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“Dimensions of Constructive Art in Brazil: The Adolpho Leirner Collection”

Artists from the land of order and progress trick the eye at MFAH

A A A Comments By Dusti Rhodes Thursday, May 31 2007

Maurício Nogueira Lima’s Objeto rítmico no. 2 (segunda versão) reminds us of one of those visual illusions on the side of cereal boxes. Black and yellow boxes are swirled together by a series of circular lines…or are they?

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Mari Carmen Ramirez, Wortham Curator of Latin American Arts at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, says there are no circles in the painting. Lima painted different-size squares and rectangles side-by-side to give the appearance of a vortex.

The work is just one of many on view in “Dimensions of Constructive Art in Brazil: The Adolpho Leirner Collection” that trick the eye and engage the mind. Waldemar Cordeiro’s painting Idéia visível features black lines intersecting over a white background; it’s up to the viewer to determine whether they’re pointing up, down or neither. Other visually stimulating works include Lygia Clark’s Trepante,a shiny hunk of metal wound around a piece of wood, and Abraham Palatnik’s Aparelho cinecromático, a shadowy box featuring rods, balls and blades moving about, thanks to a small motor, in front of colored lights and behind a translucent canvas.
May 20-Sept. 9

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