Hélio Oiticica (1937-1980)

The Collection of Fernanda Dobbin
Acquired from the above by the present owner

This work is in good condition overall. The media layer is stable overall. There are fine, mild lines of craquelure in the white background, otherwise the media layer is healthy overall and there is no instability. Faint spots of foxing are present along the extreme border that surrounds the main composition. There are two small spots in the lower left quadrant. The paper is separating from the support. The support is affixed to a quarter-of-an-inch foam core mount. The work is ready to hang.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

For Oiticica, color became the element that allowed him to escape the constraints of painting while remaining in dialogue with it. The temporalization of chroma allowed for a grounding of his disruptive experiments in the discourse of painting even as he destroyed painting’s conventions, structure, and support. If color revealed the qualitative differences of “active color-light,” it also made painterly structure imminent: “there is no ‘a priori’ structure,” wrote Oiticica following one of neoconcretism’s dictums; “it constructs itself in the action of color-light.” (1)

Monica Amor, From Work to Frame, In Between, and Beyond: Lygia Clark and Hélio Oiticica, 1959–1964, p. 25

(1) Hélio Oiticica, “Novembro 1959,” in Aspiro ao grande labirinto (AAGL) (Rio de Janeiro: Rocco, 1986), 17.