Beyond Geography

Beyond Geography: Forty Years of Visual Arts at the Americas Society is an archival exhibition presenting paintings, sculptures, photographs, videos, installations and archival materials linking the organization’s history to crucial moments of art production in the Americas. The exhibition will launch the celebration of the Americas Society’s 40th Anniversary and features over 30 artworks and significant documents by artists from Canada, the Caribbean, Latin America and the U.S., all relating to the gallery’s history.

This retrospective exhibition takes the Americas Society’s mission statement as its conceptual core and explores its transformation through time. It examines the points of origin of collecting art from the Americas in the U.S., the institutionalization of this art, and its introduction to the public through exhibitions, public events and publications produced by the Americas Society over the past 40 years. Drawing on the gallery’s history of exhibiting Pre-Columbian, Colonial, Modern and Contemporary art, the exhibition gives special emphasis to themes of identity and to the specific achievements of the neo-avant-garde movement that expanded the Americas Society’s mission beyond nationalistic and geographic constructions.

Works on view include emblematic prints by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siquieros and Omar Rayo. A painting by Fernando Botero references his first one-man exhibition at the Americas Society. Other groundbreaking works that will return to the gallery for this historic exhibition include Wilfredo Lam’s Ceux de la Porte Battante (1945), Kim Dingle’s Maps of the U.S. Drawn from Memory by Las Vegas Teenagers (1990) and Pietá by Melchor Pérez Holguín (c.1720). Portraits and documentary photography by Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Martin Chambi, Burt Glinn and Geneviève Cadieux are included, as well as works by Willys de Castro, Cesar Paternosto and Jo Baer, exhibited here for the first time. Experimental works that helped to build the Americas Society’s prestige as a visionary institution will also be presented, including Gego’s Tronco and her preparatory drawings for the Reticularárea (1969-70), Michael Snow’s W in the D (1971), archival materials of Marta Minujin’s performance Minucode (1967) and Eduardo Costa, John Perrault and Hannah Weiner’s Fashion Show Poetry Event (1969), as well as Juan Downey’s Map of Chile (1973).

The team that helped research the exhibition included: Angela Herren, Ph.D. Candidate, Art History, City University of New York and Curatorial Assistant, Americas Society; Mark Wisniewski, Ph.D. Candidate, International Education, New York University; Ana Tallone, Ph.D. Candidate, Art History, City University of New York; Penelope Ojeda, Ph.D. Candidate, Art History, City University of New York; Patricia Olender, Production Associate, Americas Society.

Pressetext

Beyond Geography: Forty Years of Visual Arts at the Americas Society

Kuratorenteam: Angela Herren, Mark Wisniewski, Ana Tallone, Penelope Ojeda, Patricia Olender

mit Jo Baer, Fernando Botero, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Genevieve Cadieux, Willys de Castro, Martin Chambi, Eduardo Costa, Kim Dingle, Juan Downey, Gego , Burt Glinn, Felix Gonzales-Torres, Melchor Perez Holguin, Wifredo Lam, Cesar Paternosto, John Perrault, Omar Rayo, Diego Rivera, Juan Rodriguez Juarez, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Michael Snow, Hannah Weiner, Juan Downey, u.a.