Panel discussion on curating, collecting and conserving concrete art and poetry (Thursday 17 October, 5-7pm, Chelsea College of Arts, Banqueting Hall)
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This panel discussion presents current research undertaken at the Getty Institute in Los Angeles.
Introduction
Dr Michael Asbury (Reader in the history and theory at Chelsea) will introduce concrete and neoconcrete art and poetry in discussion with Gustavo Grandal Montero (PhD candidate, librarian and Special Collections curator, UAL)
New Material Histories of Concrete Art in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil
Zanna Gilbert and Pia Gottschaller
This talk will introduce a multi-year research project undertaken at the Getty Conservation and Research Institutes to examine the materiality of Concrete and Neoconcrete artworks. The aim of the project was to develop a comprehensive understanding of the material and process-based decisions made by artists such as Rhod Rothfuss, Alfredo Hlito, Tomás Maldonado, Raúl Lozza, Judith Laund, Hermelindo Fiaminghi, Hélio Oiticica, Lygia Clark and Willys de Castro. Its focus was on technical study of works from the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros that were on loan to the Getty as part of the initiative Pacific Standard Time: Latin American and Latino Art in Los Angeles. Another component of the project that will be discussed in this talk explored the transference of technical skills and aesthetic principles across graphic design, poetry and painting. Overall, the outcomes of the research revealed not only fascinating information about artistic processes within Concretism but also brought to light new complexities around the long-established narratives about divisions between the paulistas and the cariocas. The research from the project, as well as partner initiatives in Argentina and Brazil, will be published in a forthcoming book from Getty Publications.
Dr Pia Gottschaller is a technical art historian who specialises in modern and contemporary painting practice. Prior to her appointment as Senior Lecturer at the Courtauld Institute of Art in 2017, she held positions as conservator, curator and researcher at institutions such as The Getty, the Whitney Museum of Art, The Menil Collection, Tate, Villa Massimo Rome, Biblioteca Hertziana, and Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich.
Dr. Zanna Gilbert is a senior research specialist in the Getty Research Institute's curatorial department. She completed her PhD at the School of Philosophy and Art History at the University of Essex, UK, in collaboration with Tate Research. Her research focuses on transnational conceptual art, concrete art and poetry, Xerox art, and the international mail art network. From 2012 to 2015, Gilbert was Andrew W. Mellon C-MAP postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Drawings and Prints at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, where she was responsible for research focusing on art in Latin America and was founding co- editor of MoMA's online publication post.
