Álvaro Apocalypse (Ouro Fino MG 1937 - Belo Horizonte MG 2003)
Pintor, illustrator, engraver, scenographer.
In 1956, Álvaro Brandão Apocalypse studies engraving in metal and lithography at the Guignard School and begins a law course at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). He makes drawings and acts as an illustrator in several publications. In 1959, he taught at the newly created School of Fine Arts of the Faculty of Architecture of UFMG, of which he became a full professor in 1981. From the 1960s onwards, popular festivals are constant themes in his drawings. In 1962, he became a professor at the Minas Gerais Art Foundation. His work has a surrealist character, starting in 1965. It receives the award for traveling abroad at the 3rd Hall of the French Alliance in 1969, then travels to Paris and takes a course on the History of Drawing at the Louvre School. He creates the Giramundo de Teatro de Bonecos group, in 1970, and produces sets, costumes and puppets for various plays. He coordinates the Technology Atelier of the International Institute of Puppets, in Charleville-Mèziéres, France, between 1990 and 1991. He publishes the Minas Gerais engraving album Minas de Guimarães Rosa, in 1977, by the UFMG press, among others. In 2001, the book Álvaro Apocalypse: Testimony, coordinated by Marília Andrés Ribeiro and Fernando Pedro da Silva, was released by the publisher C/Arte.
Critical commentary
Álvaro Apocalypse She is a unique personality in the Brazilian artistic scene, acting as a plastic artist, university professor and director of the Giramundo puppet theater group. Since the mid-1960s, he has made drawings and engravings with a surrealist figure. It often creates beings that are half-machine and an organic environment. From 1969, he also made Frederico Bracher Júnior (1920-1984), in works that approach Cubism and Expressionism, as in Rua, 1969. Francisco, 1975 or Jagunço, 1985.
Álvaro Apocalypse created, in 1970, the Giramundo de Teatro de Bonecos group, with other teachers from the School of Fine Arts. The group receives many awards, performing shows for adults and children, such as Cobra Norato, 1979, which deals with the myths of the Amazon. At the beginning, Apocalypse adapts the texts, the theatrical direction, the design and the making of the dolls, which cause a great visual impact due to their strong expressiveness. For the artist, theater is a way of associating movement, color and light in a language that is "a summary of essential gestures".
Criticism
"Alvaro Apocalyse takes us to the fluctuation of the Despair, mainly for deluding us with the allusions to our social problems and a sometimes very recognizable geographical landscape. with that same dark mantle of the absurd. It is the reign of the Lord, the power tracing the man's detours, casting around him the smell of gunpowder, the uranium tips, and around the feast of the flutists, the musicians eating his lean and crooked instruments the strident voices, and the 'masked' of the invaders of the dream reigning over the ruins of the conquered city".
Márcio Sampaio
Pontual, Roberto. Dictionary of Visual Arts in Brazil. Rio de Janeiro: Brazilian Civilization, 1969.
