(Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
As of today, the collection of the Belgian-Brazilian Sylvio Perlstein is on display at MAM-Rio, the Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro.
About the exhibition, according to curator Luis Camillo Osorio:
I met Sylvio Perlstein ten years ago. Art dealer Jean Boghici called me to say that he had a Belgian collector who loved Rio, grew up in the city and had gathered together over a lifetime one of the most interesting collections he was aware of. At that time, I was an art critic at the newspaper O Globo. I lost no time and went to meet him at a hotel in Ipanema. Sylvio was truly a very special person. In bermuda shorts and sandals, we went for a walk on the beach to talk things over. A few days later, I published an interview with him on the cover of Segundo Caderno.
His collection was, in fact, unique. However, what interested me more was that it had been created together with artists whom he knew and who opened their studio doors to him as well as those of friends. The surrealists arrived by way of friendship with Man Ray. The minimalists and conceptualists by way of Robert Ryman – whom he met at a bar in the mid-1960s. In this way, he built a collection that brought together parts of 20th century art that never converse in history books and critiques. The surrealists and conceptualists, Dadaists and minimalists, Europeans, North Americans and Brazilians.
In short, many good things from 20th century art, decidedly radical moments, coexist naturally in the rooms and library of his Paris residence. The milieu that holds the collection is authentic and reveals a bit of the life of those pieces. There is neither the pretentiousness nor the fascination of the collector who transforms his house into a gallery. The artwork belongs to the house, to the living space, intimacy, habitation. In the library, Dadaist objects and primitive pieces are found together with the books and decorations with no differentiation and acrylic boxes. The space is both artistic and not artistic, it invites us to stay without losing the aftertaste of the strangeness of all those “worlds” that pulsate incessantly.
To bring this collection to MAM is to share some of Sylvio Perlstein’s half-century of intimate familiarity with seminal works of art – that are rarely collected. It is the evolution, with the bold intervention of Leonel Kaz, of the initial conversation at Ipanema beach, where he said that he adored Rio de Janeiro and that he wished to show his collection here. There it is. More than a collection, what we see is the residue of day-to-day life.
“Sylvio: The Clash of ‘Worlds'” at MAM-Rio
Opens 25th March from 7pm to 10pm
On display from 26th March to 25th May
Opening hours:
Tues – Fri 12am to 6pm
Weekends and holidays 12am to 7pm
Tickets
Exhibitions – R$12,00 (free movie session included for the day the ticket is printed.
Adults over 60 and children under 12 – R$6,00.
Sunday tickets for families up to 5 people – R$12,00.
Cinematheque – R$6,00
Adults over 60 and children under 12 – R$3,00.
Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro
Av. Infante Dom Henrique, 85.
Parque do Flamengo
Rio de Janeiro – RJ
T: (+5521) 2240-4944