(b Rio de Janeiro, June 1937; d Rio de Janeiro, 22 March 1980). Brazilian painter and performance artist. In 1954 he began studies with Ivan Serpa at the Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio de Janeiro. He immediately devoted himself to a geometric vocabulary and joined the new Frente group (1954–6) and later the Neo-Concrete movement (1959–61). From 1964 to 1969 he made environmental, participatory events—among them Parangolé (1964), Tropicália (1967) and Apocalipopótesis (1968)—either in art centres or in the street. He was one of the leading exhibitors in the exhibition Nova objetividade brasileira (Rio de Janeiro, 1967), which reactivated the country’s avant-garde. In 1969 he exhibited an installation at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, and the following year his work was included in the show Information (New York, MOMA). A Guggenheim Fellowship took him in 1970 to New York, where he lived until 1978. During that period he prepared various multi-media projects in the form of texts, performances, films and environmental events. The 25 successive years of his Metaschemes, Bilaterals, Spatial Reliefs, Nucleii, Penetrables, Meteors, Parangolés, installations, sensory and conceptual projects from 1954 onwards showed a clear transition from modern to post-modern and represent his most finished achievements. Working with oppositions such as balance/effusion, contemplation/celebration and visual art/body art, he retained a radical stance. In 1981 in Rio de Janeiro his family created the H. O. Project, intended to care for, preserve, analyse and disseminate the work that he left.

• Oiticica, Hélio
  • Brazil, §V, 2(iii): Painting, graphic arts and sculpture, 1931–60
  • Brazil, §V, 2(iv): Painting, graphic arts and sculpture, after 1960
  • Rio de Janeiro