This article is one of a series entitled "Etapas da Pintura Contemporánea" that was published between March 1959 and October 1960 in the Suplemento Dominical do Jornal do Brasil. In this collection of articles, the critic and poet [José Ribamar] Ferreira Gullar (b. 1930) discusses non-figurative geometric art from Cubism to Neo-Concrete art, in order to determine the latter’s historical roots. He then takes the essential step of reevaluating the international Constructivist movements he had previously written about in March 1959 in his “Manifesto Neoconcreto” [see the ICAA digital archive, doc. no. 1110328].
“Cor e estrutura-cor” [Color and structure-color] underscores the organic fusion of form and color in the chromatic experiments carried out by Hélio Oiticica and Aluísio Carvão. The article is of interest because it positions Neo-Concrete art at the outer limit of modern visual (artistic) culture, and identifies a dilution of traditional forms of expression in contemporary visual arts.
The author subsequently published his weekly essays in a later collection with a different title: Etapas da arte contemporánea (Do cubismo à arte neoconcreta) (Rio de Janeiro: Editora Nobel, 1985). Among the essays that are relevant to this one, see “Do quadro ao não objeto” in which Gullar discusses Lygia Clark’s use of space (doc. no.1091272); and “Tentativa de comprensão” in which he provides a historical backdrop to Concrete art (doc. no. 1091341).