Brazil Contemporary
Architecture, Art and Visual Culture and Design Published by nai010 publishers.
Edited by Paul Meurs, Frits Gierstberg, Jaap Guldemond. Text by Paul Meurs, Frits Gierstberg, Jaap Guldemond, Bregje van Woensel, Ineke Holtwk, Luciano Figueredo. Brazil Contemporary celebrates the vibrancy of Brazilian culture through a diverse selection of art, architecture, pop culture and ephemera featuring the country's characteristic fusion of street aesthetics, high and low cultural references, political engagement and traditional craftsmanship. Brazil, one of the largest countries in the world, boasts an astonishingly heterogeneous population that has given rise to an eclectic national style. This well illustrated volume documents three months of Rotterdam-based exhibitions and events--organized jointly by the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, the Netherlands Architecture Institute and the Dutch Photo Museum--exploring the many facets of Brazil's creative output. It gathers works by some of the country's greatest artists, architects and designers such as Rivane Neuenschwander, Iran do Espirito Santo, Ernesto Neto, Lucia Koch, Ricardo Basbaum, Renate Lucas, Oscar Niemeyer, Lina Bo Bardi and Paulo Mendes da Rocha, with a particular focus on Helio Oiticica, who died in 1980, and who is often heralded as the father of the country's culturally fluid aesthetic style. An immensely productive painter and sculptor, Oiticica's work bridges the Modern and Postmodern, Minimal and Post-Minimal, while evidencing influences as diverse as Mondrian and Samba. At over 300 pages, this catalogue is as packed with much diversity and richness as the culture it examines.
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