Antonio Caro, Colombia, 1976 (detail) © Antonio Caro. Image description: "Colombia" is written in white ornate letters on a red background. The lettering is very similar to the typical Coca-Cola lettering.
Antonio Caro, Colombia, 1976 (detail) © Antonio Caro. Image description: "Colombia" is written in white ornate letters on a red background. The lettering is very similar to the typical Coca-Cola lettering.

A Tale of Two Worlds

Experimental Latin American Art in Dialogue with the MMK Collection 1940s-1980s

A Tale of Two Worlds sets out to establish a dialogue between two distinct narratives in Western contemporary art over the five decades spanning the 1940s and the 1980s: the European-North American canon and Latin American experimental art. The exhibition is structured as a stream of conversations, whereby topics relevant to the history of experimental art practices in Latin America are presented in dialogue with artworks from the MMK Collection. The project has been conceptualized and curated over the past year and a half between two cities – Buenos Aires and Frankfurt – and has a strong Southern perspective. Indeed, it marks the first time a European Museum collection has allowed itself to be re-examined by curators of Latin American art. The project is an answer to the call by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation) on major museums in Germany to endow their collections with a more global perspective.

For some years now the MMK's exhibition programme and collection policy has opened up its view to non-European perspectives on international contemporary art and critically questioned the socio-political conditions of art in a globalized world. The interrelated perspectives of two continents and cultures represented in A Tale of Two Worlds present the MMK with a chance to see its own collection from a striking new angle. Although emerging from divergent political, economic and historical contexts, the art on show will reveal parallel trajectories, crossover points and contradictions.

While the MMK collection from the 1960s and 1970s focuses on European and North American art, the period of Latin American art addressed in this exhibition is somewhat longer: it starts in 1944, the year of the first exhibition of the new Concrete Art movements in Argentina, and continues until the end of the military dictatorships in the late 1980s. Through the example of avant-garde artists from Latin America, the USA and Europe the exhibition attempts to locate the precise tipping point in the transition from modern to contemporary art. It foregrounds various forces of change in order to illustrate this moment of transition, when modernist models collapsed. It focuses on moments of empathy, shared concerns and intellectual bonds between artists from different parts of the world, as well as moments that emerge as counterpoints or challenges, or as tensions between different historical experiences.

Close collaboration between the Moderno and MMK curators is essential for the project, since both institutions are subjecting their pre-existent outlooks to a process of revision and allowing an alternate narrative to be told. This process consciously questions and reconsiders the history of art, their positioning as institutions and their collection practices.

Exhibition artists:
Paul Almásy, Carmelo Arden Quin, Arman, Francis Bacon, Artur Barrio, Lothar Baumgarten, Thomas Bayrle, Juan Andrés Bello, Adolfo Bernal, Joseph Beuys, Arthur Bispo do Rosário, Martín Blaszko, Alighiero Boetti, Oscar Bony, Marcel Broodthaers, Teresa Burga, Kenneth C. Noland, Luis Camnitzer, Rafael Canogar, Antonio Caro, Ricardo Carreira, Ulises Carrión, John Chamberlain, Lygia Clark, Geraldo de Barros, Lenora de Barros, Augusto de Campos, Flávio de Carvalho, Willys de Castro, Walter de Maria, Juan del Prete, Juan Downey, Marcel Duchamp, Escuela de Valparaíso, León Ferrari, Lucio Fontana, Nicolás García Uriburu, Gego, Eduardo Gil, Hermann Goepfert, Mathias Goeritz, Beatriz González, Karl Otto Götz, Alberto Greco, Otto Greis, Victor Grippo, Alberto Heredia, Jasper Johns, On Kawara, Kenneth Kemble, Yves Klein, Gyula Kosice, Heinz Kreutz, David Lamelas, Barry Le Va, Roy Lichtenstein, Raúl Lozza, Anna Maria Maiolino, Tomás Maldonado, Leopoldo Maler, Piero Manzoni, Liliana Maresca, Cildo Meireles, Juan N. Melé, Ana Mendieta, Manolo Millares, Marta Minujín, Franz Mon, Bruce Nauman, Luis Felipe Noé, Hélio Oiticica, Claes Oldenburg, Margarita Paksa, Blinky Palermo, Lygia Pape, Luis Pazos, Liliana Porter, Charlotte Posenenske, Alejandro Puente, Gerhard Richter, Albert Georg Riethausen, Peter Roehr, Lotty Rosenfeld, Rhod Rothfuss, Jesús Ruiz Durand, Ed Ruscha, Fred Sandback, Rubén Santantonín, Mira Schendel, Grete Stern, Pablo Suárez, Abisag Tüllmann, Cy Twombly, Ben Vautier, Edgardo Antonio Vigo, Franz Erhard Walther, Andy Warhol, Hildegard Weber, Yente.

