CHAPTER 9. Arte Concreto Invención: Towards Industrialized Surface Aesthetics

During the 1940s a new perspective to the international concrete art movement resignified the combination of materials and artistic techniques, seeking the objective predominance of the materials themselves. This phenomenon, by the hand of Argentinian and Uruguayan artists, led to the creation of the group Arte Concreto Invencion. Encouraged by years of work and deliberative process, this group of artists settled the avant-garde for the visual color plane that would break with the idea of painting as a window to the world with the introduction of shaped canvas and coplanar. The intentional loss of the personal footprint and the continuous motivation of achieving the objective presence of the materials have contributed to a search for artistic technique as well as the right materials to make it possible. In this way, rigid supports and synthetic enamels appeared through the artists' experimentation. This period, also characterized by industrial improvements in the paint market, spread a broad spectrum of materials, also present in the Argentinian market. The analytical approach applied to studying the works of art is presented through the organic and inorganic analyses of artwork samples. Analysis and interviews made possible a holistic study in order to understand the possible materials the concrete artists had access to.