Art Theory and Practice

Welcome to the Department of Art Theory & Practice (AT&P) at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Northwestern University. The department has both an undergraduate program, offering a baccalaureate degree, and a graduate program, offering a Masters of Fine Arts degree.

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neto image

Ernesto Neto attended the Escola de Artes Visuais Parque Lage and began exhibiting internationally in the mid-1990s. His work often involves organic, ovoid shapes that visitors can mold and twist. By 1996, Neto moved from lead and Styrofoam balls, to making pliable sculptures using flour and fragrant spices -- curry, cumin, red pepper, and cloves -- in a group of works with onomatopoeic titles such as Piff, Paff, and Poff. The works in his first solo exhibition were large forms stretched from floor to ceiling with orange and yellow spices creating a layered, sensory experience. His grouping of large organic installations that he referred to as Naves, suggest the womblike space of the female body. Like Helio Oiticica, Neto wants to incorporate the viewer physically into his work, where they can be engulfed by Ovaloids and put their hands into the holes of Mime Glip -- both sensuous sculptures filled with Styrofoam.