Neo-Concretism

also: Neo-Concrete Movement · Movimento Neo-Concreto

movement 1959-1961 Brazil Latin America

The Neo-Concrete Movement (1959-1961) was a Brazilian art movement that broke away from the strict rationalism of Concrete art. It emerged from Grupo Frente in Rio de Janeiro, whose members found Concretism's mathematical rigour naive and colonialist, and it was given its theory by the poet and critic Ferreira Gullar, whose 1959 essay 'Theory of the Non-Object' and Neo-Concrete Manifesto called for art that was sensual, colourful, and poetic - a living organism rather than a machine. Lygia Clark, Hélio Oiticica, and Lygia Pape led the movement, making works that unfold in time and demand the viewer's body: hinged metal 'animals', books of cut paper, and suspended planes of pure colour. Short-lived but decisive, Neo-Concretism redirected Brazilian art toward participation and the body, shaping everything from Oiticica's later parangolés to contemporary installation art.

The Tribuna of the Uffizi (Zoffany)
The Tribuna of the Uffizi (Zoffany)Public domain (credit: Johann Zoffany) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Geometric abstraction loosened from mathematical rule: soft curves, asymmetries, organic form
  • Vivid, unmodulated colour used as a physical, spatial element
  • Works that change and unfold through the viewer's movement and touch (Lygia Clark's hinged Bichos)
  • Time and participation built into the work - art as event rather than fixed object
  • Anti-rationalist, phenomenological stance: the artwork as a living body
  • Inventive formats: artist books, suspended constructions, folded and cut paper

Key figures

  • Ferreira Gullar (1930-2016) — Poet and critic whose Neo-Concrete Manifesto (1959) and 'Theory of the Non-Object' defined the movement
  • Lygia Clark (1920-1988) — Leading artist of the movement, maker of the interactive Bichos (1960)
  • Hélio Oiticica (1937-1980) — Transformed Neo-Concrete colour into suspended spatial constructions and later participatory art
  • Lygia Pape (1927-2004) — Neo-Concrete artist whose Livro da Criação (1959) turned the book into an event

Example works

  • Bichos (Animals) — Lygia Clark (1960)
  • Livro da Criação (Book of Creation) — Lygia Pape (1959)
  • Metaesquemas — Hélio Oiticica (1957-1958)

Sources

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