Carlos María "Rhod" Rothfuss (1920 – December 31, 1969) was a Uruguayan-Argentine artist who specialized in painting and sculpture. He was considered a key theoretician for the development of the
concrete art movement in Argentina in the 1940s[1]: 393 and was a founding member of the international Latin American abstract art movement,
Grupo Madí.[2][3]
In 1938, Rothfuss studied art at Círculo de Bellas Artes in Montevideo. He studied with the artists
Guillermo Laborde and
José Cúneo. In the early 1940s, he studied at the Academia de Bellas Artes in Montevideo.[4]
In 1944, Rothfuss was part of the group of artists who created and edited the magazine called Arturo, which existed for only one issue, and included fellow artists,
Carmelo Arden Quin,
Edgar Bailey,
Gyula Kosice,
Raúl Lozza,
Tomas Maldonado, and
Lidy Prati.[6] Rothfuss contributed an article called: "El marco. un problema de la plástica actual (The frame: A Problem of Plastic Arts Today)," which became an important text on the theory and movement of art towards geometry.[4]: 420–421 Rothfuss was stating what was then a revolutionary idea, that he was advocation for the removal of the frame of the painting, saying that it got in the way of the art.[4]: 18
In 1945, Rothfuss participated in two seminal
concrete art exhibitions called Arte Concreto-Invención in Buenos Aires.
In 1945, Rothfuss participated in
Asociación Arte Concreto-Invención's first two
concrete art exhibitions organized at the homes of Swiss born psychoanalyst,
Enrique Pichon-Rivière, and German-Argentinian photographer,
Grete Stern. Rothfuss also participated in the group's third exhibition organized in October 1946 at the Argentinian Society of Plastic Arts.[1][7][8]
During this time, to illustrate the concrete nature of his work, Rothfuss used nontraditional materials like diamonds and employed notched and irregular shapes in his artwork.[1]
From 1945 to 1950, Rothfuss created sculptures that had moving parts.[1]
1945: "Arte Concreto-Invención." Buenos Aires – two exhibitions
1976: "Homenaje a la vanguardia argentina: Dècada del 40." Galeria Arte Nuevo (Buenos Aires)
1980: "Vanguardias de la década del 40. Arte Concreto-Invención, Arte Madí, Perceptismo." Museo de Artes Plásticas Eduardo Sívori (Buenos Aires)
1992–93: "Artistas latinoamericanos del siglo XX." Estación Plaza de Armas (Seville); Musée national d’art moderne, Centre national d’art et de culture Georges Pompidou (Paris); Josef-Haubrich-Kunsthalle, Cologne; The Museum of Modern Art (New York)
1994–95: "Art from Argentina 1920–1994." Museum of Modern Art (Oxford) [traveling exhibition]
1997–98: "Arte Madí." Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid); Museo Extremeño e Iberoamericano de Arte Contemporáneo (Badajoz)[10] – Exhibition held at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, July 1-October 27, 1997, and at the Museo Extremeño Iberoamericano de Arte Contemporaneo, November 7, 1997 – January 11, 1998
2000: "Heterotopías. Medio siglo sin lugar. 1918–1968." Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid)
2001: "Abstract Art from Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires and Montevideo, 1933–1953." The Americas Society (New York)[11]
2002: "Madí. L’art sud-américain." Musée de Grenoble (Grenoble)
2003–4: "Arte abstracto argentino, Galleria d’arte moderna e contemporanea." Bergamo; Fundación Proa (Buenos Aires)
2004: "Inverted Utopias. Avant-Garde Art in Latin America." Museum of Fine Arts, (Houston Texas)
2007: "The Geometry of Hope. Latin American Abstract Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection." Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin (Austin, Texas); Grey Art Gallery, New York University (New York)
Arenas, Braulio; Rothfuss, Rhod (1944). Arenas, Braulio (ed.). El caballero invisible (in Spanish). Buenos Aires: Ediciones Ubu.
OCLC50043931.
Rothfuss, Rhod (October 1948). Kosice, Gyula (ed.).
"Un aspecto de la superposición". Arte Madí Universal (in Spanish and German) (2). Buenos Aires.
Rothfuss, Rhod (June 1954). Kosice, Gyula (ed.).
"Decoración y pintura". Arte Madí Universal (in Spanish) (7–8). Buenos Aires: 4–6.
Rothfuss, Rhod (October 1948). Kosice, Gyula (ed.).
"Super Estructuras". Arte Madí Universal (2). Buenos Aires: 2.
Borràs, Maria Lluïsa (1997). "Rhod Rhothfuss: Un fantasma recorre Madí by Sagradini, Mario". Arte Madí: Exposición organizada por el Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (in Spanish and English). Madrid: Ministerio de Educacion y Cultura.
ISBN978-8-480-26089-3.
