Goodwood Art Foundation to open this Spring

Image: courtesy of Goodwood Art Foundation

The Goodwood Art Foundation is planning to open its doors in Spring 2025. It says that it is building on the Goodwood Estate’s long history of supporting art and delivering world-class visitor experiences, and will showcase the work of the very best international artists and curators, set against an environment crafted by leading landscape designer, Dan Pearson.

Its intention it states is to build a legacy of culture, wellness and learning long into the future:

'We want to showcase the best contemporary art and create a space of peace and inspiration that will delight and nourish visitors of all ages, building a legacy of cultural engagement, enjoyment and learning for today and long into the future.

'The not-for-profit Foundation will focus on the three pillars of Art, Environment and Education. We believe that this initiative will not only create truly inspirational experiences, but also ensure that all our visitors improve both their physical and mental health by engaging with art and education in our beautiful natural environment. The Foundation will foster wellbeing, creativity and lifelong learning for all people of all ages and abilities through engagement with art and connectedness to nature.

'We are working with world experts, including Ann Gallagher, Dan Pearson and Sally Bacon - leaders in the fields of art curation, landscaping and arts education respectively. Goodwood has been heavily involved in these core areas for many years and the Foundation provides an opportunity to further develop this legacy and the important messages associated with its values for generations to come.'

The first European outdoor installation by Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica (1937-1980) will be a highlight of the opening art programme.  ‘Magic Square #3’ is a labyrinthine exploration of colour that visitors will be able to enter.

Goodwood Art Foundation says:

'A hugely significant figure within 20th century art, Oiticica coined the term ‘Tropicalia’ that named an entire movement of art, music and Brazilian identity in the 1960’s.'

Image below: courtesy of the Goodwood Art Foundation

The Foundation continues:

'Hélio Oiticica (1937 – 1980) is widely regarded as one of Brazil’s leading artists of the twentieth century and a touchstone for much contemporary art made since the 1960s, primarily through his freewheeling, participatory works of art, performative environments, avant-garde films and abstract paintings. Even before the age of 20, Oiticica was a key member of the historic Rio de Janeiro-based Grupo Frente (1954-56), his radical play with geometric form and vibrant colors transcending the minimal lines of European constructivism and imbuing his work with an exuberant rhythm that resonated with the avant-garde music and poetry of his native Brazil. In the late 1950s, Oiticica would go on to become a leading figure of Brazilian Neo-Concretism (1959-61) that included other ground breaking artists such as Lygia Clark, Lygia Pape and the poet Ferreira Gullar, ultimately giving rise to the artistic movement known as Tropicalismo, named for a work of Oiticica’s from 1967.

'Increasingly, Oiticica became a countercultural figure and underground hero, foregrounding bodily interaction with spatial and environmental concerns over pure aesthetics. “Ambient art,” he wrote, “is the overthrow of the traditional concept of painting-frame and sculpture – that belongs to the past. It gives way to the creation of ‘ambiences’: from there arises what I call ‘anti-art,’” which he later defined as “the era of the popular participation in the creative field.” This generous and generative practice would become highly influential for subsequent generations of artists, especially his Parangolés or ‘habitable paintings’ and all-encompassing series of installations, known variously as Núcleos (ceiling-hung geometric panels forming gradual chromatic experiences) and Propositions or Penetrables (labyrinth-like architectural environments made of sand and semi-permeable cabins). This supra-sensorial approach continued until his untimely death in 1980 at the age of 42.

'Oiticica’s work has been the subject of many major museum exhibitions, including the critically acclaimed retrospective Hélio Oiticica: To Organize Delirium, which debuted at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Philadelphia in 2016 and traveled to the Art Institute of Chicago and the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2017. Hélio Oiticica: The Body of Color was exhibited at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in 2006-2007 and in London at the Tate Modern in 2007. His work is included in the collections of numerous international institutions including Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Inhotim Centro de Arte Contemporãnea, Belo Horizonte, Brazil; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Museo de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain; Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, USA; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA; Tate Modern, London, UK; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, USA; the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; and the Pérez Art Museum Miami, FL, USA, among others. The Projeto Hélio Oiticica was established in Rio de Janeiro in 1980 to manage the artist’s estate.'