César Paternosto
Around 1957, César Paternosto started creating artworks based on Geometric Abstraction. After attending a serial music concert, he was enthralled by Anton Webern's pregnant silences, which influenced the next development in his art. By the end of the 1960s, Paternosto moved the emphasis of depicted matter in his paintings to the outer-sides of the canvas, leaving the front blank. By shifting the attention to the sides, he was questioning the traditional viewing of paintings frontally, and as the range of the pictorial field was expanded to the sides, the three dimensionality of the painting turned it into an object. His 2012 essay, “Painting as Object: Geometric Forms and Lateral Expansions,” explained the evolution and continuity of his idea, from the early lateral vision canvases, to his most recent work. In 1977, Paternosto began to travel to Bolivia and Peru to study the archaeological sites Tiwanaku, Ollantaytambo, and Machu Picchu. These trips marked an important turning point in his work sparking new formal explorations in form, composition, and color. By rooting his art in American autochthonous traditions rather than in the modern European model, Paternosto created a new and original type of abstraction based on the centuries-old woven textiles and sculptural …
Around 1957, César Paternosto started creating artworks based on Geometric Abstraction. After attending a serial music concert, he was enthralled by Anton Webern's pregnant silences, which influenced the next development in his art. By the end of the 1960s, Paternosto moved the emphasis of depicted matter in his paintings to the outer-sides of the canvas, leaving the front blank. By shifting the attention to the sides, he was questioning the traditional viewing of paintings frontally, and as the range of the pictorial field was expanded to the sides, the three dimensionality of the painting turned it into an object. His 2012 essay, “Painting as Object: Geometric Forms and Lateral Expansions,” explained the evolution and continuity of his idea, from the early lateral vision canvases, to his most recent work. In 1977, Paternosto began to travel to Bolivia and Peru to study the archaeological sites Tiwanaku, Ollantaytambo, and Machu Picchu. These trips marked an important turning point in his work sparking new formal explorations in form, composition, and color. By rooting his art in American autochthonous traditions rather than in the modern European model, Paternosto created a new and original type of abstraction based on the centuries-old woven textiles and sculptural stones of the Inca. Paintings by Paternosto are found in various prestigious collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid; the Kunstmuseum, Bern, Switzerland; and the Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Germany, amongst others.
Courtesy of CECILIA DE TORRES, LTD.
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York
Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, Austin
Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, CIFO, Miami, Florida
Peréz Art Museum, Miami, Florida
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid
Baronesa Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Madrid
Norman Foster Collection, Madrid
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Esteban Vicente, Segovia, Spain
Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, CAAC, Seville, Spain
Instituto Cervantes, Alcalá de Henares, Spain
Alberto Jiménez-Arellano Alonso Foundation, University of Valladolid, Spain
Etzold Collection, Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Germany
Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland
Denise René, Paris
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes, La Plata, Argentina
Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Sofía Imber, Caracas, Venezuela
Museo de Arte Moderno Fundación Soto, Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela
Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection, Caracas
Centro Wifredo Lam, La Habana, Cuba
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