ArtRio 2022: Sala Modernista | English

In a room specially created to hold the historical works, the gallery is presenting artworks by Waldemar Cordeiro and Geraldo de Barros, whose experimental multidisciplinary researches espoused equilibrium to valorize the essence of shapes and colors, whether in painting, as in the case Waldemar Cordeiro’s “intuitive geometry” phase (1960–63), or in photography, as in Geraldo de Barros’s Fotoformas [Photoforms] (1949–54). Another example is provided by the series Objetos-forma [Forms/Objects], by Geraldo de Barros, which revisits the works of his participation in the 15th Bienal de São Paulo, in 1979. On this occasion it will also be possible to take another look at some artworks by Thomaz Farkas, who recorded everyday scenes in the downtowns of large cities to compose a rich corpus bearing witness to Brazilian history and social life.

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.

At the age of 26, Geraldo de Barros participated in the creation of the photography course and darkroom at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (Masp), where he presented the exhibition Fotoformas, in 1950. The artist was also one of the most active members of the Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante, which marked the experimentation of photography in Brazil. In 1951, he participated in the Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG – School of Design) in Ulm, Germany. He was also one of the founders of Grupo Ruptura (1952) and of Grupo Rex (1966), and participated in the 1st, 2nd, 9th, 15th and 21st editions of the Bienal de São Paulo, and in the 1986 Venice Biennale (Italy). Geraldo de Barros’s works have participated posthumously in various national and international exhibitions. In 2014, Instituto Moreira Salles, in Rio de Janeiro, organized a retrospective of the artist, and in the following year the same exhibition was held at Sesc Belenzinho, in São Paulo. In 2017, the Fundação Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva in Lisbon (Portugal) and the Document Gallery, in Chicago (USA), held solo shows featuring works by the artist, followed by others at Side Gallery, in Barcelona (Spain), in 2018, and Kunst- und Kulturstiftung Opelvillen, in Rüsselsheim (Germany), in 2019. More recently, in 2021, Itau Cultural featured a solo exhibition, while in 2022, the Museé d'Art Moderne et Contemporain – MAMCO, in Switzerland, held the largest retrospective of the artist in Europe. His work figures in important collections such as those of the Fundação de Arte Cisneros Fontanals, the Art Fund of the State of Geneva, the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, Instituto Inhotim, the Ludwig Museum, the Max Bill Foundation, the Max Art Museum, the Museu de Arte Contemporânea of São Paulo, the Museu de Arte Moderna of São Paulo, the Museu de Belas Artes, the Museu de Arte de São Paulo, MoMA, Tate Modern, Photographer’s Gallery, the Pinacoteca de São Paulo, the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, and others.

Thomaz Farkas’s first authorial series are associated with his experience with the Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante, where the artist contributed to the advances of Brazilian photography. His practice was concentrated on creative technical resources, rather than on pictorialism or the traditional genres dealt with in painting (portrait, landscape, etc.). In his photographs, Farkas recorded everyday urban scenes, architecture and cityscapes, through geometric compositions and unusual angles. The artist’s work not only gathers everyday scenes, but also composes a rich documentary source concerning Brazil’s history and social scenario.

Residing in São Paulo from the age of six onward, Thomaz Farkas was the son of the founder of Fotoptica, a pioneering company in the commercialization of photographic equipment in Brazil. He received his PhD from the School of Communication and Arts of USP (1973). He held solo shows at important institutions including the Museu da Imagem e do Som (2019, São Paulo), the Instituto Moreira Salles (2011, São Paulo), the Pinacoteca de São Paulo (2005), the Centro Português de Fotografia (2000, Lisbon, Portugal), Masp (1949, 1997), and MAM-SP (1949). He participated in many group shows, held at prominent venues including MoMA-NY (2021, USA), Museo Jumex (2018, Mexico), Tate Modern (2018, London, England), the Museum of Contemporary Art (2017, San Diego, USA), Itaú Cultural (2017, São Paulo), The Photographer’s Gallery (2016, New York, USA), the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (2015, Paris, France), and the Museum für Fotografie (2012, Berlin, Germany). Farkas was also elected four times as Brazil’s representative in the Photographic Society of America, and was a key figure in the creation of the departments of photography of Masp and of MAM-SP. His work figures in the collections of MoMA-NY (USA), Masp, MAM-SP/RJ, Instituto Moreira Salles, and Tate Modern (England).