Playing their Game: France, Latin America, and the Transformation of Geometric Abstraction in Postwar Paris by Martha L. SesIn B.A., Cornell University, 1997 M.A., Tufts University, 2000 A thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Faculty of Graduate Studies (Art History, Visual Art, and Theory) The University of British Columbia (Vancouver) August 2008 © Martha L. SesIn, 2008 ABSTRACT This study considers a specific form of geometric abstraction initiated by a group of Latin American artists — including the Argentineans Julio Le Pare and Martha Boto, and the Venezuelans Carlos Cruz-Diez and Jesus Rafael Soto —who were active in Paris during the early 1960s. The work of these artists, which was by no means cohesive, was rooted in a tradition of European and Latin American geometric abstraction, yet with a modem edge. The work played with a recognizable formal vocabulary, but offered a participatory 20th model of engagement distinct from the emotional detachment of early century geometric abstraction and the gestural tendencies of abstract expressionism. Optical and kinetic art, as it came to be called, offered the early 1960’s viewer in Paris a kind of unique artistic experience which mediated both the pressing postwar needs of France and Latin America and the technological optimism of a hyper-consumerist era. Utilizing new artistic materials (i.e. plastic) and technological devices that made reference to the world of advertising and design, these artists became unwittingly connected to the international economic and political aspirations of France at what was an uncertain historical moment. Launched by the seminal exhibition Le Mouvement, held at Galerie Denise René in April 1955, optical and kinetic art enjoyed significant attention and public success in Paris for a decade, yet this prominence has yet to be critically examined. With its focus on interaction and play, optical and kinetic art led some serious-minded critics in the 1950’s and 60’s to dismiss this work as whimsical and light-hearted, a condition which still plagues the critical reception of this work. This thesis addresses this gap in scholarship by 11 situating this particular version of optical and kinetic art within its historical moment and local context. More specifically, I consider what made this work so appealing to a French public, as tensions regarding France’s global identity under the leadership of Charles de Gaulle were being worked out. 111 .TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ii Table of Contents iv List of Illustrations vi Acknowledgments xii CHAPTER ONE: Readying the Playing Field: Latin American Abstract Art in Postwar France 1 i. Background context and theoretical precursors 7 ii. Consumer culture and the technological future 15 iii. Optico-kinetic art and the changing Parisian art scene 18 iv. Charles cle Gaulle, Latinité, and Latin America 22 CHAPTER TWO: The Currents of Geometric Abstraction: from the Margins (Latin America) to the Major League (France) 30 i. The myth of Paris 31 ii. A trans-Atlantic exchange: France’s myths of Latin America 39 iii. Modernity, abstraction, universalism: geometric abstraction in Latin America 50 iv. Latin America reinvigorates France 67 v. Crossing over 73 CHAPTER THREE: Redefining Geometric Abstraction in Postwar France: the Denise René Gallery, 1944-1955 77 i. “Le Mouvement”: optical and kinetic art in 1955 77 ii. Postwar alternatives 85 iii. Geometric abstraction: the fraught history 91 iv. Denise René: securing an avant-garde position 93 v. Kineticism and Opticality: the new task for art 103 vi. Art, publics, and the integration of the viewer 109 vii. Conclusion 119 CHAPTER FOUR: Optico-kinetic Art, Technology, and the Everyday 122 i. France and new anxieties during the Cold War 122 ii. De Gaulle, technology, and redefining a “new” France 124 iii. The new consumerism 128 iv. The critique of technology and consumerism 133 v. Technology, science and the subversive qualities of the “ludique”: Latin American expatriates in Paris 138 vi. The reception of optico-kinetic art and the challenge to iv “tachisme” and “l’art informel” .151 vii. Rethinking the everyday: GRAV and strategies of participation 156 viii. Reconstructing urban space 165 ix. Conclusion 167 CONCLUSION: Op goes Pop 175 Bibliography 184 Illustrations 200 V LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Chapter One fig. 1. Exhibition Le Mouvement, Galerie Denise René, Paris, April 1955. View of hail. On the photo the works of Bury, Agam, Tinguely, Soto. In Le Mouvement/The Movement, Paris Avril 1955 (Paris, New York, Düsseldorf: Editions Denise René, 1975), 8 13 fig. 2. Exhibition Le Mouvement, Galerie Denise René, Paris, April 1955. View of hail. On the photo the works of Vasarely, Bury, Jacobsen, Soto, Tinguely. In Le Mouvement/The Movement, Paris Avril 1955 (Paris, New York, Düsseldorf: Editions Denise René, 1975), 8 13 Chapter Two fig. 3. “Sur les paves de la Revolution.” Mass publication. Café brochure from Havanita Café, Paris, rue de Lappe 31 fig. 4. “Le représentant