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Spatial Reliefs (1960)

In 1960, Oiticica – now aged 23 – wrote: 'The experience of colour, the exclusive element of painting, became for me the very axis of what I do, the way I begin a work. Only now does the complexity of the relationship between colour and structure truly begin.'

Still conceiving innovative structures for colour, Oiticica's next step was to create the radical series of red and yellow hanging structures he called 'Relevos Espaciais' (Spatial Reliefs). These are far more complex than the Bilaterals. Built from sheets of plywood, they intersect, overlap, or fold over one another at oblique angles, leaving gaps ('negative spaces') through which light can pass.

Like the Bilaterals, the Spatial Reliefs rely on the viewer's participation: only by walking around them can you grasp the differences in shape and colour on each side. Oiticica designed many maquettes for these complex forms, but few were built in full scale.