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Brazilian visual artist (1937–1980) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hélio Oiticica (Portuguese: [ˈεlju ɔjtʃiˈsikɐ]; July 26, 1937 – March 22, 1980) was a Brazilian visual artist, sculptor, painter, performance artist, and theorist best known for his participation in the Neo-Concrete Movement, for his innovative use of color, and for what he later termed "environmental art," which included Parangolés and Penetrables, like the famous Tropicália.[1] Oiticica was also a filmmaker and writer.[2][3]
Hélio Oiticica | |
|---|---|
 Hélio Oiticica (1966) | |
| Born | July 26, 1937 |
| Died | March 22, 1980 (aged 42) |
| Other names | Passista |
| Education | Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro |
| Occupation(s) | Visual artist Sculptor Painter Performance artist Theorist Filmmaker Writer |
| Years active | 1954-1980 |
| Works | Metaesquemas Bilaterals Spatial Reliefs Inventions Bólides Parangolés Penetrables Tropicália Eden |
| Movement | Neo-Concrete Movement |
| Relatives | José Oiticica (grandfather) |
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Oiticica was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to mother Ângela Santos Oiticica and father José Oiticica Filho, Oiticia had two younger brothers (architect) César Oiticica and Cláudio Oiticica.[4]
Oiticica's family was educated and involved in liberal politics. His father taught mathematics, was an engineer, entomologist, and lepidopterologist, a scientist who researched butterflies. He was also an avid photographer, creating experimental photographs that were new to Brazil. His grandfather was a well known philologist, who studied literary texts and written records, and published an anarchist newspaper called Ação Direta [Direct Action].[2][4]
Oiticica and his brothers were taught at home until their father got a fellowship at the Guggenheim Foundation.[5] During this time, from 1947 to 1949, the family lived in Washington, D.C. while their father worked at the National Museum of Natural History. Oiticica and his brothers attended Thomson Elementary School. The family returned to Brazil in 1950.[6][7]
Oiticica enrolled in art school at the age of 16 years.[2]
Starting in 1954, Oiticica attended courses at Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro, studying under Ivan Serpa. In 1955, he joined Grupo Frente.[2]
Oiticica's early works, in the mid-1950s, were greatly influenced by European modern art movements, principally Concrete art and De Stijl. He was a member of Grupo Frente, founded by Ivan Serpa, under whom he had studied painting. His early paintings used a palette of strong, bright primary and secondary colours and geometric shapes influenced by artists such as Piet Mondrian, Paul Klee and Kazimir Malevich. Oiticica's painting quickly gave way to a much warmer and more subtle palette of oranges, yellows, reds and browns which he maintained, with some exceptions, for the rest of his life.
In 1959, he became involved in the short-lived but influential Neo-Concrete Movement. The Neo-Concrete Movement rejected the objective nature of Concrete Art and sought to use phenomenology to create art that "expresses complex human realities." This was stated in the manifesto written by Amílcar de Castro, Ferreira Gullar, Franz Weissmann, Lygia Clark, Lygia Pape, Reynaldo Jardim, Theon Spanudis and published in Rio de Janeiro in March 1959 called Manifesto neoconcreto.[8]: 442–443
Neo-Concretism focused creating an awareness within the spectator of their spatial relationship with the artwork. The artworks themselves became akin to living organism rather than static forms; they were made to interact with viewers.[9]: 100–105
During Oiticica’s Neo-Concrete period, he sought to “escape the constraints of painting while remaining in dialogue with it” by utilizing color in new ways. He painted monochromes entitled Invencoes (Inventions) in 1959. These small square wooden plaques (30 x 30 cm) were not made to represent light rather Oiticica sought to embody it. Oiticica questioned traditional ideas of aesthetics and art practices by considering the spectator and ideas of real space in his work.[10]
The group disbanded in 1961. Clark and Oiticica transitioned into conceptual art dealing with ideas of the human body and culture. Oiticica was specifically interested in what creates culture.
Color became a key subject of Oiticica's work and he experimented with paintings and hanging wooden sculptures with subtle (sometimes barely perceptible) differences in colour within or between the sections. The hanging sculptures gradually grew in scale and later works consisted on many hanging sections forming the overall work, as a spatial development of his first experiments with painting.
In the 1960s, Oiticica produced a series of small box shaped interactive sculptures called Bólides (fireballs) which had panels and doors which viewers could move and explore. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s he made installations called Penetráveis (penetrables) which viewers could step into and interact with. The most influential of these was Tropicália (1967) which gave its name to the Tropicalismo movement. He also created works called Parangolés which consisted layers of fabric, plastic and matting intended to be worn like costumes but experienced as mobile sculptures. The first parangolés experiences were made together with dancers from the Mangueira Samba school, where Oiticica was also a participant.
