Hélio Oiticica (Portuguese: [ˈεlju ɔjtʃiˈsikɐ]; July 26, 1937 – March 22, 1980) was a Brazilian visual artist, sculptor, painter, performance artist, and theorist best known for his participation in the Neo-Concrete Movement, for his innovative use of color, and for what he later termed "environmental art," which included Parangolés and Penetrables, like the famous Tropicália.

His grandfather was a well known philologist, who studied literary texts and written records, and published an anarchist newspaper called Ação Direta [Direct Action].

[2] Starting in 1954, Oiticica attended courses at Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro, studying under Ivan Serpa.

His early paintings used a palette of strong, bright primary and secondary colours and geometric shapes influenced by artists such as Piet Mondrian, Paul Klee and Kazimir Malevich.

Oiticica's painting quickly gave way to a much warmer and more subtle palette of oranges, yellows, reds and browns which he maintained, with some exceptions, for the rest of his life.

[9]: 100–105 During Oiticica’s Neo-Concrete period, he sought to “escape the constraints of painting while remaining in dialogue with it” by utilizing color in new ways.

These small square wooden plaques (30 x 30 cm) were not made to represent light rather Oiticica sought to embody it.

Color became a key subject of Oiticica's work and he experimented with paintings and hanging wooden sculptures with subtle (sometimes barely perceptible) differences in colour within or between the sections.

In the 1960s, Oiticica produced a series of small box shaped interactive sculptures called Bólides (fireballs) which had panels and doors which viewers could move and explore.

He also created works called Parangolés which consisted layers of fabric, plastic and matting intended to be worn like costumes but experienced as mobile sculptures.

In 1965 he participated in the exhibition "Soundings two" at the Signals London gallery, with Josef Albers, Brancusi, Lygia Clark, and Marcel Duchamp among others.

[18] One example of his published film is a set of photographs where he gives colorful capes (made from recyclable materials), called parangolés, to unsuspecting passengers on the NYC subway.

In a different film series, Oiticica photographs a young man standing in a parangolé on the rooftops NYC buildings.

In that time, he faced difficulties finding connections in the art world to promote his work or resources to live in the city.

The collection was held at the residence of his brother César Oiticica in the neighborhood of Jardim Botânico, Rio de Janeiro.

In addition to paintings and the famous Parangolés, the artist's archive of material included drawings, notes, documentaries and books, which were stored in the collection.

[27] Jandira Feghali, Secretary of Culture in Rio de Janeiro, called for an investigation into the causes of the fire and whether any works can be recovered.