Artwork Enquiry
Luiz Sacilotto
Concreção 8340, 1983
Post-War & Contemporary
Provenance:
The Estate of the Artist.
Private Collection, São Paulo.
Private Collection, London.
Literature:
- Mattar & G.Pérez-Barreier, Sacilotto, São Paulo, 2021 (illus. p. 92).
Luiz Sacilotto was one of the innovators of Brazilian Concrete art, and was hailed by Waldemar Cordeiero, leader of the Ruptura group, as the ‘structural beam’ of Concretism in Brazil. Augusto de Campos, the Concrete poet, writer, and friend of Sacilotto, further identified his work of the 1950s as precursor to Op-Art, claiming that the Brazilian was experimenting with this art form before Victor Vasarely, who is widely recognized as the father of the movement.
In the wake of a military coup in 1964, which marked the beginning of a civil-military dictatorial regime lasting 21 years, Sacilotto took a ten-year hiatus from his practice as an artist. This was in part prompted by the political situation, but scholar Denise Mattar suggests that this career interval was motivated by the end of Concretism’s utopian phase. After the intermission, Sacilotto returned to the studio with renewed vigor and with a desire to create work that was more kinetic. Concreção 8340, created in 1983, shows the skills Sacilotto had accumulated at this stage of his career. It highlights his geometric precision, manual dexterity, and ability to conjure up illusory, optical effects, and it represents a turning point in his use of color. It was in the 1980s that Sacilotto began his meticulous, almost obsessive, studies of color and his collection of pigments. His studio contained an assortment of labeled pigments from over the world, as well as detailed color charts pertaining to manufacturers or to local areas where he collected natural pigments.
This square canvas is intended to hang at a tilt of 45°. The resulting diamond or lozenge shape is reminiscent of works by Piet Mondrian, who first adopted this orientation in 1918. Sacilotto has used a deep, rich, yellow tempera combined with an earthy ochre to draw the intricate pattern of concentric shapes expanding outward.