Finding Form: Informalismo and Mid-Century Trends in Global Abstraction

Please click the link to register for this Zoom event.

This event brings together Pepe Karmel (New York University), Megan Sullivan (University of Chicago), and Ana Maria Franco (Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá) for three presentations and a panel discussion facilitated by the curators of this year's Duke House Exhibition at the Institute of Fine Arts, titled Kenneth Kemble and Silvia Torras: The Formative Years 1956-63.

The presentations will offer greater insight and context into the formal and political dimensions of Informalist practices in Argentina and the greater region of Latin America, highlighting hemispheric connections in gestural abstraction at the time.

The related exhibition highlights a decisive period in the intertwined, yet individual, practices of the two Argentine Informalist artists against the backdrop of their personal, romantic relationship. Curated by graduate students Clara Maria Apostolatos, Martina Lentino, Nicasia Solano, and Juul Van Haver, the exhibition is open February 23–May 27, 2022 at the James B. Duke House. Click this link to learn more about the exhibition.

The Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) provided funding and extensive archival and research support with special assistance from Julieta Kemble. The paintings on view are on loan from the ISLAA collection.