Construções Sensíveis

The exhibition Construções Sensíveis: The Latin-American Geometric Experience in the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection brings to Brazil a profile of the abstraction present in our continent. Together with the important legacy of the Brazilian concretism and new-concretist movements, the abstract poetics that flourished in other countries from the 1930s onwards will be on display. This dialogue between artistic trends puts into perspective the specific details and contributions Brazil has made to the geometric experiences as part of a regional context rather than as an isolated case.

This exhibition provides a forum for the dialogue between artists and groups from countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia, and Mexico. Even in those cases in which there are no proven historical ties between artists of different latitudes, the links can be established out of an obvious common understanding that affiliates the trends derived from constructivism as an aesthetic paradigm. The ‘constructive desire’ that inspires these artists provides the basis for the singular discourses that each group defends. From the nucleus that formed in Uruguay around the figure of Joaquín Torres-García, centering on his intense exchange of ideas with the Argentinians from the Madi group, and moving through the visual studies of optical art and kinetics to the different facets of concretism, the works provide a view of the plurality of the paths the artists traveled.

This is an exhibition developed especially for Brazil, forming a subtle tribute to the ‘Arte Agora III, América Latina: Geometrica sensível’ exhibition that was on display at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro in 1978 but which was destroyed by a tragic fire. Many of the artists presented at that historic event are present here as a representation of the pioneering trends in the region, now displayed together with contemporary artists who are pointing the way forward for abstraction today.