New York City’s great works of art are stacking themselves up in the museums of New York City, hiding themselves behind each other because there is no place left to hide except for behind each other. The great works of art in the past are lining up like old lonesome soldiers, making themselves known in the world through their attention to line, and in this, there are interventions to ask questions of how this came to be, and one of the interventions comes in Waltercio Caldas , whose works are on display in MOMA’s permanent collection.

This is one of the places for a painting or a sculpture to exist without having to confine themselves to stacks, and here they can ask questions of why and how. There are thousands of works that it might stand in for, in place of, and there are more than thousands waiting to occupy its space if there is ever time or room. This is where people come, leaving gorgeous hotel rooms to discover beautiful works of art that have made people all over the world wonder, in order to experience something that happens in time and space. People like to experience things in time, and in space, and sometimes the works of art make this transparent.

It’s a delicate relation, to speak to the moment at hand in terms of the precepts and perceptions of the moment, but the Brazilian artist is able to make this relation come to light. Here it is in the moment, positioned somewhere between the elegance of the city, and the catastrophe of contemporary realities. Born after the war, he is a postwar artist, and seeing the work in its real position between time and space, one wonders if Richard Foreman’s dreams are not inspired by his work. One wonders about the painting, and the stacking, and the way we speak to each other, inside the museum, or on the streets of the city that are forgetting their own names.