Geraldo de Barros: (As) Simetrias
In closing its 2005 exhibition calendar, Galeria Brito Cimino presents a solo show of works by Geraldo de Barros (1923-1998), a groundbreaking artist and tireless experimenter. The exhibition “Geraldo de Barros – A(s)simetrias” (Geraldo de Barros - Asymmetries) curated by Rubens Fernandes Junior will be on show from December 12, 2005 through February 4, 2006.
“Geraldo de Barros – A(s)simetrias”, featuring paintings and works done in different phases of the artist’s career, will be the most complete exhibition of his photographs. On the occasion, two series will be shown: the celebrated “Fotoformas“ [Photoforms] (1946- 1951) and “Sobras“ [Leftovers] (1996-1998). It should be noted that some photographs of the series “Sobras” are being publicly displayed for the first time ever.
In his essay about the artist, Rubens Fernandes Junior notes:
“In contemporary time, more and more photography has been viewed as an expresses medium that brings together artists from all fields and all trends within the visual arts. Geraldo de Barros managed to foresee this possibility of shifting between artistic supports nearly 60 years ago with the series “Fotoformas” (1946- 1951), when he realized that photography could be one more medium through which to deliver his work, his syntax, and his emotion. It was the first artist to challenge the canons established by photography, and he introduced a new phase of the “photographic making”, bringing up new expectations and honoring the most popular of all visual manifestations. De Barros created as sort of “restless syntaxes” in which he practiced his elaborate forms that had a starting point a coherent, concise, and highly innovative constructive project that broke with the stillness of the photography produced in the late 1940s.
To the series “Sobras“ (1996-1998),Geraldo de Barros devoted an energy accumulated by the impairments resulting from cerebro vascular accidents, he devised a manner in which to give rein to a constrained vitality, without losing sight of his rationalist and constructive syntax. With this series he resumes his activities with photography (originally introduced with “Fotoformas”) not only in his work, but also in his entire oeuvre. In the series, Geraldo de Barros works with photo negatives and positives taken from his personal archives that include family photos and travel pictures. As it seems, it synthesizes and artistic career revealed through slight imperfections, assumed noises, the notion of maturity, and the memory that emerges from images produced in spite of the artist’s physical disabilities, and built on the idea of tracing over in a more radical manner the same previously treaded paths.
“Sobras“ is a series that impresses for the enthusiasm and constrained restlessness that a conveys, giving it is at once subtle and delicate, strong and poignant, as if Geraldo de Barros worked on the razor’s edge, trying to secure a certain understanding for the informational complexity of his oeuvre. The artist’s inexhaustible capacity for innovation is again featured in this series that resumes his syntax, with plentiful experimentation and the daring utilization of the photo support with amazing vitality and energy.”
“Geraldo de Barros – A(s)simetrias” sets a milestone in the Galeria Brito Cimino program of exhibitions meant to feature artists who became personalities in the history of Brazilian contemporary art. Other events include the retrospective show of works by Waldemar Cordeiro presented at the gallery in 2001; the Lygia Clark exhibition, in 1999, and the previous Geraldo de Barros exhibition, held in 1998.
At the end of the show, the gallery will dedicate the third book on Geraldo de Barros. This new publication will feature an unedited essay by Rubens Fernandes Junior in addition to past reviews and a few interviews organized by the author.
As part of the program, Galeria Brito Cimino will also hold a forum at which guest participants will discuss the artist’s oeuvre. Finally, the feature film Geraldo de Barros – Sobras em Obras (1998) directed by Michel Favre will be shown to place the exhibition in an appropriate context.
F/NAZCA SAATCHI & SAATCHI has sponsored both the art show and the upcoming book on Geraldo de Barros’s oeuvre with funds provided in accordance to the Mendonça Law of Tax Incentives for support to culture.
Rubens Fernandes Junior holds a doctoral degree in Communications and Semiotics from the Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP). He is chair professor and director of the Communications College at Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado. He is also a researcher, photography curator and member of the São Paulo Association of Art Critics (ABPC). Fernandes Junior curated the 7th International Month of Photography that NAFOTO held in May-June 2005. He has been commissioned with several curatorial designs for solo and group photography shows held in Brazil and abroad. Among other books, he has writtten Brasilianische Fotografie 1946-1998 – Labirinto e Identidades (KunstMuseum, Wolfsburg, 1998); Labirinto e Identidades – Fotografia Brasileira Contemporânea (Editora Cosac & Naif, SP, 2003); and De volta à Luz – Fotografias nunca vistas do Imperador D. Pedro II (Instituto Cultural Banco Santos, SP, 2003).
