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New York -The Museum of Modern Art announces Sur The exhibition is divided into two main sections based on
moderno: Journeys of Abstraction -The Patricia Phelps the concept of transformation. The first section, “Artworks
de Cisneros Gift, a major exhibition drawn primarily from as Artifacts, Artworks as Manifestos,” presents a group of
the paintings, sculptures, and works on paper donated to works that subverted the conventional formats of painting
the Museum by the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and sculpture. Cuts, folds, articulated objects, cut-out
between 1997 and 2016. On view from October 21, 2019, frames, and experiments that question the autonomy of
through March 14, 2020, Sur moderno celebrates the the art object are some examples of these artists’ material
arrival of the most important collection of abstract and explorations. One of the first works visitors encounter
concrete art from Latin America by dedicating an entire in the exhibition, Willys de Castro’s Active Object (1961),
suite of galleries on the Museum’s third floor to the fuses the materiality of painting with the principles of free-
display of artists from Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, and standing sculpture, inviting the viewer to circle around a
Uruguay. The exhibition highlights the work of Lygia Clark, painted canvas. Another work in this section, Gyula Kosice’s
Gego, Raúl Lozza, Hélio Oiticica, Jesús Rafael Soto, and Articulated Mobile Sculpture (1948), questions the grounds
Rhod Rothfuss, among others, focusing on the concept of traditional sculpture by combining strips of brass to
of transformation: a radical reinvention of the art object create a movable structure that defies classification.
and a renewal of the social environment through art and
design. The exhibition is also anchored by a selection of The exhibition’s inclusion of Spatial Construction no. 12 (c.
archival materials that situate the works within their local 1920) by Aleksandr Rodchenko highlights the influence of
contexts. Sur moderno is organized by Inés Katzenstein, Russian Constructivism on South American art. Similarly,
Curator of Latin American Art and Director of the Patricia images of Piet Mondrian’s works were widely circulated
Phelps de Cisneros Research Institute for the Study of and had a great impact on the development of abstraction
Art from Latin America, The Museum of Modern Art, and in the region. His Broadway Boogie Woogie (1942–43), on
consulting curator María Amalia García, Consejo Nacional view in the exhibition, inspired investigations of kineticism
de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET)– among artists such as Jesús Rafael Soto, whose Double
Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Argentina, with Karen Transparency (1956) is an attempt to transform the
Grimson, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Drawings two-dimensionality of Mondrian’s painting into a three-
and Prints, The Museum of Modern Art. dimensional experience.

Installation view of Sur moderno: Journeys of Abstraction″The Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Gift, The Museum of Modern Art, New York,
October 21, 2019 – March 14, 2020. © 2019 The Museum of Modern Art. Photo: Heidi Bohnenkamp

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