“Leaving the frontal surface blank, empty of any image, implied questioning the ancestral habit of only experiencing [paintings] head-on and uncovering the possibility of a ‘lateral’ and ‘oblique’ mode of looking,” Paternosto explained. He applied color only to the sides of the canvas to encourage viewers to reorient their gaze. The Hidden Order functions as an investigation of painting’s lateral edges while inviting viewers to surround the work, emphasizing its object-like quality.

Gallery label from

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

Provenance

The artist
Galería Durban, Caracas
1996, Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, New York, and Caracas
2017, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquired as gift from Patricia Phelps de Cisneros.

Medium Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions 42 x 42 x 2 3/4" (106.7 x 106.7 x 7 cm)
Credit Gift of Patricia Phelps de Cisneros through the Latin American and Caribbean Fund in honor of Nando Parrado
Object number 572.2017
Department Painting & Sculpture

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César Paternosto

César Paternosto

Argentine, born 1931 2 works online

Sitting in his studio in downtown New York in 1969, the Argentine painter César Paternosto experienced a breakthrough. At the time, new modes of experimental art were pushing beyond the boundaries of painting and sculpture , interrogating to the point of destruction the very value of these categories.

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