March 15, 2008

“Pinta 07,” Arte al Dia

Pinta Art Fair - New York

By ADRIANA HERRERA (Miami) - The inauguration of Pinta, the first Contemporary Latin American Art Fair in New York implied, for the audience in this epicenter of world art, an overall revelation of the vast modernist tradition in the continent, of its repercussions on contemporary creation – which has also developed independently from its influx – as well as of some works which best the challenge of the exploration of uncertain territories in the present.

We should bear in mind that the construction of a political utopia, the dream of a more humane future for Latin America, was present not only as an underlying force in the figurative art that reached maximum renown in muralism – a trend utterly familiar in the Big Apple and not represented at Pinta –, but also in the genesis of geometric abstraction, from Argentina to Venezuela. It was not by chance that the significant exhibition Geometry of Hope, featured simultaneously with the Fair by the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Foundation, whose Chair president Pinta’s Host Committee, should have been included as part of visits to museums and of the Fair’s Collectors’ Program. Although it has taken the world decades to begin to understand the nature of this movement, which spanned the continent from coast and extended northward, its ‘discovery’ is transforming the vision of the past and the present of art in the continent.

A considerable number of galleries represented this trend. Some artist – like Lygia Clark or Jusús Soto – are familiar to the New York audience, but even thus, this is an incipient knowledge restricted to a few names, those of the pioneers of Constructivism, MADI, Neo – concrete Art and Kinetic Art. Pinta’s contribution has been remarkable in this respect, since the participating galleries, aware of the challenge represented by the Manhattan showcase, mounted their stands following a curatorial criterion, and correlated legendary figures and present-day artists. Leon Tovar Gallery mounted an extraordinary setting in its exhibition space, featuring impressive works by Soto. The wall of Cecilia de Torre’s booth was a work by Rogelio Posello, and the gallery also showed magnificent abstract watercolors by Maria Freire. Alejandra Von Hartz presented recent work by Eugenio Espinoza, whose Impenetrables constituted a landmark in the Caracas of the late 70’s; works by Danilo Dueñas, with his geometry of urban precariousness, and Silvana Lacarra’s projections of organic concepts in her geometric designs on tables. Latin Collector exhibited masterpieces by Carmen Herrera and acrylics by Fanny Sanín dated 2000, besides powerful figurative artists such as Ana Patricia Palacios and Ana Garcés. Raquel Arnaud Art Cabinet combined vernacular works by Cruz-Diez, Soto and Sergio Camargo, with geometric works of impeccable facture produced in 2007, such as Carmela Gross’s Outra Casa, or a piece from Arthur Luiz Piza’s series Trama. Moka Gallery featured a selection of pioneers of abstraction in Argentina, Venezuela and Colombia, together with recent and disquieting works by artists such as Sydia Reyes.

Josée Bienvenu Gallery presented Marco Maggi’s Incomplete Coverage on Lygia Clark. RJ Fine Arts showed Negret, Carlos Rojas and Feliza Bursztyn, works by Edgar Guzmanruiz and a remarkable work by Ana Maria Maiolino. Durban Segnini – one of the few gallery owners who understands that, although the Colombian abstract – geometric artist do not constitute a movement, have not signed any manifestos, or renounced to the referential relationship with objects, they deserve to be included in the evolution of this continental movement – chose historical pieces by artist from that country, such as Ramirez Villamizar, Negret and Omar Rayo, alongside recent installations by the Venezuelan artist Milton Becerra and works by Waltércio Caldas. This later artist – one of the most distinguished artists in contemporary Brazil – shuns the proximity between art and politics and prefers to explore a conception of the space in which the void makes reference to everything that escapes the eye but does, however, exist.

