Sur moderno: Journeys of Abstraction?The Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Gift. October 21, 2019 – March 14, 2020. The Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art announced that it has received a major gift from the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, which will add more than 100 works of modern art by major artists from Latin America to the Museum’s collection, and establish the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Research Institute for the Study of Art from Latin America. The Cisneros Institute will be dedicated to an expansive approach to the study and interpretation of modern and contemporary art from Latin America.
The gift includes 102 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, made between the 1940s and the 1990s by 37 artists working in Brazil, Venezuela, and the Río de la Plata region of Argentina and Uruguay, including Lygia Clark, Hélio Oiticica, Lygia Pape, Jesús Rafael Soto, Alejandro Otero, and Tomás Maldonado. They join 40 works previously given by Patricia and Gustavo Cisneros over the last 16 years; Mrs. Cisneros is a longtime MoMA Trustee and a member of several acquisitions and funding committees, including the Latin American and Caribbean Fund, of which she is chairman and founder.
The Cisneros Institute, to be located on MoMA’s Midtown Manhattan campus, will offer opportunities for curatorial research and travel, host visiting scholars and artists, convene an annual international conference, and produce research publications on art from Latin America. It is poised to become the preeminent research center in the field, building on MoMA’s history of collecting, exhibiting, and studying the art and artists of the region, dating back to 1931. Today, MoMA’s collection includes more than 5,000 works by artists from Latin America.
The breadth of this gift is unprecedented, and the accompanying research initiative devoted to the study of the works and their integration into the overall narrative of modern art will greatly enrich MoMA’s collection and scholarly activities. As an integral program of The Museum of Modern Art, the Cisneros Institute represents a singular commitment to the region, and will foster intensive research on and engagement with the region’s art and artists.
For more information and a full list of works, please visit: www.moma.org/collection/works/groups/cisneros