In 1965 he participated in the exhibition "Soundings two" at the Signals London gallery, with Josef Albers, Brancusi, Lygia Clark, and Marcel Duchamp among others. In 1969 he produced an individual exhibition at Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, curated by Guy Brett. Oiticica named the exhibition the “Whitechapel experience”.[11]
In 1970 he participated in the exhibition "Information" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. During the 1970s, Oiticica increasingly devoted himself to writing and corresponded with intellectuals, artists and writers both in Brazil and abroad, including Haroldo de Campos, Augusto de Campos, Silviano Santiago and Waly Salomão.,
After living in the East Village neighborhood of New York City, Oiticica had issues with immigration, which led to his return to Rio de Janeiro, where he died.[2][3]
The Tropicalismo Movement was a creative and artistic movement that began in Brazil towards the end of the 1960s. Oiticica played a huge role in defining the movement. The Movement emphasized music and art meant to celebrate Brazilian culture and identity.[12] It was also a protest to the oppressive military government that severely limited artistic freedom of expression. Hélio Oiticica first coined the word “Tropicala” in the title of an artwork exhibited in Rio de Janeiro in 1967. Oiticica used the word to create irony around the stereotypes of Brazil as a tropical paradise.[13] Once Brazilian musician Caetano Veloso used “Tropicala” for a song title in 1968, the Tropicalismo movement took form. Oiticica’s exhibit was a pop-up structure meant to look like favelas or slums.[14] They were surrounded by palm trees, chairs fake vines and sand. Viewers of the exhibit were encouraged to walk in and around it as freely as they chose. It was meant to inspire free expression and oppose the political climate at the time.[15]
Oiticica moved to New York in 1970 after he was awarded a two-year Guggenheim Fellowship in Rio. The fellowship was connected to his participation with the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition of Conceptual art, “Information.”[16]
When Oiticica first arrived in New York, he planned to create an installation in Central Park of his penetrable interactive paintings and sculptures first installed in Brazil. He envisioned bringing a piece of Brazil to Manhattan. The project was ultimately unsuccessful as he was unable to secure proper funding.[17]
Despite the setbacks with the Central Park project, Oiticica published art in other ways. He took art classes at New York University and experimented with film photographs.[18] One example of his published film is a set of photographs where he gives colorful capes (made from recyclable materials), called parangolés, to unsuspecting passengers on the NYC subway. The subway riders would examine the parangolés and Oiticica would photograph them trying it on. In a different film series, Oiticica photographs a young man standing in a parangolé on the rooftops NYC buildings.[19] The young man was Brazilian jiu jitsu master Romero Cavalcanti in 1972.[20]
His most compulsive New York art project was his East side apartment. Oiticica, who was gay, felt a sense of sexual freedom and liberation in the city. He would host parties, often with rock music and drugs, and invite men to be photographed intimately.[21]
Oiticica severely overstayed his two-year fellowship, remaining in New York for almost eight years. In that time, he faced difficulties finding connections in the art world to promote his work or resources to live in the city.[22] It was also suspected he became slightly home sick. Facing disparity, Oiticica turned to drug dealing when he was unable to find consistent jobs. [23]
In 1978, Oiticica returned to Rio de Janeiro where he was berated by Immigration officials for overstaying his visa. According to his lawyer, Oiticica was also questioned about his homosexuality.[24]
On October 17, 2009, a fire destroyed an undetermined amount of the works by Oiticica. The collection was held at the residence of his brother César Oiticica in the neighborhood of Jardim Botânico, Rio de Janeiro. In addition to paintings and the famous Parangolés, the artist's archive of material included drawings, notes, documentaries and books, which were stored in the collection.[25][26] The fire took three hours to bring under control. Key works such as Bólides and Parangolés, including some shown at the 2007 Tate retrospective, were damaged. The cause of the fire is unknown. The building was equipped with fire alarms and other safety systems.[27] Jandira Feghali, Secretary of Culture in Rio de Janeiro, called for an investigation into the causes of the fire and whether any works can be recovered.[28] The works were stored in César Oiticica's house following a dispute over money and the adequacy of storage facilities at the Centro Municipal de Arte Hélio Oiticica.[29] The works were uninsured. A project of restoration is in development with the ministry of culture in Brazil.[30]
Oiticica died on March 22, 1980 of a stroke as a result of hypertension.
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