Simulation II - October 2006

Oteiza: Myth and Modernism
July 1, 2005–August 24, 2005

Oteiza: Myth and Modernism is the most comprehensive retrospective of the work of celebrated Basque artist Jorge Oteiza (1908–2003) to have been presented in the last 15 years, and the first to be mounted in the U.S.. One of the leading Basque artists of the 20th century, Oteiza is an important figure in the history of late Modernism and international postwar sculpture. Curated by Margit Rowell and Txomin Badiola, this exhibition features some 125 works, including sculptures borrowed from museums and private collections as well as drawings and collages from the Fundación Museo Jorge Oteiza, shown in public for the first time. Arranged to follow the artist's experimental itinerary and to capture his formal and conceptual evolution during the 1950s, the most productive period of Oteiza's career as a sculptor, Oteiza: Myth and Modernism fills the top two levels of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
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Highly personal, and different in its process and intentions from works by other artists of his generation, Oteiza's art is difficult to define. While in retrospect his mature works in metal appear related to American Minimalism, (…) Oteiza's sculptures sprang from many sources: from Neolithic cultures to ideas and forms drawn from the 20th-century avant-gardes, particularly Neo-Plasticism and Constructivism.
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Oteiza's work remained relatively unknown until 1988, when a major retrospective was organized by the Fundación Caja de Pensiones in Madrid, Bilbao, and Barcelona. This exhibition allowed public audiences and critics alike to appreciate his vast artistic legacy for the first time. (…) Oteiza: Myth and Modernism has been organized by the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in cooperation with the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and the Sociedad Estatal para la Acción Cultural Exterior.

To mount: allestire
in retrospect thinking now about something in the past
to draw from: estrarre da, derivare da