Rhod Rothfuss

Carlos María "Rhod" Rothfuss (1920 – December 31, 1969) was a Uruguayan-Argentine artist who specialized in painting and sculpture. He was considered a key theoretician for the development of the concrete art movement in Argentina in the 1940s and was a founding member of the international Latin American abstract art movement, Grupo Madí.

Early life and education Rothfuss was born in Montevideo, Uruguay.

In 1938, Rothfuss studied art at Círculo de Bellas Artes in Montevideo. He studied with the artists Guillermo Laborde and José Cúneo. In the early 1940s, he studied at the Academia de Bellas Artes in Montevideo. Rothfuss contributed an article called: "El marco. un problema de la plástica actual (The frame: A Problem of Plastic Arts Today) ," which became an important text on the theory and movement of art towards geometry.

During this time, to illustrate the concrete nature of his work, Rothfuss used nontraditional materials like diamonds and employed notched and irregular shapes in his artwork.

In 1946, Gyula Kosice, Carmelo Arden Quin, and Rothfuss founded the Grupo Madí. – Exhibition held at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, July 1-October 27, 1997, and at the Museo Extremeño Iberoamericano de Arte Contemporaneo, November 7, 1997 – January 11, 1998 2000: "Heterotopías. Medio siglo sin lugar. 1918–1968." Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid) 2001: "Abstract Art from Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires and Montevideo, 1933–1953." The Americas Society (New York) 2002: "Madí. L’art sud-américain." Musée de Grenoble (Grenoble) 2003–4: "Arte abstracto argentino, Galleria d’arte moderna e contemporanea." Bergamo; Fundación Proa (Buenos Aires) 2004: "Inverted Utopias. Avant-Garde Art in Latin America." Museum of Fine Arts, (Houston Texas) 2007: "The Geometry of Hope. Latin American Abstract Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection." Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin (Austin, Texas); Grey Art Gallery, New York University (New York)

Selected works Composición Madí at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (1946) Pintura Madí o persistencia de un contorno Madí at Fundación Proa (1946) Composición Madí at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (1948) (1955)

Works and publications

– Catalog of an exhibition held at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, July 1-October 27, 1997, and at the Museo Extreme~no e Iberoamericano de Arte Contemporaneo, November 7, 1997 – January 11, 1998 – Exhibition catalog of Cold America, Geometric Abstraction in Latin America (1934–1973), Fundación Juan March, Madrid, February 11-May 15, 2011 – Folleto de la expoción celebrada América fría. La abstracción geométrica en Latinoamerica (1934–1973) en la Fundación Juan March en Madrid del 11 de febrero al 15 de mayo de 2011 "Regarding the Frame" (1950) by Rhod Rothfuss p. 432