The Polish-born Dutch artist Leopold Haar (1910–54) arrived in Brazil in 1950. His article “Plásticas novas” is one of the few existing documents that refer to Haar’s time in Brazil, since he died prematurely at 44 years of age. He settled in São Paulo, where he was a professor at the IAC (Instituto de Arte Contemporanea), the contemporary art institute that was part of the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP). The IAC was one of the first Brazilian institutions to offer courses on industrial design. Haar worked as a “window dresser” for several exhibitions at the IAC, and later joined the ruptura group. He was, in fact, one of the members who signed the group’s manifesto in 1952 [doc. no. 1232213].
IAC considered window dressing for both commercial and artistic purposes to be one of the essential roles of the industrial designer. Haar combined merchandise with geometric forms to create his window designs, blazing a trail in Brazil in the application of aesthetics in a professional field. Lina Bo Bardi, the co-founder of the IAC, discusses this matter in an essay she wrote at that time [doc. no. 1086940]. In his article, Haar mentions the Swiss artist and theoretician Max Bill (1908–94) who—after his success at the 1st São Paulo Biennial with his work Dreiteilige Einheit [Tripartite Unity, 1948–51]—became an obligatory reference among the student body at the IAC.