Geraldo de Barros, 1949/2008. De la série “Fotoforma”-São Paulo, Ed. 13/15, Ed. 13/15, Silver Gelatin Print,11 x 11 7/8 in.
Geraldo de Barros, 1949/2008. De la série “Fotoforma” - Gare de São Paulo, ed. 15/15, Silver Gelatin Print,11 x 11 1/4 in.
Geraldo de Barros, Untitled, Allemagne, 1951/2014. Silver gelatin print, 11 13/16 x 15 15/16 in.
Geraldo de Barros, Untitled, São Paulo, 1949/2014. Silver gelatin print, 11 13/16 x 15 15/16 in.
GERALDO DE BARROS (1923 - 1998, Brazil)
“A photograph belongs to the one who makes something out of it, not necessarily to the one who took it.”
Geraldo de Barros began his investigations into photography in the mid-1940s in São Paulo. Invited by a friend to photograph soccer teams, de Barros’s first camera was built from a kit. Intrigued by the medium, he soon lost interest in pursuing commercial photography. He built a small photo studio and bought a 1939 Rolleiflex and, in 1949, he joined the Foto Cine Club Bandeirante, which was one of the few forums for the city’s photography enthusiasts. Members of the group were interested in pictorial photography and de Barros’s explorations of abstraction were met with little interest; his photographs were almost never included in the club’s exhibitions. That same year, de Barros was invited to create a photo laboratory in the new Museu de Arte de São Paulo, an important gesture toward including photography in contemporary art spaces.
De Barros’s work from this period is characterized by scraped negatives, multiple exposures, and an interest in chance occurrences. He met art critic Mario Pedrosa and became interested in Gestalt theory and occupational therapy. Adon Peres writes, “The experience was to prove crucial for Geraldo, opening the way to far-ranging considerations on figure and form in relation to freedom of representation. Geraldo’s work, likewise, took on an ethical and human dimension that it was to retain throughout his life.” In 1950, the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (MASP) invited de Barros to exhibit his photographs, and he showed a selection from his Fotoformas series. The exhibition led to a fellowship opportunity to study abroad in Europe. Ironically, his studies in Europe would redirect his artistic work away from photography. While traveling, he studied painting and printmaking, and met important artists and theorists including Max Bill, Giorgio Morandi, and Francois Morellet.
In 1952, de Barros returned to Brazil, and he became a central figure in São Paulo’s Concrete art movement. Interested in industrial design and modernization processes, he founded a collectivist furniture factory, Unilabor, in 1954. “(He) became interested in concepts such as the industrialization of the artistic gesture, the reproducibility of works of art, and, as a natural progression, in design and graphic art,” Peres writes. His work was included in the 1956 Exposição Nacional de Arte Concreta in São Paulo and in the 1960 exhibition Konkrete Kunst, 50 Jahre Entwicklung, organized by Max Bill in Zürich. In the mid-1960s, he left Unilabor and founded Hobjeto furniture factory. He also became interested in the social criticisms offered by Pop Art; in 1964, he showed figurative paintings with Nelson Leirner.
Although internationally known for his innovations in photography, de Barros actively worked with the medium only during two periods of his life: 1945-1951, and 1996-1998. In 1993, his photographs from the earlier period were shown at the Musée de l’Élysée in Lausanne. This series of work, called the Fotoformas, drew from the techniques of engraving and collage. De Barros made montages, superimposing images from the urban landscape of São Paulo over geometric forms. In failing health in the late 1990s, he returned to photography, creating a series of work called Sobras, in which he used family photographs as his support for collage, montage, and new geometric explorations. De Barros died in 1998.
