Argentinian artist Ad Minoliti’s work draws on the legacy of geometric abstraction – art made using forms and shapes, often with bold colours – as “a tool to question patriarchal structures”. Among their influences, Minoliti, who is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, cites two rival groups of artists in Argentina, the Grupo Madí and Asociación Arte Concreto-Invención (AACI). The work of both groups focuses on geometric abstraction, specifically a movement known as concrete art. First defined by the Dutch artist Theo van Doesburg in 1930, it embraces the use of lines, colours and planes, among other forms, to create art free from any basis in reality.
Both Grupo Madí and AACI were born out of a revolutionary period for Argentinian art during the latter half of the 1940s, amid a backdrop of political instability under the military dictatorship of General Juan Perón. Through their work, they made political statements, evoking themes of social justice and liberation.
