Tomie Ohtake: Recent Paintings, 1989-1994

Americas Society presented the exhibition of large-scale abstract paintings by artist Tomie Ohtake, a leading figure in post-war Brazilian art. Born in Kyoto, Japan in 1913, Ohtake came to Brazil with her family in 1936. She settled in São Paulo and began her career as a painter in 1951 at the age of 38. During the 1950s, Ohtake became a central member of a generation of Brazilian artists, parallel to Abstract Expressionsists in the United States, that was decisive in forging the character of Brazilian painting after the mid-century. Along with that of such figures as Camargo and Franz Krajcberg, Ohtake’s work signaled a break from the largely representational idioms characteristic of Brazilian art in previous decades. Connected less to a nationalist iconography, or to the depiction of specifically regional subjects, than to more introspective modes of artistic development, these artists produced bodies of work centered on formal, abstract issues, as well as on universal and spiritual concerns.

This exhibition, the artist’s first one-woman show in the United States since 1968, comprised paintings that reflected her exploration of the relationship of light, form, and color. Ohtake expressively depicted simple forms – rings and circles, ellipses, teardrops and spirals, and triangles – some of which floated placidly on surfaces of color, and others which appeared to be embedded within a field of spatial ambiguity. The artist’s numerous layers of thinly applied paint, combined with short, multiple brush strokes, endowed her surfaces with a vibrational quality that suggested motion and continual change.

This exhibition was curated by Marcus de Lontra Costa.

An exhibition catalogue is available.

^{Tomie Ohtake: Recent Paintings, 1989-1994 was made possible thanks to the generous support of Trans Brasil Airlines, Mr. And Mrs. Charles Barber, the Charles Delmar Foundation and the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro.}