Contesting Modernity: Informalism in Venezuela, 1955–1975 October 28, 2018–January 21, 2019
Dámaso Ogaz, FUBW, 1968, oil and ink on canvas, Colección Mercantil Arte y Cultura, Caracas.
Francisco Hung, Pintura n° 5 (Painting No. 5), 1964, oil, acrylic, and gesso on canvas, Colección Mercantil Arte y Cultura, Caracas.
Carlos Puche, Objetografía n° 23 (Objectography No. 23), 1965, iron object and gelatin silver print on Masonite and wood, collection of Luis Felipe Farías, Caracas.
Elsa Gramcko, Sin título (Untitled), 1958, oil on canvas, Colección Mercantil Arte y Cultura, Caracas.
Mario Abreu, El sueño del dorado (The Dream of El Dorado), c. 1964, metal spoons, diverse materials, and mixed-media assemblage, collection of Luis Felipe Farías, Caracas.
Alejandro Otero, A. Figueres: Vendrell, 1961, mixed media on wood, collection of Marelisa Sosa de Villegas, Caracas.
Alberto Brandt, Fantasía (Fantasy), no date, oil on printed plastic, Colección Mercantil Arte y Cultura, Caracas.
► Información en español sobre la exposición
Contesting Modernity: Informalism in Venezuela, 1955–1975 charts the trajectory of the Venezuelan Informalist movement from the mid-1950s through its last manifestations in the 1970s. More than 130 works of art across a variety of media—collage, painting, assemblage, photography—showcase the richness and complexity of the underrepresented movement.
Informalism embraced many of the abstract gestural tendencies that developed in Venezuela at the same time as North America’s Abstract Expressionism and Europe’s Tachisme and Art Informel. This exhibition brings together works of art from the collection of Mercantil Arte y Cultura in Caracas as well as from other public and private collections in Venezuela and the United States.
Organized into five sections, Contesting Modernity presents works by internationally renowned figures such as Carlos Cruz-Diez, Gego, Alejandro Otero, and Jesús Rafael Soto. Many practitioners of the movement are represented, including Alberto Brandt, Elsa Gramcko, Fernando Irazábal, Francisco Hung, Mercedes Pardo, and Maruja Rolando to name a few.
Contesting Modernity: Informalism in Venezuela, 1955–1975 | October 28, 2018–January 21, 2019
► Publication
The illustrated exhibition catalogue is available through the MFA Shop (713.639.7360) and the Museum’s Hirsch Library (713.639.7325).
This exhibition is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Colección Mercantil Arte y Cultura, Caracas.
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