10 Apr 2013

Bruce Altshuler’s “Biennials and Beyond: Exhibitions that Made Art History, 1962-2002 “.

Bruce Altshuler: Biennials and Beyond.
Exhibitions That Made Art History.
Volume II: 1962-2002

Biennials and Beyond documents 25 of the most significant and pioneering exhibitions that took place between 1962 and 2002. Within the past decade, the history of art exhibitions has become an important area of academic and critical inquiry. Exhibitions are hubs of interaction within the art world, the places where artists, dealers, critics, and collectors come together, and where the newest art first comes before the public.

Biennials and Beyond is the first book to position a range of contemporary exhibitions in the context of art history, providing installation photographs, exhibition floor plans and critical texts from the time, as well as an expansive account of recent exhibition history by Bruce Altshuler.
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21 Feb 2013

All publications produced by the Bienal de São Paulo between 1951 and 2008 are now online and can be downloaded for free.

All publications produced by the Bienal de São Paulo between 1951 and 2008 are now online and can be downloaded for free.

Given the importance of the Bienal de São Paulo exhibitions and the continuity and interest they have generated in artistic centers (both Brazilian and international), it has become necessary to understand the institution’s past and to study the shows, the participating artists, the production, among other information that might prove relevant to the curatorial process for future editions and scholarly research in various areas of knowledge. After each edition, it is essential that these records find a place where they can be gathered, organized and conserved so that they may be useful to those who need them – fulfilling their informative and documentary function.

These necessities spurred the creation of the Contemporary Art Library and Historical Archives by Wanda Svevo in 1954, the year of the fourth centennial of the founding of São Paulo. Made official in 1955, the main objective of the Historical Archives was to guard documentation produced during the biennial exhibits, including bureaucratic records of institutional activities, especially documentation that resulted from contact with artists in exhibition, as well as information gathered about other artists. Thus, a pioneering experience in Latin America began with the constitution of one of the most important, internationally-recognized archives on visual arts.
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