Hélio Oiticica

Curated by Mari Carmen Ramírez

Although the importance of Hélio Oiticica’s contribution to the ’60s-era dismantling of autonomous art is increasingly acknowledged, firsthand experience in North America of the Brazilian’s work remains largely restricted to a single series: his multisensory installations, the “Quasi-cinemas.” But now, “The Body of Color”—the first phase of a multiyear collaboration between the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Rio de Janeiro’s Projeto Hélio Oiticica—presents the broad scope of the artist’s creative experimentation. Foregrounding color’s central role in Oiticica’s practice, the show comprises more than two hundred works, including late-’50s Neo-concrete monochromes and mid-’60s and ’70s Parangolés—bright samba costumes that liberated color from the aesthetic realm into the domain of lived experience. Travels to Tate Modern, London, June 7–Sept. 3, 2007.