The exhibition is jointly curated by Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires Director Victoria Noorthoorn and Senior Curator Javier Villa, and MMK Curator Klaus Görner. It will be presented at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires between 7 July and 14 October 2018.

The exhibition is part of the "Global Museum" programme of the German Federal Cultural Foundation.

Exhibition

25 November 2017 — 15 April 2018

MUSEUMMMK

Domstraße 10
60311 Frankfurt am Main


mmk@stadt-frankfurt.de
+49 69 212 30447

Artists

  • Paul Almásy
  • Arman
  • Francis Bacon
  • Artur Barrio,
  • Geraldo de Barros
  • Lenora de Barros
  • Lothar Baumgarten
  • Thomas Bayrle
  • Juan Andrés Bello
  • Joseph Beuys
  • Adolfo Bernal
  • Martín Blaszko
  • Alighiero Boetti
  • Oscar Bony
  • Marcel Broodthaers
  • Teresa Burga
  • Luis Camnitzer
  • Augusto de Campos
  • Rafael Canogar
  • Antonio Caro
  • Ricardo Carreira
  • Ulises Carrión
  • Flávio de Carvalho,
  • Willys de Castro
  • John Chamberlain
  • Lygia Clark
  • Juan Downey
  • Marcel Duchamp
  • Jesús Ruiz Durand
  • León Ferrari
  • Lucio Fontana
  • Gego
  • Eduardo Gil
  • Hermann Goepfert
  • Mathias Goeritz
  • Beatriz González
  • Karl Otto Götz
  • Alberto Greco
  • Otto Greis
  • Victor Grippo
  • Alberto Heredia
  • Jasper Johns
  • On Kawara
  • Kenneth Kemble
  • Yves Klein
  • Gyula Kosice
  • Heinz Kreutz
  • David Lamelas
  • Barry Le Va
  • Roy Lichtenstein
  • Raúl Lozza
  • Leopoldo Maler
  • Tomás Maldonado
  • Piero Manzoni
  • Liliana Maresca
  • Walter De Maria
  • Anna Maria Maiolino
  • Cildo Meireles
  • Juan N. Melé
  • Ana Mendieta
  • Manolo Millares
  • Marta Minujín
  • Franz Mon
  • Bruce Nauman
  • Luis Felipe Noé
  • Kenneth C. Noland
  • Hélio Oiticica
  • Claes Oldenburg
  • Margarita Paksa
  • Blinky Palermo
  • Lygia Pape
  • Luis Pazos
  • Liliana Porter
  • Charlotte Posenenske
  • Juan del Prete
  • Alejandro Puente
  • Carmelo Arden Quin
  • Gerhard Richter
  • Albert Georg Riethausen
  • Arthur Bispo do Rosário
  • Peter Roehr
  • Lotty Rosenfeld
  • Rhod Rothfuss
  • Ed Ruscha
  • Fred Sandback
  • Rubén Santantonín
  • Mira Schendel
  • Grete Stern
  • Pablo Suárez
  • Abisag Tüllmann
  • Cy Twombly
  • Nicolás García Uriburu
  • Escuela de Valparaíso
  • Ben Vautier
  • Edgardo Antonio Vigo
  • Franz Erhard Walther
  • Andy Warhol
  • Hildegard Weber
  • Yente

