This essay is adapted from a lecture on the strategies of dissidence in East German art by curator Christoph Tannert, who met with members of the C-MAP Central and Eastern European group on June 3, 2016 during a research trip to Berlin.
Curator Luis Pérez-Oramas considers the roots of the classicizing and modernist impulses in the work of Joaquín Torres-García. The essay examines a driving paradox of the artist’s work–the will to be modern while working against the grain of modernity–following episodes in his life, writings, and works. This is the second part of three. Torres’s first…
Cuban artist Tania Bruguera uses performance as a means to interrogate relations of power and control, particularly in regards to the history of Cuba. Untitled (Havana 2000), a pivotal work in Bruguera’s career, has been recently acquired by MoMA. In this text, Elvis Fuentes discusses the importance of the piece and comments on the peculiarities of the…
Sabih Ahmad shares his thoughts on considering practices from the ground up and looking to lateral associations.
This interview featuring Asia Art Archive (AAA) Senior Researcher Sabih Ahmed is part of post’s new theme Challenging the Global: C-MAP Experts Respond to 5 Questions. Here, Ahmed shares his thoughts on considering practices from the ground up and looking to lateral associations.
Curator Luis Pérez-Oramas considers the roots of the classicizing and modernist impulses in the work of Joaquín Torres-García. The essay examines a driving paradox of the artist’s work–the will to be modern while working against the grain of modernity–following episodes in his life, writings, and works. This is the first of three parts. In the…
Artist and architect Simón Hosie presents some of his very unique projects in Colombia ranging from community based architecture to innovations in design and policy making. “If you want to be somebody in this life, you have to know how to get ahead.” — Marina Rodríguez, Ciudad Bolívar Marina Rodríguez lives in Ciudad Bolívar, in the…
Preservation and reuse drive the art-driven adaptation of nineteenth- and twentieth-century architecture in cities across India, including Kochi, Goa, Mumbai. This essay explores how such sites can be spaces not just of preservation but of alternative making and institutional critique. From the 1960s revival of SoHo in downtown Manhattan to the 2009 opening of the Sharjah…
Geaninne Gutiérrez-Guimarães discusses the disillusionment that led Modernist painter Joaquín Torres-García to leave New York as well as the city’s lasting influence on his artmaking and his continued ties to North America in this biographical essay. Second part of two. Despite these exhibitions, his circle of prosperous friends, and his significant connections to artists and…
Photography provided a guaranteed witness to the burgeoning genre of performance art in the 1960s, when restrictions in Socialist societies sometimes created a far different relationship between performance and documentation than in the West. Art historian Amy Bryzgel highlights several key works of Central and Eastern Europeanperformance art from the MoMA Collection. Artists have been…
Professor Edward Sullivan reminds us that the Caribbean is a cultural space that exceeds its geographic borders and that has been global well before our current understanding of globality.
Geaninne Gutiérrez-Guimarães recounts Modernist painter Joaquín Torres-García’s years in New York, the strong influence of the metropolis on the development of his style, and his connections and successes in the American art scene in this biographical essay. First part of two. Each era has its own art. All of the classics have been contemporary in…
