This editorial is from the magazine A & D (Arquitetura e Decoração), one of the earliest journals devoted to Brazilian concrete art. The text explains that concrete artists are interested in the social function of the applied arts as well as those considered to be autonomous. At that time, in the late 1950s, Brazil was experiencing dramatic urban and industrial growth encouraged by the “developmental” policies advocated by President Juscelino Kubitschek.
As from the 1950s the author, Décio Pignatari (1927–2012), was one of the key Brazilian proponents of a new kind of poetry that was primarily focused on its visual aspect, as per his “Manifesto de Poesía Concreta” (1961) which he coauthored with the brothers Augusto and Haroldo de Campos. In addition to his work in advertising and his role as a radical art critic, Pignatari was one of Brazil’s pioneers in the field of semiotic studies. His thesis (FAU-USP, 1979) on the theory advanced by Charles Sanders-Peirce, was published as: “Por um pensamento icônico: semiótica da arte e do ambiente urbano.” A communications theorist, he translated works by Marshall McLuhan. At a more creative level, he also translated classical works by Dante, Goethe, and Shakespeare.
[See the ICAA digital archive for the text: “Plano-pilôto para poesia concreta,” by Augusto de Campos, Décio Pignatari, and Haroldo de Campos (doc. no. 1090135), published in Noigandres. See also the following articles published in A & D: by Décio Pignatari, “Arte concreta: objeto e objetivo” (doc. no. 1087349); by Oscar Niemeyer, “O problema social na arquitetura” (doc. no. 1110341); by Waldemar Cordeiro, “O objeto” (doc. no. 1086891) and “Teoria e prática do concretismo carioca” (doc. no. 1087287); by Theon Spanudis, “A pintura de Alfredo Volpi” (doc. no. 1085614) and “A pintura de José Antonio da Silva” (doc. no. 1110357); by Augusto de Campos, “Poesia concreta” (doc. no. 1090169); and by Eduardo Corona, “O testamento tripartido de Max Bill” (doc. no. 1110330)].
