Memories of Underdevelopment

Memories of Underdevelopment, set within the context of Latin America from the 1960s to the 1980s, explores how Latin American artists responded to the unraveling of the utopian promise of modernization.

By the 1960s political oppression and brutal military dictatorships had disabused many of their political and artistic hopes. Artists sought out new ways to connect to the public, with conceptual and performance strategies emerging as productive alternatives to older styles, particularly geometric abstraction. This is the first significant survey of these crucial decades, bringing together the work of artists from throughout Latin America, including both artists that are well known in the US, such as Helio Oiticica and Lygia Pape, as well as lesser-known names.