1.
Brazilian Neo-Concrete Art
Art 109A: Art Since 1945
Westchester Community College
Fall 2012
Dr. Melissa Hall

2.
Brazil
1950s Brazil
• Economic prosperity
• Building of Brasilia, utopian city
• Foundation of Sao Paulo Biennale
Brasilia; from upper left: National Congress of the Federative Republic of Brazil, Juscelino
Kubitschek bridge, Monumental Axis, Palácio da Alvorada and Cathedral of Brasília.

3.
Concrete Art
Concrete Art movement was
influenced by the European
tradition of geometric abstraction
“Max Bill advocated an art based in logic
and reason, in which the relationship
between parts was calculated
geometrically. Tripartite Unity is based on
the Möbius strip, a ribbonlike geometric
shape that is continuous like a circle; it
may twist and turn, but it has only one
surface and one edge. Bill fabricated the
sculpture in steel to symbolize the
connection between the forward-looking
concrete art that he advocated and
advances in science and industry.
Tripartite Unity won the international
sculpture prize at the first São Paulo
Bienal in 1951, ensuring Bill's powerful
influence on the Brazilian art scene.”
LACMA
Max Bill, Tripartite Unity 1948-49. Museu de Arte Contemporânea da
Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil

4.
Concrete Art
Helio Oiticica began as a Concrete
artist, but he became impatient with
its limitations
Helio Oiticica, Untitled, 1955

5.
Neo-Concrete Art
He began making “Neo-Concrete”
works in which abstract geometric
forms became actual objects for the
viewer to interact with
b1 box bólide 1 cartesiano 1963 and b2 box bólide 2 platónico 1963
Image source: http://rolu.terapad.com/index.cfm?fa=contentNews.newsDetails&newsID=3326567&from=list

6.
Helio Oiticica, Grand Nucleus, 1960-66
César and Claudio Oiticica Collection, Rio de Janeiro
Image source: http://arttattler.com/archiveheliooiticica.html

7.
“In an effort to engage the spectator as
completely as possible, he suspended
what were essentially double-sided
monochrome paintings from the ceiling
on wires, so that the viewer had to
walk around them to perceive them.
His Nuclei of 1960 took this
development a step further. Here
monochrome paintings not only leave
the wall; they cluster together to create
enclosures that surround the
“participator” (Oiticica’s word),
engaging the entire body. Requiring
movement on the part of the viewer
and experienced over time, such works
were—according to Oiticica
—”situations to be lived.”
Hélio Oticica, “Beyond Geometry,”
LACMA
Helio Oiticica, Grand Nucleus, 1960-66
César and Claudio Oiticica Collection, Rio de Janeiro

8.
Neo-Concrete Art
In his Bolides Oiticica created
geometric boxes that invite the
viewer to manipulate them like
puzzles
They have drawers, and doors, and
hidden compartments
Hélio Oiticica, Bolide 3 Caixa 3 Africana, 1963
Image source: http://www.boijmans.nl/en/116/newsletter/newsletteritem/199

9.
Neo-Concrete Art
The compartments were filled with
materials of a variety of colors and
textures
“The Bólides (or Fireballs) are a series
of sculptural objects, which Oiticica
referred to as ‘Trans-Objects’, in which
colour is apparently ‘inflamed’ by light
and therefore embodies energy.
Originally designed to be handled, they
frequently incorporate raw earth or
pigment in powdered form and other
inexpensive, everyday or organic
materials such as shells.”
Tate Gallery
Helio Oiticica, Bolide, 1964
Tate Gallery

10.
Helio Oiticica, B11 Box Bólide 09, 1964

11.
Image source: http://www.adamartgallery.org.nz/calendar/march-may-2/

12.
Neo-Concrete Art
“The Glass Bólides were a distinct
group, consisting of large glass jars
or containers. Here, colour in the
form of pigment is dissolved in
water and is also applied to coarse
fabric, showing Oiticica’s interest in
exploring the physical properties of
colour. The dedication to Piet
Mondrian, known for his abstract-
geometric paintings in primary
colours, acknowledges his
influence on Oiticica but its use
here for a dramatically contrasting
work stresses Oiticica’s own
unique development.”
Tate Gallery
Hélio Oiticica, Bólides Gemini, 1959
Image source: http://arttattler.com/archiveinternationalhotspots.html

