Octavio Zaya has commissioned a retrospective that shows the legacy developed over nearly 60 years by the Uruguayan painter and essayist, Luis Camnitzer, winner of the Konex Mercosur Prize 2002.
He is one of the most relevant figures of Latin American conceptualism. His parents were Jewish refugees who fled from Nazi Germany in 1939. They went to Uruguay, where he grew up in Montevideo. He studied at the Uruguay School of Fine Arts and at the Munich Academy and he won a Guggenheim Grant in 1961 and 1982.
His multi-faceted vision of art was always closely linked to reflection. However, he is also an essayist, art critic, curator and teacher. He always wanted to address the most controversial issues of society through his arte, which sought to awaken the active participation of the spectator.
The exhibition is divided into three parts. The first one reflects Camnitzer’s conceptualism, which takes the dematerialisation of the art object as its starting point and extends to the political and social reality. The second is a collection of his most evocative works, in which visual elements take on greater prominence. Finally, the third section exhibits his most recent works, in which he presents art as a structure in unison with education.
The work, Failed Utopias, included in the exhibition, gives the exhibition its name, at the express wish of Luis Camnitzer.
Image Credit:
Luis Camnitzer. This Is a Mirror, You Are a Written Sentence, 1966–1968, Vacuum- shaped polystyrene, 48.4 x 62.5 x 1.5 cm, Daros Latin America Collection, Zurich. © Luis Camnitzer/ ARS, NY / VEGAP, Madrid, 2018
