Visual Poetry: Brossa/Parra

6 October–13 December 1992

Following in the tradition of such avant-garde artists as Marcel Duchamp and Meret Oppenheim, Catalan artist Joan Brossa and Chilean Nicanor Parra break down boundaries between language and image, mixing genres and combining media to arrive at new forms of expression. Though Brossa and Parra come from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds and work independently, the close similarity of their art led co-curators René de Costa, Professor of Romance Languages at the University of Chicago, and Sonya Mattalía of the Universitat de Velència, to organize this exhibition. Brossa and Parra create “visual poetry” through the interplay of language and plastic arts. Their work lends a new perspective to common items and concepts, creating an innovative, poetic link to the historical avant-garde (Cubism, Dada, Surrealism) which transcends the limited space of the book or page. Brossa’s “object poems” and Parra’s “artifacts” have in common such themes as ideological upheaval and the transitory nature of consumer society. The impact of Brossa’s artworks relies on the successful juxtaposition of very dissimilar objects such as a padlock and a deck of cards, entitled No Chance. Parra’s work Naturaleza (Still Life), in which a nail fixes a plastic and therefore lifeless, tomato to a slab of marble, picks up where Duchamp left off by transforming found objects into art by titling them. 

Curators: René de Costa, Professor of Romance Languages, University of Chicago, and Sonya Mattalía, Universitat de València.

The exhibition was funded in part by The Program for Cultural Cooperation between Spain’s Ministry of culture and the United States’ Universities and the U.S.-Spanish Joint Committee for Cultural and Educational Cooperation. The opening reception was sponsored in part by Codorníu, USA, Inc. and Rita’s Catering. 

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