NYAB Event - “Moderno: Design for Living in Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela, 1940-1978” Exhibition

“Moderno: Design for Living in Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela, 1940-1978” Exhibition

Americas Society

This event has ended.

Latin American modern design in the mid-20th-century, one of the region’s most innovative chapters, is the focus of Moderno: Design for Living in Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela, 1940-1978, on view at Americas Society February 11 to May 16, 2015 in New York City. Guest curated by Maria Cecilia Loschiavo dos Santos, Ana Elena Mallet, and Jorge Rivas Pérez and accompanied by a fully illustrated hardcover catalogue (Ed. Santillana) and a one-day-international symposium, the exhibition features for the first time a body of artwork that reflects the dialogue and the complexity in the creation of modern interiors in Latin America at a time of rapid modernization.

Looking into the tradition of craftsman design and documenting the transition from craftsmanship to industry, Moderno brings together around 80 pieces of one-of-a-kind and mass-produced household objects including furniture, ceramics, metalwork, textiles, and printed material, the majority of which has never been exhibited before. It provides a transversal reading of the domestic design landscape across countries and a window into the mind of designers creating living environments that were influential as well as influenced by international modern design.

“This exhibition shows that by the mid-20th century, Latin American designers were aware of the international developments in architecture and design but at the same time were creating living environments in accordance with the cultural customs of the individuals using them,” says co-curator Jorge Rivas Pérez, a Venezuelan design historian and designer. “In a radical departure from post-colonial notions, designers in the region were producing a modern interior that was at the same time local and global.”
View a selection of the exhibition pieces here.
Sheltered from the overall destruction of World War II, Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela entered an expansive period of economic growth in the late 1940s and 1950s, which resulted in the modernization of the city and the extended application of international visual vocabularies. Although each country had unique social, political, and economic specificities, modernization was fervently embraced as a vehicle for progress, and design was endorsed as an agent for development. Under these conditions, change started at home, and the domestic environment became a laboratory for experimenting with modern ideas.

“The concept of sustainability was coined in the 1970s, but the relationship between material and environment is a thread pioneered by Latin American designers since the early 1940s. They had a dialogue with international traditions but also developed their own language,” explains co-curator Maria Cecilia Loschiavo dos Santos, philosopher and tenured professor at the University of São Paulo´s School of Architecture and Urbanism. “In this exhibition we show the power of the domestic landscape in Latin America from the perspective of three countries, looking with fresh eyes and learning from the real voices of designers about the ideas of modernization that took place in the continent.”

Moderno: Design for Living in Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela, 1940-1978 features objects by designers Miguel Arroyo (1920-2004), Michael Van Beuren (1911-2004), Lina Bo Bardi (1914-1992), Geraldo de Barros (1923-1998), José Carlos Bornancini (1923-2008), José Zanine Caldas (1918-2001), Los Castillo (f. 1934), Gego (Gertrude Goldschmidt, 1912-1984), Cristina Merchán (1926-1987), Clara Porset (1932-1981), Nelson Ivan Petzold (b. 1931), Sergio Rodrigues (1927-2014), Cynthia Sargent (1922-2006), William Spratling (1900-1967), Don Shoemaker (1912-1990), Joaquim Tenreiro (1906-1992), Felix Tissot (1909-1989, Tecla Tofano (1927-1995), Pedro Ramirez Vásquez (1919-2013), María Luisa Zuloaga de Tovar (1902-1992), Seka Severin de Tudja (1923-2007), Cornelis Zitman (b. 1926), and Jorge Zalszupin (b. 1922).

“Design and photography have been the blind spots of Latin American modernisms as they were systematically excluded from survey shows on the avant-gardes in the last decade. Moderno is an overdue case study approach of the central role of design, as a laboratory for ideas of progress and social engineering that shaped processes of modernization in Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela in the post war,” says Americas Society Chief Curator and Visual Arts Director Gabriela Rangel.

Drawn from public and private collections, designers’ archives, and family foundations, Moderno also explores the significant role of women in modern design in Latin America, and discusses developmental policies and political imperatives that impacted design and its mechanisms of distribution. “In post-revolutionary Mexico design was a state project, a way to incorporate the indigenous population into the system, either psychically or symbolically,” says co-curator Ana Elena Mallet, Mexican independent writer and curator specialized in contemporary art and design. “The tension between traditional and contemporary design is present in Mexico’s design throughout the entire 20th century.”

Moderno: Design for Living in Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela, 1940-1978, is accompanied by an extensive illustrated catalogue which includes essays by the guest curators, Luis Castañeda, Lourdes Blanco Fombona, Gabriela Rangel, and Christina De León as well as unpublished documents and photographs on visual culture and design from Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela from the 1940s to the 1960s.

A one-day international symposium organized by the department of Visual Arts at Americas Society in collaboration with the guest curators will be held on February 12, 2015, featuring prestigious scholars in the fields of design and architecture such as Zeuler Lima, Patricio del Real, and Luis Castañeda, and the contemporary artist Jill Magit. The symposium will examine modern Latin American design within a global context, debating the role of the domestic space as a place to project new aesthetic ideas that made visible the emergence of a professional class with democratic aspirations. A series of public programs, including guided tours and panel discussions will provide general audiences with a deeper insight on the topics explored in the exhibition. Bauhaus and Modern Mexico. Design by Van Beuren, a publication by Ana Elena Mallet (Arquine, Mexico City, 2014) with a contribution by Barry Bergdoll will be presented at the symposium. Brazilian Modern Furniture, a book by Maria Cecilia Loschiavo dos Santos (Olhares, São Paulo, 2015) will be also presented. Following its staging at Americas Society in New York City, the exhibition will travel to other venues in the United States and abroad, including the Blanton Museum in Austin, Texas.

PUBLIC PROGRAMS

SYMPOSIUM: THE INVENTION OF THE MODERN DOMESTIC SPACE IN LATIN AMERICA: DESIGN, ART, AND ARCHITECTURE, 1940-1978
Thursday, February 12, 2015
11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Hunter College
View map
Free admission. Prior registration required.
In this one-day international symposium panelists will discuss the current state of Latin American design, the influence of the home on the field, and case studies on exciting design initiatives in Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela. Symposium speakers will include Luis Castañeda, Pat Kirkham, Zeuler Lima, Maria Cecilia Loschiavo, Ana Elena Mallet, Rodrigo Queiroz, Americas Society’s Gabriela Rangel, Patricio del Real, and Jorge Rivas.

EXHIBITION TOUR
Tuesday, March 17
6:30 p.m.
Guest Curator Jorge Rivas will lead a guided tour of the exhibition.

EXHIBITION TOUR
Tuesday, April 16
6:30 p.m.
Guest Curator Jorge Rivas will lead a guided tour of the exhibition.

Guest Curators Maria Cecilia Loschiavo dos Santos, Ana Elena Mallet, Jorge Rivas Pérez

Media

• Architecture
• Furniture
• Other

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