ABSTRACT
Abstraction rapidly gained acceptance throughout Latin America in the years following World War II. Until recently, studies of abstract painting and sculpture in the region have primarily focused on the geometric and concrete styles that emerged in Brazil, Argentina, and Venezuela; but different variants of abstraction developed simultaneously in the Andes. Significantly, its emergence as a legitimate form of artistic expression in Ecuador and Bolivia can be attributed in part to the groundbreaking exhibitions of two pioneering women: Araceli Gilbert (Ecuador) and María Luisa Pacheco (Bolivia). These artists worked in what have been characterized as opposite poles of abstraction, Gilbert embracing the flat planes and hard edges of geometric abstraction, and Pacheco the more flowing forms and blended colors of lyrical abstraction. This essay will explore the reception of these pioneering artists’ exhibitions, looking at the ways in which gender shaped expectations of their work, and how these two women paved the way for further explorations of abstraction in the Andes in the 1960s.
