Columbarium I

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Images(8)

Artist Gonzalo Fonseca(Uruguayan, 1922–1997)Uruguayan, 1922–1997

CultureUruguayan

Titles

Columbarium I

Date1966

MediumScaffolding wood, nails, strings, and paint

Dimensions87 × 37 1/2 × 9 in. (221 × 95.3 × 22.9 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the 2009 Latin American Experience Gala and Auction, and Bernard Chappard in memory of Daniela Chappard

Object number2009.573

Current Location

The Nancy and Rich Kinder Building

Gallery 205

On view

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Department

Latin American Art

Object Type

SCULPTURE

DescriptionGonzalo Fonseca is one of the founding members of the Taller Torres-García in Uruguay. He was influenced by the lectures he attended in which Joaquín Torres-García spoke of a Constructive Universalism that sought to incorporate the language of Native America and Pre-Hispanic cultures as a means to assert autonomy from the hegemony of European visual modes. Fonseca traveled to Peru and Bolivia to visit archaeological sites, which inspired him to create a series of magnificent ceramic pieces. Spurred by some of his fellow colleagues, Fonseca traveled to the Middle East, Turkey, and Greece in the mid-1950s. As a result, the cyclical themes of life and death and the language of mythology imbued in Greco-Roman and Egyptian symbols is found in the work of this period, exemplified in Columbarium.

ProvenanceThe artist; Bernard Chappard; purchased by MFAH, 2009.

Exhibition History"Heterotopias," Madrid, (unknown date).

"Inverted Utopias: The Avant-Garde in Latin America, 1920–1970," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, June 20–September 12, 2004.

"A Conquest of Latin American Art. Passion and Reason of a Constructive Spirit, Works of the Foundation," Espace Bellevue, Biarritz, France, June 27–September 30, 2006.

"Constructed Dialogues: Concrete, Geometric, and Kinetic Art from the Latin American Art Collection," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, September 16, 2012–January 6, 2013.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Printed paper label on verso:
EDICT / Ronda de Segovia - 28005 Madrid ... / Tel. 91 364 38 20 - Fax ... / http://www.edict-spain.com - E-mail: arte@edict ... / Expediente: Exp. "Heterotopias" / Propietario: Cecilia de Torres, Ltd / Autor: Gonzalo Fonseca / Titulo: Columbarium no 1, 1964-66UNA-24 / No Orden: 23 No Caja: 46

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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