Almandrade: Do Poema Visual a Poética do Plano e do Espaço
This retrospective of Almandrade (b. 1953, São Felipe), one of the most representative exponents of Brazilian visual poetry, brings a selection of about 60 works – including visual poems, drawings, paintings, engravings, objects, sculptures and installations – produced in the last four decades, other than new works especially created for the exhibition.
Artist, poet and architect, Antonio Luiz M. Andrade, better known under the pseudonym Almandrade, was a member of the artistic group Poema/Processo and one of the founders of the Bahia Language Study Group. Since the 1970s, he has produced inventive and enigmatic works also guided by conceptual and minimalist aesthetic. Belonging to the Post-Constructivism era, he also incorporated in his production influences of Neo-Concretism and Constructivism. According to Marc Pottier, who curated the show, the artist “redistributed postulates of Concrete Art for a dialogue with Conceptual Art, and invented his own signature, even under strong influences of Hélio Oiticica, Lygia Pape and Ferreira Gullar”.
By simplifying forms and geometries, his research points to the constructivist epistemology, form as information, architecture of the signs and the power of experimentation. With this retrospective, Baró brings light to the diversity of media and languages of this figure that is considered one of the most creative exponents of Brazilian visual poetry. The novelty of the show is given by the inclusion of original visual poems rarely shown to the public. Ancient and emblematic works are placed with new ones, thus creating a dialogue that crosses decades of production.
Almandrade always resided in Salvador. But since the early 1970s, he had great dialogue with important artists of the artistic scene of the Southeast in Brazil. In his way, even far from the effervescence of that region of the country, he managed to capture the vibrations of strong concrete movements that took place there. Critics hardly went to Salvador at that time, which ended up boosting the artist, in addition to producing his own works, also to write about art. He was (and still is) a great fomenter of artistic discussions and contributed to form the public of the city’s museums. In 1974, he edited the magazine Semiótica and, since 1980, has published several books of poetry. In 2008, his critical writings were collected in the book “Escritos sobre Arte: Arte, Cidade e Política Cultura”, which brings essays produced between 1986 and 2008.
