_La invención concreta: Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros_ at the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, Spain

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, 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.

Digital Initiative:

FC/CPPC seeks out innovation within the digital world, taking advantage of new tools to further expand its mission and reach the widest audience possible. Accordingly, the show will be accompanied by a comprehensive digital initiative that includes a mobile website and an iPad app that will enhance onsite visits and allow people to access the show and get familiar with the artwork from home and abroad, while sharing through social media tools their own experience with their acquaintances. The website will be at www.lainvencionconcreta.org and the app can be downloaded from ITunes.

About The Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros:

Founded in the 1970s by Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and Gustavo A. Cisneros, the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC) is one of the core cultural and educational initiatives of the Fundación Cisneros. Based in New York City and Caracas, the wide-ranging program was established in order to advance scholarship on Latin American art, promote excellence in visual-arts education, and encourage a high level of expertise among Latin American art professionals. The CPPC additionally works to enhance appreciation of the diversity, sophistication, and range of art from Latin America. The CPPC’s activities include exhibitions, publications, grants for research and artistic production, as well as other innovative initiatives specially designed to create communities for discussion and reflection.

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About the Museo Reina Sofía:

The Museo Reina Sofía opened its doors in 1990 to show the contemporary Spanish art in relation to the international context. Its collection consists of more than 20,000 works from the late nineteenth century to the present, five percent of which is exhibited at the Museum and includes works by artists such as Picasso, Miró, Dalí, Juan Gris, Braque, Richard Serra, Magritte, Gerard Richter, Muntadas, and Sol Lewitt among many more. The centerpiece is Guernica (1937), by Pablo Picasso. The collection presents intertwined micro narrations, cosmologies that help the understanding of the relations between the works.

It is constituted as a space for discussion and research through seminars and university programs born of the relationship between education and exhibitions, collection, and public programs.

The Reina Sofía has recently increased its efforts to network with numerous institutions within and outside Spain, to coordinate and share audiences. Its goal is also to lead a network of information exchange, co-production activities, promotion of joint research and publications, providing at the same time, the ability to create a large network archive.

For more information visit www.lainvencionconcreta.org