13.
Helio Oiticica, B17 Glass Bólide 05 'Homage to Mondrian' 1965

14.
Neo-Concrete Art
In his Parangole series Oiticica
designed “works” that became
costumes for performing
A sambista from the Samba School Vai Vai using Hélio Oiticica's
Parangolés.
Helio Oiticica, Parangole, 1964
Image source: http://margarethf.blogspot.com/2010/11/helio-oiticica-parangole-1964.html

15.
“The [Parangolés] consisted
of colored capes, banners
and cloth-objects to be
displayed or worn as
"habitable" paintings by the
public. Worn by anonymous
members of the audience
who moved to the rhythm of
samba, the Parangolés
functioned to activate and
enact the fleeting illusion of
"color-in-motion.”
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

16.
"Parangolé" de Hélio Oiticica
Curadoria Agnaldo Farias e Mariana Lanari Realização Livre Conteúdo e Cultura Patrocínio C&A
MAM Rio De 23 fev a 10 abr 2011. Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/modapraler/5491973497/

17.
Beyond functioning as
“abstractions” that could be
manipulated and experienced in a
physical sense, there was a political
dimension to Oiticica’s project:
Hélio Oiticica Parangolé P 08 Capa 05 – Mangueira, 1965; P 05 Capa 02, 1965; P 25
Capa 21- Nininha Xoxoba, 1968; P 04 Capa 01, 1964. Image from Ivan Cardoso’s film
H.O, 1979. Credits: Catalogue Hélio Oiticica. The Body of Color, 2007, p. 317

18.
“The parangolés, in their forms and
shapes, were an extension of his former
experiments with geometric abstraction.
The difference was that now his art was
infused with the collective, social and
individual bodies that had been excluded
from his earlier constructivist work . . . .
With his parangolés, Oiticica fluidly
danced from the labyrinths of the slums of
Rio to the city’s asphalt, navigating
between high and low, shifting from the
closed salons of the Museum of Modern
Art of Rio de Janeiro and its elite to the
social reality of the shantytowns, from the
experiments of the international avant-
garde to Brazilian popular culture. He
called them arte ambiental, a common
term in Brazil in the late 60s and early
70s that was used broadly to describe
any work of art challenging traditional
media such as painting and sculpture. It
could refer to an installation, or in the
specific case of Oiticica, to his works
incorporating the participation of the
spectator. Far from promoting a Hélio Oiticica Parangolé P 08 Capa 05 – Mangueira, 1965; P 05 Capa 02, 1965; P 25
revolutionary popular art to the Capa 21- Nininha Xoxoba, 1968; P 04 Capa 01, 1964. Image from Ivan Cardoso’s film
“uncultured” people of the favelas, H.O, 1979. Credits: Catalogue Hélio Oiticica. The Body of Color, 2007, p. 317
Oiticica incorporated their culture into his
art.”
Claudia Calirman, Art and Politics in
Brazil

19.
“The series of work is to make intelligible
what I am; I become to know myself
better through what I do.
Actually, I don’t know what I am
Because, if it is an invention, I am not
able to know it;
If I knew what these things were, they
would no longer be an invention.
Their existence makes the invention
possible
The hammers of the yellow, the paths of
the red, the entanglement of the green,
the nude zulus of the blue
The Parangole wasn’t something to put
on a body just to be shown, the
experience of wearing it to the person
who is watching the other put it on or
those who put things on at the same time
Parangole - Helio Oiticica
are simultaneous experiences, multi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJTr8I2M6Ps
experiences
The body is not a support for the work”

20.
Works from the "Parangoles" series from 1964-79

21.
Image source: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/eswm33naF1ds9p714PF2fw

22.
Neo-Concrete Art
Lygia Clark was another leading
Neo-Concrete artist
Lygia Clark, Bicho (Animal) 1966

23.
Neo-Concrete Art
She began making geometric
sculptures that were interactive
Lygia Clark, Bichos, 1960
Image source: Lygia Clark, Bicho de Bolso 1966
http://werneckarc.blogspot.com/ © Courtesy Maria Cristina Burlamaqui Collection
2011_09_01_archive.html Image source: http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue10/helio_livingcolour.htm

