Escuela de arte xul solar biography

Concrete Art in Argentina

by Adriana Lauria
January 2003

Abstraction asserted itself in Argentina through the achievements of groups such as Arte Concreto-Invención, Madí and Perceptismo, which developed their activity since the second half of the 1940s. These groups constituted the first organized national avant-garde and made their aesthetics known to the public through exhibitions, magazines, manifestoes, leaflets, lectures, etc.

On Concrete Art

The term “Concrete Art” was coined in Europe in 1930. It refers to a manner of abstraction that rejects any allusion to a model by resorting to geometrical forms and the analysis of plastic elements. At the same time, it endeavors to develop an objective composition system.

Thus, works created through the study of perceptual laws and the rational organization of their parts, are entities in themselves (i.e., concrete entities) and do not pose as representations of other objects.

The word “concrete” emerged at the core of a discussion revealing this artistic trend’s rigorous position concerning the terms and the conception of the artists’ work. In their search for the autonomy of art, painters rejected simplification and synthesis mechanisms still depending on motives and invented forms bask

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