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Waldemar Cordeiro
Brazilian, born Italy. 1925–1973 3 works onlineWhat is Concrete art? This is a question the charismatic artist and critic Waldemar Cordeiro spent his career answering. As a champion of the São Paulo–based artists adapting the principles of Constructivism in midcentury Brazil, Cordeiro wrote, painted, organized, and innovated around the possibilities of the term “concrete.
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Arte concreto (Brazilian Concrete art)
Two groups interested in Concrete art emerged in the 1950s in the rapidly industrializing country of Brazil. Based in both São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the artists connected to both groups, Grupo Frente and Grupo Ruptura, departed from both abstraction and figuration to create geometric works focused solely on the principles of color, line, and shape.
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Installation views
We have identified this work in the following photos from our exhibition history.
Provenance
The artist.
? - 1996, Sylvio Nery da Fonseca, Escritório de Arte, São Paulo.
1996 - 2016, Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, New York, and Caracas, purchased through Sylvio Nery da Fonseca, Escritório de Arte.
2016, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquired as promised gift from Patricia Phelps de Cisneros.
Exhibition history
São Paulo, Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo, "Waldemar Cordeiro uma aventura da rão", August 7 - September 7, 1986
Cambridge, Fogg Art Museum, "Geometric Abstraction, Latin American Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection / Abstracción Geométrica Arte Latinoamericano en la Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros", March 3 - November 4, 2001
Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, "Versiones del sur. Heterotopías. Medio Siglo sin - lugar: 1918 - 1968", December 12, 2000 - February 27, 2001
São Paulo, Museo de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, "Paralelos: Arte brasileira da segunda metade do século XX em contexto. Colección Cisneros ", March 21 - June 16, 2002 and tour:
Rio de Janeiro, Museo de Arte Moderna de Rio de Janeiro, July 11 - September 22, 2002
Houston, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, "Inverted Utopias. Avant- Garden Art in Latin America", June 20 - September 12, 2004
Austin, Blanton Museum of Art, "The Geometry of Hope. Latin american abstract art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros", February 20 - April 22, 2007 and tour:
New York, Grey Art Gallery, September 12 - December 8, 2007
Los Angeles, Getty Center, "Making Art Concrete: Works from Argentina and Brazil in the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros", September 16, 2017 - February 11, 2018
Stockholm, Moderna Museet, "Concrete Matters", February 24 - May 13, 2018
MoMA Exh. #2424: "Sur moderno: Journeys of Abstraction—The Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Gift", 3rd Floor, 3 East, October 21, 2019 - September 12, 2020
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