Winter 2025

Latin Modern [EXTRACT]

Crafting Modernity: Design in Latin America, 1940–1980

MoMA, New York, 8 March to 10 November 2024 Curated by Ana Elena Mallet and Amanda Forment Reviewed by César Sesio

This MoMA exhibition marks the first time a major US museum has comprehensively examined modern design in Latin America, providing exceptional visibility to women artists and designers. It serves as an introduction to a subject of significant international interest.

During the latter years of the Second World War, Latin American countries experienced economic growth and rapid modernisation as they were far from the international conflict. This period saw contact between Latin America and Europe increase: artists, writers, architects and musicians from Europe who were part of avant-garde movements visited countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela, exchanging ideas with local artists. Meanwhile, Latin-American practitioners and educators travelled to Europe and North America in search of enriching experiences in education institutions and design studios. This dialogue gave rise to new hybrids that combined international and regional traditions and ideas. It also started the gradual professionalisation of design, which had not existed as a formal discipline in Latin America before the 1950s.

During the 1940s, as a consequence of the war in Europe, countries in Latin America began producing goods domestically to replace traditionally imported items. The abundance of materials led to the rapid growth of national industries, creating employment opportunities for local designers. However, in order to understand the development of Modernism in Latin America, we need to consider the tragic interventions in democratic states by de facto governments. These interventions were motivated by concerns about the spread of left-leaning ideologies and the interests of investors from developed economies. In the late 1970s, unsurprisingly, a series of economic crises erupted across the region, signalling the end of the developmental model in Latin America.

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César Sesio, designer, London and Buenos Aires

Read the full version in Eye no. 107 vol. 27, 2025

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