Born in Buenos Aires, Porter moved to Mexico City as a teenager and had her first show there at the age of sixteen. Six years later, en route to visiting the great museums of Europe, the artist was so captivated by New York (including the Met) that she cancelled her trip and enrolled in printmaking classes at Pratt Institute, making the city her permanent residence from then on. Her installations are characterized by a minimal, reductive play between reality and illusion that often incorporate the space where they are exhibited into their very composition. For Untitled (Triangle), three photographs of the artist’s hands are affixed directly to the wall. The images are then connected by a graphite line drawn directly onto the wall and connected to form a triangle. As with contemporary wall drawings by Sol Lewitt, the hand of the artist is not required as long as the instructions for installation are followed.
Image: Liliana Porter, Untitled (Triangle), 1973. Laminated gelatin silver prints, graphite. Installation: 52 × 52 in. Purchase, Vital Projects Fund Inc. Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel and Latin American Art Initiative Gift, 2020