“The Geometry of Hope” which just opened at NYU’s Grey Art Gallery, quietly promises to be one of the most compelling shows of the young season. Originally organized by the Blanton Museum at the University of Texas at Austin, it displays several dozen choice works of mid-century South American abstraction from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection.

While it is true that some of these artists — Lygia Clark and Helio Oiticica, for example — have appeared on the New York scene in recent years, most of them, like the continent of their origin, remain an unimagined world for the Chelsea-centric crowd.