“South American Readings and Interventions on the Modern Architectural Model. The Trip of Max Bill to Brazil”.

MARÍA AMALIA GARCÍA

Austin

Congreso; Transnational Latin American Art. First International Research Forum for Graduate Students and Emerging Scholars; 2009

niversity of Texas at Austin, University of the Arts London & the University of Essex

Swiss artist Max Bill travelled to Brazil in May 1953, invited by the Ministry of External Relations, The Itamaraty. Bill was well known in the Brazilian art milieu because, two years before, he had held his first retrospective exhibition in the Sao Paulo Museum of Art and had won the 1st prize in Sculpture for his work Unidad Tripartita in the first São Paulo Art Biennial. For the Swiss artist, this trip meant getting in direct contact with an art milieu that was much more promising for his art proposals than the European post-war scene. In addition, it was the opportunity to get to know Brazilian architecture which, since the previous decade, had been vigorously acclaimed world-wide. Finally, it was the time to turn all the fantasies built from dialogues, letters, catalogs, magazines and photographs into three dimensions; it was the time to confront the model and to experience the tropical reality.