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Marta Minujín: Arte! Arte! Arte!

Nov. 17, 2023 – Apr. 1, 2024

The first survey exhibition in the United States of Marta Minujín, a defining force of Latin American art whose trajectory intersected with the major artistic developments of the postwar period while reflecting a singular spirit and vision infused by her sharp intellect, irreverent humor, and performative presence.

Marta Minujín: Arte! Arte! Arte! includes nearly 100 works organized to reflect Minujín’s bold experimentation over six decades. The exhibition charts Minujín’s influential career in Buenos Aires as well as time spent in Paris, New York, and Washington, DC, through a range of pioneering, mattress-based soft sculptures; fluorescent large-scale paintings; psychedelic drawings and performances; and vintage film footage. The artist’s ephemeral works – happenings, participatory installations, and monumental public art – are presented through rarely-seen photographs, video, and other documentation.

Born in 1943 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to an immigrant family partly descended from Russian Jews, Minujín established an international reputation as a key artistic voice at a young age. By the early 1960s, she had started to experiment with mattresses, creating colorful soft sculptures that would come to define her signature style. Today Minujín is one of Argentina’s most recognized artists and celebrated cultural personalities. She continues to produce multimedia installations, participatory events, paintings, and sculptures, attesting to her unceasing versatility. Well into the twenty-first century, Minujín’s art persists with vital force, critical vision, and clarity of purpose.

This exhibition contains flashing neon lights and moving patterns of color. These may cause discomfort and/or trigger seizures for those with photosensitive epilepsy or other conditions with sensitivity to light or moving images.

Timed with this exhibition, Times Square Arts and the Jewish Museum present Sculpture of Dreams, Minujín’s first public sculpture in New York City, and one of the largest art installations hosted in Times Square to date from November 8 through 21, 2023. Minujín calls the vibrant, 16-piece inflatable an “anti-sculpture,” a reference to her work’s playful and subversive materiality—edgeless, soft, and ephemeral. Both channeling and challenging the multi-sensory landscape of Times Square, Sculpture of Dreams also hosts an immersive experience—visitors will be invited to walk through the interior of the sculpture, enveloping them in a rush of converging colors and a chorus of recorded birdsong. Visitors will also be prompted to whisper their hopes and wishes into the cavernous interior before exiting, letting the work symbolically embody and receive their dreams and desires.

Marta Minujín: Arte! Arte! Arte! is organized by Darsie Alexander, Senior Deputy Director and Susan & Elihu Rose Chief Curator, and Rebecca Shaykin, Associate Curator, at the Jewish Museum, New York. The exhibition design is by Galia Solomonoff and Elena Martinoni of SAS/Solomonoff Architecture Studio. Bilingual texts in English and Spanish will be included in the exhibition.

Marta Minujín: Arte! Arte! Arte! is made possible by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The Kaleta A. Doolin Foundation, the Charina Foundation, The Knapp Family Foundation, Agnes Gund, the Goldie and David Blanksteen Foundation, the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation, Jerry Speyer and Katherine Farley, Estrellita and Daniel Brodsky, Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Fundación Ama Amoedo, The Imperfect Family Foundation, Marley B. Lewis, Dario Werthein, Teresa A.L. Bulgheroni, Monica and Carlos Camin, Migoya Charitable and Family Irrevocable Trust, Erica Roberts, and other generous donors.

Additional support is provided by the Melva Bucksbaum Fund for Contemporary Art, the Barbara S. Horowitz Contemporary Art Fund, the Dorot Publication Fund, and Ealan and Melinda Wingate.

Digital guide supported by Bloomberg Connects.

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Artist seated on a red chair in front of colorful, striped fabric sculptures hanging and piled in a studio space with wooden floors and a beige wall.

Marta Minujín in her studio on rue Delambre in Paris, with her first multicolored mattresses, 1963. Marta Minujín Archive. © Marta Minujín, courtesy of Henrique Faria, New York and Herlitzka & Co., Buenos Aires.

Exhibition highlights

  • Colorful soft sculpture composed of long, irregularly shaped fabric forms in bright striped patterns of red, yellow, pink, green, purple, and blue, arranged in a layered pile.

