Exhibition at Pinacoteca Benedicto Calixto

“twentieth century: Paper works”, with works of Brazilian artists of international relevance

Begins This Tuesday, 30 March, broadcast at 8:30 pm on the Pinacoteca Benedicto Calixto on Facebook, the exhibition twentieth century: Paper Works.

A ‘live’ it will be a virtual tour through the works of the exhibition, complemented by video testimonials recorded with the curators. After opening, the content of ‘live’ will remain accessible to all interested parties.

Originally programmed for the exhibition space of Pinacoteca Benedicto Calixto, in Santos, the show will be presented on the internet due to the strict restrictions imposed by the emergency phase of confronting the coronavirus pandemic across the state. At the end of the emergency phase, scheduled for the next day 11 April, there is the possibility, not yet confirmed, that the exhibition may be open to public visitation.

twentieth century: Paper Works brings together a set of 25 works of Rubens Gerchman, Leda Catunda, Jose Roberto Aguilar, Gilberto Salvador and Claudio Tozzi, contemporary Brazilian artists of international relevance. As indicated in the title of the show, curated by Carlos Zibel and Antonio Carlos Cavalcanti, all works have paper as support - they are drawings, paintings, watercolors, collages and prints.

Second Zibel, at this time when “to digital culture, powered by the internet and social networks, becomes dominant, it is important to recover the works of these contemporary artists, that established reference parameters and languages ​​since the second half of the last century, and favored the exponential artistic development that the globalization of the economy and culture brought about over the years 1990 until today”.

FIVE ARTISTS

Gilberto Salvador (born in 1946) was one of the exponents of the New Figuration movement, getting deserved prominence for the strength and emotion emanating from the dialogue between a rich personal poetics and a palette with countless means. His color and support research led him to sculpture, segment in which important works supported in constructive language have been carried out in the public space. His works in this exhibition are from the Aquagráfico series (acrylic on metal engraving, wood, fiberglass and polyester resin). Surprised by its dimensions, rare in works on paper, and are suitable examples of the language, format and mainly the type of innovation provided by the working method that characterizes his important plastic work.

Leda Catunda (born in 1961) has its work in line with the emergence of the digital culture of the years 1990. He does, therefore, a bridge between the contributions of Brazilian Pop Art and New Figuration to the edges of the incipient invasion of digital languages, with the consequent interpenetration of fields and media, characteristics of contemporary art. His works benefit from the expansion of the territories of the arts and the affirmation of media intertextuality. The thought-provoking paper works that are part of this exhibition, all of the Project Night Club series, from 2014, are woodcuts on metal that denote the possibility of seeing it more closely, almost in the creative process where such innovative works are instituted.

Claudio Tozzi (born in 1944), in its Pop Art phase reveals the intertextual transformation of certain referents of mass communication between 1960 and 1970, of great popular penetration via print media, film and television. Using graphic language that is technically supported by the visuality of the registration and printing processes of the time, performs the convergence of media in the arts, before video and digital asset. The exhibited works, in most of the Screws series, one of the most iconic that produced, offer the opportunity to learn a little more about its graphic repertoire - and to evaluate, in historical perspective, some of the themes and processes that the artist found to express, poetize and consecrate his art.

Jose Roberto Aguilar (born in 1941), one of the pioneers of New Figuration in Brazil, is a creator of a posture deeply committed and passionate about art. Reveals in his work affiliation to the psychological tradition of abstractionism and a certain dose of dream influence, in a key of magical surrealism that resonates in the underground culture and in the libertarian movements of May 1968. The exhibited works communicate, as is the norm in your plastic work, sharp spiritual dimension. They are pieces of human-art integration, fruit of a discovery of the present moment. Spontaneous, expressionist and vibrant bring seemingly two-dimensional figures that, in closer reading, unfold in spaces, backgrounds, movements, unsuspected perspectives and questions.

Rubens Gerchman (1942-2008) Brazilian fine arts is recognized as a great master. His long career has seen remarkable moments of national culture, as in the period when he assumed the direction of Parque Lage School of Visual Arts, in Rio de Janeiro. The exhibited works are four serigraphs, two reporting popular scenes and the other two photographic images of buildings reworked in serigraphy. The selection completes a beautiful original design from the Football series. These are pieces that reaffirm his poetic and loving look in relation to Brazilian culture, always in search of the appropriate languages ​​and techniques for transforming iconic images from the mass media into reference works in the field of Fine Arts.

Excerpt from the curators' text Carlos Zibel and Antonio Carlos Cavalcanti:

It has a special charm to expose to public enjoyment this select of works on paper - drawings, paintings, watercolors, collages and prints -, developed in originals or signed series, in which you can glimpse in a privileged way, beyond the plastic image, the memory of the manual manifestation, almost alive, of the thinking-doing of each artist.

It is no wonder that almost all participants in the 20th century exhibition: Paper works belong to the generation 1960 - less Leda Catunda, that is of the generation 1980. (…) All of these artists are fruit, and were heavily influenced, for the freedoms arising from anti-academism and opened up by Brazilian Modernism. Situation that allowed them, twentieth century artists - aware of the historical context, cultural and technological era -, develop languages ​​and fields of work, in fact, innovators.

It is also important to highlight the socio-political-cultural influence in Brazilian art, played by the events of modernity in the post-World War II period during, and after, the student revolts that started in France in 1968. The historical role of Pop Art and New National Figuration could not be properly understood without recalling the path of the arts in the context of important passages between the Art Week of 1922 and the May demonstrations of 1968, and the socio-cultural consequences in Europe, USA and also in Brazil, among other countries.

Today when the digital culture powered by the internet and social networks is dominant, including in the artistic and cultural area, it is important to recover the works of these contemporary artists who, through their prominent role in the Brazilian cultural scene, established reference parameters and languages ​​since the second half of the last century, and favored the exponential artistic development that the globalization of the economy and culture has experienced over the years 1990 until today.

Other virtual events - By the end of April the Pinacoteca Benedicto Calixto will also be presenting virtually, through your Facebook page, always starting at 17 hours, the events Pinacoteca Music - days 2, 9, 16 and 23 April - and Soiree Calixto - days 4, 11, 18 and 25 April.