Ascânio MMM
Ascânio MMM is one of the leading artists in the trajectory of geometric abstraction in Latin America. His sculptures are built on the principles of Mathematics, specifically the possibilities of geometric configurations. Repetition and precision are essential elements in the work process, regardless of scale or the material, the result is often a meeting between the rigor of constructivism and the illusion of optical art.
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Quacors 5, 2019View more details
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Quasos/Poligonal 1, 2019View more details
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Quacors 7, 2019View more details
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Quacors 1, 2018View more details
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Quacors 2, 2018View more details
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Quasos 14, 2016View more details
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Qualas 14, 2016View more details
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Flexos 6.3, 2007View more details
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Piramidal 33, 1999View more details
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Piramidal 12.4, 1991-1993View more details
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Gramixinga 1, 1986View more details
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Untitled, 1986View more details
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Fitangular Ipê 1, 1985View more details
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Escultura 20, 1978-2010View more details
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Escultura 18, 1978-2004View more details
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Escultura 11.2, 1978-2000View more details
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Formation Two, 1978View more details
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Múltiplo 31 (Escultura 2.3), 1977-2003View more details
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Vazado Quatorze , 1976-1992View more details
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Relevo Quatro, 1972View more details
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Escultura 2, 1972View more details
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Triangles 7, 1969-2009View more details
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Squares 25, 1969-2006View more details
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Individual One/Eleven, 1969View more details
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Squares 27, 1968-2008View more details
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Triângulo Projetado, 1968View more details
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Caixa 1, 1968View more details
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Qualas 1View more details
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Quasos/Poligonal2View more details
Born in Fão, Portugal, in 1941, Ascânio has been living and working in Rio de Janeiro since 1959. His formal education includes the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes [National School of Fine Arts] between 1963 and 1964 and the Architecture and Urbanism College at Rio de Janeiro’s Federal University (FAU/UFRJ) from 1965 to 1969, where he graduated.
He worked as an architect until 1976, on such projects as the signaling and duplication of Vale’s Vitória-Minas railway – during this project he lived in Vitória for three years.
Ascânio started developing his artistic work in 1966, when he was still at the Architecture and Urbanism College, and later along with his work as an architect. In that same year he showed his work for the first time to the public, at the Salão de Abril at Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro [April Exhibition at Rio de Janeiro’s Modern art Museum]. The boxes – wooden cubes on which the spectator can move different sized squares, making diverse drawings – are from this period.
The relationship among sculpture, Mathematics and Philosophy became a central matter in his work during the 1970s. In this period, from an axis, he explored progressions in vertical and horizontal twists, using wooden slats painted in white.
In the 1980s, with reliefs and sculptures Fitangulares, he became interested in raw wood; white, light and shadow were not the main issue anymore. He began to explore different species of wood and their natural colors (cedar, mahogany, and other South American wood such as salmwood, Ipe and Pau-marfim). In the late 1980s he made the first Piramidais in wood.
In the 1990s the issue of great dimensions became a core matter to Ascânio, and the research on aluminum profiles intensified. Aluminum became, thus, the basis for the creation of new works, always using module. This phase’s sculptures are characterized by aluminum tubes cut into rectangles, which generate great dimension sculptures with hollows and sequences of transparencies and opacities, making them almost immaterial depending on the viewer’s position.
In the 2000s Ascânio develops Flexos e Qualas. In the first works, the bolts used on Piramidais were replaced by stainless steel wire that tied the centimeter tubes together, making a flexible mesh. In Qualas the wire was replaced by rings, resulting in a mesh “that crosses the sight, the light, the wind”.
In the 2010s, with Quasos, Ascânio remains focused on aluminum and its possibilities, and starts reversing the traditional logic behind the use of bolts. These works have twists and bends that result from the deconstruction of the geometric mesh, introducing the matter of unpredictability into his works. Color was used again, but in a subtle way.
Ascânio’s artistic production was the object of study and critical analysis by Paulo Herkenhoff in the book Ascânio MMM: Poética da Razão [Ascânio MMM: The Poetics of Reason] (BEĨ publishing, 2012). In 2005 Ascânio MMM (Andrea Jakobsson publishing, 2005) was published with passages by Paulo Sergio Duarte, Lauro Cavalcanti, Fernando Cocchiarale e Marcio Doctors.
