Oiticica in London - Softcover

Guy Brett; Luciano Figueiredo; Paulo Venancio; Michael Asbury; Isabel Whitelegg

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1854377477 ISBN 13: 9781854377470

Publisher: Tate Publishing, 2007

Synopsis

Helio Oiticica (1937-80) has come to be recognised as one of the most brilliant and innovative artists of the second half of the 20th century. Both artist and thinker, he developed a uniquely beautiful body of work. Synthesising the legacy of modernism, avant-garde experiment, Brazilian popular cultures born of adversity, and a radical philosophy of participation, he explored deeply the possibility of creative liberty in today's world. At the end of the 1960s Oiticica spent a year in London, where, in 1969, he was invited to exhibit at the Whitechapel Art Gallery. The resulting exhibition, or Whitechapel Experiment as Oiticica preferred to call it, was the largest show he ever held and one of the most radical visual arts events of the period. It was structured as a continuous participatory environment for people, featuring paintings, sculpture and installation and culminating in Eden, built especially for the Whitechapel, a bare-foot, sensory, 'mind-settlement' of sand, cabins, beds and nests intended to stimulate among the public a form of creative reverie the artist called Creleisure. Oiticica was present at the gallery for much of the experiment, writing letters and meeting friends and fellow artists. This crucial period in the artist's life has never been thoroughly investigated before. Featuring interviews of Oiticica's contemporaries that provide telling new insights, writings by the artist translated for the first time, essays by leading critics and facsimile pages of the original Whitechapel catalogue, this book captures not only a pivotal moment in the life and career of a unique artist but also in the development of the avant-garde in London.

About this title

Product Description:

At the end of the 1960s, Hélio Oiticica was invited to exhibit at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London. It was one of the most radical visual arts events of the era, the shockwaves of which continue to reverberate as this handsome book examines.

Synopsis:

Helio Oiticia (1937-80) was one of the most ground-breaking and influential artists of the late twentieth century, instrumental in re-mapping our understanding of what art can be. In his hands, elements from international modernist art movements are combined with specifically Brazilian flavours to create a new vocabulary, in which colour is given three-dimensional form and the viewer becomes part of the art-work itself. At the end of the 1960s Oiticica was invited to exhibit at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London. The exhibition, which he preferred to call The Whitechapel Experiment, was one of the most radical, avant-garde visual arts events of the era, the shock-waves of which continue to reverberate. Oiticica was present at the gallery for much of its duration, writing letters and meeting friends and fellow artists. Members of the public were invited to "nest" in special environments, or wander bare-foot through sandy groves populated with live parrots. The freedom Oiticica had to work on a large scale at the Whitechapel and the connections he made while he lived in London were important for the rest of his career.

This crucial period has never been thoroughly investigated before. With interviews of Oiticica's contemporaries that provide new insights, writings by the artist translated for the first time, essays by leading critics and facsimile pages from the original Whitechapel catalogue, the book captures not only a pivotal moment in the life and career of a unique artist but also in the development of the avant-garde in London.

About this edition

• Publisher: Tate Publishing
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1854377477
• ISBN 13: 9781854377470
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 136
• Editor: Guy Brett, Luciano Figueiredo