The Many and the One: Brazilian Contemporary Art

The title ‘The many and the one’ lays the foundations for this first exhibition based on one of the largest and most important art collections in Brazil: “Andrea and José Olympio Pereira´s”. In charge of the curatorship, renowned American critic Robert Storr, with the support of Paulo Miyada, curator of Instituto Tomie Ohtake, chose to privilege works that are individually vigorous on their own strength, regardless of possible dialogs they can establish with the other gathered works and productions.

For the exhibition, which will occupy the entire exhibition spaces of Instituto Tomie Ohtake, the curator selected approximately three hundred pieces – painting, drawing, sculpture, installation and video – authored by more than a hundred Brazilian artists, amongst a private collection of more than two thousand national and international works. According to the curator, this is a set of works which, in addition to its monumentality, features iconic pieces produced by many artists. The exhibition thus provides a refined look on the Brazilian contemporary art scene and its earlier periods, by looking at the production of the 1950s to today.

In the artists’ cast, a historical core includes names like Alfredo Volpi, Ivan Serpa, Lygia Clark, Lygia Pape, Mira Schendel, Willys de Castro, Helio Oiticica, Amilcar de Castro and Geraldo de Barros. In the central axis of the exhibition, which covers the years 1970-1990, there are artists who stand out for their importance in the collection, whether by the volume of their work, the role they assume in the narrative of contemporary art, or the variety of media and languages they explore, such as, Waltercio Caldas, Iran Espírito Santo, Anna Maria Maiolino, Paulo Bruscky, Miguel Rio Branco, Adriana Varejão, Tunga, Carmela Gross, Claudia Andujar, Luiz Braga, Leonilson, Jac Leirner, José Resende, Daniel Senise, Sandra Cinto, Ernesto Neto, Paulo Monteiro, Marcos Chaves, Rivane Neuenschwander, Rosangela Rennó, among others. Last but not least, the exhibition is completed by a selection of artists who emerged more recently, indicating the developments and possible ways contemporary art is to take, including Erika Verzutti, Marina Rheingantz, Daniel Steegman, André Komatsu, Eduardo Berliner, Tatiana Blass and Bruno Dunley.

Robert Storr, artist, critic and curator, was the first American to be appointed director of visual arts at the Venice Biennale (2005 and 2007). He was curator of the painting and sculpture department of the Museum of Modern Art – MoMA, New York (1990 and 2002), where he organized thematic exhibitions such as Dislocations and Modern Art Despite Modernism, and solo exhibitions of important artists such as Elizabeth Muray, Gerhard Richter, Max Beckmann, Tony Smith and Robert Ryman. Was a professor of Modern Art History at the Institute at Fine Arts,in New York Univesity. Currently teaches painting at Yale University.