OCLC698573072. – Catalog of an exhibition held at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, July 1-October 27, 1997, and at the Museo Extreme~no e Iberoamericano de Arte Contemporaneo, November 7, 1997 – January 11, 1998
Suárez, Osbel (exhibition concept and guest curator); García, María Amalia; Agnew, Michael (translations) (2011). Witschey, Erica; Fundación Juan March (eds.).
Cold America: Geometric Abstraction in Latin América (1934–1973)(Exhibition catalog). Madrid: Fundación Juan March.
ISBN978-84-7075-588-0.
OCLC707460289. Wikidata () – Exhibition catalog of Cold America, Geometric Abstraction in Latin America (1934–1973), Fundación Juan March, Madrid, February 11-May 15, 2011
Suárez, Osbel (exhibition concept and guest curator); García, María Amalia; Agnew, Michael (translations) (2011). Witschey, Erica; Fundación Juan March (eds.).
América fría. La abstracción geométrica en Latinoamerica (1934–1973)(Exhibition catalog) (in Spanish). Madrid: Fundación Juan March.
ISBN978-8-470-75586-6.
OCLC810113820. Wikidata () – Folleto de la expoción celebrada América fría. La abstracción geométrica en Latinoamerica (1934–1973) en la Fundación Juan March en Madrid del 11 de febrero al 15 de mayo de 2011
"Regarding the Frame" (1950) by Rhod Rothfuss p. 432
^
abcdRasmussen, Waldo; Bercht, Fatima; Ferrer, Elizabeth, eds. (1993). Latin American Artists of the Twentieth Century (Exhibition catalog). New York: The Museum of Modern Art.
ISBN978-0-870-70424-6.
OCLC735320789.
^
abPérez-Barreiro, Gabriel (exhibition curator); Locke, Adrian (exhibition curator); Lea, Sarah (exhibition curator); García, María Amalia; Whitelegg, Isobel (2014). Radical Geometry: Modern Art of South America from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection. London: Royal Academy of Arts.
ISBN978-1-907-53369-3.
OCLC889949567. Wikidata ()
^Consonancia: la abstracción geométrica en Argentina y Venezuela, años 40 y 50. Caracas: Artesanogroup. 2007.
ISBN978-9-806-81603-9.
OCLC912869688.
^Borràs, Maria Lluïsa (1997). "Rhod Rhothfuss: Un fantasma recorre Madí by Sagradini, Mario". Arte Madí: Exposición organizada por el Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (in Spanish and English). Madrid: Ministerio de Educacion y Cultura.
ISBN978-8-480-26089-3.
OCLC698573072.
Bois, Yve-Alain (2001). Geometric Abstraction: Latin American Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection = Abstracción Geométrica: Arte Latinoamericano en la Coloección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (Exhibition catalog) (in English and Spanish). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
ISBN978-0-300-08990-5.
OCLC298342818. Wikidata () – Exhibition at the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA, 3 March-4 November 2001
Gradowczyk, Mario H. (curated by); Perazzo, Nelly (curated by) (2001).
Abstract Art from the Río de la Plata(Exhibition catalog). New York: The Americas Society.
ISBN978-1-879-12827-9.
OCLC48463485. – exhibition organized by the Americas Society and presented from September 11-December 9, 2001
Suárez, Osbel (exhibition concept and guest curator); García, María Amalia; Agnew, Michael (translations) (2011). Witschey, Erica; Fundación Juan March (eds.).
Cold America: Geometric Abstraction in Latin América (1934–1973)(Exhibition catalog). Madrid: Fundación Juan March.
ISBN978-84-7075-588-0.
OCLC707460289. Wikidata () – Exhibition catalog of Cold America, Geometric Abstraction in Latin America (1934–1973), Fundación Juan March, Madrid, February 11-May 15, 2011
Suárez, Osbel (exhibition concept and guest curator); García, María Amalia; Agnew, Michael (translations) (2011). Witschey, Erica; Fundación Juan March (eds.).
América fría. La abstracción geométrica en Latinoamerica (1934–1973)(Exhibition catalog) (in Spanish). Madrid: Fundación Juan March.
ISBN978-8-470-75586-6.
OCLC810113820. Wikidata () – Folleto de la expoción celebrada América fría. La abstracción geométrica en Latinoamerica (1934–1973) en la Fundación Juan March en Madrid del 11 de febrero al 15 de mayo de 2011
Pérez-Barreiro, Gabriel (exhibition curator); Locke, Adrian (exhibition curator); Lea, Sarah (exhibition curator); García, María Amalia; Whitelegg, Isobel (2014). Radical Geometry: Modern Art of South America from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection. London: Royal Academy of Arts.
ISBN978-1-907-53369-3.
OCLC889949567. Wikidata ()