“A painting should be something that begins and ends in itself,” Rothfuss wrote. With this cutout frame, the artist put his principle into practice: the yellow rectangle on the left juts out, and the support takes on the shape of the painting itself. While his work was indebted to that of Joaquín Torres-García and to European abstract artists such as Mondrian, Rothfuss was also influenced by vernacular practices. The alkyd resin present in this work was also used by the artist to create floats for carnival parades in his native Montevideo.

Gallery label from

Sur moderno: Journeys of Abstraction—The Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Gift, October 21, 2019–March 14, 2020

Provenance

The artist.
? - 2010, Galería Palatina, Buenos Aires.
2010 - 2016, Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, New York, and Caracas, purchased through Galería Palatina.
2016, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquired as promised gift from Patricia Phelps de Cisneros.

Medium Alkyd and gouache on board
Dimensions 14 9/16 × 13" (37 × 33 cm)
Credit Gift of Patricia Phelps de Cisneros through the Latin American and Caribbean Fund in honor of Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro
Object number 861.2016
Department Painting & Sculpture

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