject, and place, Additionally, the artistic agendas and artists addressed here developed an inguiy into the nature ofthe act abject (eg, the conventions of medium specificity) and leaped into environmental practices that abandoned the confinement ofthe object. ‘sits title suggest, this book pivots round the neoconcretist writings ofthe Brazil {an poet Ferreira Gulla (chapters 2 and 3) and the artworks and writings of ygia Clark {chapter 5) and Helo Oticia (chapter 4) between 1959 and 1966, but it also considers the interventions of the Asocacén Arte Concreto Invencin in Argentina inthe r9408 (chapter) as an intodction tothe crisis of mediums and representation thatthe no: object embodied. My analysis of Gego's workin Venezuda inthe 19608 chapter 5) stands a a coda to this disruption of the conventions ofthe artwork posited by Gullar’s concept. Therefore, I mobilize the notion of rss in several dicections 1 toexplore the transvahation and tansiguratons of the constructivist and comerete models that these atts drew from 2. to underscore the historical, social political, nd cultural conditions that {informed art production atthe margins of geopolitical configuration that privileged Europe and the United States; and 5 te foreground the aesthetic and theoretical operations that eto, o faite, an understanding of these artists" redefinition of pctoval and sculptural modernism, the space of at, and the role ofthe spectator, This last point is related 19 what call throughout a “criss of representation” which was closely linked toa rejection of pictorial illusionist, but went beyond it to prob Jematize representation as such. To the Argentine artist Alfedo Hlito, for example aesthetics ignored the material and historical aspects ofthe ar objet, and speculation shout beauy confused “the properties ofthe natural objec with those ofthe aesthetic object” This led the Argentine concretist a develop a materials artistic practice that ‘vas attentive tothe contingencies of ral space and that detbilized the ontological— ‘hats intrinsi—definition ofr. For Lyla Clark a focus on the material constitaents of painting led her to reject the frame and the traditional pictorial support. Writing in 1960 about the pictorial plane, she emphasized how it arbitrarily organizes space, delimiting i with notions of high and low, front and back, Consequenty, he rejected subjective projection (the projection ofthe ats’ ego onto the surface of the painting) and the trnscendence ofthe surface and the ego that revue from ita dynamic she asscisted with th “old idea of continuing to expres the wild “* [Nowhere is this crisis of mediums and representation bss articulated than in Gul- lars seminal essay “Teoria do nto-chjeta" (Theory ofthe Nonobject), published in December 199 fg. 0.1) This essay posited the nonobjectasthe inevitable culmination ofthe move away from realistic representation in modern painting, while it radically broke with the prevailing emphasis in concrete art on a modernist pictorial ontology that concerned the organization ofa painting's constituen: elements, Indecd, for van Doesburg and Bill, concrete punting is inherently sefefeential, The 1930 concrete ‘manifesto stated: “The picture must be entiely constructed from pusely plate ele ‘ments, that i, planes and coors, A pictorial clement has noother meaning than sel and thus the picture has no other meaning than ‘itself""® In is essay, Gullar focused instead on the role of the fame. The frame mediated betwen fiction and realty, protected the picture and the fictional space that it con ‘ained and facilitated its epbility in and distance from real space. But once the Kctonal pace of representation had boen rejected, a in the works of Mondrian and Malevichr Teoria do ndo-objeto Fos "ear otter ft Nein Salome Dona dora (Ba, December 19-2195 the frame served no purpose. The rejection ofthe frame, however, ws not without ‘sks: Gulla invoked Kurt Schwitters's Merzhas (1923-36) asa symptom ofthe can son between art and everyday objects prompted bythe abandonment of the Frazne. ‘And while Marcel Duchamp'sreadymades exemplified the total collapse of traditional ‘mediums, Gulla found readymades limiting, since the tansfguration othe object and ‘the new relation tat it established with other objects do not depend or the object pee sebut on meaning as generated by everyday use; the readymades, he argued, remained ‘otdinary objects and not artwork, Instead, Gulla looked to the Russan and Soviet svant garde tothe counterrelifs of Viadimir Tatlin (914-7), the suprematist archi tectutes of Malevich (19208), and the spats constructions of Alexander Rodchenko (ca '1920)—works that signaled a move into real space and challenged the reo the frame in painting and the base in sculpture, and with them, the normative modalities ofthese ‘mediums. In the abstract structures ofthe Russians and the Soviets, the elimination ofthe base suggested a move avay from the conventions of sculpture (iss, volume). At ‘the same time, with the relaxation of artistic codes thatthe dismissal ofthe frame and the base signified, these works approached the status of ordinary objects and abandoned the space of representation, Gullar concluded tht “contemporary panting and sculp ture converge ata common point, increasingly distant fom their rigins They become special objects—noncbjects—for which the denominations of pintng and sculpture might not be appropriate“ Thus, for this book I borrow Gullae's ite wo demarcate the distinctive crisis of medi ‘ums and representation that took place in Argentina, Brazil, nd Venezuela through an ‘engagement with the legacies of constructivism, concrete art, and geometric abstrac tion in general. However, without Gulla’ fllow-up essay, Dislogo sobre onao-obeto™ (Dialogue on the Nonobjec), published afew months later, his iil shor text woul have been prophetic but incomplete, raising more questions than it answered. The lon et “Diflogo,"an imaginary interview between Gullar and an unidentified interlocutor, ‘delves deeper into the philosophical and aesthetic rots ofthe nonobjec It attempts 'o provide answers to what must have seemed to many readers of Tear o ido-objeto™ a viddleand a sarcastic affont, Indeed, two cartoons made by the Brazilian lustrator Fortuna on one ofthe fldouts that served asthe catalogue fr the second exhibition of neaconcreteartin December 1960 (and later published in the Suplemento Dominicald Jornal do Bras) epic onlook rs at the exhibition pondering what the nonobjec is, how it can be made, how one should interact with it, and how it relates to ordinary things and traditenal sculpture (fig 0.2). The cartoons poke fun atthe existential tenor of the term nowaject and the ‘confusing terminology proposed by Lygia Clatk' Bchos, which blazed the boundar jes, at east nominally, between artworks and critters just asthe nanabje:tDrred the boundaries between artworks and objects." Therein bie the kernel of theriddle: Gullar Jnsisted that although the nonabjec transcended the conventional categories of pint ing and sculpture, twas not an ordinary object. To