Arcane Candy

Wednesday, August 7, 2019
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Minimalismo, Posminimalismo y Conceptualismo ’60 – ’70 at the Fundacion Proa in La Boca, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Bruce Nauman, My Last Name Exaggerated Fourteen Times Vertically, (1967) at the Fundacion Proa in La Boca, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Bruce Nauman, Playing a Note on the Violin While I Walk Around the Studio, (1967-’68) at the Fundacion Proa in La Boca, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Today, I hopped on bus number 64 and headed back over to La Boca to check out an exhibition called Minimalismo, Posminimalismo y Conceptualismo ’60 – ’70 at an art museum called the Fundacion Proa. (The day before, the museum was closed, but I spotted legendary names like Dan Flavin, Sol LeWitt and Bruce Nauman plastered all over the front of the place, so I knew I just had to return.) In the first room was Bruce Nauman with some weird and wonderful videos of minimal performance art made in the late 1960s. In one flick from 1967-’68, he walked around his art studio playing one droning note on the violin a la Tony Conrad, which was an awesome thing to see and hear. Bruce cites minimal music composer La Monte Young as one of his biggest influences, so it all makes sense.

Fred Sandback, untitled, at the Fundacion Proa in La Boca, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Sol LeWitt, Modular Floor Structure, (1966-’68) at the Fundacion Proa in La Boca, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing #332, (2019) at the Fundacion Proa in La Boca, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Next up was Fred Sandback with some spare meditations on the triangle via various framed drawings, as well as installations featuring simple giant pyramids made out of thin cloth lines pulled taut from floor to ceiling. Sol LeWitt’s room was filled with wall drawings and sculptures based on simple geometric shapes that are always a sobering pleasure to view. Up on the second floor was a room full of Dan Flavin’s spare florescent tube sculptures, which always cast a stark, almost eerie glow. Overall, Minimalismo, Posminimalismo y Conceptualismo ’60 – ’70 was a tour de force of American minimalism of the 1960s. It was so great to see some of the original creators of that style, rather than derivative works from later and lesser imitators.

Sol LeWitt, Serial Project ABCD 5, (1968) at the Fundacion Proa in La Boca, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Dan Flavin, Untitled (to Donna) 6, (1971) at the Fundacion Proa in La Boca, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Dan Flavin, untitled, at the Fundacion Proa in La Boca, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Next, I visited El Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, a huge museum that could easily host several different shows simultaneously, and in fact, it did. The first, Una Historia de la Imaginacion en la Argentina, “is a story of imagination in Argentina, a journey through time and territory. As if they were small rivers that branch and cross wide regions, the exhibition’s sections cover various visual motifs that arise in our soil and are, even today, reworked from a repertoire of shapes, repetitions and updates. The exhibition includes more than 250 works of art, from the 18th century to the present, from three different geographies: the Argentine Pampas, the Coast and the Northwest. Three axes are based on each of these geographies: nature, the female body and violence.”

Calixto Mamani, Talla en Madera, at El Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Marcelo Pombo, Inundacion Con Arbol, Nido y Cuadro, (2006) at El Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Antonio Berni, La Torre Eiffel en la Pampa, (1930) at El Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The second show I caught was called, The Unrelenting Flame. “Two years after the foundation of the Museo de Arte Moderno, this exhibition celebrates the history of its legacy and the museum itself. With 300 works of art by more than 100 artists, The Unrelenting Flame presents important compilations of works brought together over many years thanks to the tenacity, labor and conviction of the directors, collaborators, organizations, artists and friends who are committed to building a home for the various contemporary artistic manifestations that are being developed in Buenos Aires and in Argentina. All of them were guided by a single desire: to recognize new developments and take a bold risk on constructing an avant-garde public institution in constant transformation, always allied with the artistic community.”

Cesareo Bernaldo de Quiros, Los Degolladores, (1926) at El Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Luis Teran, Espiral, (2013-’18) at El Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Mario Pucciarelli, Moka, (1959); and Luis Alberto Wells, Jerry que fue Nathaniel, at El Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The third and final show I squeezed in right before closing time was called Quién es Esa Chica?, which focused on digital works made by local artist, Flavia da Rin. Comprised mostly of self-portraits that Flavia distorted, manipulated and painted over in Illustrator and Photoshop, the pieces are at once humorous and unsettling. Often featuring young girls goofing off in front of austere backdrops straight out of a Renaissance painting, the works evoke a kind of haute couture parody.

Flavia da Rin, El Misterio del Niño Muerto, (2008) at El Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Flavia da Rin, Una Fiesta Para Sacudirse el Terror del Mundo, (2010) at El Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Words and photos ©2019 Arcane Candy.

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