Eclectic and Eccentric ‘Paradox’ Shows Latin American Artists Going Beyond Borders by Gary Tischler There are a number of startling, even magical and furiously visceral works in the current exhibition “Paradox & Coexistence II” at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Cultural Center. The exhibition serves as an addendum and final punctuation mark to a previous display organized around the book “Art of Latin America 1900-1980.” “Paradox & Coexistence II” is a final leaf to the other half of the project, “Art of Latin America 1981-2000.” Together, the two books serve as a history of Latin American art in the 20th century, a history that is remarkable both for its variety and for a certain absence. That absence is particularly notable in “Paradox & Coexistence II,” where it is impossible to pinpoint a particular “identity” among the wide-ranging works. The pieces in “Paradox & Coexistence II” say something about the ability of Latin American artists to go beyond borders, to experiment with new traditions yet be unafraid of embracing older forms of traditionalism. Not many of the works here overtly scream the idea that they were “Latin American” works, or even works of a specific region, country or state within those geographical boundaries, except p erhaps in subject matter. But what is clear is a willingness on the part of the artists to go wherever their gifts take them. The artists in “Paradox & Coexistence II” are beyond category, or rather, categorization, which appears to be the major discovery made in the pursuit of surveying Latin American art in the latter two decades of the 20th century. The second discovery is the self-evident presence of a huge amount of diversity, which is perhaps not a surprise given the many cultural influences that impact the hemisphere and its people. After all, much of Latin America early in the century was a reaction to, or an embrace of, European influences. The exhibition completes the project that began with late Columbian-Argentine critic Marta Traba’s “Art of Latin America 1900-1980.” The follow-up publication, surveying works from 1981 to 2000, was written by professor Germán Rubiano Caballero and commissioned by the IDB Cultural Center four years ago. In 2003, Miguel Urrutia, then general manager of Colombia’s Central Bank, proposed mounting a new exhibition using Caballero’s book and the art collections of the IDB and the Central Bank as a base. The result is an exhibition featuring artists well known in Latin America and in their own countries, but not household names in America. Part of the reason for this is that they do not neatly fit into recent trends. Instead, there’s a certain energetic dynamic going on here that the IDB Cultural Center describes as “strong eclecticism and an absence of a clear direction of dominant current, either thematically, technically or conceptually.” There are some powerful works in this exhibition. A large space is occupied by the vital, vivid woodcuts of Raúl Recio from the Dominican Republic. The works, though not huge, loom large in their content and execution, a panorama of myth, pain, violence and magical realism. By contrast, the representative works of José Suárez of Colombia seem almost placid and still—works on paper that are straightforward and quiet. Roberto Eliá from Argentina creates pieces similar to those done by Recio, particularly in a work made of skull, nails, cloth and wood, whereas his other mixed media harkens back to more stylized, mechanical abstraction. José Bedia gives us a powerful image in “Irons,” while Arnaldo Roche Rabell creates a mysterious face in “We Have to Dream Blue.” The exhibition casts a wide net of artists from Argentina to Uruguay. In the end, the works resist collaboration among the artists or flaunting a particular national or regional identity. These forward-looking artists seem to be speaking across such notions. “Paradox & Coexistence II” runs through Aug. 26 at the Inter-American Development Bank Cultural Center, 1300 New York Ave., NW. For more information, please call (202) 623-3774 or visit www.iadb.org/cultural/. Gary Tischler is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.