substantiate his claims, he turnedovens “ame Constr un hs Obe Hon Crain tase anil do rad Brac December ns 1980 ‘Nonstiet acutsnd ad carton tw phenomenology, proposing that hese “naked objects—objects lacking the define tional markers of the base and the frame—sspzed to produce modes of signification that rejected a prior meanings and resulted instead from the work's appearance in the spectators Sed of vision, return othe thing tell that implied a elizaton ouside the conventions ofartThis mode of signification, he argued, made the nonobjec traps patent to perception, with no ned for mediation, no need for fame or bse, nonce for onerptul backing, Ordinary objets, by contrat required language to be recognized Se they ate exhausted, theirmesings forelosd, by thei utility and linguistic desi tion, This is why, Gllar explained, “when we withdraw from the cultural order ofthe word, we see objects without name’—how such a thing s possible is not addressed by Cuillar “and we confront the opacity of things... [The object becomes an absurd presence, opaque with which perception clashes” However, what applies to these ord tary objects without name” doesnot appy to neoconerete works: "T}he nonobject does tot ave tat opacity. the novohject is transparent to perception” In other words, the nonobject—vnique in out phenomenal world—i conducive to the suspension of Tenowledige and tothe experience of astonishment because itis ee fom attachments to the worlds of language and use. ‘The nonobject announced the collapse ofthe modernist paradigm of aesthetic self referetitity and universal sigaifcation that concrete art entailed—though it id not roid contradictions in doings. Caught between the realms of art and realty the non: shjct manifested a sort of Went crisis of the artwork I signaled a radical recasting ofthe ontological project of definition that had characterized modernist painting and ‘hat Gullar associate with concrete art's emphasis on the seeferential nature of the artwork constituted by its plastic elements alone. The essence of painting posited by European concrete art—in which line, color, and pictorial spac alluded to painting alone and not o the world of objects or the space of ilsionism—was questioned by the various practices that concer us inthis book. ln the alleing chapters, | address how the self sufficient nature ofthe pictorial and sculptural signifier was dismantled bythe elimination of the frame and the base inthe work of thse artists and by their engagement with real space, the bod, and the ermacula. As the recent literature has demonstrated, the development of geometric abstraction in Latin America was fr from homogeneous. The tendency, though, has been to construct, «chronological narrative that begins withthe return of the Uruguayan artist Joaquin “Torres-Garcia to hisnatve land after a forty three ear ele in Europe and his efforts to ‘communicatchis knowledge ofthe avant garde—as well as his own version of construc tiviem, called Universalismo Constructivo—though lectures article, and La Escuela el Sur (School ofthe South. As we wil se in chapter, Tones-Gareia was very influ ‘ental in the Rio dela Pata region, bu his impact on Brazilian and Venezuelan artists ‘was Limited. This artistic trajectory, springing from Uruguay and spreading to Agen tina, Brazil, and Venezuela, has been rehearsed by several exhibitions over the as ten years. Tei catalogues tend to follow classic farm: esays by experts in the different seographical areas covered by the exhibition, illustrations, a chronology bibliography, and usually selection of translated documents fom the period. The essays invariably revolve around the abovementioned countries and the various movemenis involved in, the reconfiguration of Furopean geometric abstraction: Universalsmo Consteutvo in ‘Umguay, the Asociaidn Arte ConcretoInvencidn and Arte Madtin Argentina, concrete snd neoconerete art in Brazil, and kinetic artand geometric abstraction in Venezuela Indeed, to understand the current institutional status of what is poody defined as “Latin American geometric abstraction” it is important to acknowledge thatthe bis- ‘oriography ofthe fed in the United States has been partly shaped by the exhibition and publication of private collections that ft Donald Prezios' definition of what he has called “representational adequacy, wherein the] exhibition i presumed to ‘represent ‘more or les uthally some se of extrasmuseological afr: some ‘eal history which, tis imagined, re-exists ts portrayal its r-presentation, in exhibition space” These collections tend to be organized around national of regional references, and the art ‘works in them are madeto fit intoa history of progress—a dyramic that can sometimes obscure lager political, economic, and cultural contexts and the contradictory projects that informed the varios geometric abstract tendencies that concern us here. The Colecién Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC) in Caracas and the AéelphoLeimer Collection in Sao Paulo stand ont inthis regard. The CPPC has been partic any active inthe production of an extensive discursive apparatus around the works # calles Baly exhibitions conceived by two curators at the CPPC, Ariel Jiménez and tis Enrique Pérez Oram, initiated artical dalogue around Venezuelan kinetic art (Ginetemo that emains among the most important contributions othe historiography tthe eld ded, while the exhibition Geometric Abstraction: Latin American Ar frm the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection (presented in 200% atthe Fogg Art Museum at Harvard Univesity in Cambridge, Massachusets) set up 2 template that subsequent shows would fellow it also unleashed a fascinating discussion around the meaning of kinetic art in Venemela and is relationship to modernity in that county rer. Oramass complex and compelling analysis of Venezuelan kinetic art sheds Light onthe conteadictory projects that emerged from whats sometimes simplistially povtayed a8 an alliance between geometric abstraction and modernity in Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela. The kinetic works by Jstis Rafael Soto and Carlos Cruz-Diez, legitimized by these artists’ success in Paris inthe 19508 and r960s, enjoyed ample recognition and corporate and government support in Venezuelain the 960s and espe- lly the ro7os. They can be seen 8 aspiring to an ideal “absolute space," an ble {shed territory of rhythmic combinations of color and lines in which the contradictions tf modernity in Latin America would be erased. Instead, s we will sen the following Chapters, the vatious projects of artists such a5 Tomds Maldonado and Alfredo Hlto fn Argettina, Clack and Oitcica in Brazil, and Gego in Venezuela ae defined by their engagement with the material specificities of site and thei implicit awareness of the ‘ubattrn position thei Tocal contexts occupied within the geopolitical aren, The polit “aland econonic environments of Argentina i the 1940s and Brazil and Venezuelan. the 1950s and 1960s were clearly different however, the artists ofthese regions shared the