Radical Geometry: Modern Art of South America from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection

A surprisingly good exhibition at the Royal Academy looking at abstract art in South America in the early 20th century.

If you read me a lot (I’ll be amazed if anyone does!) you’ll know I’m not keen on abstract art so I came to this because I go to everything and you can always learn, but found I really liked it! I think it was because it was all logical and geometric so the pieces often had a calm simplicity. It made me start to understand how abstract art is partly about show colour and space work together. I would recommend the tape tour as the commentaries on the pictures were quite short and learned a lot more from listening to the tape. The leaflet was very extensive but actually too dense to read as you went round.

The two artists who came out of it best for me where both women. I liked the work of Lygia Clark from Brazil starting with a lovely painting of multi-coloured squares and rectangles which my eye seemed to see as a green picture. She also did sculptures made of a flat hinged piece of metal which could then be changed into different shapes depending how you folded it. I would have loved to have played with them! I also liked Calder like hanging sculptures by Gego, a female Jewish refugee to Venezuela. These were not only lovely int heir own right but cast beautiful shadows round the room.

Star piece thoguh had to be “Nylon Cube” by Jesus Soto which was a cube of nylon strands packed together. As you looked through it contorted your view of the world and made works behind it seem to move. However if you found the right spot and looked between strands you got a very clear focused view of the room.

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