In the 1950s, the Brazilian art field institutionalised with the creation of institutions such as the São Paulo Biennial, which stimulated contact with international art production of that period. In this context, concrete art emerged as a branch of geometric abstraction characterised by mathematical rigour, formal refinement and the search for an autonomous visual language that rejected figurative representation. Artists conducted their research by privileging essential elements such as the straight line, the rectangle and primary colours in their compositions.
The concrete movement in Brazil took shape owing to two groups that each formulated programmes and manifestos, and were in dialogue with European avant-garde movements and artists such as the Swiss Max Bill. Grupo Ruptura from São Paulo held an exhibition in 1952 that was accompanied by a manifesto against figurative art, affirming the need for an art based on order, rationality and the objective construction of form. In Rio de Janeiro, Grupo Frente developed a more experimental practice within the geometric field, with artist and teacher Ivan Serpa as a central figure.
In December 1956, the First National Concrete Art Exhibition took place in São Paulo, followed by a presentation in Rio de Janeiro in February 1957. From this concrete group several artists broke away, a move that was formalised by the First National Neoconcrete Art Exhibition in Rio de Janeiro in 1959. Neoconcretism represented a rejection of the rigid system of concrete art, proposing a more sensitive, phenomenological and participatory approach. In Rio, this openness was intensified by contact with practices such as those of psychiatrist Nise da Silveira at the Museu de Imagens do Inconsciente, which brought together art, subjectivity and psychic processes.
In this way, by combining the mathematical rigour of concrete art and the sensitive opening of neoconcretism, a dialogue was established between rationality, experimentation and interdisciplinarity.