Hélio Oiticica presents a focused dialogue among works produced by the Brazilian artist between 1958 and ’66, anchored by Grande Núcleo, one of his most engaging installations. A central figure of the Neoconcrete movement, Oiticica was part of a counterreaction to Western European and Latin American Concretism, which valued the formal elements of geometric abstraction devoid of subjectivity. Oiticica questioned and expanded the limits of the painted surface by uniting form, space, and color to foster sensorial experiences and interaction between object and perceiver. The selection on view traces this pivotal moment in the artist’s multifaceted practice, from early investigations of destabilizing the geometric form and the picture plane to dynamic spatial environments that envelop the viewer.

Oiticica’s investment in geometric abstraction began in the mid-1950s, when he joined the Grupo Frente, a Rio de Janeiro–based collective dedicated to developing that visual language. On the left of the first gallery’s entrance are two works from his Metaesquemas (Meta-Schemes) series, some of the few pieces Oiticica created on canvas. Both Painting 9 (1959) and Metaesquema (1958) occupy a space between painting and drawing, and the precise arrangements of shapes do not attempt an illusion of depth. Rather, they propose what the artist called the “model transformation” of painting—the planar forms indicating the boundaries of a given space without visually representing them. While his earlier works emphasized isolated forms floating in white fields, the Metaesquemas introduce subtle tilting, flipping, and folding within compositional structures; forms appear animated by energy and internal tension. For Oiticica, this series symbolized the threshold of a new territory. As he would later write, these works were an “obsessive dissection of space” that sought “the end of painting in the color square.” Color, no longer confined to canvas, could acquire bodily and spatial presence.

Across the Metaesquemas, two Relevos Espaciais (Spatial Reliefs, both 1959) suspend in midair. Created at a time when Oiticica started folding planes into the third dimension, these painted structures abandon the traditional wall to inhabit the same space as the viewer, with the chromatic relationships created between the works and their perceivers shifting with each step. “Structure and color are inseparable here, as are time and space,” the artist stated; here the color is not static pigment but an event that unfolds in duration. Oiticica also asserted that hues hold specific perceptual roles, especially when placed in relation to one another: “Yellow possesses a strong optical pulsation and tends towards real space,” while orange stands as “a median color par excellence.”

Grande Núcleo (Grand Nucleus, 1960–66) extends these ideas to an architectural scale, playing with the experience of space through orthogonal compositions. Initially developed as smaller models, these works evolved into hanging environments of multiple panels that surround the viewer. Oiticica considered them “painting in space,” not sculpture, since color remained the organizing principle. Each panel contributes to a chromatic nucleus whose value shifts in intensity as one moves through it. In Dia Beacon’s naturally lit galleries, color’s eternal flux is underscored—its dynamic effects arise from interaction with the environment and the viewer.

The ambition of Oiticica’s practice shaped later developments in participatory, sensorial art. His approach shared affinities with Neoconcrete peers such as Lygia Clark and Lygia Pape, while also resonating with American contem-poraries in Dia’s collection, such as Donald Judd and Walter De Maria, who similarly questioned the limits of perception through Minimalist forms and material experimentation, and presaging movements like Fluxus, whose members espoused the merging of life and art. Oiticica insisted on art that asks the viewer not to contemplate from a distance but to inhabit a shared field of experience. In his words, within these works “man finds his living time as he becomes involved in a univocal relationship with the time of the work.”

—Humberto Moro with Ella den Elzen

1. Metaesquema (Meta-Scheme), 1958
   Oil on canvas
   Made possible by Kenneth C. Griffin

2. Painting 9, 1959
   Oil on canvas
   Museum of Modern Art, New York; promised gift of Patricia Phelps de Cisneros through the Latin American and Caribbean Fund in honor of Adriana Cisneros de Griffin

3. Untitled (from the series Relevos Espaciais [Spatial Reliefs]), 1959/91
   Acrylic on plywood
   Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

4. Untitled (from the series Relevos Espaciais [Spatial Reliefs]), 1959/91
   Acrylic on plywood
   Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

5. Grande Núcleo (Grand Nucleus), 1960–66 
   Oil and resin on wood fiberboard
   Courtesy Lisson Gallery

Hélio Oiticica was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1937. In 1954, he enrolled at the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro and subsequently joined the Grupo Frente, a collective engaged in geometric abstraction. Through this affiliation, he developed relationships with like-minded artists and participated in the creation of the Neoconcrete movement, which advocated for a heightened sensorial experience of art. He worked as a painter before expanding his practice toward writing and participatory modalities, encompassing sculpture, immersive installation, and performance. Oiticica’s first retrospective, held at Whitechapel Gallery, London, in 1969, foregrounded the experimental and subversive nature of his practice, particularly through his interactive installation Tropicália (1967), which incorporated natural elements within the gallery space. Posthumous retrospectives of Oiticica’s work have been presented at the Witte de With (now Kunstinstituut Melly), Rotterdam (1992); the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2006–07), touring to Tate Modern, London (2007); and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2017). Oiticica died in Rio in 1980.

Helio Oiticica | December 2, 2025