Un tournant | A turning point
Antonio Asis, Martha Boto, Hugo De Marziani, Horacio Garcia Rossi, Gregorio Vardanega
July 14 - August 29, 2015
![Gregorio Vardanega, Multiplication Electonique III [Edition of 2], 1966. Wood, Plexiglas, bulbs, and motor, 35 1/4 x 35 1/4 x 10 in. (89.5 x 89.5 x 25.5 cm.)](https://img.artlogic.net/w_472,h_472,c_limit/exhibit-e/5ab12bb7a09a72340a8b4568/e4a776aab47f2ba82cd2e8adb9b7a668.jpeg)
![Gregorio Vardanega, Développement d’un carré dans le nombre d’or [Alternative title: Spirales Spatiales blanche], 1954-60. Metal, wire, Plexiglas, 27 5/8 x 15 3/4 in. (70.2 x 40 cm.)](https://img.artlogic.net/w_472,h_472,c_limit/exhibit-e/5ab12bb7a09a72340a8b4568/de836e50315f1656d319d473aed065b8.jpeg)
GREGORIO VARDANEGA (1923 - 2007, Italy/France)
Born in Possagno Italy, Gregorio Vardanega’s family relocated to Buenos Aires when he was three years old. As a young man, he studied in the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes (1939-1946) in Buenos Aires, and graduated as professor of drawing. In 1946, he participated in the exhibitions organized by the Asociación Arte Concreto-Invención, and two years later, he traveled with Carmelo Arden Quin to Europe. The trip was an important moment in the artist's formation; a year later, he showed work at the Salon de Amérique latine in Paris, and this exhibition put him in contact with the important figures involved in Paris’s growing kinetic movement, including Denise René, Georges Vantongerloo, Nicolas Pevsner, Sonia Delaunay, Max Bill, and Constantin Brancusi. When he returned to Buenos Aires, he began making his earliest kinetic works, using metal bands and celluloid.
At the center of many of Argentina’s avant-garde artistic circles, Vardanega was a founding member of the Asociación Arte Nuevo in 1955 and, the following year, of Artistas No Figurativos Argentinos (ANFA). In 1957, he was included in the group exhibition 14 Pintores abstractos at the Galatea gallery in Buenos Aires. He received the gold medal in the International Exposition in Brussels in 1957, and was included in the IV São Paulo Bienal.
In 1959, Vardanega moved to Paris with Martha Boto, and began experimenting with Plexiglas spheres, illuminated with moving projections of colored lights. All of his subsequent work explored the aesthetic of light, movement, color, and electronic programs. He was especially drawn to the cultural phenomena of machines that “think.” As did many kinetic artists, Vardanega thought of his work as in dialogue with architecture and urban planning. He hoped his towers and light works would be accompanied by music and other modes of performative work; he considered many of the sculptures to be prototypes for large-scale public projects. His first major exhibition in Paris, Chromocinétisme (1964), was a two-person show with Boto at the Maison des Beaux-Arts. His work has subsequently been included in numerous important surveys of kinetic art.
Vardanega died in Paris in 2007.
