Transcontinental

Art produced in the so-called Third World, or by non-European or North American artists, is usually seen as either traditional and folkloric, or a poor imitation of modernism. In art history, the avant-garde has always been associated with the Western metropolis, forgetting that every country has had its own particular relationship with modernity. This book describes a contemporary flourishing of radical artistic experiment in Argentine, Brazil and Chile (or by artists originating from there). The focus and priorities have been different to those of Europe and North America; at the same time, the work intensifies many of the issues which face us all.

The nine artists whose work is described and analysed here use a wide range of materials: from paint, silkscreen, and photography to potatoes, money, magnets, wire, bone, feathers. Each artist has a particular strategy; in fact the variety and sophistication of the devices they use makes this a dazzling anthology of a modern visual poetics. Each artist invents new and many-levelled metaphors which link the ‘Latin American’ with the ‘global’.

This lucidly written, beautifully illustrated book is published to accompany an exhibition of the same title held at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham and Cornerhouse, Manchester in 1990.