Neoconcretism, perhaps the best-known avant-garde movement in twentieth-century Brazil, has never been the subject of an academic monograph, either within Brazil or internationally. Ronaldo Brito’s Neoconcretismo: vértice e ruptura do projeto construtivo brasileiro, from 1985, does not quite fit the bill: it was actually a journal essay written by a young and self-educated critic in 1975, later published in book form. However, since the movement’s sixtieth anniversary in 2019, three new books have emerged to address this lack: Pauline Bachmann’s Pure Leiblichkeit: Brasiliens Neokonkretismus (1957–1967) published in Germany in 2019; Flavio Moura’s Obra em construção: o Neoconcretismo e a arte contemporânea no Brasil, published in Brazil in 2021; and now Alvarez’s The Affinity of Neoconcretism.

The literature gap is surprisingly unsurprising, for the movement’s robust critical fortune contrasts with its relatively loose coherence throughout its two-year lifespan from 1959 to 1961. As brilliant as it is, poet...

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