2017 | Kinesthesia: Latin American Kinetic Art, 1954–1969 - Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Spring, CA |
| An Open Mind, Maddox Arts, London, UK |
2015 | Un tournant | A turning point: Antonio Asis, Martha Boto, Horacio García Rossi, Hugo De Marziani, Gregorio Vardanega, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA |
| 60 ans de Mouvement, 1ères Générations, Galerie Denise René, Paris, France |
2013 | Dynamo: A Century of Light and Motion in Art, 1913-2013, RMN – Grand Palais, Paris, France |
2012 | Constructed Dialogues: Concrete, Geometric and Kinetic Art from the Latin American Collection, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), Houston, TX, USA |
| Real/Virtual, Arte Cinético Argentino de los Años Sesenta, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
2009 | North Looks South: Building the Latinamerican Art Collection, Upper Brown Pavilion, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), Houston, TX, USA |
| Color into Light: Selections from the MFAH Collection, Upper Brown Pavilion, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), Houston, TX, USA |
2007 | Lo[s] Cinético[s], Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain |
2006 | Contact: Le cyber-cosmos de Boto et Vardanega, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA |
| Appel Design, Berlin, Germany |
| Kinetische Kunst: Ver-rückte Ansichten, Städtisches Museum Gelsenkirchen, Germany |
| Light and Shadow Galerie von Bartha, Basel, Switzerland |
2005 | Lichtkunst aus Kunstlicht, ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany |
| Escultura- Objeto, Museo de Arte Moderno Buenos Aires (MAMBA), Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| L’Œil moteur- Art optique et cinétique, 1950-1975, Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain (MAMCS), Strasbourg, France |
2004 | Moving Parts: Forms of the Kinetic, Museum Tinguely, Basel, Switzerland; Kunsthaus, Graz, Austria |
2003 | Arte Abstracto, Argentino Fundación PROA, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
2001 | Abstract Art from the Rio de la Plata: Buenos Aires and Montevideo, Americas Society, New York, NY, USA |
| Denise René: L’intrépide, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France |
2000 | Fluorescence, Galerie Denise René - Rive Gauche, Paris; Espace Marais, Paris |
1999 | Art Construit, Art Cinétique d’Amérique Latine, Galerie Denise René, Paris, France |
1992 | L’Art en Mouvement, Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul de Vence, France |
1984 | Carte blanche à Denise René, Paris Art Center, France |
| Face à la Machine, Maison de l’Amérique Latine, Paris, France |
1983 | Electra, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France |
1982 | L’Amérique Latine à Paris, Grand-Palais, Paris, France |
1976 | Centre d’action culturelle “Les Gémeaux,” Sceaux, France |
1969 | Galerie Denise René, Paris, France |
1968 | Art Cinétique, Maison de la Culture, Grenoble, France |
| Denise René à Londres, Redfern Gallery, London, UK |
1967 | Lumière et Mouvement, Art Cinétique à Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France |
| Structures, Lumière et Mouvement, Galerie Denise René, Paris, France |
| Light Motion Space, Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis, MN, USA; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, USA |
1965 | Sigma I, Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux, France |
| Argentina en el mundo. Artes visuales 2, Centro de Artes Visuales del Instituto Torcuato Di Tella, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
1964 | Maison des Beaux-Arts, C.R.O.U.S., Paris, France |
| Mouvement 2, Galerie Denise René, Paris, France |
| Hanover Gallery, London, UK |
| Lumière, Mouvement et Optique, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium |
1963 | L’Art Latino-américain, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France |
1962 | Trente Argentins de la Nouvelle Génération, Galerie Creuze, Paris, France |
| Musée du Havre, Paris, France |
1959 | Galería H, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
1958 | L’Art visuel en Argentine, Exposition universelle et internationale, Brussels World Fair, Brussels, Belgium (Gold Medal) |
1957 | IV Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil |
1956 | Galería Estímulo, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
1955 | Galería Galatea, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
Centro de Artes Visuales del Instituto Torcuato di Tella, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO), Miami, FL, USA
Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris, France
Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, Australia
Kemper Museum, Kansas City, MO, USA
Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI, USA
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville, Paris, France
Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Latinoamericano (MACLA), La Plata, Argentina
Museo de Arte Latinoamericano (MALBA), Buenos Aires, Argentina
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Museu de Arte Moderna de Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), Houston, TX, USA
Museum of Geometric and MADI Art, Dallas, TX, USA
Recklinghausen Museum, Recklinghausen, Germany
Rembrandt van Rijn Foundation, The Cape, South Africa
Tel-Aviv Museum of Art, Tel-Aviv, Israel
For the first time, Tate Modern tells the intertwined stories of photography and abstract art
Kelly Klaasmeyer covers Sicardi Gallery's exhibition of Martha Boto and Gregorio Vardanega. The exhibition is Boto's first ever in the United States and Vardanaga's second.
