Concretism is a Brazilian artistic movement that was inspired by the abstract art of 20th century Europe and which had the poetry its greatest expression.
Concretist poetry proposes the abolition of traditional verse and includes the visual element: for the concrete poet, in addition to word and sound, poetry is also image.
It began to be practiced in Brazil with the publication of Noigrandes magazine in 1952, by the poets Décio Pignatari and Haroldo and Augusto de Campos - exponents of this artistic trend in Brazil.
However, concretism officially began in Brazil only in 1956, with the National Exhibition of Concrete Art, at the Museum of Modern Art in São Paulo.
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concrete poetry
Concrete poetry is considered to be Vanguard and it has an experimental character. It has a strong appeal to graphic elements and seeks the relationship between image, word and sound.
The concrete poem eliminates pronouns, prepositions and conjunctions - it is usually composed only of verbs and nouns and has no punctuation. The western structure of writing on the sheet is also broken, from top to bottom and from left to right.
Concretist poetry explores blank spaces on paper in different ways and introduces geometric elements to art.
"Pluvial" poem by Augusto de Campos.
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Characteristics of Concrete Poetry
Concrete poetry is also called poetry verb you visual. The poems made up to that moment had two of these elements: the verb and the voice, that is, the word and the sound. The novelty brought by concrete poetry and which characterizes it as such is the visual element.
To make the poem also an image, these artists eliminate everything that is superfluous in the text. Punctuation, prepositions, articles, conjunctions are removed and the verse is disintegrated - an essential element of poetry until then.
It breaks with the syntax itself, that is, the sentences are not formed with subject, verb and predicate, but with single words and even neologisms.
As it is a poetry that uses the spaces of paper in a different way, it is also called spatial poetry. And since it doesn't follow a pattern, the reading of the poems is up to the reader, who can usually read them in different ways.
In the poem below, for example, the reader can start reading at different points:
Poem "The infinity of your eyes" by Décio Pignatari.
Concretism in Brazil: historical context
The emergence of the concrete movement must be understood from the changes in the political, economic and social context of Brazil at that time.
It was the 1950s, Juscelino Kubitschek he was the president who intended to make the country grow 50 years in 5. It was a time of country development, with the intensification of industrialization, increased consumption, urbanization and popularization of the mass media.
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The use of televisions, telephones and cars that begins in this period changes the pace of life. Technological advances required more speed and movement, and traditional poetry, represented by verse and slow rhythm, no longer responds to the artistic expressions of the moment.
Poem "VVVVVelocidade" by Ronaldo Azeredo.
It is also at this time that imported products begin to enter the country, especially North Americans, who brought with them the culture of "American way of life" . Advertisements started to compose the scene in big cities and consumption was stimulated.
Concrete poetry will use advertising language and will also criticize the consumer society that was being created. One of the most famous poems of this artistic movement was "Beba coca-cola", inspired by the brand's slogan, which portrays with criticism and irony the consumption of this drink.
Poem "Drink Coca-Cola" by Décio Pignatari.
See also the meaning of publicity.
The construction of Brasilia
An important milestone for the concrete movement was the Brasilia construction, a city with European modernist characteristics in the middle of the Brazilian cerrado.
One of the main works of concrete poetry was the "Pilot Plan for Concrete Poetry", in reference to the Pilot Plan for the Construction of Brasília, drawn up by Oscar Niemeyer and Lúcio Costa.
Concrete art even begins in the architecture, with the use of shapes, colors and lines, on which mathematical and geometric rules were applied.
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Summary of the characteristics of concretism
- Abolition of traditional verse and elimination of pronouns, articles, conjunctions, etc.
- Strong visual appeal, use of fonts, colors and images.
- Synthetic language, which represents the speed of the industrial society that had begun.
- Use of foreign words, neologisms and similar sounding words.
- Appreciation of the loose word.
Also know the impressionism, O surrealism, O cubism it's the Dadaism.
