Concrete relief, Teatro Nacional, Brasilia, 1966
In 1956, Brazilian President Juscelino Kubitschek was sworn into office, boasting a campaign promise to deliver half a century of progress in the space of five short years. In an effort to move power away from the corruption which had come to dominate Brazil’s then-capital, Rio de Janeiro, Kubitschek’s initial project was to create a new capital: Brasilia.
A master plan by Lucio Costa was selected for the design of the new city, and Oscar Niemeyer was asked to design all the principal buildings along the city’s monumental axis. Although Brasilia would come to incorporate the efforts of numerous artists and architects — including Bruno Giorgi, Alfredo Ceschiatti, Marianne Peretti and Niemayer, among others — it is the abstract interventions of Athos Bulcão that created the subtle visual voice of the city.
Athos Bulcão by Roberta Falcone
Athos Bulcão was a public artist, interior designer, muralist, furniture and graphic designer (slideshows of his work here), who collaborated with Oscar Niemeyer and others to define Brasilia — one of the 20th century’s most radical and controversially received urban experiments.
Wood and iron dividing wall, Palácio do Itamaraty, Brasilia, 1967
In Brasilia, Niemeyer designed buildings: Bulcão designed surfaces. Bulcão once likened their relationship to that between filmmaker Federico Fellini and composer Nino Rota: Bulcão worked to create graphic moments inside of Niemeyer’s volumes — which might mean designing a room divider, a bas-relief or a tile composition to cover a wall. At times Bulcão’s work calls to mind the math-play of Max Bill, or the generative iterations of Sol Lewitt. Bulcão’s orientation was not so much artistic as architectural, and the net effect is nothing short of mesmerizing.
White marble relief, Palácio do Itamaraty, Brasilia, 1966
Palácio do Itamaraty contains Brasilia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and offers the highest density of Bulcão moments: a white marble relief that vacillates between flatness and dimensionality; a barely discernable pattern in the stone floor; a jacaranda and metal screen that bounds the space and acts as counterpoint to Niemeyer’s much-photographed spiral staircase. The screen (think Charlotte Perriand meets Piet Mondrian) ultimately reveals itself as something more complex: a visual game of patterns and spaces that refuse to repeat.
Bulcão Bulcao considered Brasilia his home for the remainder of his life, establishing himself as the de facto visual presence in the Federal District. Known as “The Artist of Brasilia,” Bulcão died on July 31 at the age of 90, and left behind an astonishing body of work. Little known outside of Brazil, Athos Bulcão is an unrecognized design master.
Tile pattern, Ingrejinha Nossa Senhora De Fátima, Brasilia, 1957
Comments [12]
08.13.08
12:56
08.14.08
01:10
Bulcao’s work as individual artist is not as good as his work as collaborator or contributor to other people’s work. (I assume that’s why the article does not mention Bulcao’s work outside of Brasilia).
Bulcao's tile and marble murals in Brasillia are a delightful contribution to the city's architecture but closer to decoration than to art. (it’s hard not to see his tile walls as an updated version of the traditional azulejos that were brought to Brazil with Portugues baroque architecture)
Ultimately it seems to me that what is truly remarkable about Bulcao’s work is that it uplifts Niemeyer’s sometimes bombastic architecture by adding scale and subtlety to it. (in the same way that Burle Marx’s gardens do).
I wonder why, unlike Burle Marx and Niemeyer, Bulcao has remained almost completely unknown…
08.14.08
03:29
In other countries speaking to masses usually means more narrative or figurative work. Especially in the US, isn't abstraction the preference of the monied elite? In Cuba all the post revolution art is...
08.14.08
05:10
http://www.fivestarfriday.com/2008/08/five-star-friday-edition-19.html
08.15.08
02:25
08.18.08
09:23
08.18.08
04:19
The work of Athos is unknown Brazilians' own. Thank you for rescuing the work and disseminating this important artist.
08.19.08
03:51
08.21.08
02:37
08.28.08
01:22
08.28.08
08:39
08.29.08
12:10