Rhod Rothfuss Yellow Quadrangle 1955

  • MoMA, Floor 5, 512 The David Geffen Wing

“A painting should be something that begins and ends in itself,” Rothfuss wrote. With this cutout frame, the artist put his principle into practice: the yellow rectangle on the left juts out, and the support takes on the shape of the painting itself. While his work was indebted to that of Joaquín Torres-García and to European abstract artists such as Mondrian, Rothfuss was also influenced by vernacular practices. The alkyd resin present in this work was also used by the artist to create floats for carnival parades in his native Montevideo.

Gallery label from Sur moderno: Journeys of Abstraction—The Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Gift, October 21, 2019–March 14, 2020
Medium
Alkyd and gouache on board
Dimensions
14 9/16 × 13" (37 × 33 cm)
Credit
Gift of Patricia Phelps de Cisneros through the Latin American and Caribbean Fund in honor of Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro
Object number
861.2016
Department
Painting and Sculpture

Installation views

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Provenance

The artist.
? - 2010, Galería Palatina, Buenos Aires.
2010 - 2016, Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, New York, and Caracas, purchased through Galería Palatina.
2016, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquired as promised gift from Patricia Phelps de Cisneros.

Exhibition history

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

MoMA Exh. #2462: “Collection: 1880s-1940s”, 5th Floor, gallery 512, “Circle and Square, Joaquin Torres-Garcia and Piet Mondrian”, November 14, 2020 -

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