experience of working tthe margins ofa canonical narative of modernity that cen tered around Eurocentric visions of artistic value, Their atiste practices were shaped by the peripheral place of theirnations during colonial and postcolonial times—a situation echoed by the material displacements and attention to real space. ste specificity, amd ‘place that we detect in the various practices that occupy ws here "The critical corpus developed by Pérey-Oramas around the uncritical stance of Vet ceavelan kinetic art contrast with the more optimistic vision of geometric abstraction in Latin America voieed by the most ambitious exibition ofthe CPPC, The Geometry of “Hope 2007), curated by its current director, the arthstorian Gabriel Perez Barteiro, He smite in his introduction tothe exhibitions publication, “The tle ofthis catalogue and “ahibition brings together the two threads that epitomize abstract art from Latin Ames tea: on the one hand, geometry, precision, clarity, and reason; on the other, a wopian sense ofhope." He thus pu ferth the works of art included in the show as emblematic (ofa hopeful optimistic, and playful utopia that echoed the urban aspirations and inte Tectual debates ofthe cities involved in thi constructivist revival: Montevideo, Pars ‘Sto Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Caracas, “The exhibition and this catalogue," he writes, “should remind us that there was atime when Latin America was a beacon of hope and progress in a word devastated by war, genocide, ad destruction. It is once again erez-Oranas who deconstrcts the exhibition’ jovil premise and its unbroken at of progres. In his catalogue essay, he refers to different phases ofa “constructivist stage” in Caracas: one is associated with the architect Carbs Rail Villanueva's Ciudad Uni versitara (University City plate 1), a prime example ofa synthesis ofthe ats that gave ample visibility to lca an international geometric abstraction and was bil under the segs of Colonel Marcos Pére Jiménce's dictatorship (1952-38) the other, with Kinetic art's proliferation during the democratic period (1959~76)- "The same flippant cical coutlok that fsed Venezuela’ diferent historical pesods, dominant ends in the ats, and leading artists from 1948 1 1957 and trom r959 te 1976 turned the dictators into the golden age of modern optimism," writes Pérez-Oramas, highlighting the discord between modern aesthetics and regressive pls. Writing in 1973 about that second phase of kinetic celebration, the Argentine critic Marta Traba called attention to an alliance between “the society of power in Caracas andthe monumental works of [kinetic artist as ritcal silence surrounded the ansculptural and residual aesthetics of Gego:? “The contradictions and tensions between the dsceurses of modernity andits locales has prompted ather discordant voices to interrupt the univocal trajectory suggested by these exhibitions. As more colletions, more instituions, anda new cadre of scholars ‘emerge, new stories have begun to unfeld. In is catalogue essay fr the 3007 exhibition ‘The Sites of atin American Abstraction.” for example the Venezuelan at historian and csrator Juan Ledezma (despite fllowing the exhibition template described above) warns ofthe differences between the constructivist project of Torres-Garcla and the concrete work ofthe 19408:nd rofos in Argentina and Brazil. Inthe work ofthe Uruguayan, he ‘writes, the grid organizes te pictorial surfice asa template on which to inscribe highly codified pictograms that stand fora world of essences Tores-Garcia was concerned with delineating a project of regional identity that had litle to do withthe (not unprob ler) politicized universalism to which concrete rt in Argentina aspired, or, a the other extreme, the provocative interactions betweer the vernacular and the somatic, ‘the environmental and the body, that percolate though the work of Clark, Oitcca, and Gego. The works ofthese artists unsettled regional representation; motivated by ‘rss of representation that interfered with the semantic transparency ofthe work of at, they explored the contingent materialism of place and subject. This inquiry led to ‘patil practice that abandoned the object and failed coalesce around. discourse that ‘demifed geometric abstraction with rationalism anc national progres. Notby chance, Gullar’s nonobject eschewed disciplinary boundaries and implicitly complicated the spectatoril postions authorized by traditional museums, The challenges that many of ‘he works adazested in this book present to museums (exemplary national and egional Institution) and exhibition spaces in general is tesament to their critical modalities, In the easly 1990s, however, number of European museums initiated pioneringesearch on Clark and Oiticica, following the solid work developed in Brazil by the art historians and curators Celso Favareto, Mara Alice Milt, Ricardo Nascimento Fab ‘win, and Paulo Herkenbf, among others The retrospective catalogues published ‘on Clark by the Tapies Foundation in Barcelona and on Oiticica by Witte de With in Rotterdam sil stand as fundamental references. These publications offer overviews ofthe neoconerete work of Clank and Oiticica and their transition into nonobjec based practices aswell a8 the frst selection of English translations of these artss' prolific writings. "Encompessing, monographic exhibitions on Gego and Oitcica have been realized by the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston tinder the leadership and curatorial expertise of Mari Carmen Rarnirez. Tei titles, Goo: Between Transparency andthe wise (2006) and Helio Oiicica: The Body of Clor (2007), atest the formal methodology of the ‘curatorial approzch. For example, the framework through which the work of Geno is ‘analyzed tevoves around the theme of transparency and proposes her drawings as Pro- ducers oflusion, For Ramirez, Gego’s drawings and constructions osilate between theillusonoflines “ostingnayers of ne air" and three-dimensional structures that ead, in space, lke two-dimensional lineae drawings. Her interpretations are ap, a8 ‘Geo was inded interested in transparency. But | would argue. as the more contextual and historical literature has suggested, that transparency isnot the condition through ‘which we can asses the most radical contributions of Geo to contemporary art the ellowing chapters I don’ give priority o formal anlysis—although an analy sis ofform is fundamental to understnding the alliance between theory and form that { propose, following not only the ambivalent suggestion of Gulls title ("Theory of ‘the Nonabject") but also thes artists’ inclinations to theorize and wrt. While Gulla and the neoconcrete artists were emphatic i their rejection of theory asa referential horizon-—they objected specifically to concrete ars reliance on references imported from mathematics and sience and its correspondence with systematic compositional ‘methods (serait, permutations, gestalt) ther attraction to philosophy especialy the phenomenology ofthe French philosopher Maurice Mesleau-Ponty, was undeniable. Both