Myra Landau at the MUAC and the art of sensitive geometry

The exhibition “Sensitive Geometry” rediscovers Landau’s work and its impact on Latin American art. It also advocates for greater visibility for female artists
Myra Landau approached geometry as an extension of the body, developing a “sensitive geometry” that challenges the rigid conventions of art. Her strokes, executed freehand, seem to breathe, endowed with an organic movement in which gesture and corporality merge in each work.

This work found its place at the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC) with the exhibition Myra Landau. Sensitive Geometry. Although Landau was a little-known figure in Mexico, her work has been rediscovered in this monographic exhibition that highlights her deep connection with Latin American art and her radically experimental spirit.

In an interview with Reporte Índigo, curator Pilar García explains that the exhibition, which can be visited until February 2025, is the result of more than a decade of dedication to the artist's work and the questioning of why, despite her undeniable talent, Landau was marginalized from the Mexican artistic canon, historically dominated by male figures.
“The idea arose when, together with Cuauhtémoc Medina and Olivier Debroise, we organized the exhibition The Age of Discrepancy in 2007. I was interested in exploring the work of Landau, a little-known artist who was not included in the circle of geometric artists in Mexico. It was a mystery to understand why Myra Landau had been made invisible in the artistic canon, especially when her work enriched the field of abstraction from a unique sensibility,” she explains.
Her vindication with female artists

The research process, which included the collaboration of Landau's daughter and access to her personal archive, allowed the reconstruction of her time in Mexico and her international contributions. This collaboration was crucial, since the artist's archive contained photographs, letters and works that contextualize her importance at a national and international level.

"The exhibition is a journey through more than 60 years of production, both in our country and in the nations in which she lived and worked, with the purpose of inserting her in the Mexican and Latin American cultural context," says the curator of the MUAC Artistic Collection.

The paintings included were worked with pastel on raw linen and are geometric abstractions created freehand, whose plots recall traditional textiles, pentagrams or labyrinths. They are presented together for the first time.

From the time in Brazil, works related to optical liberations, characteristic of the art of that country, are exhibited.

"The exhibition is mounted chronologically, which allows us to observe the changes and Landau's constant search for experimentation. Her geographical movements also reflect a change in her plastic languages towards new forms of abstraction,” García mentions.

The title of the exhibition refers to the notion used by the Brazilian critic Roberto Pontual in the collective exhibition Geometria sensível in 1978 to talk about a form of abstraction that moves away from the hard line and the rigorous compass.

Although this exhibition is a first step to rescue her legacy, there is still much to investigate, especially around her poetic production, which is also mentioned in the exhibition through artist books.

“What Myra does is enrich the field of geometricism with a sensitive geometry, more gestural and with the body involved in the creation. Through large canvases, her strokes invite the viewer's body to enter the painting, a quality that makes a difference in the geometric art we know. Landau's work challenges rigid geometry and connects with Latin American art, particularly with Brazilian concretism,” she adds.
The exhibition also seeks to make visible other female artists who, like Landau, have been relegated or underrepresented in art collections. “It is a grain of sand to build an art history where women have a greater presence,” says García.

“This monographic exhibition is the first dedicated exclusively to her visual career and the MUAC has been interested for more than 10 years in making visible the work of so many women who have been hidden in the History of Art,” explains the curator.
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