Exhibition Views

Lucio Fontana, Concetto spaziale – Forma, 1958, Fondazione Lucio Fontana Collection © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020; Lucio Fontana, Concetto spaziale, Natura, 1959–1960, Fondazione Lucio Fontana Collection © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020; Lucio Fontana, Concetto spaziale, I Quanta, 1960, Fondazione Lucio Fontana Collection © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020, Foto: Axel Schneider
Lucio Fontana, Concetto spaziale, Natura, 1959–1960, Fondazione Lucio Fontana Collection © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020; Lucio Fontana, Concetto spaziale, I Quanta, 1960, Fondazione Lucio Fontana Collection © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020, photo: Axel Schneider
Hélio Oiticica, B09 Box Bolide 7, 1964, Projeto Hélio Oiticica Collection © César and Claudio Oiticica; Hélio Oiticica, B13 Box Bolide 10 Projeto, Hélio Oiticica Collection © César and Claudio Oiticica; B18 Glass Bolide 6 'Metamorfose', 1965, photo: Axel Schneider
Blinky Palermo, Graue Scheibe, 1966, MUSEUM MMK FÜR MODERNE KUNST © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020; David Lamelas, Corner Piece, 1966/2017, Courtesy of David Lamelas, Sprüth Magers, Jan Mot and Michele Maccarone © David Lamelas, 1964, Projeto Hélio Oiticica Collection © César and Claudio Oiticica; Hélio Oiticica, B13 Box Bolide 10 Projeto, Hélio Oiticica Collection © César and Claudio Oiticica; B18 Glass Bolide 6 'Metamorfose', 1965; Hélio Oiticica, B09 Box Bolide 7, 1964, Projeto Hélio Oiticica Collection © César and Claudio Oiticica, photo: Axel Schneider
Luis Felipe Noé, Imagen agónica de Dorrego, 1961, Eduardo Grüneisen Collection © Eduardo Grüneisen Collection ©; Lygia Pape, Divisor, 1968/1990 © Projeto Lygia Pape; Francis Bacon, Nude, 1960 MUSEUM MMK FÜR MODERNE KUNST © The Estate of Francis Bacon / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020, photo: Axel Schneider
Alberto Heredia, Amordazamiento, ca. 1973–1974, Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires Collection; Luis Camnitzer, from the "Serie de la tortura uruguaya", 1983–1984, Courtesy Alexander Gray Associates, New York © Luis Camnitzer / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018, Foto: Axel Schneider
Anna Maria Maiolino, Entrevidas, 1981 © Anna Maria Maiolino, photo: Axel Schneider
Artur Barrio, Situação T/T, 1, 1970, Inhotim collection, Brasilien © Artur Barrio, photo: Axel Schneider
Rubén Santantonín, La mordaza, 1961 © Jorge and Marion Helft Collection, photo: Axel Schneider
Arman, White Orchid, 1963, MUSEUM MMK FÜR MODERNE KUNST © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020; John Chamberlain, Untitled, 1963, MUSEUM MMK FÜR MODERNE KUNST © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020; Kenneth Kemble, Prohibida, 1960, Julieta Kemble Collection © Archivo Julieta Kemble; Manolo Millares, Cuadro 73, 1959, MUSEUM MMK FÜR MODERNE KUNST © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020, photo: Axel Schneider
Arman, White Orchid, 1963, MUSEUM MMK FÜR MODERNE KUNST © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020, photo: Axel Schneider
Raúl Lozza, Obra No 171, 1948, Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires Collection; Raúl Lozza, Pintura No 15, 1945, Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires Collection, photo: Axel Schneider
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