Gullar and Oiticica were impressive and systematic readers; Clark was less $0, bout the discussions among these artists and critics clearly affected her writings ofthe petiod "The indisputable enthusiasm for dialectical materialism and Marsism in the ‘writings ofthe Argentines andthe structural and thematic affinities of Gego's work ‘with architectural and feminist theories of space has led me to dwell onthe discursive dimension of their work fis book fllowsa chronology, my intention sto trace an alternative tothe received narrative of Latin American geometric abstaction—one that posits these constructivist tendencies asthe logical outcome of economic prosperity and modernist aspirations. t propose that this alternative is less harmonious than the standard history produced by ‘more than 2 decade of exhibitions of geometric abstraction in Latin America suggest, and thatthe works and writings ofthe artists addressed here represent evidence of crisis | | ‘more than acord with national projects of progres.” My account also aspiteso disrupt ‘canonical histories of postwar art that have overlooked the conteibutions ofthese at ists okey debates in modern and contemporary art. Such accouats of modernism and ‘modernity are usually structured around binates,continities, nd wholes that lave no space fr the oblique" tactics deployed by the artists who concern us here. However, as we shall se, these artists redirected the work of Tatlin, Malevich, Rodchenko, Mon- Arian, Bll Calder, and Josef Albers, among others, and, in tandem with their European and American peers, they employed stratgies that emphasized the wall the exhibition space, the urban environment, spectatorship and subjectivity, and public address, These stratagems were executed under the segs of constructivism and concrete art but they ‘were often manifested in crisis and displaced the tenets and forms associated with these tite legacies—namely autonomy, ationaism, functionals, objectivity, systematic ness, technological optimism, and selfcefereaiy [CANONS AND NON-CANONS OF ART HiSTORY “This book hs is origins ina doctoral dissertation written in indeterminacy and uncer tainty, tous terms that define strategies and operations that were favored by the artists, texts, and works that occupy me here. [arrived in New York from Venezuela in the ‘atl 19905 study modern and contemporary arta moment when all maratives of ‘comtemporary art descended from American minimaliss." In concevinga dissertation topic, {felt an urgency to look at parallel moments in South America—to understand how artists there negotiated mediums techniques, materials space, andthe viewer, and hho these practices were the locus of much experimentation relevant to contemporary art. Atthe time that Iwas writing my distertaion, there were few comparative models to ollow, and my grasp ofthe material and the proper discursive modalities that would make it legible was insufficient. So, despite the intellectual excernent that facilitated the formulation of my work then, it requieed further sedimentation, sore research, and a sabbatical before it acquired its present shape. This shape is fe from idea, for ‘he material that I deal with welcomes multiple readings and approaches-—as the ever- rowing literature on Oiicie's Parangoé, for example, demsonstrates.” Additionally ‘uch hasbeen let out, much remains be dene.” [As I did many years ago in my doctoral dissertation, colleagues in Europe snd Latin America contin to compare neoconcetism minimalism, Gegoto Eva Hest, the trical to optical. The ruptures that Gulla’ “Teoria do ndo-objeto” signified in ‘Brazil are in the Anglo-American contest commonly, no exclusively, identified with Donald Juda’ “Specific Objects" from 1965. Published in Art Yearbook magazine as 4 picee of eriticism, “Specific Objects” is beachenark in contemporary art discourse that has come to define a concern with extraartstic materials, antkompostionaiy, real sce the space ofthe viewer and the space of ordinary things) the eadymade, and ‘most importantly, the limitations ofthe mediums of painting nd sculpture fg, 03). Inewte03 ‘onal ud, Unie 96 sheet metal. 9 9% 30 In ech wit Ue text, Juda posited wholeness as a prerequisite ofa new category of work hate called “specific objects": “The thing asa whole Its quality as a whole, is what i interesting ‘The main things are alone and are mor intense, clear and powerful" ‘A precedent fr this kind of work existed inthe Dada readymade, which the “Teoria do ntoobjeto" acknowledged as an alternative to traditional mediums but ultimately ‘ejected ducto its inescapable conventional meaning. By contrast, the readymade suited ‘the iteralist enterprise of Jud, who highlighted how Duchamp'sreadymades were seen “at once and not part by part"”—they were given objects. It was, however, in Frank Stella's shaped canvases that judd recognized several important characteristics of the ‘new three-dimensional work: the unifying correspondence between frameand internal structure, the objetike quality ofthe works (a consequence of Stell’ thick stretch: cr), andthe use of serait ™ Serility bypassed compositionality: “the order is not ‘ationalistc and underlying but itis simply order, lke that of continuity one thing ater another Stella's paintings embodied, then, two crucial tats that became associated ‘with so-called minimalism: srilty and unity, Serilty provided a means to avoid the suthorial mark or conceptualization ofthe artist and suggested the standardized econ ‘omy ofthe machine. Lypia Clark would, however, define tis mode of spatial organiza tion as mechanical" and Judas cal for objectivity specify, and explictness would have appalled the Brailians, focused as they were on the affective dimersion oftheir _eometrc—but certainly not iteralit—forms. In this sense a “specific obect” was the ‘oppoite of “nondbject” The assertiveness ofthe First erm isin clear opposition tothe {nresolutenes ofthe second, although bath concepts responded tothe exhasition ofthe conventions of painting and sculpture: the move away from traditional mediums was posited by both Judd and Gulla asthe litmus test of advanced art. Also important in facilitating a comparison between the reuctivist morphologies of minimalism and neoconcretism has been the phenomenological reading of minimal ism, paremountin assessments ofthe movement forthe pas thirty years and advanced by Robert Morris i his “Notes on Sculptuc, Part 2° published in Artforum in 1966. Inhis essay, Morris identified phenomenalogy with a mode of spectateship contingent on the bodily movement ofthe viewers model that was radical init privileging of the spectators postion and his or he eatonship with the objet in the gallery space* This point is related to Mortis eavieradvocaey—in “Notes on Sculpture, Pat” (pubs lished in February 1966)—of “unitary fore” or “gestalt” which, in acerdance with ‘then-current parlance, promoted wholeness asa desisable property ofthiee-dimensional St. Here, shape emerged asthe crucial quality ofthese new sculptures: "Their parts ‘sre bound together in such a way that they offer a maximum resistance t» perceptual separation. In tems of solids, or forms applicable to seulpture, these estas are the simpler polyhedrons The "good form” advocated by Morris was meant to produce an Instantaneous apprehension ofthe work on the viewers part—an approach that, para Aorist, could become an obstacle to the phenomenological mode of viewership upon.