The curator and art critic Wilson Coutinho (1947–2003) published his writing mainly in Rio de Janeiro, where he played an important role in the field of Brazilian art criticism from 1980 to 2003.
[As complementary reading about Concrete poetry and Concrete art, see the following in the ICAA Digital Archive: “Arte Concreta” (doc. no. 1315020), “Concretos de São Paulo no MAM” (doc. no. 1315102), “Da arte concreta à arte neoconcreta” (doc. no. 1315036), and “Resposta a Cordeiro” (doc. no. 1315118), four essays by Ferreira Gullar; “As ideologias construtivas no ambiente cultural brasileiro” (doc. no. 1315150) by Ronaldo Brito; “Música e poesia concreta” (doc. no. 1315272) by Gilberto Mendes; “O concretismo e o desenho industrial” (doc. no. 1315208) by Júlio Roberto Katinsky; and “Poesia concreta —a dinâmica do in(con)cluso” (doc. no. 1315224) by Luis Antônio de Figueiredo].
This essay appeared in Projeto Construtivo Brasileiro na Arte, the catalogue for the exhibition organized in São Paulo by Aracy Amaral (b. 1930) and Lygia Pape (1927–2004). The event was hugely influential in Brazil, prompting an innovative reading of the meaning of the rationalist movements in Brazilian art. The exhibition was presented in 1977 at the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo and, later on, at the MAM-RJ (Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro).
[For more information about this exhibition, see the following: “Projeto construtivo brasileiro na arte” (doc. no. 1110680) by Pape; “A arquitetura é a grande arte de nosso tempo —1948: Romero Brest em São Paulo” (doc. no. 1314972) by the Argentinean critic; and “Concretismo/ Neoconcretismo” (doc. no. 1315134) by Frederico Morais; see also “O problema da educação artística depois da Bauhaus” (doc. no. 1315069) by Tomás Maldonado.]
