Challenging the dominant narrative of post-war abstraction as an inherently Western phenomenon, curator Pavel Pyś is planning an ambitious exhibition scheduled 2020. The show will examine how the ideological poles that shaped and informed abstraction from 1945 through the 1970s—communism versus capitalism; East versus West; freedom versus control—manifested in Lahore, Baghdad, Sao Paulo, Tokyo, and other centers not traditionally considered in canonical art history. Pyś will study the ways in which abstraction emerged organically in these cities in response to local economic, political and social factors. Pyś will travel internationally to research this exhibition and further investigate the people and places, as well as the political and cultural conditions that drove the development of abstraction internationally.
Pavel Pyś
“It is an honor to be part of The Warhol Foundation’s mission to support the visual arts coupled with its commitment to specifically support the voices of women, POC, Native Americans, and LGBTQ. It is simply thrilling to be part of an organization where we get to see these values writ large and implement real change in real life ways in the visual arts community that still so needs to move forward in terms of social justice, equality, and diversity. We put our money where our mouth is. How many institutions actually do that?”
Deborah Kass, Artist