“ahich ne woul ater insist In discussing the nature of three edie painting and the role of art objects. Y tina hes of SOURCES AND BEGINNINGS: THE CONCRETE, THE FRAME, ano THE oBjecr . the dfoene btn he yal an irl wri rd ew open and consequent, to confusing ... the properties of he ratrl object wth those of Sopp an and, arguably, in specific historical circumstances and practice, “For a materialist a ‘continued Hlito, echoing European concrete arts emphasis on the plastic elements Sein Sco ees oppressed by illusionism, which hindered their creative potential. wee Sepirnnotndtanatenntn own fatty preening the ey met hen ee of te ua tradition was immersed in an unimaginable calamity.” The vigor te an unconventional werk pode ete 944 a 6 y Cartel Aen Sivan tenn eh td De Rl ae Aled io, a an Wl ae hemo omnes {Seu working daring hose years) were shaped by a constellation of influences andCone such crucial figure was the German-born photographer Grete Stra, She had sradied with the photographer Walter Pterhan, privately anda the Bauhaus, inthe cen gyos before setling in Argentina ini93s erknowiedge of German avantgarde srt and familiarity with the constrctvist tendencies so inflxental atthe Bauhaus arrned her a special place among Argentine artists tying to develop radical models steatura production. Gyula Kosice, for one, remembers thst Stem shared seminal took ten by or dedicated to key avant-garde figures such as Liszlé Moboly Nagy, Pal Klee, Pet Mondrian Kanitir Malevich, Water Grops, nd others Toms Mal flanado recalled that immigrants displaced by the war brought to Argentina important “Tecument that revealed the radical mutations that had taken place in Europe between the two wars and earlier: “documents already yellowed, picked up in Bestin, Cologne, dans Madrid, Budapest, Prague, Moscow, Milan, They were usually manifesos pat piles, boos, mapaznes catalogues hat served as argument or counteratguments caine och seach fora new uadestanding of artiti prove” According 0 Jat ele, some of these magazines and catalogues were brought to Buenos Aires by the ists Juan del Prete (who had een a member ofthe Abstraction Création group in Paris) and Antonio Berni In adtion, the Uruguayan atistaquin Tores- Garcia, an important ference for hese tits, bad isthandknowedge of Parisian once se and was acquainted with key figures such as Theo van Doesbung, Piet Mondrian, and Georges Vantongeroo. This exposure to advanced thought and artistic practice in Europe energized the Argentine sats, andin 1944 group of poets writers, and artists including Toms ‘Maldonado, Gyula Kosice, Edgar Bayly, and the Unuguayans Carmelo Arden Quin and IRhod Rothfuce-—founded a magazine called Arturo plate 4} promote abstraction and droid a platform for ther sas, One ofthe firs editorial tats writen fr Arto by ‘Arden Quin, “immediately sets a Marxist frame ofreference"*"The material conditions ofa soley determine its ideological superstructure, Art, an ideological superstoce sane ie born and develops on the basis ofthe economic moveraentsof society. This isthe revelation that historical materialism makes abou at Ina desire to articulate their ‘evperlponition visi the adeancd artistic experiments of Europe the artists of vars fue inthis basic Marxist premise a justification forthe eruption of abstraction only vaguely epresented inthe magazin) hea taking pace in the relay und (ead painter landscape of Argentine bourgeois cate By mobilising this Marxist vrreative the artists of Arturo seemed to suggest that, unl that moment, Argentina had been unable to produce advanced models of aesthetic production. The material andivons and productive practices of Argentine society—is technological, scientific sind economic structures and apprtuses allowed for onl certain developments ad { conesponding ideological superstructure. Ar nd labor were forms of human action fled to the here and now va a movetent that “does nt explain practice fom the idea, ‘texans the formation ofideas from material practice” 3 Marxand Engels wrote in ekerated passage fom The Geran elegy (845) Tee authors goon to cluidate es a prs macnn hi) pig Tron en se infel poing er ata ome {Fedo vs ee fem ef sy fs dias ee ao spn i tne to ia ee i othe ae "Th eget ee geo pete sees inchs ene ne nro cece at bd it vial obras peduionech oe come tii ecm sges a ath en Quin hn seas een nee tc nd comm roe penn tat rely ered ented Spree —anes ter sppredy lds Hi obtin etal set in Repent nd Teton ht ger Sat cnyefgy6 Insc Ie acof ering einen ep tryna ne ye osc roa mye aig intone gin ont nd te tre resin ih he srs of ined, eb ms psy eden hin cat of shaping an ese pce wth om ln oe cer Uden he cll elas ar wee eters ont hingstte ASL eed incre pee poset iin ne defined in opposition to fortuitous discovery and to al magento ney an atenton (hcg ‘one’s own labor) and as a function of practical consciousness, “ i “means neraooueixe went,” Flite wrote, fie ngs aa hab ghey wee linge more Ine “omnanateretan cetera oe amet “Tuli Halpern Donghianalyes how this expectation was challenged by the esuperabe and culturl transformation. Using Marv’ istorical model, the Argentine arantarde (hrden Qui eral ig) old boll lp into modes oa odin iota ttt Inter. she engagement withthe cutout frame theorized by Rhod Rotfuss in the pages ofhod Reus fe contemparty Az Ar ‘Arturo—that provided «united, {ng at invention and experimentation, Rothfuss'se ‘hat ensued, Entitled “B1 marco: Un lem in Contemporary Art fig- #2), sestheticleap performed by these ats in ssayis without doubt thao: Un problema de psn ata” Th Fame A Petes te magazine summer 1944 i leetng front for the emerging abstractions alm a cornerstone ofthe sngulas formal propositions eels ua” (The ame A Pr een ltoundavandig ere the xpgos-The text suggests thatthe artists of Arturo were aware of the advances toward abstraction mde by cubism, neoplasti- sm, nonobjetvity, and constructivism. Although they had not yet adopted the banner ‘of coneretsm, thir aesthetic predispositions ae urinated by Rethfuss's reference tothe Chilean poet Vicente Huidobro’s 1921 manifesto "La ereacién pur (Pure Cre ation} a work that that woud be echoed by Huidobro’s eiend Jean Arps conception ofthe artistic proces in is writings on concrete act, Rothfuis quoted Huidobr: Man ARTE comcnero WvENcien, 1844-48 © 39has never been closes to nature now that he doesnot aspite to imitate its appearances, bot to do as it does, imitating its constructive laws, in the realization ofa whole, in the process of producing new frmsc® Arp rehearsed Huidobr’s principles of ce ‘cionismo creationisa) ina shortessay published onthe occasion of 1944 exhibition wetiled Ronkrcte Kunst, mounted in Basel an organized by Max Bl (who was atthe ime