Christophe Cherix, Author at post

Hércules Barsotti’s Ink Drawings

Christophe Cherix — Wed, 05 Apr 2017 16:18:59 +0000

Twelve ink drawings by Hércules Barsotti explore a radical geometry and a systematic mode of working that, already in 1960, point to a new mode of working for the Brazilian artist.

This text was originally published under the theme “Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Research Institute for the Study of Art from Latin America.” The original content items in this theme can be found here.

Hércules Barsotti, Ink Drawing, 1960. Gift of Patricia Phelps de Cisneros through the Latin American and Caribbean Fund in honor of Werner H. [Wynn] Kramarsky. The Museum of Modern Art.

Hércules Barsotti, who belonged to a generation of great artists from Brazil, traveled extensively in Europe at multiple times, first in the late 1940s and then again throughout the 1950s, when he met a figure who would become foundational to his practice and those of many of his peers, Max Bill. In 1954 Barsotti opened a graphic design studio in São Paolo with his life partner Willys de Castro (whose achievements sometimes overshadowed his own), but he remained committed to his art. In the 1950s his work turned to a radical geometry that is devoid of any trace of his hand or brush and is simplified to the extreme.

Hércules Barsotti, Ink Drawing, 1960. Gift of Patricia Phelps de Cisneros through the Latin American and Caribbean Fund in honor of Werner H. [Wynn] Kramarsky. The Museum of Modern Art.

The twelve drawings coming to MoMA from the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros might be among his greatest works. Each drawing is made of two or three lines originating from either opposite angles or opposites edges of the paper. Upon closer inspection, you’ll see that these lines not only never intersect but also run parallel in their last segment, creating the impression of shifting planes. These works represent multiple variations of the same idea. As a whole, the series seems already to point to a new mode of working, in which the artist exhausted the possibilities generated by a system, an idea that would become increasingly popular among other artists in the second half of the 1960s.

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“Revolution Not Only In The Arts, But In Connection.” Interview with Vytautas Landsbergis

Christophe Cherix — Tue, 25 Aug 2015 21:02:00 +0000

Professor at the Lithuanian Conservatory of Music in Vilnius and scholar of the early 20th-century composer and painter Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, Vytautas Landsbergis connected with the international Fluxus community in the 1960s via his childhood friend George Maciunas. As a result, he corresponded also with Ken Friedman in California and Mieko Shiomi in Tokyo, and organized the first Fluxus Event in the USSR in 1966.

In this interview conducted during the C-MAP Fluxus group research trip to Vilnius in May 2012, Landsbergis – now a prominent Lithuanian politician and a member of European Parliament – speaks about his attraction to Fluxus as a mean to freer and more inventive thinking.

Vytautas Landsbergis speaks about his childhood friendship with George Maciunas and the later intercontinental correspondence between the two. He comments on Maciunas’ idea to expand Fluxus to USSR and also mentions musical inspirations important for both Maciunas and himself.

The idea behind the 1966 Fluxus Event in Vilnius, which was loosely based on instructions from La Monte Young’s “An Anthology”, was to do something uncommon, maybe even not understandable. Landsbergis discusses the preparation process, his other inspirations from within the Soviet Block, and the effect the event had on him and his students.

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“The Studio Is Myself”: Interview with Geta Brătescu

Christophe Cherix — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 15:46:00 +0000

Speaking with Christophe Cherix, The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Chief Curator of Prints and Illustrated Books, Geta Brătescu shares her understanding of drawing and speaks of the importance of personal space for her creative practice, offering an insight into her technique. She discusses her fascination with Charlie Chaplin, which led to the creation of her best-known film, Atelierul (The Studio, 1978), and describes her attraction to the figure of Medea, which is reflected in a series of lithographs and in extraordinary sewing-machine drawings she created in the 1980s.

The interview was conducted in Ms. Brătescu’s home studio in Bucharest in May 2012, during the C-MAP Fluxus group research trip to Romania.

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