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Details of object number: ANS923
Title:terra (original title)
Object name:graphic
Created by:Pignatari, Décio (artist) (São Paulo, 1927-08-20 - São Paulo, 2012-12-02)
Production date:1958
Description:Screen print on paper with graphical composition of the word “terra”, repeated several times on a rectangle and subjected to a series of separations or permutations.
From the portfolio “Noigandres 4 – poesia concreta”, IRWA industria grafica, São Paulo, 1958.
From the portfolio “Noigandres 4 – poesia concreta”, IRWA industria grafica, São Paulo, 1958.
Hist. crit. notes:“[...] In addition to the Viennese, the leading lights of early concrete poetry include representatives of the Brazilian poetry group ‘Noigandres’ around the De Campos brothers and the Swiss poet Eugen Gomringer. Without going into the sporadically occurring dispute about who did what first, it can be said that these were the beginnings of what is known as Concrete Poetry, partly in reference to the Concrete Art of the 1930s. The Concrete poets of the 1950s were able to build on the experiences of the Futurists, who had accomplished important groundwork with Marinetti’s ‘parole in libertà [words in freedom]’ as proclaimed in his 1912 ‘Manifesto tecnico della letteratura [Technical manifesto for literature]’. [...]
The language of poetry should no longer be a means of referring to the other – that is, to objects, thoughts, feelings or processes in life and in reality. Rather, language itself should take centre stage and make itself the main theme. In order to overcome the conventions of traditional poetry, the Concrete artists often start with the smallest elements of the written and spoken language: an individual word or even an individual letter, examining their meaning, sound and visual form. Conventional syntax is replaced by what can be described as surface syntax: the linguistic elements are distributed typographically on the surface and related to each other in differing ways: they are isolated, serially repeated, varied, pushed together and condensed, etc. The linear direction of reading, from left to right and top to bottom, is overturned as the eye wanders freely over the surface, examining the possible combinations. This approach clearly transcends the boundaries of the plastic arts, which traditionally develop on the surface. [...]
The poem ‘terra’, dating from the year 1956, works with a single word, namely terra: the word is repeated several times on the surface of an upright rectangle and subjected to a series of separations or permutations. The result is a complex geometrical form that ultimately also emphasises the theme of geographical or political boundaries.”
(Hapkemeyer, Andreas “Poesia Concreta” in: La parola nell’arte, MART, Skira, Milan 2007, pp. 235-237)
The language of poetry should no longer be a means of referring to the other – that is, to objects, thoughts, feelings or processes in life and in reality. Rather, language itself should take centre stage and make itself the main theme. In order to overcome the conventions of traditional poetry, the Concrete artists often start with the smallest elements of the written and spoken language: an individual word or even an individual letter, examining their meaning, sound and visual form. Conventional syntax is replaced by what can be described as surface syntax: the linguistic elements are distributed typographically on the surface and related to each other in differing ways: they are isolated, serially repeated, varied, pushed together and condensed, etc. The linear direction of reading, from left to right and top to bottom, is overturned as the eye wanders freely over the surface, examining the possible combinations. This approach clearly transcends the boundaries of the plastic arts, which traditionally develop on the surface. [...]
The poem ‘terra’, dating from the year 1956, works with a single word, namely terra: the word is repeated several times on the surface of an upright rectangle and subjected to a series of separations or permutations. The result is a complex geometrical form that ultimately also emphasises the theme of geographical or political boundaries.”
(Hapkemeyer, Andreas “Poesia Concreta” in: La parola nell’arte, MART, Skira, Milan 2007, pp. 235-237)
Material:paper
Technique:printed (screen printing)
Dimensions:
- sheet height: 35 cm
sheet width: 26 cm
frame height: 53 cm
frame width: 53 cm
frame depth: 3 cm
Physical description:Silkscreen on paper
Keyword:Concrete poetry