Francisco Matto: The Modern and the Mythic

Following in the footsteps of the highly acclaimed School of the South and The Geometry of Hope: Latin American Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection, the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas presents another landmark Latin American exhibition with Francisco Matto: The Modern and the Mythic. The first comprehensive exhibition in the United States of this Latin American pioneering artist, the show examines the rise of modernist abstraction in Latin America — underscoring both the similarities and differences between Europe and South America — and chronicles Matto’s early work made as a student of Joaquín Torres-Garcia through his late work of the 1990s. First presented in 2007 at the 6th Mercosul Biennial in Brazil, the Blanton will organize a new version of the show, which will highlight over five decades of Matto’s paintings, sculptures (known as totems) and works on paper, and will present the principal themes that appear in artist’s life’s work. Ursula Davila-Villa, interim curator of Latin American art states, “This exhibition will be the first opportunity for many U.S. audiences to examine the beautiful landscapes, portraits, cityscapes, abstractions and sculptures of this modernist master. Museum visitors and scholars alike will be able to follow Matto’s artistic trajectory and discover the influence of Pre-Columbian art on the history of South American modernism.”