Hélio Oiticica @ Lisson Gallery

September 20, 2025

In what can be considered a minimalist effort – an aim at exploring a reduction (so renowned by the mid-20th century abstract expressionists) – Lisson Gallery presents the Brazilian Hélio Oiticica’s earlier works; with that dangerous experimentalism because of its lacking awe to the common eye.

The affirmation of an artist that is moving beyond imitation of reality, onto a progression in Western Art History from Kadinsky’s claim of the modern artist’s reclamation of crude primitive forms – so popularly transcendent with Picasso’s African tribal influences – places the consideration of objects to represent beauty with the leanest of details as good. It is this goodness, with its quotidian scale, which prompts to the viewer a query of completeness; so far removed from the visceral religiosity of, say, Carravagghio. Or The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa in the extension of Mr. Oiticica’s ideas to sculpture.

‘The Conversion of Saint Paul’ (1601). Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Oil on canvas. 237 x 189 cm (93 x 74 in). Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome.

‘The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa’ (1647–52). Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Marble and gilded bronze. Height 11’6” (3.50 m), width of 9’2” (2.79 m), and depth of 6’9” (2.06 m). Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome.

Is it muted though? Is a cerebral challenge lassitudinous?

Perfection fulfilled through removing the distraction of details has a centering power. Not aiming to jar, to guide a perilous bombastic flight; this examination into the nature of structure as pleasing; as beauty itself; informs of a positive humanity that is healthy to absorb.

Of course, the labyrinthine experiences of the city, of the megalopolis, of the civilized order; with its excruciating, to the point of cumbersome details; that minutiae of painstaking completeness; is silenced with such simplicity.

Simplicity in shape. Simplicity in color. Simplicity in scale.

Harmony extended with this novelty; so inundated with rectilineality. Why?

Because the straight line gives order. It rules. It limits by necessity. It divides. It identifies. It straightens. It clarifies. It is the opposite of havoc.

But joy?

Yes. There can be a pleasant peace, a yearning delight, in constitutional construction. For what else is structure but the absent of loss? Of damage? Of decay? Of bend? Of disorder? Of malice?

No need to inform the works with any dystopic suggestions of Kafka-esque bureaucratic meanness. That’s impossible. It is too affirming of the dignity of human life to order itself upright.

The symphony of choreographed rectangular ideas informs of a balance, again a harmony, which is aiming to be in agreement. Placement is given weight with the novelty of the configurations, the styling (though that may be crass to reflect, suggestive of decor versus serious study; again, this era is piercing into the veil of the unknown; of the danger of looking foolish with the playfulness of shapes which are elementary; so far removed from the common person’s idea of technique) softly ornamental; absent the stain of ostentation.

Yes, this is the appropriate affirmation: a movement onto purity.

For more information, please contact the gallery:

Lisson Gallery

1037 N. Sycamore Avenue
Los Angeles

Opening Times:
Tuesday – Saturday: 10:00am – 6:00pm