South American Artists

Carving out a place for her and her family

“This is my daughter, Anna,” said Claudette Schreuders, by way of introduction, as the artist’s mother, infant son and his nanny, several friends and a cat looked on.

Anna was speechless, and she seemed to look straight through you, as if focused on something far off in the distance.

But that’s understandable, given that Schreuders’ family wasn’t really present at the Lux Art Institute, where Schreuders’ remarkable work is on display through July 30.

Like the others, “Anna” (2008) is a wooden sculpture. Created when her daughter was 3 years old, “Anna” is carved from Yelutang wood.

“One of the things I love about wood is the limitations of it,” Schreuders said. “You have this limited space in which to work and you put the person in there.”

Working with clay, Schreuders explained, you can be as realistic as you want. “But with wood, the wood dictates to a large degree what the thing is going to look like. It has its own energy.”

Schreuders has been working with wood since 1994, when she graduated from the University of Stellenbosch in her native South Africa. She lives in Cape Town.

With influences ranging from traditional African carved figures to the work of American artist Alice Neel, Schreuders has developed a unique style in which to explore issues of attachment and detachment, independence and interdependence, often within the same work.

“I think it’s quite valuable to work so long in one medium and really kind of master it,” Schreuders said. “It’s not that easy.”

Each piece is part of a long, drawn-out process that includes documenting her pieces with lithographs, which have also attracted attention. Several of her lithographs are in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and are on display in a current exhibition there, “Impressions From South Africa, 1965 to Now.” Much of her work at the Lux, which includes four lithographs and 10 sculptures, was previously shown in her solo New York show, “Close, Close” at the Jack Shainman Gallery.

“The theme is from an American poem, ‘Close, Close,’ that I like by Elizabeth Bishop,” Schreuders said. “She describes (a couple) who are so intimate that they completely know each other; there’s an almost claustrophobic closeness that comes from domesticity.”

One of the pieces in the exhibit, titled “Close, Close,” (2010) shows a couple asleep, “close as two papers in a book that read each other” (to quote Bishop’s poem).

Constructive Spirit: Abstract Art in South and North America ...

Constructive Spirit: Abstract Art in South and North America, 1920s-50s - Product Description

The first survey of Pan-American geometric abstraction between the 1920s and 1950s, Constructive Spirit: Abstract Art in South and North America, 1920s-50s provides a fresh and innovative look at this dynamic and cosmopolitan period of Modernism in the Americas.

In the first half of the twentieth century, South American and US artists infused the hard-edge lines and geometric shapes of abstract art with new perspectives. This richly illustrated book examines the connections, both conceptual and personal, among abstract artists from Argentina, Brazil, the United States, Uruguay, and Venezuela, suggesting parallels that cut across time, national borders, and a range of media. It begins with the arrival of Torres-Garcia in New York City in 1920, and culminates in the 1950s, as North and South American abstract artists converged in the international arena in such exhibition venues as the Bienal de Sao Paulo.

Released in conjunction with the traveling exhibition organized by the Newark Museum, Constructive Spirit presents more than ninety rarely seen paintings, sculptures, prints, photographs, drawings, and films, from private and public collections across both continents. The sixty-eight featured artists include the renowned--Alexander Calder, Joaquin Torres-Garcia, Jesus Rafael Soto, and Arshile Gorky, for example--as well as those who deserve much wider recognition, such as Charmion von Wiegand, Geraldo de Barros, Alfredo Hlito, and many others.

Essayists Karen A. Bearor, Tricia Laughlin Bloom, Aliza Edelman, Adele Nelson, Mary Kate O Hare, and Cecilia de Torres offer new insights as they investigate the ideas and influences that informed South and North American artists transformation of abstraction into a language of their own.

Exhibition catalog edited by Mary Kate O Hare. 192 pages featuring the work of 68 artists, with more than 90 full-color illustrations. Size: 8.5 x 10 inches. Smyth-sewn casebound book with jacket.

ISBN13: 9780764952746 Condition: New Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

20 South American artists, a selection

20 South American artists

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Book of the artists, American artist life, comprising biographical and critical sketches of American artists: preceded by an historical account of the rise and progress of art in America

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