Bringing the past into the present through art at MoMa

Post-war Latin American design finds a place among the greats of MoMA

new York (EFE).- Among Picassos, Van Goghs and Warhols, a Totonaca chair by the Mexican designer Clara Porset suddenly appears, or a ceramic tableware by Colette Boccara from Argentina: these are some of the objects that make up a new exhibition on design Latin American at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA), and thus find a prominent place in modernity.

The exhibition, 'Crafting Modernity: Design in Latin America, 1940-1980', proposes a tour of six countries on the continent, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and Chile, which sought to adapt native materials and techniques to the most avant-garde currents. design.

Bringing the past into the present through art at MoMa
“Trying to bring together Latin America as a whole is complicated,” Ana Elena Mallet, guest curator and person responsible for organizing the exhibition, confessed to EFE.

Even so, the expert argued that these six countries shared in the decades after the Second World War an idea of modernity, a period "of progress through industrialization" marked by the search for a middle class that would serve to improve life conditions.

People look at pieces from the exhibition 'Crafting Modernity: Design in Latin America, 1940-1980' at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) in New York. EFE/EPA/SARAH YENESEL
People look at pieces from the exhibition 'Crafting Modernity: Design in Latin America, 1940-1980' at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) in New York. EFE/Sarah Yenesel
This idea is what welcomes visitors to the exhibition through a phrase by Clara Porset, which serves to open the exhibition:

“Design is only a result; Its purpose is to cooperate in raising the general standard of living, bringing efficiency and art to the daily circumstances of each one.”

It is in the emphasis on daily life where the exhibition finds its most solid anchoring. Through a series of chairs, armchairs, sets of dishes and other furniture, the visitor takes a walk through the years and countries, learning about some figures of art that are not usually seen in museums, particularly in the United States.

“Working in this museum has been one of the greatest privileges,” explained Mallet, who particularly highlighted his pride in being able to bring to New York the Loma Verde rug by Gego (Gertrud Goldschmidt), a huge piece that bears the name of a condominium building in Caracas (Venezuela).

Screenings to accompany
Along with the pieces on display at the MoMa, those responsible decided to install a series of projections that show these objects in their original environment, adorning some of the beautiful houses designed by Latin American architects in the postwar period.

The Totonaca chair by Porset, in the family residence of Enrique Yáñez, in Mexico, or the armchairs by Miguel Arroyo, in the Pampatar House of Alfredo Boulton, in Venezuela, are invested with presence and solidity by becoming the center of brilliant modernist rooms .