Art Exhibit: Superasensorial: Experiments in Light, Color and Space

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

700 Independence Ave.  SW

Washington DC

February 23, 2012 to August 12, 2012

Suprasensorial: Experiments in Light, Color, and Space will open in February 2012. Coinciding with this exhibition, the museum will present a new commission by Doug Aitken—Song 1, a 360° projection that will illuminate, animate, and transform the Hirshhorn’s entire façade.

The Hirshhorn presents Suprasensorial: Experiments in Light, Color, and Space, the first exhibition to reevaluate the evolution of the international Light and Space movement through the work of five pivotal Latin American artists: Carlos Cruz-Diez (b. Caracas, Venezuela, 1923), Lucio Fontana (b. Rosario, Argentina, 1899; d. Varese, Italy, 1968), Julio Le Parc (b. Mendoza, Argentina, 1928), Hélio Oiticica (b. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1937; d. Rio de Janeiro, 1980), and Jesús Rafael Soto (b. Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela,  1923; d. Paris, France, 2005).  

The Light and Space movement is often considered as emerging in the United States in the late 1960s and 1970s. Almost a decade earlier, Latin American artists were creating environments of light and color that challenged traditional standards of art as a static experience. By developing large-scale, multimedia constructions of light, color, and space, these artists actively engaged viewers in a physical process of exploring the possibilities of visual and spatial perceptions, forging new object-viewer relationships. The five installations that make up Suprasensorial: Experiments in Light, Color, and Space—heretofore known only to a small number of people—create enveloping optical effects that overwhelm and transform sensory experience and demonstrate Latin America as a source of innovation for the global Light and Space tradition.