THE OTHER TRANS-ATLANTIC: KINETIC AND OP ART IN EASTERN EUROPE AND LATIN AMERICA

The Other Trans-Atlantic is attuned to the brief, but historically significant period between 1950 and 1970, when the trajectories of the Eastern European art scenes and their Latin American counterparts converged in a shared enthusiasm for kinetic and Op Art.

As the axis connecting the established power centers of Paris, London, and New York became increasingly dominated by a succession of ideological monocultures—starting with the entwined master concepts of gesture and expression, Pop, minimalism and the broad consensus of conceptualism—another web of ideas was being spun linking the hubs of Warsaw, Moscow, Zagreb, with Buenos Aires, Caracas, and São Paulo. These artistic practices were dedicated to an entirely different set of aesthetic concerns: philosophies of art and culture dominated by notions of progress and science, the machine and engineering, construction and perception.