NEO-CONCRETE

Architecture or drawing can be understood only thru the filter of a viewer’s subjectivity. This is a core belief of a Brazilian group of artists working in the late 1950s. They called themselves Grupo Neoconcreto.

They came into being as a reaction against the formulaic rationalism of Concrete art.  This movement had as it’s core belief the generation of forms as a direct result of pure geometric shapes and mathematical calculations.  Concrete art rejected any inclusion of nature or any sort of human expression.

What I find interesting about the Neo-Concretists is that time was a requirement for their understanding of a work.  And this is because the viewer’s subjective responses and evaluation is required.  You can’t have a viewer’s subjectivity without time.  Evaluation requires time.  A human does not stand in one place, ever, when they are looking at something.  They are always moving.  Movement requires time.  And so time is required for a viewer’s subjectivity.

Time, as we have shown in these pages, is a requirement for the production of a Transparent Drawing.  See TIME, for example.

I like finding transparency in the theories and manifestos of previous art groups.  Some that we have looked at so far include THE NEW MEASUREMENT GROUP, FUTURISTS, CUBISTS,   AND OTRA FIGURATION.

The common trait that all of them have is the rejection of the Cartesian / representational / geometric understanding of the world.  All of them saw the fallacy of the Renaissance illustration of space.  And each in their own way worked to develop a working philosophy and understanding that negated the one point perspective.  All of them introduced time.

It is absolutely ludicrous that we continue to teach this geometric representational illustrative approach to drawing.  In drawing school, how to construct a one point perspective according to Albetli is just about the last thing that someone should learn.

Instead, the first drawing exercise might be according to the Neo-concretists;  make a drawing that includes time and human subjectivity.

The drawing above is a projection based on a sculpture from one of the Neo-concretists, Helio Oiticica.