The Whitechapel Gallery opens the first exhibition of its three-year curatorial partnership with the Gallery at Windsor, Vero Beach, Florida.
Opening on 3 December, Beatriz Milhazes: Screenprints 1996 – 2011 is the first annual exhibition at Windsor curated by the Whitechapel Gallery, London, to coincide with Art Basel Miami Beach. This is the first time the Whitechapel Gallery has embarked on a partnership of this kind, and provides a new US platform for the Gallery.
Beatriz Milhazes is an internationally renowned Brazilian artist, whose exuberantly coloured, rhythmically constructed artworks have been exhibited worldwide. Beatriz Milhazes: Screenprints 1996 – 2011 is the first comprehensive display of the artist’s bold and abstract works on paper.
Central to the exhibition will be a series of screen and wood block prints Milhazes made with Durham Press in Pennsylvania during the past 15 years. These screen prints and wood block editions offer a subtle and fascinating evolution of form, colour and optical rhythm. Bringing all of these prints together promises to offer a coherent, revelatory and visually dazzling journey encompassing European modernism and Brazilian Tropicalia. Milhazes draws inspiration from the street, religion, nature and fashion.
Alongside more than 20 screen and woodblock prints, will be two rarely seen limited edition artists’ books. Coisa Linda (2002), published by MoMA, New York, contains lyrics from Brazilian songs presented alongside Milhazes’ collaged and cut-out prints. Meu Bem (2008), published by Riding House, describes Rio through images inspired by the Copacabana sidewalk, Samba dancing and wildly shaped plants.
Each year the exhibition opening will create a ‘salon’ like ambience for the Whitechapel Gallery at Windsor, where leading figures from the art world can meet to discuss and debate ideas. At the centre of this is the Windsor International Art Committee, a new circle of ambassadors for the project drawn from collectors, gallerists, curators and Windsor members. For each exhibition a practitioner, such as a writer, poet or musician will create a unique performance inspired by the art on display. This year musician and composer Arto Lindsay, whose music is greatly influenced by his time spent in Brazil, will perform in the exhibition. Iwona Blazwick OBE, Director of the Whitechapel Gallery, will also be in conversation with Milhazes for the opening weekend.
Iwona Blazwick OBE, former Director, Whitechapel Gallery, London said:
‘The Whitechapel Gallery has always pioneered world-class artists and we are delighted to realise a new exhibition in the Gallery at Windsor. I see Beatriz’s work as orchestral, with circular elements interweaving to form a symphony of colour and shape. The titles of her work are in themselves a form of poetry. To show these screen and woodblock prints alongside the beautiful artist’s books gives the show a further dimension. Art historical echoes are both European and Brazilian – we can see Milhazes as the inheritor both of artists such as Matisse and Sonia Delaunay, as well as the Brazilian Tropicalia movement. The different forms of her work will be enhanced by the fantastic light of the gallery and the beautiful landscape surrounding it.’
‘We have long admired the Whitechapel Gallery and its ground-breaking programme of exhibitions and events, and are delighted to be forming a partnership with them’, says the Hon. Hilary M. Weston, philanthropist wife of international retail magnate Mr W. Galen Weston, who established the Windsor community and are supporting the displays. ‘Having an artist from Latin America is the perfect recognition of Miami and Florida’s unique geographical position between the North and South American continents. Windsor has a fantastic history of showing world-class contemporary artists, including Ed Ruscha, Peter Doig and Alex Katz, and Beatriz is a brilliant addition.’
Leading art consultancy Nine AM Limited, who brought together the collaboration, will be working closely with the Whitechapel Gallery to realise the series of exhibitions.
Visitor Information
Exhibition: Beatriz Milhazes: Screenprints 1996 – 2011
Dates: 3 December 2011 – 20 April 2012
Venue: Windsor Gallery, 3125 Windsor Boulevard, Vero Beach, Florida, 32963
Visiting hours: Open daily from 9am weekdays and 10am at weekends by appointment, closing times vary
Entry: Visitors to call: 001 772 388 4071 to arrange their visit
www.windsorflorida.com/gallery or gallery@windsorflorida.com
