Book Talk: The Organic Line: On Weak Links and Plagiotropic Relations

In this presentation, Professor Irene V. Small (Art & Archaeology) will discuss her new book, The Organic Line: Toward a Topology of Modernism (Zone Books, 2024) with the acclaimed curator, writer, and poet Luis Pérez-Oramas, who co-curated the 2014 MoMA retrospective of the Brazilian artist Lygia Clark. In her book, Small elucidates Clark’s signal discovery: a fissure of space between material elements she called “the organic line.” For much of the history of art, Clark’s discovery, much like the organic line, has escaped legibility. Once recognized, however, the line has seismic repercussions for rethinking foundational concepts such as mark, limit, surface, and edge. A spatial cavity that binds discrepant entities together, the organic line transforms planes into flexible topologies, borders into membranes, and interstices into points of connection. As a paradigm, the organic line has profound historiographic implications as well, inviting us to set aside traditional notions of influence and origin in favor of what Small terms weak links and plagiotropic relations. The presentation and conversation will focus on the methodological implications of the organic line for thinking about Latin American art history and the discipline of art history more broadly.

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Irene V. Small is Associate Professor of Contemporary Art & Criticism in the Department of Art & Archaeology, Princeton University, where she is affiliated with the Program in Media & Modernity, the Program in Latin American Studies, the Department of Spanish & Portuguese, and Brazil Lab. She is the author of Hélio Oiticica: Folding the Frame (University of Chicago Press, 2016), and The Organic Line: Toward a Topology of Modernism (Zone Books, 2024).

Luis Pérez Oramas, essayist and poet, was born in Caracas in 1960. He holds a PhD in Art History from the School of Higher Studies in Social Sciences (Paris, 1993). He was curator of the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection (1995-2002), curator of Latin American Art at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (2003-2017), and curatorial director of the Thirtieth International Art Biennial of Sao Paulo (2012-2013). At present, he resides in New York and works as an independent writer and curator, curatorial advisor for the Hochschild Correa Collection (Lima), and curatorial director of the Nara Roesler Gallery (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and New York). He has published the poetry books Poemas (1978), Salmos (y boleros) de la casa (1986), La gana breve (1994), Gacelas y otros poemas (1999), Prisionero del aire (2008), La dulce astilla (2015), Animal vesperal (2022), and La mano segadora, selección antológica (1983-2021). He is also the author of several catalogues and books on visual art, art theory, and sociopolitical issues.