AMA's Permanent Collection: Part III

In commemoration of Hispanic Heritage Month 2020, we share some highlights of our collection. This exhibition is a carefully curated selection of the Art Museum of the Americas's permanent collection of more than 2,000 pieces. The AMA is the first museum of modern and contemporary art of Latin America and the Caribbean in the United States. Its origins date back to the Pan American Union art program which was the first exhibition space for young artists who are considered among the most influential of the mid twentieth-century in the Western Hemisphere. This collection is a vital bridge between the legacy of Latin American art and a heritage for todays Latinx ground braking artists. 

Paisagem Cosmica No.2 (1963 - 1963) by Danilo di PreteArt Museum of the Americas

Danilo di Prete exhibited Paisagem Cósmica, No. 2 at the Seventh Bienal de São Paulo, after which Francisco Matarazzo Sobrinho donated the piece to the OAS.

Memory of Forms (1963 - 1963) by Estuardo MaldonadoArt Museum of the Americas

Painted in encaustic on canvas, Memory of Forms is representative of Ecuadoran artist Estuardo Maldonado’s early abstract work.

Adam and Eve (1963) by Jose GurvichArt Museum of the Americas

“In Uruguay I feel tied to a tradition, certain things were expected of me, one has responsibilities,” Gurvich remarked of his latercareer distancing from Montevideo and the Taller Torres García.

Tempo (1964) by Ernesto DeiraArt Museum of the Americas

Ernesto Deira expressed both chaos and movement in Tempo, which by virtue of its title underscores cadence and speed as essential to his process.

Reflejos (1964/1965) by Julio Rosado del ValleArt Museum of the Americas

At the time of his solo show at the Pan American Union in 1965, José Gómez Sicre named Rosado del Valle “the outstanding figure” in Puerto Rican painting, “by reason both of seniority and of the high quality of his production.”

Todos Juntos II (1965 - 1965) by Rafael CoronelArt Museum of the Americas

This almost theatrical composition and severe rendering signal the tensions of an introspective dark human subconscious in the ghastly expressions of an alienated and marginalized humanity which the artist first began to explore in in his series Witches of Salem of the late 1950s.

Los sobrevivientes (The Survivors) (1966) by Osvaldo BordaArt Museum of the Americas

Los sobrevivientes was executed at the cusp of the artist’s departure from pure abstraction and turn to the figuration characteristic of his work from the late 1960s and 1970s.

Pintura Generativa: Trama General por Circunferencias (1964/1964) by Eduardo Mac EntyreArt Museum of the Americas

In conceptualizing the principles of the arte generativo movement, Mac Entyre found inspiration in technological advances of the moment in atomic energy; the initial forays into space exploration.

Untitled (1978/1978) by Lola FernándezArt Museum of the Americas

Fernández was among the first in San José’s provincial context to embrace abstraction and to introduce non-figurative elements into their compositions.

Sonata de la piedra y de la carne (1967) by Mario CarreñoArt Museum of the Americas

After a decade-long experiment with geometric abstraction, Mario Carreño returned to figurative painting in the 1960s in part as a response to the trauma of World War II and its reconstruction, which he witnessed firsthand during travel to Europe in 1962-1963.

Tierras Bien (c.1968 - c.1968) by Venancio ShinkiArt Museum of the Americas

Tierras Bien is one of two works belonging to the early abstract expressionist phase of Venancio Shinki, the Japanese-Peruvian artist, in the collection of the AMA.

Untitled (1968) by Tomie OhtakeArt Museum of the Americas

Created at a departure point from the more angular, boxed-in forms of the 1950s and early 1960s, Untitled of 1968 is among the first works in a set of looser symmetrical compositions that also includes Composição em Amarelo (1966) at the Museo de Arte de São Paulo (MASP).

Banana (1971/1971) by Antonio Henrique AmaralArt Museum of the Americas

Antônio Henrique Amaral’s Banana is part of a homonymous series painted from 1967 to 1975 that garnered him international notoriety.

Invierno (1972 - 1972) by Juan Carlos LibertiArt Museum of the Americas

The painting presents a classical approach, visible in the sharpness of the lines, the disposition of the solid volumes in the space and the treatment of color.

Totem (1972) by Everald BrownArt Museum of the Americas

Totem is carved out of what looks like a slightly bent tree branch. From the bottom to the top, the sculpture consists of a small base representing the ground, some animals, and a group of seven figures.

Haitian Landscape (1973 - 1973) by Joseph Jean-GillesArt Museum of the Americas

Haitian Landscape depicts through a series of clearly defined shapes, patterns, an intense palette, the fields, homes, trees, mountains, and figures of peasants that fill his compositions.

Homenaje a Picasso: Las Verdaderas Damas de Aviñon, José Luis Cuevas, 1973/1973, From the collection of: Art Museum of the Americas
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In 1973 curator José Gómez Sicre commemorated Picasso’s recent death with an homage exhibition at OAS headquarters.

Precolombino, Aníbal Villacís, 1973 - 1973, From the collection of: Art Museum of the Americas
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Pre-Columbian by Ecuadoran artist Aníbal Villacís is a bridge between two worlds: ancient and modern. Working in mixed media on plywood, Villacís limited his palette to beiges, greens, and browns.

Credits: Story

Artworks from the collection of the Organization of American States (OAS) AMA | Art Museum of the Americas
AMAmuseum.org

Art of the Americas: Collection of the Art Museum of the Americas of the Organization of American States is an endeavor that aims to study the historical and cultural legacy of the AMA | Art Museum of the Americas and the Organization of American States. See our online catalog here: http://www.oas.org/artsoftheamericas/art-of-the-americas

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The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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