attempting to effect a stout transition from prewar Eoropean concrete att to ite postwar incarnation), Arp ote: "We don't want to copy nature, We dont want to reproduce, We want to produce tke a plant that produces a ruitand not reproduce. We rant produce dizetly and not through any intermediary. Since this art doest have ‘he lightest ace of abstraction, we name it: conerete a." ewas in the name of at's selfeferenility and against the iusonism of tradi tional pictorial paradigms that artists in Europe and Argentina embraced the notion sf the work ofa as an independent being growing from within its own strucre—a view whose affiliation with the organic seems to favor causal and rations forms of Vlevelopment aa well asthe ides that parts of a work reat to each oter meaning: fal, with internal coberence and functional interdependence As the ar historian Romslind Krauss has pointed out, in abetract artistic circles of the 1930s in Europe, rena Cone ot Careé(nnded by Joaquin Tortes-Garcia and Michel Seuphos) and ‘Nhstraction-Création (founded by Theo van Doesburg), “the sculptor was ikened 0 @ creator tothe original Crestor who didnot replicate given objects, but added new ones tothe repertory of nature’ For Krauss, the emblematic case is Arp, whose sculptures ftom the g30# sem to capture a moment of factional and progressive growth assoc ined with organic fe (13). However, the materialist credo and at objects produced ty the Argentine artists would prolemaize the principles of autonomy and organic Functionalism posited by European concrete art, Parisian geometric abstraction in the rojos, and Rothfus'stext, From the unpredictable configuration of Gyula Kosie's mu tiprt Ray (ag) and the open structure of Lidy Prats United 945; plat 3) which tecembles a Mondrian exploding into rel space, othe coplanals, which incorporated ‘he wall as a constituent element ofthe work, these objects did away with containment “and dismissed the conventions ofthe medium, shattering as well notions of organic (functional) organization, inawareofthe intermedial condition tha the cutout frame would unleash, Rothfuss espoused the dictum of self-sufficiency proposed by Huidebro's ceaconismo in bis coneribution to Arturo, For Rothfuss, the frame compromised the visual deployment os psinting and ts composition the frame sustained the smpression that one look ing ata fragment ofa whol. All paintings with orthogonal frames, he wrote fllowed the hsionstc (and passive) concept of window through wiich one contemplates 2 fiagment ofa theme. The ony way to avoid this spectator passivity, Rthfuss argued, ‘was by structuring the frame according tothe composition ofthe painting, Aspiring to ontnuty between internal composition and extemal frame—to an integration that ‘vould deliveraselfsuicient, sel generated pictorial organization —Rothfuss proposed gos ar emmringrs e208 apeioearn sbolshing traditional (symbolic, themat ati, imagistie) approaches to painting, He eon cluded his essay witha paradoxical statement that threatened the painterly structure ‘while at the same time protected the medium fiom extraneous figurative and narrative demands: The edge of the canvas, he wrote, plays Yan active role inthe work of art. A slat ary hn A ings begin aden with i? Riva articulating here a sort of pictorial tautology with the ame dei with the Fame defining the shape ofthe ‘support and echoing the internal composition ofthe work. Justa an organism repro: duces, the fame t0, would beget form. But the Fame was also the painting's pint of contact with the architectural wall—a ‘act to which Rothfuss did't give any thought. By posting the frame as an ative ele ment ofthe composition, Rothfuss had attacked one ofthe most cherished convent ‘of painting: he frame as a limit that protected the ontology of th oe on he picture, the frame as ‘that which confined painting, For Rothfuss activating the frame asserted the autonomy ‘ofthe pictorial signifier a dynamic that ultimately exposed painting tothe contingen- ‘ies of eal space and objects, The resulting cutout frame (mao recrtad) overthrew Jest Arp. Gro, mle,necmenton ofthe otagnt ame whichis athe Bain cr Fer Gala a ates ur ae eal ne whe hon wee Pe we ton nw and eps wo xngihed oe Pata ame, Cul wpa pce aor he a the ptr tothe level oon tings” AO Cs aaae rp ti cningon of he fae toa bch ig Ca Wok WS ae agsn the egunenive foe of hanya ing eee ee ft ems Aenea, which deri Rah’ gal PORES ata nynngan vate ops ame a yet) of ing, snncererang he wl 382 ae aT sundnment ofthe fies the commingling of ee seer pn wring te Agerine ante pings. “i. Gage nin oes Garant wey care on ele wth hte the ph oor ase tne ing He to pin or mae a ede mwarerLa hin nd vous palo on a He SES lg fe Bopanna is esis Theo van a tsetse profes asi fe res, See a eh a ns eouner i European cone 29 a8 dt ee nest et” yeni os Tress es rung» ior aac pe hatred dpm ea: enema ior a eon aun ered ino pie ares th oan he deri tuck are hover, andr vn Dosing’ noes, be edie a pts wne os cresyl eying he ght eee eed om bam ad edie in ase fr hbase aaa tn at wes not eum hve mac 6 do wi he ee ae pone basher higerian Neste Cs a eed ne re gTove ert anion Thi ted wok om 029 eV dean punto busing oo caves depicting te ea ae dred ities nd sk do Signin Wats 3 Cha wvoleome tote theca ange chem a aes reetet ie metiee pnelpuning ndckowding te nsrpaaon the een bnshurs o sTone Gna port fend ven aan boy he supa Ths esr gpd ate ee he aarp ts mate pasty ele the word ee ht a adn denon sc gg ti aan ten ira Pes tereen ga on™ eee eyes ht hewn cnt ot pie casey in Pt a. sae od nso po and again wa tht amen 930 Tae eared tet oj the meet Son Bcd, abet See ee nl amoncton te ew alice denande) The pace of he ‘ovement were published in the sole istue of Art Concret in Ape 1930. There, van Doesburg emphasized the need fora universal at entirely concevedin the mind before its execution Selfreferentalty was one of the carnerstones of European concrete art ‘the meaning ofa work was to reside in the combination of ts past elements and its construction was tobe visually contellable" The editors ofthe magazine look great ‘sins to establish artistic creation as an intellectual activity tied to mathematics and ‘geometry. And ina Neoplatonic tur de force, they demanded thatthe technical perfec ‘ion of work be equivalent to the perfection ofthe concept that gave it birth. Here we find thse oft quoted lines that clarify the diffrence hetweenabstra:t nd concrete at “Concrete painting and not abract, since nothing is more concrete, more rei, than @ linea color a surface. Arc}a woman, a tee, cow on. canvas concrete elements? NO. A ‘woman, a tee, a cow are concrete in their natural state, bt in the ste of aintng, they are abstract, iusory vague, speculative: while a plane is plane, line i ine nothing less nothing more ‘This emphasis on the hiteralness ofthe plastic elements ofthe work, which many abstract tists shared, was in Torres. Gari's work united witha renewed intrest the \wood relies and construcnons of artists snenced by Dads: Jean Arp Sophie Taeuber ‘Arp Kurt Schvtters, and Joan Mir. Th art historian