Concretion 8068, 1980, Tempera on canvas on wood, 100 x 100 cm, 39 3/8 x 39 3/8 in
15 September – 30 November 2021
Cecilia Brunson Projects and Almeida & Dale Art Gallery are delighted to announce a presentation of works by the acclaimed Brazilian artist Luiz Sacilotto (1924-2003). A pioneer of Concrete art and an early proponent of Op Art, Sacilotto stands alongside artists such as Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely in the international development of Post-War abstraction. The exhibition is curated by Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro and Denise Mattar and runs concurrently with Almeida & Dale’s exhibition ‘Sacilotto - A Vibração da Cor’ in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Originally one of the innovators of Brazilian Concrete art (abstract art that is entirely free of observed reality and that has no symbolic meaning) Sacilotto was described by Waldemar Cordeiro, leader of the ‘Ruptura’ group, as the ‘structural beam’ of Brazilian Concretism. The works in this exhibition come from the later period in Sacilotto’s career when in 1974, after a decade-long hiatus following the establishment of the military dictatorship in Brazil, he finally returned to his studio. The show unites the artist’s large-scale paintings with smaller gouache studies demonstrating how the artist played with spacial and colour possibilities on paper before committing them to canvas.
The painting Concreção 8068 (1980) is the centrepiece for this exhibition. This painting’s visual rhythm and movement is implied by the gradual rotation of the white, unpainted wedges in each dark blue disc. Each wedge takes up a sixteenth of a disc’s overall surface area. There are twenty-five aligned discs running vertically and horizontally, 625 in total, which Sacilotto fits onto the 1 by 1 meter-sized canvas.
With viewers able to compare his paintings with his smaller gouache studies, this exhibition demonstrates Sacilotto’s exactitude and perfection, not as technical precision for its own sake, but rather as a tool to stimulate an experience in the viewer’s subconscious.
A publication with essays from Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro and Pia Gottschaller will be published in due course. Cecilia Brunson says, ‘It is a privilege to be showing work by Luiz Sacilotto, whose part in a global movement linked the Brazilian art scene with artists around the world, and whose works testify to his significance as a visionary Concrete artist.’
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