"Art of Contradictions. Pop, Realisms and Politics. Brazil - Argentina 1960". Exhibition Press Kit

Cildo Meireles. Inserções em circuitos ideológicos. Projeto Coca-Cola, 1970. 3 botellas de vidrio, metal. 24,5 x 6 x 6 cm c/u. Col. privada, Río de Janeiro

Pop, Realisms and Politics. Brazil - Argentina
Curators: Paulo Herkenhoff / Rodrigo Alonso

Opening: Saturday, July 14, 2012
Until September 2012 

Starting on Saturday, July 14, Fundación Proa presents An Art of Contradictions. Pop, Realisms and Politics. Brazil – Argentina, 1960. Curated by Paulo Herkenhoff and Rodrigo Alonso, the exhibition evidences the effervescence of artists, as well as the challenges they faced, as they navigated the eagerness to modernize and the urgency of revolutionary struggles.

In the 1960s, a decade of deep changes, Brazil and Argentina developed their own vision of Pop Art. The icons of Che Guevara, Coca-Cola, and the dollar bill are images of resistance and struggle. The happening and participation art left institutional spaces behind to take to the spaces of daily life. Aesthetic practices partook of pop culture and the power of reality organized artistic experience. Experimentation was bound to commitment.

Pop, Realisms and Politics… brings together more than 100 works by 58 artists; it includes films, paintings, installations, drawings, documents, performances, and photographs belonging to outstanding museums and private collections.

The 300-page catalogue contains reproductions of the works in the exhibition, as well as previously unpublished texts by the curators and a dossier of essays and manifestos from the period. Gonzalo Aguilar provides a contextual framework and a timeline highlights the major events. More information:libreria@proa.org.

Pop, Realisms and Politics. Brazil – Argentina is made possible by the Lei de Incentivo à Cultura. Ministério da Cultura – Brasil and the Brazilian Embassy in Argentina, as well as the support of TenarisConfab – Organización Techint.

Artists
Maria Louise Alemann / Claudia Andujar / Artur Barrio / Luis Fernando Benedit  / Antonio Berni / Oscar Bony / Delia Cancela / Raymundo Colares / Waldemar Cordeiro / Eduardo Costa / Jorge de la Vega / Miguel de Lorenzi / Antonio Dias / León Ferrari / Nicolás García Uriburu / Anna Bella Geiger / Rubens Gerchmann / Edgardo Giménez / Carlos Gorriarena / Alberto Greco / Carmela Gross / Grupo REX / Alberto Heredia / Narcisa Hirsch / Roberto Jacoby / Kenneth Kemble / Wesley Duke Lee / Nelson Leirner / Rómulo Macció / Ivens Machado / Anna María Maiolino / Sameer Makarius / Antonio Manuel / Cildo Meireles / Walter Mejía / Pablo Menicucci / Manoel Messias / Marta Minujín / Montez Magno / Luis Felipe Noé / Hélio Oiticica / Lygia Pape / Federico Manuel Peralta Ramos / Décio Pignatari / Wanda Pimentel / Dalila Puzzovio / Glauco Rodrigues / Gilvan Samico / Rubén Santantonín / Maria do Carmo Secco / Antonio Seguí / Charlie Squirru / Pablo Suárez / Evandro Teixeira / Miguel Ángel Telechea / Claudio 
Tozzi / Carlos Vergara / Carlos Zilio

International Symposium 
August 10–11, 2012
Coordinators: Paulo Herkenhoff & Rodrigo Alonso
With the participation of international and local academics and artists.
For further information and to enroll, please contact: coloquio@proa.org.

Tour
Fundación Proa
Museu Oscar Niemeyer
Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo
Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro

León Ferrari. La civilización occidental y cristiana, 1965. Yeso, madera y óleo. 200 x 120 x 60 cm. Col. Alicia y León Ferrari, Buenos Aires. Fotografía: Ramiro Larraín. Cortesía de Fundación Augusto y León Ferrari. Arte y Acervo