Escuela de Arquitectura, Universidad Católica de Valparaíso / Manuel Casanueva Carrasco

This is a monumental exhibition conceived and curated by the director of the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, Victoria Noorthoorn, the Moderno’s Senior Curator Javier Villa, and the curator of the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt (MMK), Klaus Görner. Having opened on 24 November 2017 at the MMK in Frankfurt it will run to 2 April 2018, after which it will be moving to Buenos Aires, where it will run between July and October, taking up the entire expanded Moderno building.

Anna Maria Maiolino, Entrevidas, 1981, 2017 / Installation MMK

Arman (Armand Pierre Fernandez), White Orchid, 1963

Lygia Clark, Bicho De Bolso, 1966

The exhibition places masterpieces from the Frankfurt collection in a deep and meaningful dialogue with key works of Latin American art from the past five decades, made between 1940 and 1989. In all, there will be 500 artworks from private and public collections made by 117 artists and collectives from Latin America, the USA and Europe.

This exhibition is a landmark event: it is the first time that a European collection with prominent, canonical works from the history of western art has been reconsidered from the perspective of the history of art in Latin America.

Antonio Caro / Jasper Johns

Kemble Gran, Pintura Negra, 1960

Luis Camnitzer / Francis Bacon

Arthur Bispo do Rosário and Alighiero Boetti / Installlation MMK

The MMK collection thus becomes fertile ground for debate and exploration of the different languages, strategies and ideological positions that have arisen during the passage from modern to contemporary art made by artists from Latin America, the United States and Europe. This transition is reflected in the different intellectual discourses and coincidences between artists from different latitudes as well as the various contrasts, challenges and tensions throughout their distinct histories. The conceptual framework identifies surprising new parallels between artists from the different continents who may have had little contact with one another but whose work went along similar lines, as can be seen, for instance, with Lygia Clark and Franz Erhard Walther. Meanwhile, some artists shared cities, periods and conceptual approaches, as was the case with artists such as Alberto Greco, Yves Klein, Ben Vautier and Piero Manzoni. Other artists, like León Ferrari and Tomás Bayrle, shared notable similarities but never met, while still others enjoyed an enriching antagonistic relationship such as that seen between Beatriz González and Claes Oldenburg. The exhibition offers many examples of on-going, enlightening dialogue between two worlds that benefitted the cultural identity of both continents under the premise that a large part of our identity is based on how we position ourselves, talk to one another and think about the other.

Cildo Meireles

Luis Felipe Noé / Gego (foreground) Installation MMK

Charlotte Posenenske, Vierkantrohre, Serie D, 1967

Both the artists and their cultural contexts have been in constant dialogue from the post-war period onwards but it is rare that histories of art written in the north acknowledge this exchange or the way they have mutually influenced one another. A Tale of Two Worlds is thus a means of setting the record straight and also offers the potential to bring a wealth of new ideas to European and North American discourse about art in Latin America. The exhibition positions Latin American art not as a footnote in artistic discourses focusing on the north but as a central feature of artistic practice, offering innovative and complex new ideas that illuminate the history of art, answering a vital need to shift the focus away from programmatic approaches and back to specific contexts.

Yente, Untitled, 1948-1949 / Installation MMK

Alejandro Puente / Ulises Carrión

Lucio Fontana, Concetto Spaziale, I Quanta, 1960

This exhibition at the Moderno will feature artworks by the following artists: Adolfo Bernal, Albert Georg Riethausen, Alberto Greco, Alberto Heredia, Aldo Sessa, Alejandro Puente, Alfredo Hlito, Alighiero Boetti, Ana Mendieta, Andy Warhol, Anna Maria Maiolino, Antonio Caro, Antonio Vigo, Arman, Arte Destructivo, Artur Bispo de Rosário, Artur Barrio, Augusto de Campos, Barry Le va, Beatriz González, Ben Vautier, Blinky Palermo, Bruce Nauman, Carmelo Arden Quin, Charlotte Posenenske, Cildo Meireles, Claes Oldenburg, Cy Twombly, David Lamelas, Eduardo Gil, Edward Ruscha, Escuela de Valparaíso, Flavio de Carvalho, Francis Bacon, Franz Erhard Walther, Franz Mon, Fred Sandback, Gego, Geraldo de Barros, Gerhard Richter, Gerry Schum, Grete Stern, Gyula Kosice, Heinz Kreutz, Hélio Oiticica, Hermann Goepffert, Jasper Johns, Jesús Ruiz Durand, John Chamberlain, Joseph Beuys, Juan del Prete, Juan Downey, Juan Melé, Juan Andrés Bello, Karl Otto Götz, Kenneth Kemble, Kenneth Noland, Lenora de Barros, León Ferrari, Leopoldo Maler, Lidy Prati, Liliana Maresca, Liliana Porter, Lothar Baumgarten, Lotty Rosenfeld, Lucio Fontana, Luis Camnitzer, Luis Felipe Noé, Luis Pazos, Lygia Clark, Lygia Pape, Manuel Millares, Marcel Broodthaers, Marcel Duchamp, Marcel Gautherot, Margarita Paksa, Marta Minujín, Martin Blaszko, Mathias Goeritz, Mira Schendel, Nicolás García Uriburu, On Kawara, Oscar Bony, Otto Greis, Pablo Suárez, Paul Almásy, Peter Roehr, Piero Manzoni, Raul Lozza, Rhod Rothfuss, Ricardo Carreira, Roy Lichtenstein, Rubén Santantonín, Teresa Burga, Thomas Bayrle, Thomas Farkas, Tomás Maldonado, Ulises Carrión, Víctor Grippo, Walter De Maria, Willys De Castro, Yente and Yves Klein.

A Tale of Two Worlds
July 13 – October 14, 2018 / Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires
Please visit the exhibition page >