Secret Poetics

by Hélio Oiticica (Artist)

The first English-language translation of Oiticica’s "secret" poetry, featuring facsimile renderings of the handwritten poems and accompanying notes by the artist Hélio Oiticica (1937–80) is widely considered one of Brazil’s most significant artists, and his influence is felt across a range of disciplines including painting, film, installation and participatory art. He is well known as a key founder of the interdisciplinary movement known as Neoconcretismo, launched in Rio de Janeiro in 1959 with the collaboration of artists and writers including Lygia Clark, Lygia Pape and Ferreira Gullar. Between 1964 and 1966, moving out of his Neoconcretist period, Oiticica wrote a series of lyrical poems entitled "Poética Secreta" (Secret Poetics), and he reflected in a private notebook on their significance for his wider practice as an artist. Despite Oiticica’s global fame, his "secret" poems are almost unknown and have never been published as a collection. This bilingual edition, with accompanying essays by translator Rebecca Kosick and critic Pedro Erber, uncovers the significance of poetry for Oititica’s art and shows its importance to his thinking on participation, sensation and memory.

Genres: Poetry

112 pages, Paperback

Published November 14, 2023

About the author

Hélio Oiticica (Portuguese: [ˈε.lju ɔj.tʃi.ˈsi.ka] was a Brazilian visual artist, best known for his participation in the Neo-Concrete Movement, for his innovative use of color, and for what he later termed "environmental art", which included Parangolés and Penetrables, like the famous Tropicália.
.
Notable work: Metaesquemas, Bilaterals, Spatial Reliefs, Inventions, Bólides, Parangolés, Penetrables, Tropicália, Eden...
.
Movement: Concrete art, Neo-Concrete Movement, Grupo Frente

Reviews

[Cody Stetzel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting to read through the material and the thinking of this artist.