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Waldemar Cordeiro. Visible Idea. 1956. Alkyd on board, 23 9/16 × 23 5/8" (59.9 × 60 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Patricia Phelps de Cisneros through the Latin American and Caribbean Fund
  • MoMA, Floor 4, 421 The David Geffen Galleries

Concrete and Neo-Concrete artists in mid-century Brazil explored how the elements of a composition could challenge perception. Between the urban centers of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, these groups debated whether an artist’s hand should be visible and how abstract forms should be experienced. An artwork, wrote the critic Ferreira Gullar, is “a special object through which a synthesis of sensorial and mental experiences is intended to take place.”

Trained in graphic arts, advertising, and industrial design, the artists in this gallery drew from mathematical principles to render precise geometries. Playing with line, blocks of color, and sometimes even text, these experiments in composition are rhythmic and unstable, producing a sense of movement meant to be not only seen, but also felt.

Organized by Inés Katzenstein, Curator of Latin American Art and Director of the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Research Institute, with Julia Detchon and Rachel Rosin, Curatorial Assistants, Department of Drawings and Prints.

8 works online

Support for the exhibition is provided by the Annual Exhibition Fund. Leadership contributions to the Annual Exhibition Fund, in support of the Museum’s collection and collection exhibitions, are generously provided by Jerry I. Speyer and Katherine G. Farley, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, the Sandra and Tony Tamer Exhibition Fund, the Kate W. Cassidy Foundation, Alice and Tom Tisch, the Marella and Giovanni Agnelli Fund for Exhibitions, The Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art, Eva and Glenn Dubin, Mimi Haas, The David Rockefeller Council, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz, Kenneth C. Griffin, The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art, Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis, and Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder. Major funding is provided by The Sundheim Family Foundation.

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