Making Art Concrete - Works from Argentina and Brazil in the Coleccion Patricia Phelps Cisneros Pia Gottschaller, Aleca Le Blanc, Zanna Gilbert, Tom Learner, Andrew Perchuk

In the years after World War II, artists in Argentinaand Brazil experimented with geo- metric abstractionand engaged in lively debates about the role of theartwork in society. Some of these artists used novelsynthetic materials, creating objects that offered analternative to established traditions in painting-proposing that these objects become part ofeveryday, concrete reality. Combining art historicaland scientific analysis, experts from the GettyConservation Institute and Getty Research Instituteare collaborating with the Coleccio n Patricia Phelpsde Cisneros, a world-renowned collection of LatinAmerican art, to research the formal strategies andmaterial decisions of these artists working in theconcrete and neo-concrete vein.Making Art Concrete presents works by Lygia Clark,Willys de Castro, Judith Lauand, Rau l Lozza, Toma sMaldonado, He lio Oiticica, and Rhod Rothfuss, amongothers with new spectacular photography. Thephotographs, along with information about the now-invisible processes that determine the appearance ofthese works, are key to interpreting the artists' technical choices as well as the objects themselves. Indeed, this volume sheds further light on the social, political, and cultural underpinnings of the artists' propositions, making a compelling addition to the field of postwar Latin American art.

Pia Gottschaller is a senior research specialist at the Getty Conservation Institute. Aleca Le Blanc is assistant professor of art history at the University of California, Riverside. Zanna Gilbert is a research specialist at the Getty Research Institute. Tom Learner is head of science at the Getty Conservation Institute. Andrew Perchuk is deputy director of the Getty Research Institute.