The artist’s work is in important public and private art collections in Brazil and abroad, and has been exhibited at the São Paulo Biennial (1967 and 1979) and at Panorama da Arte Brasileira [Panorama of Brazilian Art] (1970, 1972, 1975 e 1985), among other important collective and individual exhibitions, such as: MAM RJ, Paço Imperial, Palácio das Artes, Dominique Lévy Gallery, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Buenos Aires, Argentina; MAR - Museu de Arte do Rio, Rio de Janeiro; Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno, Valência (Spain); Panorama da Arte Brasileira in 2008, MAM SP, Arte como Questão - Anos 70, Tomie Ohtake Institute, São Paulo, Itaú Cultural Institute, São Paulo, I Mercosul Biennial, Porto Alegre (RS), MAC SP, Barbican Center, London, MASP SP, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, among others.
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Ascânio MMM: Prisma e Quacors
Casa Triângulo, São Paulo, Brazil 28 September - 14 November 2019Ascânio MMM: Constructive Universality and the Contingency of Perception The spatial pieces by Ascânio MMM have a public vocation, arising from their essential link to the constructive tradition and, more...Read more -
Ascânio MMM: Bodily Measures
Casa Triângulo, São Paulo, Brazil 14 September - 22 October 2016Ascânio MMM: bodily measures 1. Harmonious proportions Brazilian art critique and art history has given Ascânio MMM's oeuvre short shrift. However, this omission has now been partly remedied...Read more
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Ascânio MMM and Sandra Cinto . Estado Bruto
Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 6 May 2021Curated by Beatriz Lemos, Keyna Eleison and Pablo Lafuente, the exhibition Estado Bruto brings together three-dimensional works selected from collections of the Museum of Modern...Read more -
Ascânio MMM . Latinoamerica: Volver Al Futuro
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Buenos Aires, Argentina. 6 April 2018Latinoámerica: volver al futuro goes through a topography of unsuspected connections between regional modernizing projects and contemporary artistic practices. From the concrete works of the...Read more -
Ascânio MMM . Praça da Sé [Public work]
Prefeitura de São Paulo, Brazil 6 September 2017São Paulo is granted with the public sculpture Praça da Sé by Ascânio MMM. Donated by Itaú Cultural, the work had been commissioned by then-Mayor...Read more -
Ascânio MMM . Antropofagia y Modernidad: Arte brasileño en la colección Fadel
Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina 25 November 2016Ascânio MMM takes part in the exhibition Antropofagia y Modernidad: Arte Brasileño en la Colección Fadel , curated by Victoria Giraudo, at the Museo de...Read more
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SP-ARTE 2022
PAVILHÃO DA BIENAL, SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL 4 - 10 April 2022 -
Art Basel Miami Beach
30 November - 4 December 2021Art Basel Miami Beach 2021. Booth G22. Kabinett: Antonio Henrique Amaral Featured artists: Ascânio MMM, Eduardo Berliner, Juliana Cerqueira Leite, Mariana Palma,O Bastardo, Sandra Cinto,...Read more -
SP Arte
20 - 24 October 2021 -
ARTRIO
ONLINE FAIR 14 - 18 October 2020 -
ArtRio
Marina da Glória, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 8 - 12 September 2020 -
SP-ARTE
PAVILHÃO DA BIENAL SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL 1 - 5 April 2020 -
ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH
CONVENTION CENTER MIAMI, EUA 4 - 8 December 2019 -
ARTRIO
MARINA DA GLÓRIA RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL 18 - 22 September 2019 -
SP-ARTE
PAVILHÃO DA BIENAL SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL 3 - 7 April 2019 -
ARCO MADRID
PARQUE FERIAL JUNA CARLOS I MADRID, SPAIN 27 February - 3 March 2019 -
ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH
CONVENTION CENTER MIAMI, USA 6 - 9 December 2018 -
ARTRIO
MARINA DA GLÓRIA RIO DE JANEIRO, BRASIL 27 - 30 September 2018