Agnés de Maistre points that Tores-Garcis's knowlege of recent developments inthis vein can be dedsced from bis ‘organization of Expos Art Modern Nacional stranger ia Ue fill of 1929 at ale ries Dalmau in Barcelona, featuring works by Arp, Taeuber Arp, vin Doesburg, Jean Helin, Mondrian Jean Xceon, and Georges Vantongerloa, among ahers® While in Paris, Torres Garcia maintained close relationships with Arp and Vantongelae, who ‘seem tohave pulled the Uruguayan artist toward three-dimensional work, which he had already explored in series of transformable wooden tos of simplied shapes, initated ingx7 and reprised in set of smal format schematic wooden fguutive sculptures in the late 1920s. Tocres-Garcla called these works, and several more made between 1929 and 1932, “plastic objects” or “constructions” Halfway between painsng and sculpture, they asserted the physicality of their materials and exploited the ambivalent character of relief sculpture. Some ofthese objects are composed of colored pieces of woed jus ‘aposed and superimposed within a rectilinear frame, as in Madee (Wood Constrwe tion, 1929). Others ae closer to assemblage, as in Objet Plastique /Camiposton (Pasic Object Composition, 1931-34 pat 6), which features colored panes of differen sizes and shapes organized around a central axis. Stil others assert themelves a re ante ‘cedents ofthe Argentine avantgarde's experiments of the 1940s, ielading the minimal ‘Madera Panos de Color (Wood Planes of Color, 1925), which, conta its tite, features mostly brown, ocher, yay, and back areas ditrbuted around inczed rectilinear sec tons on an regulary shaped wooden support. Shorty after canchuding this more or less systematic exploration of rele, Torres Gara suggested a parallel between att and functional objects tha! ater preoccupied the Argentine artists. Inan esay written in 1934 (he ear ofhis retutn to Montevideo)itedFuncinalism Fanctonsis), he argued that “sestetc unity” isthe obese fener ant Eager toartclt lessons learned aon, he refereed othe harmoniots srr of parte oa whole (dented above wth oganic futons), 2H Be vrnnetned wth ean, sense, measure, larity, al simplicity as well a the function, shay of objects. Drawing 2 pall with the pradtions ofthe “the humble an of Teck Domb hure dl fi) be called the artwork “laste object: Penta ‘Ripe ebeet” and defined as “work exiting by tel, based on Hel thus nds eden not workreflestion, not fn natre, not aston pining» SelPto® rar vemetng eoerete, ike a lecope a ator at umbrella. Aesthetic objects The air ese other objects, age useful Tores-Garci, ke the artist of Arturo ten years saanees ao remotely ineresed in substi hs artiste practice tthe paradigm of the reatymade or the logic of mats production), His concern with concreteness and ticle was diet inked tothe Functional (he harmonious rations of ars Sa tho thatthe at bject must achive ifitaspies to logic ofits owns Function vam analogous tothe Functionality of objects that respond to the primacy of purpose, “The Uruguayan ris’ allusion utara objets was informed y the comparison emreen at and the machine characteristic ofthe European avantgarde in the 19205 cree ine” van Doeaburg wrote in De Si “is the phenomenon of spiritual i Siping pr enellence™ ising fom necessity i determined by ations hn re techesogital/functona objet was an exemplary forgiving (Gestalt) devi, stant the whims of decoration to which Tore Garcia following key construct Teedcum, also objected. As the architectural historian Detef Metis indicated in his watoable mapping ofthese temas and debates in eaitwenteth-cenury Germany ementary form creation was o be guide by economy, 2 pure relationship Detwesn qed rsteria elementary means, order and lawfulness.” For Torres-Garca ree ae mere structuring core of an at that cold negotiate between the epochs} and sae edual-thus, ts universality. A contracted art was f0 be achieved through se aojon” not standardization and proportion was underlined a what regulates ad ies unt tothe work, along with harmonius elatlonip between tracre a reasurable form and the strict application of prestblised rules ‘bracing he deat aesthetic, Tores- Garcia was unstining inhi senor mote erate approaches to real ordinary objects a the experiment freedom that this implied: "Se much nonsense, alo in modern ties, ha been spoken ithe name dee redo burning museums, painting with tale, making collective impersonal emaaly personal et, murdering painting, abclute impersonal abstraction, ren sealprre at based on rei objets noise msi olage, wire suture, sexual wearer, poltrian at uprematsm ... | From al this oly ane thing can sane eancosoa™ This at offobidden attic stategies—a vrtable compendium of key seanr garde experimental techniques—betray Tore: Gari profoundly conser crerorise and els to explain why the ats ofthe ACI through the wise of Ma spon ultimately condemned the Uruguay artist Denyingany destabilizing ce ‘Alexander Rodeo, pia Const na sae 1930, wood, shina pail, ad wi, apes founded on classicism: “functionalism based on measurement."*? “ nan =e ee pa f art to everyay objects, however, signals a key paradox: they crupy This tension between the Weaonal and the concrete erdent in conte art—a paradox that haunts Torres-Garcia the sapene sie arrerance, but its rather pointless movements elude any notion of fu li _ ‘in which there is a logical relationship be “Teecnple Alexander Rodchenko's Spatial Constructions (ca, 1920: fig. 1.4). In this e ms ee rere nsinstrument inthe sixteenth century, the word “followed fist the sense of engine or tool. [Tie instructive in view ofthe later conventional contrast between organic ee mechanial™” The common opposition of those terms was reconfigured i the space bythe European avant-garde, fr whom ons bridge both realms and desi vere purposeful form generating activity” comnion art and industry**Willams's “ymlogy validates the association between the organic andthe Functional that traverses euch eting about the status ofthe workaf art visdvisthe constructivist tendencies of the igs and 1s as wells the workof Vicente Huidoro and Torres Gari. But as the discussion of concretejaeoconcree ast in Bazil (chapters 2 and 3) and Gee's work tn Venezuela {chapter 5) wil show, the organic was to bea contested concept, constantly vrobilzed to defend or atack the systemic and rational dimension of geometric abstract vrorks, I this regard the organic maybe associated with a causal development in which pecan deduce the clear stages ofa structure by analyzing the constituent relation ships ofa work ora system in which the organics an instrument of gency” tied to tnanizaton, aeverthles the sime concept ma aso used to account for more pen relational and contingent interactions between form» and environsent Tosiees Roy can be situated atthe crux ofthese two understandings ofthe organi das Une mark's aletory pevformance conveys a playfulness that betrays its mechanis: Teelook Operating 2 the juncture ofthe organic and the mechanical Rb seems 0 iat Key concerns inthe Argentine reformulation of conretim: ts obecthood, iteembeddedness in real