Individual exhibitions
s.d. - Florianópolis SC - Individual, at Galeria Picollo Spazio
1964 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at Galeria Atrium
1965 - Belo Horizonte MG - Exhibition of Drawings, at ICBEU
1968 - Belo Horizonte MG - Exhibition of Drawings, at ICBEU
1968 - Belo Horizonte MG - Exhibition of Drawings, at Galeria Adega
1974 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Drawings, at Galeria Grupo B
1976 - Belo Horizonte MG - Exhibition of Drawings, at AMI
1979 Gallery - Belo Horizonte MG - Exhibition of Drawings, at the AMI gallery
Collective exhibitions
1957 - Belo Horizonte MG - Belo Horizonte Municipal Hall - 1st Prize
1958 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 7th Modern Art Salon
1961 - São Paulo SP - Paulista Modern Art Salon
1962 - Belo Horizonte MG - Belo Horizonte Municipal Hall - Drawing Award
1962 - Recife PE - Salão de Arte Modern Art de Pernambuco - 2nd Drawing Prize
1963 - Lagos (Nigeria) - Brazilian Contemporany Artists, at the Embassy of Brazil
1966 - Salvador BA - 1st National Biennial of Fine Arts
1966 - Washington (United States) - Brasilian artists from the state of Minas Gerais, at the Brazilian American Cultural Institute
1967 - Nigeria - collective Brazilian artists
1967 - United States - collective artists Brazilians
1967 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - collective artists from Minas Gerais
1967 - São Paulo SP - collective artists from Minas Gerais
1967 - Curitiba PR - collective artists from Minas Gerais
1967 - Porto Alegre RS - collective artists Mineiros
1967 - Brasília DF - Collective Artists Mineiros
1967 - São Paulo SP - 9th InternacioanL Biennial of São Paulo, at Fundação Bienal - Acquisition Award
1967 - Belo Horizonte MG - Collective, at the gallery Chez Bastião
1968 - Belo Horizonte MG - Belo Horizonte Municipal Hall
1968 - São Paulo SP - Collective, at Galeria Mirante das Artes
1969 - Salvador BA - Arte de Minas, at MAM/BA
1969 - São Paulo SP - 10th São Paulo International Biennial, at the Bienal Foundation
1971 - Paris (France) - Collection Brésil, at Cité Internationale
1972 - Belo Horizonte MG - Retrospective, organized by the UFMG Extension Council
1971 - Belo Horizonte MG - Collective, at Galeria Chez Bastião
1971 - Belo Horizonte MG - Collective, at Galeria AMI
1972 - Curitiba PR - 29th Salon Paranaense, at Teatro Guaíra
1972 - São Paulo - SP - Art/Brazil/Today: 50 years later, at Galeria da Collectio
1976 - Belo Horizonte MG - Exhibition of the murals of the Municipal Schools of Belo Horizonte - Belo Horizonte City Hall Horizonte
1977 - Belo Horizonte MG - 5th Global Winter Hall, at the Palácio das Artes Foundation
1977 - Brasília DF - 5th Global Winter Hall, at the Cultural Foundation of the Federal District
1977 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 5th Global Winter Salon, at MNBA
1977 - São Paulo SP - 9th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1977 - São Paulo SP - 5th Global Winter Salon, at MASP
1981 - Belo Horizonte MG - Students from Guignard, at Itaugaleria
1981 - Belo Horizonte MG - 8th Global Winter Hall, at the Palácio das Artes Foundation
1981 - Belo Horizonte MG - Six artists from Minas, at AMI Galeria de Art
1981 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 8th Global Winter Hall, at MAM/RJ
1981 - São Paulo SP - 8th Global Winter Salon, at MASP
1982 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Football: Interpretations, at the Art Gallery Banerj
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Takes the road from Minas Gerais - Horsa Hotels/Coordinator of Culture of the State of Minas Gerais, at the Hotel Nacional
1987 - Stuttgart (Germany) - Exhibition of paintings with Terezinha Veloso, at the Stuttgart Museum
1988 - Charleville-Mézières (France) - Exhibition of paintings with Terezinha Veloso
1993 - São Paulo SP - The modern design In Brazil: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, at the Sesi Art Gallery
1994 - Belo Horizonte MG - Guignard: 50 years of an art school, at Vidyã Galeria de Arte
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The modern design In Brazil: Gilberto Chateubriand Collection, at MAM/RJ
1997 - Contagem MG - Students from Guignard in Contagem, at the Casa de Cultura Nair Mendes Moreira
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The image of the sound of Caetano Veloso : 80 compositions by Caetano Veloso performed by 80 contemporary artists, at Paço Imperial
Posthumous exhibitions
2004 - Belo Horizonte MG - Guignard: the eternal teacher and his usual students, At Errol Flynn Art Gallery
2004 - Belo Horizonte MG - O Jagunço do Trace, at Copasa's Art Gallery
Source: Itaú Cultural
