In this essay, written for the paradigmatic exhibition Projeto Construtivo Brasileiro na Arte, Roberto Pontual discusses the survival of the Neo-Concrete art movement that existed “officially” for “a little less than two years, from March 15, 1959 to May 1961.” While the group of Concrete artists in São Paulo remained intact, the Neo-Concrete artists split up after their final exhibition at the MAM-SP (Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo) that year. There is no doubt that the movement born in Rio de Janeiro was a harbinger of some of the later experimentation with figuration (such as Pop Art) in the 1960s. Pontual describes the early part of that decade as the group’s “hibernation period” from which the Neo-Concrete movement reemerged in 1967 with the exhibition Nova Objetividade Brasileira. The author also discusses formal issues—such as Lygia Clark’s focus on space and three-dimensionality, and the “environmental integration” in Hélio Oiticica’s work—without losing sight of the political situation that affected the cultural life of the country under a military dictatorship that held on to power for two decades and was responsible for great injustices during the so-called Años de Plomo (Leaden Years, 1968–74).

The poet Roberto (Gonçalves) Pontual (1939–94) was one of the most prominent art critics in Rio de Janeiro during the 1970s. He held the position of curator at the MAM-RJ (Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro) and, from 1974 to 1978 curated a number of important exhibitions, including Do mundo, a América Latina. Entre as geometrias, a sensível. He became the great champion of the so-called Geração ’80 after writing Explode Geração! [see the ICAA Digital Archive (doc. no. 1110991) and América Latina, geometria sensível (doc. no. 771399)].   

In his essay Pontual highlights the political realities that cast a pall over Brazilian art and culture. He quotes Ferreira Gullar who was forced into exile by those political realities: “Neo-Concrete art did not have the solution to the crisis; it was one of its expressions, albeit an autonomous one.” In the late 1960s the Neo-Concrete movement rediscovered its voice in “public and street art, in the blending of art into daily life, and—most important of all—within the framework created by conceptualism as an international language.”

[For more information about Pontual’s writings, see: “Corpos de afago e dor” (doc. no. 1111211); “Crise da crise? A resposta também pode ser nossa” (doc. no. 1110986); “Os dois Brasis” (doc. no. 1110617); “Expor: impor ou propor?” (doc. no. 1110954); “Imagens da imagem” (doc. no. 1110688); “A natureza reposta em arte” (doc. no. 1111359); “Um panorama brasileiro” (doc. no. 1110604); “Sistema de arte em questão: o que fazer?” (doc. no. 1111082); and “Em torno do sistema da arte” (doc. no. 1110554), among others.]

This essay appeared in Projeto Construtivo Brasileiro na Arte, the catalogue for the exhibition organized in São Paulo by Aracy Amaral (b. 1930) and Lygia Pape (1927–2004). The event was hugely influential in Brazil, prompting an innovative reading of the meaning of the rationalist movements in Brazilian art. The exhibition was presented in 1977 at the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo and, later on, at the MAM-RJ (Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro). 

[For more information about this exhibition, see the following: “Projeto construtivo brasileiro na arte” (doc. no. 1110680) by Pape; “A arquitetura é a grande arte de nosso tempo —1948: Romero Brest em São Paulo” (doc. no. 1314972) by Jorge Romero Brest; “Concretismo/ Neoconcretismo” (doc. no. 1315134) by Frederico Morais; “Arte Concreta” (doc. no. 1315020), “Da arte concreta à arte neoconcreta” (doc. no. 1315036), “Arte neoconcreta, uma contribuição brasileira” (doc. no. 1315052), “Concretos de São Paulo no MAM” (doc. no. 1315102), and “Resposta a Cordeiro” (doc. no. 1315118) by Ferreira Gullar; see also “O problema da educação artística depois da Bauhaus” (doc. no. 1315069) by Tomás Maldonado.]