In this essay, written for the paradigmatic exhibition Projeto Construtivo Brasileiro na Arte, Júlio Katinsky discusses the relationship between the Concrete art movement in São Paulo and industrial design. He points out that, in both areas, it was hard to separate the movement’s ideology from the circumstances in which its members lived. Katinsky refers to the work of modernist architects such as Rino Levi and João Batista Vilanova Artigas, who experimented with geometric shapes, just as Concrete artists did. They used local lumber and new technologies, such as reinforced concrete and asbestos-cement slates, which allowed them to create abstract architectural designs to accomplish any number of possibilities. Meanwhile, in response to the demand for innovative furniture for modern homes, architects’ and designers’ “studios” began creating designs to furnish the homes of doctors, lawyers, and university professors. However, despite the common ground between “pure artists” and “not-so-pure artists,” Katinsky insists that “Concrete artists [in São Paulo] kept on being visual artists in the traditional sense of the word.” Given the increased emphasis on industrial production and technology in the twenty-first century, his ironic remark is still relevant. As he stated (in 1977), perhaps the group’s greatest contribution “took place when that period ended, its members split up, and programmatic principles were abandoned.”

Júlio Katinsky (b. 1932) was born in Salto in the state of São Paulo and graduated from the FAU-USP (Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade de São Paulo) in 1957. He began a very productive period in the 1960s and taught at his alma mater, where he also earned a PhD (1973). As part of the generation of architects that included Lúcio Costa, João Batista Vilanova Artigas, Oscar Niemeyer, and Rino Levi (whose work is mentioned in this essay), the author was acclaimed for his designs for public school buildings and his research into architectural schools and intellectual development. Katinsky designed several pieces of furniture, including the famous Katinsky Chair (1959), a noted example of Brazilian modern furniture design.  

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.]