The list of artists that make up the new Fundación Proa exhibition demonstrates the importance of this exhibition held together with Dia Art Foundation, a North American institution that has been making the visions of the world’s great creators a reality for 50 years..
Works of Agnes Martin, Andy Warhol, Felix González-Torres, James Turrell, John Chamberlain, Richard Serra, Robert Irwin, Tehching Hsieh and Walter De Maria are part of the exhibition “Penumbra: Dia Art Foundation”, which can be visited until August 2. Many of these artists are true myths in the history of contemporary art, authors of emblematic works that marked the path of later artists.
The uniqueness of the Dia Art Foundation’s work is demonstrated in this exhibition curated by Humberto Moroprogramming director of the institution, with the assistance of Ella Den Elzen. Created in New York in 1974 by Philippa de Menil, Heiner Friedrich and Helen Winkler, from its beginnings its objective was to collaborate in the realization of those complex or long-term projects that artists had great difficulty in completing. As they themselves state in their presentation, Dia Art “is committed to advancing, materializing and preserving the vision of artists. It fulfills its mission by commissioning individual artist projects, organizing exhibitions, making site-specific installations and in-depth collecting of the work of a select group of artists from the 1960s and 1970s.” Dia Art’s work is deployed in nine locations in the United States and Germany. Some are exhibition centers and others are spaces dedicated to the large-scale work of a creator. The foundation also collaborates with projects from other institutions.
“The admiration for Dia Art Foundation has been going on for many years. Their work in presenting a collection of works in which the viewer has an active role generated, from its beginnings, a great affinity with our mission,” he explains. Adriana Rosenberg, president of Proain the presentation of “Penumbra”.
The exhibition, which occupies all of Proa’s spaces, is made up of lighting, sculptural and audiovisual works. Below are some details of the exhibition.
The names
White monopolizes the tone of the first room of the show exhibiting 8 paintings by Agnes Martin. They are all part of his “Innocent Love” series, made in the final stage of his life. This Canadian artist based in the New Mexico desert made the emptiness of the landscape the center of her work. “My paintings are not about what is seen, but about what the mind has always known,” explains Martin, defining a poetics that becomes evident in the light plots of “Innocent Love.”
Andy Warhol’s “Shadows” series was made in 1978 and is originally composed of 102 paintings. Due to the enormous space that the complete work covers, a number of pieces are always exhibited that are related to the size of the room where they are exhibited (8 panels can be seen in Proa). Each segment is made of acrylic and photographic silkscreen on canvas with paint applied with a mop. Each piece measures 193 cm. high by 132 cm. wide. “The rhythmic sequence and chromatic variations deny a stable point of view and place the viewer in a field of visual fluctuation rather than narrative coherence, an effect that is reinforced by Warhol’s decision to allow the paintings to be installed in any order,” explains the curator, Humberto Moro, regarding the artist’s intentions. Although there was much speculation at the time about what object was represented in these paintings, Warhol himself wrote that the basis was a photo of a shadow taken in his office.
Four sculptures of John Chamberlain are exhibited in the same room in front of Warhol’s work. The North American artist, recognizable for his objects made with scrap metal, sheet metal and automobile bodywork, also worked with resin with a similar logic: investigating the possibilities of the materials, putting into tension, compressing and assembling the shapes that each piece draws.
Of Richard Serra, one of the most influential sculptors of the last centurycreator of large works that intersect with architecture, the exhibition exhibits 45 models. These lead pieces, lined up on large wooden tables, were designed and grouped by the artist to be displayed. The set has the character of a testing laboratory, with assemblies and torsions that will later be reproduced on a large scale in steel.
With an important museum in Salta and a work permanently exhibited in Punta del Este, James Turrell is one of the artists closest to Argentina in this exhibition. Light is the subject of his work and the way in which its effects alter the perception of the human eye. “Catso blue” is the name of the work that can be seen in Proa, where a projection of blue light installs the illusory volume of a cube.
Robert Irwin also makes light his material and is one of the leaders of the “Light and Space” movement in California.. His works with fluorescent tubes are characteristic, which in some cases simulate with paint the light they should emit. Two of these pieces are exhibited in the exhibition.
Two artists integrate the exhibition with film pieces. From Walter De Maria, who was a central figure in “Land Art”, “Hard Core” is presented, a film filmed in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. It is a long tracking shot where the landscape takes on maximum relevance, with the implicit challenge of taking art outside the limits of a controlled experience.
The other film piece reproduces a performance by Tehching Hsieha very exceptional Taiwanese artist, based in New York. His works are marked by his condition as an immigrant, lonely and excluded. Their performances are extreme, among other things, because they last a long time. For example, in one of them, photographs were taken every hour for a year. In another, he lived in a cage completely isolated. In “Exposure”, the work registered in the exhibition, he develops the process of exposing photographic paper to the sun until it completely darkens.
Finally, the work of the Cuban artist Felix González-Torres, who died in 1996was hung in the Proa windows with all its instructions: “A pair (or pairs) of common light blue curtains should be installed simply, touching the floor and ideally covering all existing windows.” “If a beautiful memory could have a color, that color would be light blue,” the artist expressed regarding his vision.
This work closes the exhibition, illustrating like no other the idea of “Penumbra” suggested by the curator. “Almost identical word and concept in more than a dozen languages, ‘penumbra’ designates a space of perceptual uncertainty, of hesitation and suspension, where the form distends, the contours blur and the meaning refuses to close.”
Image gallery
