Buenos Aires Modern, 1935–1950

Accompanies the first exhibition in the United States to examine the inventive activities of a thriving artistic community in Buenos Aires during a period of national and global conflict.

In the years leading up to the Spanish Civil War (1936–39) and World War II (1939–45), over 200,000 Europeans fled to Argentina, where many chose to settle permanently. The influx of new arrivals within the Buenos Aires artistic scene set off a flurry of creative partnerships between European exiles and Argentine locals. Buenos Aires Modern, 1935–1950 explores the resulting cultural hybridization, revealing how exiles incorporated Argentine cultural influences into their practices and Porteño (Buenos Aires-born) artists adapted various international modernisms to the cultural context of Argentina.

Featuring works of art in a variety of media by well-known figures—including Grete Stern, Horacio Coppola, and Gyula Kosice—as well as numerous artists who are less widely known, the publication features an introductory essay by Dana Ostrander that traces how modernism was not merely adopted but actively transformed in Buenos Aires. Also included are essays by scholars Fernando Luiz Lara, Rachel Mohl, and Megan Sullivan and artist biographies by Ostrander and Elizabeth Mangone. The volume is fully illustrated and features translations of the essays in Spanish.

Dana Ostrander is assistant curator of Modern Art at the Kemper Art Museum and the organizing curator of “Buenos Aires Modern, 1935–50.”