Carmelo Arden Quin: When Art Jumped Out of its Cage [Hardcover]

Shelley Goodman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 20, 2005

The life of Carmelo Arden Quin, the pioneering South American modernist, chronicles the birth throes of abstractionism in Argentina in the 1940s and its fruition in post World War II Paris. Thriving in the ferment of cafe life and artistic innovation in Buenos Aires where he had arrived in 1938, Arden Quin and the poet Edgar Bayley founded the review Arturo, which championed pure invention free from naturalism and symbolism, and the confluence of all branches of the arts. From these experiments came Madi, Arden Quin's brand of geometric art insisting on playfulness, irregular shapes and canvasses, decoupage and the importance of space, kinetic and transformable pieces, and the dissolution of the barriers between spectator and work of art. The largely uncharted history of South America's enormous contributions to 20th century art unfolds through the adventures, personal histories, friendships, amours, and bitter conflicts that fill the pages of this book. It is distinguished by a sustained immediacy and intimacy rarely seen in art history, which comes from four decades of frienship between the author and the artist. Over 200 black and white documentary photos and 60 color plates of the artist's work, together with a detailed Bibliography and Chronology of Exhibitions.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Goodman's long familiarity with Madi ... allows her to present Arden Quin to an English-speaking audience." --Peter Frank, art critic, Angeleno magazine and L.A. Weekly, 2005

"El lector podra encontrar esos instantes de busqueda y encuentros que hicieran de Arden Quin uno icono del siglo XX." --Carlos M. Luis, Arte al Dia International, No. 109, 2005

"On ne peut que recommander ce volumineux ouvrage." --Pierre Rio, Syndicat National des Artistes Peintres Professionnels, Paris, 2005

About the Author

Born in Dallas, Texas, Shelley Goodman received a master's degree from the Univ. of Illinois. After a brief stint covering the arts for the Dallas Times Herald, she moved to Paris, where she was a production secretary for Hollywood legend Darryl F. Zanuck and later 20th-Century Fox's European Story Editor. Married to Madi painter, sculptor and architect Volf Roitman, Goodman has published seven books as well as various texts on Carmelo Arden Quin and the Madi movement and is now at work on an autobiographical novel, A Thousand and One Parisian Nights.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 403 pages
• Publisher: The Madi Museum and Gallery (February 20, 2005)
• ISBN-10: 0975873911
• ISBN-13: 978-0975873915
• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 9.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,968,716 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Modern Masterpiece, February 10, 2006

By 

Jarod (London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Carmelo Arden Quin: When Art Jumped Out of its Cage (Hardcover)

Whether or not you are familiar with Arden Quin, this wonderful, colorful biography will have you entranced within the first few pages. I became familiar with the MADI movement after visiting the MADI Museum in Dallas which was designed and curated by Volf ROITMAN, head of MADI International and one of its most talented members.

Arden Quin is the founder of the MADI movement which was publicly launched in 1946 in Buenos Aires. He then moved to Paris, where he has been performing his magic ever since. The MADI movement now includes 80 artists from all over the world such as Volf ROITMAN, Octavio HERRERA, Reale FRANGI and Saverio CECERE.

This book not only makes great reading, but it is a wonderful coffee table book. Arden Quin's life is pure madness wrapped in genius. Worth every penny!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An aesthetic universe of South American art unveiled for English speakers, March 9, 2006

By 

Harold Kirkpatrick (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Carmelo Arden Quin: When Art Jumped Out of its Cage (Hardcover)

Written in a breezy, readable style, Carmelo Arden Quin: When Art
Jumped Out of Its Cage, evokes the hyperreality of Uruguay and
Argentina of the 1930s and forties -- from From Quin's youth on in the Uruguayan frontier (where his father was gunned down just before he was born) and where he started painting while in his teens, to his Paraguayan rainforest and Brazilian voyages and his artistic apprenticeship in cosmopolitan Buenos Aires. Quin maintains that that within twenty-four hours of discovering the art of Wassily Kandinsky he decided to devote his life to non-representational art. In 1930s Argentina, stifled by provincialism and the heavy-handed rule of colonels and dictators, this took took considerable courage. In 1944, with his friend the poet Edgar Bayley, Quin founded Arturo (named for
Artur Rimbaud), a magazine of experimental concrete poetry that
championed pure invention. From such experiments arose the MADI
movement, which sought to liberate art of the constraints of the
rectangular picture frame, producing irregularly shaped, articulated and pierced paintings and sculptures that rendered space as an integral part of the work, often incorporating planes and colors -- a joyous and playful art -- MADI LUDICO. Was MADI a nonsense word like dada? A private symbol? or the English for "mad" "eye"? Who can say?

Inevitably, the restless Quin migrated to France, where, barring some temporary returns to Argentina, he still resides. MADI art thus entered the international sphere. In recounting Quin's years abroad, Goodman, who herself lived for years in France and knows the scene intimately, deftly and wittily negotiates the ideosyncratic personalities, political complexities, feuds, love affairs, and artistic ins and outs of post-World War II bohemian Paris. Making appearances in the story are Tomas Maldonado, Francis Picabia, Matta, Calder, Herbin, Vantongerloo, Volf Roitman, Fonseca, Victor Vaserely, and many others.

In 2003 a wonderful MADI museum opened in Dallas, Texas, housed in a building that is itself a fantastic MADI creation (the work of Uruguayan-born Volf Roitman) and displaying the works of MADI artists from all over the world, but chiefly South America. Every artlover should make a point of visiting it when they go to Dallas.

Note: With its wealth of illustrations in black and white and color and almost 500 pages of text, comprising closely researched
documentation, personal anecdotes, and an exhaustive chronology, this book is well worth the price. It will be a treasured collector's item for art lovers and an essential resource for scholars.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When Art Jumped Out of its Cage, June 1, 2006

By 

Andrea Kowalski - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Carmelo Arden Quin: When Art Jumped Out of its Cage (Hardcover)

Shelley Goodman has written a scholarly book that is also fun to read. A rare combination. I couldn't put it down. I learned so much about the artist , his contemporaries and art in general. That particular period in Paris and the whole art scene is so vividly described one becomes totally nostalgic. A must for neophytes and confirmed Art lovers. Beautiful illustrations.