Radical Geometry: Modern Art of South America - Royal Academy - London

The startling vitality present in this collection of works is thrilling today. One can only imagine the impact these pieces must have had when first exhibited as early as the mid 1930's. A movement which covered several cities on South America's east coast, fizzing with cultural experiment and economic ambition, galvanized by the urge to participate in the sophisticated lives seen in Europe, even now seems rigorous, challenging and exuberant. Whilst there are ideas and a visual language familiar from the works of the European Avant Guard, we can also see whispers of work yet to come. Gego's brilliant wire sculptures feel like the precursory ghosts of Argentinean Tomás Saraceno's contemporary works. This is a completely fascinating show full of pieces which engage on many levels and do so with effortless authority. That the boundless creative dynamism giving rise to so much of this was often crushed by coups and calamity lends an air of sadness to the show. But then the utopian impulse is doomed to lament.