Journey to the art of ‘Iberoamerica’ By Ferran Bono -- Valencia, Spain

The Valencian modern art museum IVAM is offering a glimpse of the art produced in “Iberoamerica” over the last century through a selection of 127 works. “This overall visibility is what made us adopt the term Iberoamerican, with no desire to sound paternalistic, even though we are aware of the enormous differences you can find between an artist from Argentina and another one from, say, Cuba,” explains Castro. “That is why the show begins with Torres-García and his defense of Latin American art and his particular reinterpretation of the avant-garde movements.” Indeed, Uruguayan artist Joaquín Torres-García’s influence pervades the entire exhibition. It was he who popularized the catchphrase “our North is the South,” which synthesized his critical views of Western art and his desire to appropriate indigenous values in his search for ties between Europe and the Americas. His constructivist work opens a show that also features relevant artists such as Chile’s Alberto Matta, Cuba’s Wifredo Lam, Argentina’s Horacio Coppola, Guillermo Kuitka and Alberto Greco, Brazil’s Eduardo Kac and Sebastiao Salgado, and Mexico’s Alvarez Bravo and Hermanos Mayo. “IVAM was Spain’s first museum to organize exhibitions of first-rate Latin American artists and to buy work before the boom, even if there were no systematic purchasing guidelines,” notes Castro. IVAM’s complete collection of Latin American art comprises 262 works by 41 artists. The 127 selected pieces represent painting, photography, sculpture, video art, design and installations. Arte iberoamericano en la colección del IVAM. Until July 13 at IVAM, Valencia. EL PAÍS English