Sites of Latin American Abstraction: Selections from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection

November 8, 2009 - January 24, 2010

In presenting this significant exhibition, Sites of Latin American Abstraction: Selections from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection, MOLAA means to promote awareness of the richness and importance of Latin American abstract art and to offer audiences a fresh and inspiring aesthetic experience.

This exhibition marks the arrival of MOLAA’s Chief Curator, Cecilia Fajardo-Hill whose presence elevates MOLAA’s capacity to create dynamic and relevant programming for diverse audiences and furthers our mission as the most important presenter of Latin American modern contemporary art in the nation.

Curated by Juan Ledezma and organized by the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation from the collection of Ella Fontanals-Cisneros, Sites of Latin American Abstraction: Selections from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection provides a history of the academic evolution of geometric abstract art in Latin America interposed with references to urban sites through abstract photography. The inclusion of modern abstract photography is novel in that it is relatively unknown, but also, its role in grounding the abstract, relating the artworks to the concrete sites where people and ideas congregate.

The sophisticated yet accessible artistic language of Sites of Latin American Abstraction: Selections from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection offers an entirely new conception of historic geometric abstract art in Latin American from 1930 to 1970. One hundred forty-six works of drawings, paintings, sculpture and photography are organized according ot structural and visual cues, which in relation to each other describe a modern Latin America not based upon tradition, but on a collective and at time contradicting outlook. This exhibition communicates the cultural experience of Latin America in a post-war era where the mechanization of modern culture conflicts with the mythological and transcendental qualities of the native Latin American identity.

Featured artists include: Joaquin Torres-Garcia, Martin Blaszko, Mira Schendel, Jesús Rafael Soto, Gego, Lygia Clark, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Alejandro Otero and Mercedes Pardo.

Artistic movements and eras represented include: Torres-Garcia’s School of the South (1930s), Movimento Madí (1940s), Concretismo (1950s), Neo-concrete (late 1950s), Constructivist (late 1950s), Cinetismo (1960s), Kinetic (1960s) and Reconstructive (1970s).







The Sites of Latin American Abstraction: Selections from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection is organized by The Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami, Florida and curated by Juan Ledezma for CIFO.



The exhibition is sponsored in part by


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