    Marta Minujín, Para hacer el amor inadvertidamente (For Making Love Inconspicuously), 2010, acrylic, tempera, and lacquer on mattress fabric with foam rubber, 94 × 135 × 30 in. (239 × 343 × 76 cm). The Speyer Family Collection, New York. © Marta Minujín, courtesy of Henrique Faria, New York and Herlitzka & Co., Buenos Aires.

  • Two people sit on red chairs amid a large pile of corn. The woman on the left wears black clothing and sunglasses; the man on the right wears a black turtleneck and light sneakers. Both hold an ear of corn together, extending it toward the camera.

    Marta Minujín with Andy Warhol, El pago de la deuda externa argentina con maíz, “el oro latinoamericano” (Paying Off the Argentine Foreign Debt with Corn, “the Latin American Gold”), New York, 1985 / 2011, C-print, 36 3/8 × 39 1/4 in. (92.4 x 99.7 cm). Collection of the artist. © Marta Minujín, courtesy of Henrique Faria, New York and Herlitzka & Co., Buenos Aires.

  • Black-and-white image of a woman standing barefoot inside a narrow phone booth labeled

    Marta Minujín, Minuphone, Howard Wise, New York, 1967. Marta Minujín Archive. © Marta Minujín, courtesy of Henrique Faria, New York and Herlitzka & Co., Buenos Aires.

  • Abstract painting composed of overlapping organic shapes in pink, mauve, lavender, and burgundy tones, creating a fluid, sensual composition.

    Marta Minujín, Untitled, 1974, from the series Frozen Sex, 1973–75, acrylic on canvas, 50 × 50 in. (127 x 127 cm). Collection of Ama Amoedo. © Marta Minujín, courtesy of Henrique Faria, New York and Herlitzka & Co., Buenos Aires.

  • Abstract artwork consisting of dense, intricate patterns of tiny black dots on a white background, creating a subtle gradient effect across the entire canvas.

    Marta Minujín, Pandemia (Pandemic), 2020-21, acrylic and tempera on hand-cut mattress fabric strips glued with vinyl adhesive on canvas, 106¼ in. x 78 3/4 in. (270 x 200 cm). Collection of the artist. © Marta Minujín, courtesy of Henrique Faria, New York and Herlitzka & Co., Buenos Aires.

  • Abstract illustration of a colorful, intertwined bundle of tubular forms with varied striped patterns in bright reds, oranges, greens, blues, pinks, and blacks, set against a white background.

    Marta Minujín, Untitled, 2021, from the ongoing series X x Y, marker and pencil on paper, 11¾ × 19⅝ in. (30 × 50 cm). Collection of the artist. © Marta Minujín, courtesy of Henrique Faria, New York and Herlitzka & Co., Buenos Aires.

  • Large crowd gathers in a city plaza to watch cranes installing a massive temporary structure resembling a classical building, constructed from panels covered with books or printed pages, surrounded by tall urban buildings under a clear blue sky.

    Marta Minujín, El Partenón de libros (The Parthenon of Books), Buenos Aires, 1983. Marta Minujín Archive. © Marta Minujín, courtesy of Henrique Faria, New York and Herlitzka & Co., Buenos Aires.

  • Immersive installation space filled with vibrant, overlapping, multicolored stripes in shades of purple, pink, yellow, green, blue, and red, creating an optical illusion of twisting, undulating forms across the walls, floor, and ceiling.

    Marta Minujín, Implosión!, 2021, installation with digital projections and sound. Collection of the artist. © Marta Minujín, courtesy of Henrique Faria, New York and Herlitzka & Co., Buenos Aires.

  • Colorful neon light artwork depicting an overlapping group of rugby players in motion, outlined in yellow, green, blue, pink, and white lights against a dark background.

    Marta Minujín, neon panel depicting rugby players, 2010, originally created for El Batacazo (The Long Shot), Instituto Torcuato di Tella, Buenos Aires, 1965, and Bianchini Gallery, New York, 1966. Acrylic, neon, and transformers, 78 3/4 × 82 5/8 × 7 7/8 in. (200 × 210 × 20 cm). Collection of the artist. © Marta Minujín, courtesy of Henrique Faria, New York and Herlitzka & Co., Buenos Aires.

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The Jewish Museum · Marta Minujín: Arte! Arte! Arte!

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