“The precision of art is not a craftsperson’s precision, but one of meaning. One can construct with rigor without rigid outlines. Form is not outline or envelope, but relation.”

—Waldemar Cordeiro, 1960

Situated chronologically between the phases of Concrete Art and Popcreto, between 1960 and 1963, Waldemar Cordeiro’s so-called Intuitive Geometry phase marks a significant moment in his oeuvre. These paintings retained the spatial organization of the canvas but set aside the ruler and compass in favor of more intuitive drawing and combinations of primary colors to achieve other tonalities. These variations reflect the climate and luminosity of the tropics – pinks, greens, oranges, purples, and yellows – blended in oil paint through lines inspired by the morphology of Brazilian plants. At the time, Cordeiro was studying native flora from the Serra do Mar. In his Concrete and Intuitive Geometry investigations he combined colors in spatially structured compositions designed to speak directly to the viewer’s innate perception.