2019
| Geraldo de Barros: Unilabor, Kunst-und KulturstiftungOpelvillen Rüsselsheim, Germany |
| Geraldo de Barros and Unilabor by DPot, Arcadia, Geneva, Switzerland |
| Geraldo de Barros – Fotoformas, Document Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA |
| Geraldo de Barros – That’s It, Dip Contemporary, Lugano, Switzerland |
2017 | Geraldo de Barros: Sobras, Document Gallery, Chicago, USA |
| Geraldo de Barros: Fotoformas e Sobras, Fundação Arpad-Szenes/Vieira da Silva, Lisbon, Portugal |
2016 | Geraldo de Barros: Off Center, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, Texas |
| Geraldo de Barros: Industrial, Galeria Luciana Brito, São Paulo, Brazil |
2015 | Geraldo de Barros and Photography, SESC Belezinho, São Paulo, Brazil |
2014
| Geraldo de Barros and Photography, Instituto Moreira Salles, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| Tierney Gardarin Gallery, New York, USA |
2013
| Geraldo de Barros- Jogos de Dados + Sobras (1980-1990), SESC Vila Mariana, São Paulo, Brazil |
| Geraldo de Barros: What remains? The Photographer’s Gallery, London, UK |
2010 | Entre Tantos: Geraldo de Barros, Caixa Cultural, São Paulo, Brazil |
2009
| Geraldo de Barros- Modulação de mundos, SESC Pinheiros, São Paulo, Brazil |
2008 | Sicardi Gallery, Houston, Texas |
2007 | Sobras + Fotoformas, Galeria Brito Cimino, São Paulo, Brazil |
| Fotonoviembre 2007 – IX Bienal International de Fotografía, Centro de Fotografía Isla de Tenerife, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain |
| Desenho Constructivista Brasiliero, Museu de Arte Moderna Rio de Janiero, Brazil |
| Fragmentos: Modernismo na fotografia brasiliera, Galeria Bergamin, São Paulo, Brazil |
2006
| Brasiliana MASP – Moderna contemporanea, Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand – MASP, São Paulo, Brazil |
| MAM [NA] OCA, Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo, Brazil |
| Concreta 56. A raiz da forma, Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo, Brazil |
| Pincelada – Pintura e M´todo, Institute Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, Brazil |
| Sem título, 2006 – Comodato Eduardo Branddão e Jan Field, Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo, Brazil |
2005 | Geraldo de Barros, Galerie Guy Bärtschi, Genève, Switzerland |
| A(s)simetrias, Galeria Brito Cimino, São Paulo, Brazil |
2004 | Inverted Utopias, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas |
2002 | Fotoformas- 1923- 1998, retrospectiva, curadoria Reinhold |
| Misselbeck, Fundacao Gulbenkian, Lisboa |
| Forma Brazil, The Americas/Society, New York |
2001 | Sobras e Fotoformas, Retrospective, Ulmer Museum, Ulm, Germany |
2000 | Heterotopias," Reina Sofia museum Madrid, Spain |
| Fotoformas: Retrospective, Musée de L’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland |
| Sobras e Fotoformas, Instituto Itaú Cultural, Campinas, Brazil |
1999 | Fotoformas- 1923-1998, retrospectiva, curadoria Reinhold |
| Misselbeck, Museum Ludwig, Colonia |
| Sobras, curadoria, Rienhold Misselbeck, Sesc Pompeia, Sao Paulo, Brazil |
| Geraldo de Barros, Galeria Brito Cimino, São Paulo, Brazil |
| Geraldo de Barros- no Acervo do, Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| Galeria Brito Cimino, Sao Paulo, Brazil |
1998
| Traces on the Glass, FotoFest 1998, Sicardi-Sanders Gallery, Houston, Texas |
1996
| Geraldo de Barros, pioneer, Cultural Center of the Bank of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| Geraldo de Barros Fotoformas, Cultural Foundation of Curitiba, Brazil |
| Geraldo de Barros, photographs, Alexandre Mottier Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland |
1995 | Fotoformas, Camargo Villaça Gallery, São Paulo, Brazil |
1994
| Geraldo de Barros, photographer, Museum of Image and Sound, São Paulo, Brazil |
1993 | Casa de Rosas, São Paulo, Brazil |
| Geraldo de Barros, painter and photographer, Musée de L’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland |
1991 | Dice games, Mercato Del Sale Gallery, Milan, Italy |
| The artist’s universe when young, Paço das Artes, São Paulo, Brazil |
| 21st São Paulo Biennial, Brazil. Awarded second prize |
1990 | Dice games, Museum of Modern Art, São Paulo, Brazil |
1989 | Dice games, Contemporary Art Museum of Campinas, Brazil |
1987 | Tschudi Gallery, Glarus, Switzerland |
1986 | Thomas Cohn Gallery, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| Fernando Milan Gallery, São Paulo, Brazil |
| 42nd Venice Biennial, Italy |
1979 | 15th São Paulo Biennial, Brazil |
1977 | 12 Years of Painting, Museum of Modern Art, São Paulo, Brazil |
1967 | 9th São Paulo Biennial, Brazil. Awarded acquisition prize |
1965 | Atrium Gallery, São Paulo, Brazil |
| Museum of Modern Art, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
1954 | Museum of Modern Art, São Paulo, Brazil |
1953 | Second São Paulo Biennial, Brazil. Awarded the acquisition prize |
1951 | First São Paulo Biennial, Brazil. Awarded the acquisition prize |
1950 | Fotoforma, São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand Museum of Art, Brazil |
1947 | Municipal Theater of São Paulo, Brazil |
São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand Museum of Art, Brazil
Contemporary Art Museum of São Paulo, MAC-USP, Brazil
Pinacoteca of the state of São Paulo, Brazil
Itamaraty Museum, Brasilia, Brazil
Museum of Image and Sound, São Paulo, Brazil
Biennial Foundation of São Paulo Collection, Brazil
Venice Biennial Collection, Italy
Curitiba Museum, Parana, Brazil
Elysée Museum, Lausanne, Switzerland
Tschudi Gallery, Glarus, Switzerland
Swiss Bank Union Collection, Geneva, Switzerland
Contemporary Art Foundation of the state of Geneva, Switzerland
Contemporary Art Museum, Grenoble, France
Ludwig Museum, Cologne, Germany
Archivio Della Nuova Scrittura, Milan, Italy
Max Bill Collection, Zurich, Switzerland
Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, New York
The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami
For the first time, Tate Modern tells the intertwined stories of photography and abstract art
