Gaspar Gasparian

1899–1966, São Paulo, Brazil

 

The legacy of Gaspar Gasparian is associated with his role in the consolidation of Brazilian photography as an art in its own right, apart from a documentary record. The artist was one of the key collaborators of the Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante and, together with Geraldo de Barros, Thomaz Farkas and others, was a member of the “São Paulo School of Photography,” as they were called by the press at that time. In his first photographs, he worked mainly with landscapes and still lifes. Later, he engaged in experimentalism, mainly interested in geometric abstraction. In his studio, he created his own scenarios to photograph, his famous “tabletops,” where he captured the formal qualities of the object and created unusual photographic compositions.

 

His photographic career began in 1940. In 1942, he became a member of the Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante. He was awarded the Anchieta Prize for his participation in the Salão Paulista de Arte Fotográfica (1940, São Paulo) and the silver medal at the Exposição Internacional de Arte Fotográfica (1952, Rio de Janeiro). He held solo shows at prominent institutions such as the Museu Oscar Niemeyer (2011, Curitiba), the Pinacoteca de São Paulo (2010) and the Museu da Imagem e do Som (1990, São Paulo). He participated in group shows at important venues that most notably include the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (2023, Houston, EUA), Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) (2021, New York, USA), the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (2018), Tate Modern (2018 and 2016, London, England), Itaú Cultural (2017, São Paulo), Whitechapel Gallery (2015, London, England), the International Center of Photography (ICP) (2014, New York, USA), the Centro Cultural São Paulo (2009), and the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (2006, Miami, USA). He participated in various salons and festivals of photography in the 1960s and 1970s, in Brazil and abroad. His work figures in the collections of various prominent institutions, including Masp (Brazil), Tate Modern (England), MoMA-NY (USA), and the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation.