Force Fields

Force Fields. An essay on the kinetic offered a transversal journey through art history in the period spanning from 1920 to 1970, with a focus on projects that approached artistic creation as a possible model of the universe. Matter, energy and space became key aesthetic concerns for a series of artists who used abstract parameters as a base from which to explore the continuities between opposites such as macrocosm and microcosm, universe and mind, matter and void, inner space and outer space.

The theme of the exhibition was encapsulated in works from the twenties by Marcel Duchamp, Naum Gabo and László Moholy-Nagy, Alexander Calder’s mobiles from the thirties, and the works that Georges Vantongerloo produced from 1945 until his death.
A chronological or historiographic approach was rejected in favour of a structure based on new narratives that revolved around “the kinetic”. Countering the United States art scene dominated by the influence of Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism and Pop Art, the exhibition assembled a series of artists who shared an interest in exploring the language of movement. It also suggested revealing connections among groups of works that have historically been considered to be in conflict with each other, such as Concrete Art and Informalism in the fifties.