Conclusion. Artist as model citizen : Grupo Frente and Rio institutions -- Forma : the mutability of form in early abstract art and theory -- National culture and abstraction at the first Sao Paulo Bienal -- Collective, concrete abstractions : Grupo Ruptura and the National Exhibition of Abstract Art -- Defining modernism at the second Sao Paulo Bienal -- Artist as model citizen : Grupo Frente and Rio institutions -- Conclusion.
Summary:
"Art produced outside hegemonic centers is often seen as a form of derivation or relegated to a provisional status. Forming Abstraction turns this narrative on its head. In the first book-length study of Brazilian art and culture following World War II, Adele Nelson highlights the importance of exhibitionary and pedagogical institutions in the development of abstract art in Brazil. By focusing on the formation of the Sao Paulo Biennial in 1951; the early activities of artists Geraldo de Barros, Lygia Clark, Waldemar Cordeiro, Helio Oiticica, Lygia Pape, and Ivan Serpa; and the ideas of critics like Mario Pedrosa, Nelson illuminates the complex, strategic processes of citation and adaption of both local and international forms. The book ultimately demonstrates that postwar Brazilian art institutions and abstract artistic groups--and their exhibitions of abstract art in particular--served as crucial loci for the articulation of societal identities in a newly democratic nation at the onset of the Cold War"-- Provided by publisher
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.