space, its nonbierarcical structure, ndits ater to involve the spectator These issues were not dressed in the statements that accompanied the reproduction ofa mode ofthe work on the cover of Imeién 21945 pamphlet cited by TKecew and dedicate to his work (fig 15} ln sharp contrast the militant writings of he AACI, Kosice lo would form Arte Madi in 1946 with Arden Quin and Rothfuss) serote prose that was somewhat esotei, making reference to the machine and inven: tion asthe conduit to eternity, Like Torres-Garcia, Kosice sw the “la of permanence” {defined as “organi permanence’), which esponds to the spatial coneretenes of the Sbjct as the foundation ofthe invented organism’ that harmonizes with its epoch oy formal rsoution is also i tine wih the concept ofivention a5 variously mobilized by these artists between 944 and 1946, Iwas aroun the term invencion— ir the publication on and by Kosice mentioned above confirms— thatthe artists sso tiated wth Artur decided i 1945 to jin together. Agns de Maistee argues that “to ‘ffereniate themselves fom Huidobros creationism, Edgar Bayley proposed that theit movement be called Invention. In opposition tothe delist conception of art hat makes ‘heartist a reator inthe image of God, they [promoted) the materialism that atibutes oman alone the power of rention.°® Fo his part, Kosice characterized contemporary ccention az a material invention in which the individual "penetrates into the work of physics veaities” du toa “need in society. Indced, Rai firted withthe image of Tastrument, and machine that the concept of invention unleashed de ots wnambign= sous three dimensional status, it raised those associations toa greater extent than the cove of enc. Pictorial experiments that followed Its solid physicality, manipulable structure, and arbitrary movements made itasoan eaey example ofthe primacy o ction in the work and thought of the Argentine rant gaude, understood dialectical as Marx did, all ar did, following Hegel the material wold i one ‘of change and motion upon which humans acton the basis oftheir material conditions. Clearly. 00, hadtobereveltionizedinaccord with Mer'srejectionofessences andthe idealism of philosophy fir ofa historical materialism determined by circumstances, “Thephilogopherof Communism argued that adwig Feuerbach, who nfuencedthe deve omen cf mateinliem, "oe nee how he ens wot sound him no thing given direc from all etenty, remaining ever the same, but the product of indus: tay and ofthe state of society: and indeed, fa product inthe sense that iis an istrict product, the result ofthe activity ofa whole succession of generations each standing on the shoulder ofthe preceding one, developing is industry and ts intercourse, modify ing its social system according tothe changed needs"® Guta Kosice, Ry maqute nthe‘his dialogue between material conditions and the activity of socal actors woul ‘pecome: by 3946, fundamental principle of invenconismo, Edgar Bayley, a central theovescian ofthis concept as wells a poet), put it suecinty: The invented concep vaneh ithe bass ofthe new poetry constitutes one ofthe paths toward reveutionary Freie Throwgh his vention he poet isimtegrated nt the word—hats participates rene in the theoretical practical taskof transforming it" Invention, other words, vvastied ohuman action upon the material world and implied an emancipstory process Tnwhich making following Marx, was history itsel&” The yrowing group of Argentine abstractions loosely uted under the invencionimo tunne in 2945 had, by 1946, divided into two distinct groups Maldonado and Bayley red the group that was to become known as the Asociacign Arte Coneret Invenciéns carly members ofthis group include Lid Prati (Maldonado wife anda key contrib ter Anu), Mansel Espinosa, Alfedo Hit, Alberto Molenberg. Oscar Nuts, the Loves brothers (Rat, Rafzel, and R.V.D), Claudio Gola, and others, mazy of whom Maldonado knew fiom the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires, Gyula Kosice, Carmelo Arden Quin, and Rhod Rothfuss were the core merabers of what becaime Known as Arte Madi, However, prior othe creation of these two groups the Andon Quin. Kosice-Rethfus group exhibited twice in 1945. The first exhibition took pace in October at the house of Enigue Pchin-Riiére under the tle Art Cone Thontion-—a French ttle tha signals the artists’ desire to establish » continuity with Parisian concrete at The second show was held in December at Grete Sterns house and vnatited Movimienta de Arte Conceto nsencid (not tobe confused withthe Asociacién “Aete ConcetoInvenein, which wuld exhibit for the frst ime in Masch-April 1946) Few documents remain a records of these two exhibitions. A photograph ofthe frst show a table with seulptutes and the lower halves of thre paintings. 1ntifiable on the table at right movable sculpture by Kosice made of curved, bent and stright "brass pce used to create the fame forhandbags"™ connected with small screws, The linear quality ofthe work seems prediated onthe ide ofan ouline thathas released ts seutptural msn the backgoind the lower haf ofthe punting on te lft consists ‘ta zigzagging fame ts interior appears to feature ustaposed panes ole, nd the Tine thet separates them fllows the shape ofthe frame. The panting in the center also ceys the strategy ofthe ireguar frame, but its fame s wider, ts materiality exalted ver than dssoled oF integrated int the pictur plane. The third work, onthe right, fs, according to Gabriel Pévez-Bareiro, attributed wo Rotss?> “The exhbition at Stern's house was more elaborate. It signaled a muitiisipinary approach evident in the accompanying brochure, which Usted participants under the falowings rubrics: painting, sculpture, drawing, architecture and urbanism, photog raphy, children's drawings, leratue, music and dance. In the background of pho ee LIDY MALDONADO reuse. Lay Pra ged Lay Maldon, ign in Arar gaan sume tograph ofthe atss and members ofthe public who attended the opening area east Sve unidentifiable puntngs wi regular Fame. ts cas, howere, to deduce fom the brochre thatthe event probly incorporated most ofthe works these young art ‘nt had produced during 1945, especially if we cosier that only one work published in Arwro—by Rots, appearing at the end of his article “El marco: Un problema de plata actsl"—shunned the orthogonal format. That unidentified works skewed frame contained color composition with carilinear shapes so that there realy was 10 correlation between the center and periphery ofthe painting 3s Rothfus call for {in the tet. Interestingly a5 Andvea Giunta has indicate, ste group ofwenetes Aesgndy Ly Pat ging Ly Malena) watered ogo the platon that constitute the most abstract statement in Arturo and seem, in thelr ope, linear configuration, plot the pins ofthe coplanaa come (i. 6) TThefstofficil exibitonofthe AACI took place rom March 8 through Apel, 946, atin Peseta notte ccna pretest napt irae hevet exring he pricing atte wore appear nthe ack ound Fourof these llmade of wood, aridentfiable and they exemplify an object based prac ARTE CONCHETO WuvENciON. 1846-48 + 49