Geraldo de Barros


Geraldo de Barros was a Brazilian painter and photographer who also worked in engraving, graphic arts, and industrial design. He was a leader of the concrete art movement in Brazil, co-founding Grupo Ruptura and was known for his trailblazing work in experimental abstract photography and modernism. According to The Guardian, De Barros was "one of the most influential Brazilian artists of the 20th century."

Early life and education

De Barros was born in the city Chavantes, in the state of São Paulo in Brazil.
When he was 16 years old, De Barros began taking pictures using a homemade camera that he built himself. At the time he was interested in experimenting with scratching and manipulating the negatives and images.
From 1945 to 1947, De Barros studied drawing and painting with Clóvis Graciano, Collete Pujol, and Yoshioka Takaoka, with a focus on figurative and landscape painting. He moved into the world of abstraction and studied European abstract constructivism and art of the 1920s and 1930s. He was particularly influenced by Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg and the De Stijl movement.
In 1946, De Barros began studying painting at the Associaçião Paulista de Belas Artes.

Career

For many years De Barros supported himself by working at Banco do Brasil.
In 1946 and 1947, De Barros began to explore photography.
In 1948, he co-founded Grupo XV, which was a collective of mostly Japanese painters interested in exploring post-impressionist art. In 1948, De Barros was introduced to the concepts of Gestalt theory, where he focused heavily on form, by the critic Mário Pedrosa. He was also influenced at the time by Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and the Bauhaus movement in relation to industrial design.
In 1949, he started a photography lab with his friend Athaíde de Barros and Thomaz Farkas, and, with the intention of deepening his knowledge, he joined the Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante in São Paulo, a group of artists who focused on pictorialism. Artists in this group included German Lorca, José Yalenti, Thomaz Farkas, among others. During this time, De Barros studied photographic experimental practices from Europe and United States in the work of Moholy-Nagy and Man Ray.
In 1949, De Barros began teaching and organized the photography laboratory of the São Paulo Museum of Art.
In 1950, De Barros held Fotoformas at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo, an exhibition which represented a new era in the process of photography in Brazil. The title was influenced by Gestalt theory.
In 1951, received a scholarship from the French government, and taking a one-year leave from his job at Banco do Brasil, he went to Paris to study lithography at the National Superior School of Fine Arts and engraving at Stanley William Hayter's atelier. He went on to attend the Ulm School of Design in Ulm, Germany, where he studied graphic arts with Otl Aicher and met Max Bill. At this point he abandoned his work in photography to focus on concrete art.
In 1952, De Barros co-founded Grupo Ruptura with Judith Lauand, Luiz Sacilotto, Lothar Charoux, Waldemar Cordeiro, among others. He was involved in writing the manifesto that outlined abstract and concrete art.
De Barros founded the photography group called Escola Paulista.
In 1954, De Barros founded with Frei João Batista a cooperative furniture design company called Unilabor, which was successful and allowed him to leave his job at Banco do Brasil.
In 1964, De Barros went on to found in association with Aloísio Bione another furniture design company called Hobjeto. Both Unilabor and Hobjeto went bankrupt due to the political instability and economic hardship of the time.
In the 1960s, De Barros worked with Nelson Leirner, putting on pop art events, often including outdoor advertisements that had been removed, re-worked, and replaced in the street.
In 1966, De Barros, founded Galeria Rex with Carlos Fajardo, Frederico Nasser, José Rezende Filho, Nelson Leiner, and Wesley Duke Lee as an experiment in the art market and selling art. Although the gallery closed after a year, the Grupo Rex and the work of the group continued for over 12 years.
In 1977, De Barros returned to geometric art and concepts of concrete art, using Formica as his base material in further exploring industrial design.
Geraldo abandoned photography for over 30 years, devoting himself to focus on arts and design.
In 1996, his daughter put together an exhibit of photographs from his archive that was held at Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland, which led to an interest in De Barros' early work in photography.
In 1996, after suffering several brain ischemia and with his motor functions totally debilitated, he resumed working in photography, and with the help of his assistant, the photographer Ana Moraes, made a last series of 250 works called "Sobras."
It wasn't until 1998 that De Barros' work was exhibited in the United States, at Sicardi-Sanders Gallery in Houston, Texas.

Death

De Barros died on April 17, 1998, in São Paulo at the age of 75.

Legacy

Following his death, the legacy of De Barros' work led to an increased coverage and academic and art history-based awareness of his importance and impact as a central figure in Brazil's recent art history. Retrospectives were held in Europe and North America.

Documentary

In 1999, a documentary on De Barros directed by Michel Favre called Geraldo de Barros: Sobras em Obras was released. The film was produced by De Barros' daughter, Fabiana de Barros.

Awards

Selected group exhibitions