24.
Walker Art Center curator Peter Eleey discusses Lygia Clark’s Bicho and the Walker’s exhibition The Quick and the Dead.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cq2OVD7dvA&feature=related

25.
Neo-Concrete Art
A major transition took place in
1964 in a piece titled Caminhando
(Walking)
Lygia Clark, Caminhando, 1964 (Photograph: Beto Felicio)
Image source: http://fashioncriss-crossing.blogspot.com/2010/09/blog-post_5048.html

26.
Neo-Concrete Art
The work involved a Möbius strip –
the same form of Max Bill’s award
winning sculpture
Lygia Clark, Caminhando, 1964
Image source: http://pepsic.bvsalud.org/scielo.php?
pid=S1519-94792008000100002&script=sci_arttext

27.
Neo-Concrete Art
Participants were invited to begin
cutting a line in the strip
Lygia Clark, Caminhando, 1964 (Photograph: Beto Felicio)
Image source: http://fashioncriss-crossing.blogspot.com/2010/09/blog-post_5048.html

28.
Neo-Concrete Art
“Take a pair of scissors, stick one point
into the surface and cut continuously
along the length of the strip. Take care
not to converge with the preexisting cut -
which will cause the band to separate into
two pieces. When you have gone the
circuit of the strip, it's up to you whether
to cut to the left or to the right of the cut
you've already made. The idea of choice
is capital. The unique meaning of this
experience is in the act of doing it. The
work is your act alone. To the extent that
you cut the strip, it refines and redoubles
itself into interlacings. At the end the path
is so narrow that you can't open it further.
It's the end of the trail.”
Yves Alain Bois, “Lygia Clark,” Artforum
Jan 1999
Lygia Clark, Caminhando, 1964
Image source:
http://www.geifco.org/actionart/actionart03/entidades_03/exposiciones/sofia/
index.htm

29.
Neo-Concrete Art
Clark called these pieces
“propositions”
They were designed to be used, or
interacted with – rather than
“looked at” as objects
“The whole meaning of the experience
lies in the act of doing it. The work is
your act.”
Lygia Clark
Lygia Clark, Caminhando, 1964 (Photograph: Beto Felicio)
Image source: http://fashioncriss-crossing.blogspot.com/2010/09/blog-post_5048.html

30.
“Clark’s attitude toward the object now
Neo-Concrete Art
developed in three linked directions
which implied three resounding
negations as far as reigning notions of
art were concerned. She conceived of
an object that, first, would dissolve any
idea of speculative financial value or
collectability by being made of
everyday, cheap components
obtainable anywhere, expendable
through use and renewable. Second,
the object would have meaning and
structure only in the moment of direct
bodily interaction with the spectator,
now more accurately called a
participant. And third, the object would
no longer privilege the visual sense, but
treat the mind and body as one. The
‘work’ became the ‘proposition.’”
Guy Brett, “Lygia Clark: In Search of the
Body,” Art in America July 1994 p. 61
Lygia Clark, Dialog of Hands, 1966

31.
Neo-Concrete Art
Dialogue of Hands is made of soft
flexible fabric looped in the form of
a Möbius strip
Lygia Clark, Dialog of Hands, 1966

32.
Neo-Concrete Art
She called these “relational objects”
– objects that create the conditions
for a relational experience
Lygia Clark, Dialog of Hands, 1966

33.
Neo-Concrete Art
In a series titled Mascaras
Sensorial (Sensorial Hoods), she
created hoods of various types that
deprived the viewer of sight in order
to focus awareness on other
senses
Lygia Clark, Mascara Abismo (Abyss Mask), 1968

34.
Neo-Concrete Art
“Máscaras sensoriais or sensual masks
led to a sharpening of perception by
hindering perception, which sharpened
inner perception. Different sensual
impressions combined with the differently
colored masks caused a variable
hindering of sight and hearing, and scent
recognition—assorted herbs were
deposited in the mask’s elongated nose-
piece.”
Media Art Net
Lygia Clark, Máscaras sensoriais, 1967
Image source: Media Art Net

35.
“Clark soon progressed from inward-
looking solo works to interpersonal
Neo-Concrete Art
dialogues. In O Eu e o tu: roupa/corpo/
roupa (The I and the You: Clothing/
Body/Clothing), 1967, a man and a
woman, their eyes covered by their
hoods, each discover in pockets and
cavities in the other’s suit metaphorical
suggestions of their own gender,
‘discovering one’s sex in the other.’
Such works allow us to experiment with
latent feelings not only about the male/
femaile parts of our own individual
identity, but also to discover whether, in
communication, we are able to give
ourselves to the other, or must remain
locked within ourselves. These works
were collectively titled ‘Nostalgia do
corpo’ (Body Nostalgia).”
Guy Brett, “Lygia Clark: In Search of the
Body,” Art in America July 1994 p. 62
Lygia Clark, The I and the You: Clothing-Body-Clothing Series, 1967.

