Cildo Meireles

La Bruja 1 (The Witch 1). 1979-1981

© photo: Haupt & Binder . + tate

A key instigator of Conceptual Art, Brazilian artist Cildo Meireles has made some of the most politically telling, aesthetically seductive and philosophically intriguing works of the last four decades. With a characteristic economy of means, he distils complex ideas into single objects or environments.
Meireles was born in 1948 in Rio de Janeiro, where he still lives and works. His father worked for the Indian Protection Service and, as a boy, the artist accompanied his family on their constant moves throughout the vast Brazilian territory. We often catch glimpses of these childhood experiences through his art.
His work inherited the legacy of Neo-concretism, a Brazilian movement of the late 1950s that rejected the extreme rationalism of geometric abstraction in favour of more sensorial, participatory works, which engage the body as well as the mind. The utopian optimism of the Neo-concrete artists foundered after the coup of 1964, which ushered in an oppressive military regime.
Tate