Asociación Arte Concreto-Invención

also: AACI · Arte Concreto-Invención

movement c. 1945-1955 Argentina Latin America

The Asociación Arte Concreto-Invención (AACI) was an Argentine group founded in Buenos Aires in 1945, dedicated to concrete art - painting conceived entirely of planes and colors, with nothing borrowed from nature, symbolism, or emotion. Its roots lay in the single 1944 issue of the magazine Arturo, from which two camps split: Madí and the AACI, led by Tomás Maldonado and Lidy Prati. In March 1946 Maldonado read the Inventionist Manifesto at the group's first exhibition, declaring art a tool of social transformation. Working in the objective, universalizing spirit of Mondrian and van Doesburg, but with their own inventions - the trimmed, shaped frame above all - the AACI's artists made Argentina one of the earliest centers of concrete abstraction.

Segunda exposición de Arte Concreto Invención. Casa de Grete Stern, 1945.
Segunda exposición de Arte Concreto Invención. Casa de Grete Stern, 1945.Public domain (credit: Grete Stern) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Flat, equidistant geometric shapes arranged in measured grids
  • Pure planes and color with no reference to nature or symbol
  • The trimmed frame: shaped supports that break the rectangular canvas
  • Mechanical, exact technique without visible gesture
  • Works conceived as objective, universal constructions

Key figures

  • Tomás Maldonado (1922-2018) — Theorician-leader who read the Inventionist Manifesto in 1946
  • Lidy Prati (1921-2008) — Painter of rigorous serial geometric compositions
  • Alfredo Hlito (1923-1993) — Painter among the group's founders
  • Raúl Lozza (1911-2008) — Founder who pushed concrete painting toward shaped, frameless works
  • Juan Melé (1923-2012) — Inventor of the floating, coplanar shaped constructions

Example works

  • Coplanar Nº13 — Juan Melé (1946)
  • Serial Composition — Lidy Prati (1948)
  • Composición — Tomás Maldonado (1950)

Sources

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