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Geraldo de Barros: Objetos-Forma, Luciana Brito Galeria, São Paulo, 2022
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Geraldo de Barros: Objetos-Forma, Luciana Brito Galeria, São Paulo, 2022
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Original manifesto in Portuguese, distributed during the São Paulo Biennial in 1979. Facsimile, 2022.
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup:
Original manifesto in Portuguese, distributed during the São Paulo Biennial in 1979. Facsimile, 2022.
Geraldo de Barros
"Da retomada de alguns objetos-forma da arte concreta”, N.º 24, 1979/2022
serigrafia sobre papel Arches 88 300g
serigraph on Arches 88 300g paper
serigraph on Arches 88 300g paper
30 x 30 cm
11.81 x 11.81 in
11.81 x 11.81 in
ed 5/5 + 3 P.A.
Further images
Geraldo de Barros is a key name of 20th-century Brazilian art. Combining his first studies on painting with a later interest in photography, he pushed the envelope of the traditional photographic processes, questioning the classic rules of composition. Geraldo de Barros took a formal concern – as clearly seen in Brazilian concretism, in which participated intensely – and managed to merge this with his social concerns, leading him to approach the industrial processes in his work, dealing coherently with geometric constructions, reproducibility, the socialization of art, the theory of form and industrial design.
Based primarily on principles of social collectivity and ethics, in 1954 Geraldo de Barros created the cooperative furniture factory Cooperativa Unilabor, a unique venture that combined functional design and modernism with an innovative approach to collective production. Both Unilabor and Hobjeto, another factory he established in 1964, became known for innovation in furniture design and production processes.
Barros’s aim to democratize design and art led him to explore possibilities for creating works that were easy to produce and more accessible. To this end, in the 1980s, the artist created a series of works in Formica to be manufactured at the Hobjeto furniture factory. Both the furniture and the Formica works, also known as object-paintings, were made using the same techniques.
His deep study of colors in Formica gave rise to the unique series of 55 inseparable pieces called Jogo de Dados, first shown in 1986 at the 42nd Venice Biennale. In 1989, this series was presented at Unicamp (which currently holds the series in its collection) and at the Museu de Arte Moderna of São Paulo (MAM-SP). This body of work, from which the series Da retomada de alguns objetos-forma da arte concreta also derives, was conceived to be produced by the Hobjeto furniture factory and follows the concept of the golden ratio, a mathematical principle widely used by Renaissance artists that governs natural growth.
Embasado principalmente na coletividade social e na ética, Geraldo de Barros criou a Cooperativa Unilabor, em 1954, fábrica de mobiliários que se destacam por combinar design funcional, modernismo e uma abordagem inovadora de produção coletiva. Tanto a Unilabor, quanto a Hobjeto, outra fábrica criada em 1964, ficaram conhecidas como inovadoras no design e nos processos de produção de mobiliários.
Popularizar o design e a arte levou o artista a estudar as possibilidades de criação de obras que fossem de fácil produção e mais acessível. Sendo assim, na década de 1980, o artista criou uma série de trabalhos em fórmica para serem manufaturados na fábrica de móveis Hobjeto. Tanto o mobiliário, quanto às obras em fórmica, conhecidas também como pinturas-objetos, eram realizadas utilizando as mesmas técnicas.
Do aprofundamento no estudo das cores nas fórmicas surgiu a série única de 55 peças inseparáveis denominada “Jogo de Dados”, exibida pela primeira vez em 1986, na 42a Bienal de Veneza. Em 1989, essa mesma série foi apresentada na Unicamp (Instituição que atualmente possui a série em sua coleção) e no Museu de Arte Moderna – MAM-SP. Esse conjunto de trabalhos, da qual também deriva a Série “Da retomada de alguns objetos-forma da arte concreta”, foi desenvolvido para a indústria de móveis Hobjeto e segue o conceito da proporção áurea, princípio matemático muito usado pelos renascentistas, que rege a natureza do crescimento.