Yet in this post modern era of Heteroclitic forces in which some artists have renounced to any nostalgia of social transformation, some still support the remains of Modernism – its notion that art provides a meaning to the world immersed in chaos and might eventually reconstruct it – and, as Pinta demonstrated, there is a coherent combination of maximum formal exigency and works filed with conceptual irony or incisive strength wielded not only against socio-economic policies but also against artistic production, and even drawing on biographic data. Henrique Faria incorporated the ancillary in his booth – Soto, Otero, Gego and Schendel – with works which currently explore the space incisively, as is the case of Alexander Gerdel’s installations, resorting to materials like ruuber and metal. Or which, as in the case of the works of the Colombian artist Luis Roldán, fuse the limits of research on the material (the canvas is replaced by a single thread) and the vestiges of everyday life (the random gathering of objects found in the streets of New York). And which, as may be seen in the case of Alessandro Baltero, merge abstraction with a kind of conceptualism that contains a shattering criticism of geo-politics.

Behind Pinta’s impeccable staging – which includes vast and luminous spaces and a criterion privileging a type of select and restrained exhibition – one may notice the validation of the function of art as a space to oppose power. The show comprised works that updated the political impugnation they had represented decades earlier, or recent works endowed with a strong content that parodies or satirizes global socio–economic politics or condemns the genocides witnessed in present–day wars. At Ruth Benzacar’s booth, the presence of Marta Minujin, dressed exactly in the same way she appears in the photograph of the performance she presented in 1985 together with Andy Warhol. El pago de la deuda externa Argentina con maiz, “el oro latinoamericano,“; contituded an important milestone. Twenty-two years after its first exhibition, it has not lost its long-standing force. Also present at Nara Roesle’sbooth was Antonio Manuel, with his work Soy loco por ti, an installation featuring the map of Latin America in bright red paint, and resting on a bed of straw. Equally political was the content of Adam Smith 1776 rev/min, from the series A Million of Good Reasons to Become a Millionaire, a work by Damián Ontiveros Ramirez. This political content was also the pillar in the work Forced Labor, by the time–honored Liliana, and in Cosideraciones acerca de la mercadotecnia, by the young artist Margin Legón.

Equally disturbing – and effective – was the work featured by Mariano Molina – represented by Praxis International Art – in productions such as Action Painting, in which he manipulated black-and white photographs taken in public demonstrations, and leaving a single figure, used the corporal movements of social protest to perform actions such as dashing a bucket of red paint in the foreground, which resulted in a work that evokes abstract expressionism. And still, the political aspect did not completely disappear; it contained the common power of that latent element that may be perceived in different works and that reached its highest voltage during the performance by Pablo Helguera, who, dressed in a tuxedo, sang warm, classic Sinatra songs featuring lapidary adaptations on the war unleashed in Iraq by the current American administration.

Other perspectives of Latin American art that visitors to Pinta were able to appreciate were the ones represented in works such as Pedro Reyes’s installation, which implied observing part of the fair through the empty spaces in his set of floor tiles, and by Daniel Joglar’s hanging geographies. As for contemporary painting, mention should be made of Roberto Cortázar’s Saturno devorando a los parricidas, exhibit at Alfredo Ginnocchio; the works of Ferari and Carlos Estévez at Pan American Art Projects, and those of Cruz Azaceta, Bedia and Garcia Codero, at Lyle O. Reitzel. Or Juan José Cambre’s acrylics at Vasari Gallery. Among the emerging artist, mention must be made of Emilio Chapela Peréz and his series in bond paper; Mari Carmen Carrillo and her sculptures made from gesso, red paper roses and sharp thorns; and Clemencia Labin, featuring works in soft fabrics and acrylic. Other important contributions included the works by Alejandro Almaza and Alexandre Arrechea featured by Magnan Projects; brilliant photographs by Muu presented by Hardcore Contemporary Art; and works as Marcone Moreira’s Faça Aqui Sua Aposta, exhibited at the booth of Virgilio Gallery. The presence of Appetite Gallery featuring Victoria Mussoto’s and Nicanor Aráoz installations – although this artis’s drawing are more touching – was significant for Pinta’s endeavor: to modify the visual imaginary of Latin American art in New York.