LONDON- Hélio Oiticica (1937-1980) was one of the most innovative Brazilian artists of his generation. Colour was central to his practice and this is the first exhibition to focus on this key element in his work. Opened on 6 June at Tate Modern, Hélio Oiticica: The Body of Colour is the first large-scale exhibition of Oiticica’s work for over 35 years in the UK. The exhibition includes more than 150 works – paintings and works on paper, reliefs and sculptural objects as well as installations and environments.Organisation of this exhibition was made possible with the support of Petrobas and in collaboration with the Projeto Hélio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro and the Brazilian Ministry of Culture. On exhibition 6 June – 23 September 2007.

Oiticica produced a remarkable body of work throughout his career in which he continually sought to challenge the way in which art could be experienced. From abstract compositions to early environmental installations, the exhibition traces the way in which the artist deconstructed the traditional elements of painting – colour and the two-dimensional plane that supports it – reconfiguring them in new, innovative forms, and eventually liberating colour into space. The exhibition features works from Oiticica’s early career, such as the paintings and gouaches made with the Rio de Janeiro-based Grupo Frente (1955-56), which show an obvious affinity with masters of modernism such as Paul Klee, Kasimir Malevich and Piet Mondrian. This is followed by the extraordinary series of Metaesquemas, monochromatic grids of uneven abstract forms painted on board (1957-58), and a group of white on white paintings, never previously shown together.

The exhibition features Spatial Reliefs (1960), Bilaterals (1959) and Nuclei (1960-66), works which the viewer is invited to move in and around and to discover colour as a physical body or environment. A highlight of the exhibition is the fully restored, complete version of Oiticica’s incredible Grand Nucleus (1960-68). Comprising over thirty paintings suspended from the ceiling, the work occupies the large central gallery of the exhibition at Tate Modern.

Oiticica’s most radical use of colour is found in the Bolides (1963-69), boxes or bottles containing pigment, foam, mirrors, shells, earth, fabric and poetry, and in the Parangolés (1964-79), cloth-objects that he described as habitable paintings. In the Bolides, Oiticica began the gradual dematerialisation of colour into pure sensory stimuli which would reach a climax with the Parangolés. Oiticica combined colour with rhythm, music, and performance to stimulate visual and tactile sensations, drawing in and involving his audience. The coloured capes, tents and banners of the Parangolés, were worn by members of the audience who moved to the rhythm of samba, activating and enacting the illusion of colour-in-motion.

Hélio Oiticica: The Body of Colour is organised by the Museum of Fine Arts Houston in collaboration with Tate Modern. The concept of the exhibition has been conceived by Mari Carmen Ramirez, Wortham Curator of Latin American Art and Director, International Center for the Arts of the Americas, MFAH.

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