Combining art historical and scientific analysis, experts from the Getty Conservation Institute and Getty Research Institute have collaborated with the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros to examine the formal strategies and material choices of avant-garde painters and sculptors associated with the Concrete art movement in Argentina and Brazil. These works of geometric abstraction, created between 1946 and 1962, are presented alongside information on the way artists pioneered new techniques and materials.
This exhibition is part of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, a far reaching and ambitious exploration of Latin American and Latino art in dialogue with Los Angeles, taking place from September 2017 through January 2018 at more than 70 cultural institutions across Southern California. Pacific Standard Time is an initiative of the Getty. The presenting sponsor is Bank of America.
Explore all four Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA exhibitions at the Getty Center.
SELECTED WORKS
Events
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PUBLICATION
Making Art Concrete: Works from Argentina and Brazil in the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros
by Pia Gottschaller, Aleca Le Blanc, Zanna Gilbert (Editor), Thomas Learner (Editor), Andrew Perchuk (Editor)
Purchase this and other publications in the Getty Museum Store
AUDIO
Art + Ideas Podcast: The Making of an Exhibition
Check in with the team over the course of a year to hear how this exhibition came together.
Listen to the podcast
Videos
Breaking the FrameExplore how Concrete artists broke out of the traditional picture frame to create new irregular shapes.
Painting in an Industrial AgeWhy not use the full range of industrial paints in abstract art? Learn how Brazilian and Argentine artists experimented with new compounds.
The Challenge of a Straight LineSee how Concrete artists developed strategies for making perfectly straight, hand-drawn lines.
IN THE NEWS
The Art Newspaper
"Three to see: Los Angeles"
Three years of rigorous scientific research underpin the exhibition Making Art Concrete: Works from Argentina and Brazil in the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros at the Getty Center.
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Artnet
"How Curators Used LinkedIn, Ebay, and Moxie to Get Forgotten Treasures Into Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA"
The Getty Conservation Institute and the Getty Research Institute, meanwhile, worked with colleague institutions in Argentina and Brazil for three years to study the technical composition of works from the collection of Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, now on view in the exhibition “Making Art Concrete.”
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The Art Newspaper
"Cracked it! Getty exhibition unlocks the material secrets of Concrete Art"
Study of Latin American works from the Coleccíon Patricia Phelps de Cisneros reveals orientation shifts, household paint and ways to obtain that perfect edge.
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Folha de S. Paulo
"Equipe 'CSI' revela detalhes ocultos em telas de Oiticica e Geraldo de Barros"
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