Helio Oiticica, Cosmococa2: Onobject, (collaboration with Neville D'Almeida), 1973, Galerie Lelong, New York.

Tate Modern
Bankside
London
+44 20 7887 8888
Level 4
Hélio Oiticica: The Body of Colour
June 6-September 23, 2007

Hélio Oiticica (1937–80) was one of the most innovative Brazilian artists of his generation and has come to be acknowledged as a significant figure in the development of contemporary art. Among his achievements was the original and uncompromising use of colour that was central to his practice, and thisis the first large-scale exhibition focusing on this key element in his work. Featuring more than 150 works, the exhibition includes several key series from 1955 onwards, some of which have not been seen publicly for more than 30 years.

Oiticica produced a remarkable body of work throughout his career, from abstract compositions to early environmental installations, in which he continually sought to challenge the way in which art could be experienced. This exhibition features works from Oiticica’s early career which show an obvious affinity with masters of modernism such as Paul Klee, Kasimir Malevich and Piet Mondrian, and yet already reveal a highly individual approach. Gradually colour is liberated from the picture plane and given spatial form in further series of works, which include suspended paintings and reliefs, sculptural objects, penetrable environments and ‘habitable paintings’ - capes, tents and banners designed to be worn or inhabited while moving to the rhythm of samba.

Oiticica was an essential protagonist in the development of installation art and his career charts a lifetime of artistic experimentation. Although his early career was rooted in the geometric abstraction of the Brazilian Neo-Concretists, his work quickly exploded from the two-dimensional picture plane into real life. From the late 1950s, he produced art to feel and art to wear and, from the 1960s, art to inhabit. This was the culmination of his efforts to infuse art with real life, drawing inspiration from everyday materials and real experiences.

Hélio was the son of entomologist, photographer, and painter José Oiticica Filho and the grandson of the intellectual anarchist José Oiticica.

He completed his studies in 1954 at the Escola do Museu do Arte Moderna in Rio de Janeiro under Ivan Serpa, where he also taught children´s classes. During this time, he read Kant, Heidegger and Nietzsche intensively. He felt attracted to Constructivism, and became a member of the Grupo Frente, and in 1959 a member of the Grupo Neoconcreto.

Early works by Oiticica such as Metaesquemas (1957- 58) are in the tradition of Concretism; they can be seen as radical reflections upon the structural components of painting (color and space), and the dissolution of the tensions between them. Series such as Relieve Espacial and Núcleo, with surfaces arranged in different angles and which integrate empty space as part of the work, mark the transition to three-dimensionality in 1959.

In an important series from the mid-60´s entitled Bólides, Oiticica used glass jars filled with earth and colored pigments as well as boxes, with the intention of "giving color a unique structure." During the same period, he created the "Parangolés" (slang expression for a heated situation), whose participants wore capes, banners and other articles. In this time, too, he participated in the Rio Carneval parades and the Samba festivals.

In Rio de Janeiro in 1967, Oiticica exhibited his Tropicália, a labyrinth-like environment with parrots, plants, sand, texts, and a television — a satire on the clichés of Brazilian culture and a commentary on the conflict between tradition and technology typical in the Third World. In later works as well, Oiticica was interested in the participation of the observer, and motivated them to reflect upon the cultural, social, and economic needs of Brazil. The goal of the Projeto Hélio Oiticica, established shortly after the artist´s death, is to protect and promote his work.

Helio Oiticica, B 08 Glass Bolide 02, 1963-64, Museum of Fine Arts Houston.

Hélio Oiticica, Bolide Box 12, "archeologic", 1964-1965, Acrylic, wood, nylon, cardboard, glass, dirt, neon tubing, 14-9/16 x 51-15/16 x 20 1/2".

Hélio Oiticica, Grande Núcleo (Grand Nucleus), 1960-6, © Projeto Hélio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro, Oil and resin on wood fibreboard, Overall dimensions 6.7 x 9.75m.