du général de Gaulle a Buenos Aires et Montevideo, M. Emmanuel Lancial, porte en triomphe par une foule immense a Montevideo le jour de la Liberation” (1944). In Espoir: Revue de la Fondation et de l’Institut Charles de Gaulle (janvier 1998), 26-27 36 fig. 5. Henry Laurens, Amphion (1953) and Femand Léger, Mural (1954). Covered Plaza, University City, Central University of Venezuela at Caracas. In Sibyl Moholy-Nagy, Carlos Raul Villanueva and the Architecture of Venezuela (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, Inc., 1964), 98 46 fig. 6. Jean Arp, Cloud Shepherd (1953). University City, Central University of Venezuela at Caracas. In Sibyl Moholy-Nagy, Carlos Raul Villanueva and the Architecture of Venezuela (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, Inc., 1964), 101 46 fig. 7. Alexander Calder, Ceiling of ‘acoustic clouds ‘for the Aula Magna auditorium (1952). Central University of Venezuela at Caracas. In Sibyl Moholy-Nagy, Carlos Raul Villanueva and the Architecture of Venezuela (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, Inc., 1964), 115 46 fig. 8. JoaquIn Torres-GarcIa, Estructura animista/IntersectedAnimist Form (1933). Tempera on board. 41 3/8 x 29 in. Private Collection, Houston. In Jacqueline Barnitz, Twentieth-Century Art ofLatin America (Austin: University of Texas Press: Austin, 2001), 129 51 vi fig. 9. Joaquin Torres-GarcIa, Composición/Composition (1931). Oil on cardboard. 19 3/4 x 15 ¼ in. Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires. In Jacqueline Barnitz, Twentieth-Century Art ofLatin America (Austin: University of Texas Press: Austin, 2001), 130 51 fig. 10. JoaquIn Torres-GarcIa, Upside-down map (1943). Ink on paper. Torres Garcia Family Collection, Montevideo. In Beyond the Fantastic: Contemporary art criticism from Latin America, ed. Gerardo Mosquera (London: Institute of International Visual Arts, 1995), 52 52 fig. 11. Tomás Maldonado, Cover ofArturo (1944). In Dawn Ades, Art in Latin America: the Modern Era, 1820-1980 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1989), 241 55 fig. 12. Max Bill, Trzartite Unity, (1947-1948). Stainless steel, 39 3/8 x 35 V2 x 46 in. Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo. In Jacqueline Bamitz, Twentieth Century Art ofLatin America (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001), 216 59 fig. 13. Raiil Lozza, Relief(1945). Casein on wood and painted metal. 16 x 21 x 1 V2 in. Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection. In The Geometry ofHope: Latin American Abstract Artfrom the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection (Austin: Blanton Museum ofArt,2007),98 61 fig. 14. Diyi Laafl, Articulated MadI Painting (1946). Enamel on wood. 28 1/3 x 16 in. Collection G. Kosice. In Dawn Ades, Art in Latin America: the Modern Era, 1820-1980 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1989), 246 62 fig. 15. Gyula Kosice, Royi (1944). Wood. 39 x 31 V2 x 6 in. Private Collection. In Latin American Artists ofthe Twentieth Century, ed. Waldo Rasmussen (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1993), 250 62 fig. 16. Luis Sacilotto, Concretion 5629 (1956). Enamel on aluminum. 23 5/8 x 31 V2 in. Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo. In Latin American Artists ofthe Twentieth Century, ed. Waldo Rasmussen (New York: Museum of Modem Art, 1993), 90 71 Chapter Three fig. 17. Exhibition Le Mouvement, Galerie Denise René, Paris, April 1955. Young visitors transforming the work of Agam. In Le Mouvement/The Movement, Paris Avril 1955 (Paris, New York, Düsseldorf: Editions Denise René, 1975), 8 77 vii fig. 18. Exhibition Le Mouvement, Galerie Denise René, Paris, April 1955. Denise René transforming “Dibouk” transformable. In Le Mouvement/The Movement, Paris Avril 1955 (Paris, New York, Dusseldoif Editions Denise René, 1975), 10 77 fig. 19. Exhibition Le Mouvement, Galerie Denise René, Paris, April 1955. View of hail. On the photo the works of Vasarely, Soto, Jacobsen, Tinguely. In Le Mouvement/The Movement, Paris Avril 1955 (Paris, New York, Düsseldorf: Editions Denise René, 1975), 9 78 fig. 20. Exhibition Le Mouvement, Galerie Denise René, Paris, April 1955. View of hall. On the photo the works of Marcel Duchamp, Calder, Tinguely, Agam. In Le Mouvement/The Movement, Paris Avril 1955 (Paris, New York, Düsseldorf: Editions Denise René, 1975), 9 78 fig. 21. Exhibition Le Mouvement, Galerie Denise René, Paris, April 1955. View of hall. On the photo the works of Soto, Tinguely, Vasarely. In Le Mouvement/The Movement Paris Avril 1955 (Paris, New York, Düsseldorf: Editions Denise René, 1975), 10 78 fig. 22. “Yellow Manifesto” (1955). In Denise René, l’intrépide: une galerie dans l’aventure de l’art abstrait, 1944-1978 (Paris: Editions du Centre Pompidou, 2001), 28 79 fig. 23. Yaacov Agam, Relief+Forme+Mobilité (1954). Forms in metal on wood. 10% in. x 14 1/8 in. Collection Carlos Raul Villanueva, Caracas, Venezuela. In Le Mouvement/The Movement Paris Avril 1955 (Paris, New York, Düsseldorf: Editions Denise René, 1975), 14 82 fig.