Lot 44: H‚lio Oiticica (1937-1980)

Untitled inscribed with 'Projeto HO N. 112' on the verso tempera on cardboard 14 5/8 x 111/2cm. (37.1 x 29.2cm.) Painted in 1956 PROVENANCE Projecto Helio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro NOTES Heavily invested in the constructivist tendencies that swept Brazil in fifties, Oiticica joined the activities of the Grupo Frente in 1995. He had studied painting with Ivan Serpa since 1954, and Serpa's students constituted the bulk and core of the group. This Untitled painting of 1956 coincides with a year of great activity in Oiticica's career as he participated in at least four exhibitions of contemporary, mostly abstract art. The dismissal of illusionistic devices such as shadowing, the lack of tonality in the application of color, the destruction of composition in favor of all-overness, and the geometric configuartion of the painting, were formal devices cultivated by Oiticica and the Concrete artists of Brazil in their effort to break free from the straightjacket of nationalistic iconography and the present lot.