Contemporary Art in Brazil

Normally, new artistic trends tend to appear in Brazil after a certain period of time, when they are already happening in other places, like Europe and the USA, basically. However, in the case of contemporary art, this gap of time was not so great.

In Brazilian lands, it can be said that this type of art began with the neoconcretists, who founded a Neoconcrete Manifesto in 1959. Those responsible for the document were Amilcar de Castro (1920-2002), Ferreira Gullar (1930-2016), Franz Weissmann (1911-2005), Lygia Clark (1920-1988), Lygia Pape (1927-2004), Reynaldo Jardim (1926-2011) and Theon Spanudis (1915-1986).

Another fundamental name for national contemporary art is Hélio Oiticica (1937-1980), who even gained prominence outside the country.

A great moment of effervescence of contemporary Brazilian art was also marked by the exhibition How are you, Generation 80?, held in Rio de Janeiro, at Parque Lage in 1984.

The show brought together 123 artists and aimed to map varied productions of the time. Artists who became references took part, such as Alex Vallauri (1949-1987), Beatriz Milhazes (1960), Daniel Senise (1955), Leda Catunda (1961) and Leonilson (1957-1993).

The São Paulo International Biennials are also great cultural centers that point to results and experiments in the Brazilian artistic territory.