36.
Neo-Concrete Art
“Clark's Dialogue goggles from 1968, for
instance, restrict the visual field of the two
participants to an eye-to-eye exchange,
merging interactivity and dialogism, two of
the central concerns in Clark's work.”
Simone Osthof, Lygia Clark and Hélio Oiticica:A
Legacy of Interactivity and Participationfor a
Telematic Future
Lygia Clark, Diálogo: Óculos (Dialogue: Goggles), 1968
SFMOMA

37.
http://www.sfmoma.org/explore/multimedia/audio/aop_tour_408

38.
Neo-Concrete Art
“Lygia Clark . . . broke two major taboos
with her hands-on "relational objects."
"First, [she broke the taboo] that forbids
us from touching artworks in a museum . .
Then, the one that prohibits any proximity
between visitors and prevents us from
touching other spectators, even while in
the presence of artworks that act as
intermediaries.”
Elizabeth Lebovici on Lygia Clark,
Artforum
Lygia Clark, The I and the You: Clothing-Body-Clothing Series, 1967.

39.
Neo-Concrete Art
Clark’s works are notoriously
difficult to “exhibit,” since the
“objects” make no sense until they
are actually used by participants
Lygia Clark’s masks, at “Tropicalia,” Museum of Contemporary Art
Image source:
http://media.photobucket.com/image/Lygia%20clark%20masks/yhortil4/ephemera/tropicalia/
LygiaClark.jpg

40.
“I know of no other artist whose
oeuvre a curator could find more
difficult to present than that of Lygia
Clark . . . Her works after 1965 (which
Neo-Concrete Art
she labeled propositions") were never
meant to be offered for sale; nor were
they made to be "shown." They
consist of nothing else but the use by
others, according to certain rules
determined by the artist, of various
easily replicated props . . . Because a
proposition is conceived by Clark as
something not to be beheld but
experienced (she always resisted the
theater, insisting that if her work was
performative, it denied performance),
any material record, except for the
verbal account given by a participant,
is disappointingly matter-of-fact.
Photographs function at best as a
documentary supplement to the
"user's guide" accompanying the
props one is invited to manipulate, Lygia Clark’s suits, at “Tropicalia,” Museum of Contemporary Art
and to show the latter as art objects Image source: http://www.23hq.com/rog/photo/493671
would be misleading, transforming
them into mere fetishes.”
Yves Alain Bois, “Lygia Clark,” Artforum Jan
1999

41.
Neo-Concrete Art
In the last phase of her career,
Clark moved increasingly into the
area of therapy, where she used
her “relational objects” to help
patients explore inner sensations
and states of being.
Image source: http://www.artefazparte.com/2011/12/arte-e-dor-na-experiencia-estetica.html

42.
“Clark presents and describes her
‘relational objects’ – plastic bags filled
with air, seashells, padded cloth, stones
caught in nets – which she then rubs
against or simply places on and around
the naked body of her male ‘client’. She
extends a rubber tube from her lips to his
ear and blows or gently clucks through it.
When the session ends, the man
declares, ‘It was as if I was all surface,
the place where we meet the world.’ At
once kooky and clinical, it is an
excruciatingly intimate interaction to
watch.”
Frieze Magazine

43.
“By means of the Relational Objects,
she believed an interaction was
possible with experiences locked in
the body’s memory, at a nonverbal, or
preverbal level. A verbal
communication could not touch them,
but a ‘language of the body’ could by
direct contact bring them back – ‘not
as virtual living but as concrete
feeling’ – to be relived and
transformed.”
Guy Brett, “Lygia Clark: In Search of
the Body,” Art in America July 1994 p.
62