Artur Lescher (São Paulo SP 1962)
Artur Lescher is a sculptor born in 1962, in São Paulo, Brazil. In 1983, he began his Philosophy course at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC/SP), which he did not complete. Between 1982 and 1986, he held free courses in the studio of Carlos Fajardo (1941), Flávia Ribeiro (1954) and Boi (1944). He teaches Sculpture at Faculdade Santa Marcelina, in São Paulo, from 1991 to 1999.
In his sculptural production, Artur Lescher develops research on matter, form and thought, using various materials such as metal, stone, wood, brass, copper, water, oil and salt. His works evoke design, suggest narratives and refer to known objects, but devoid of function, such as in "O X O – A Roda", presented in 2001 at the Memorial da América Latina, in São Paulo. Titles such as Rio Máquina, Metameric and Inabsence reveal their interest in symbolic meanings and for provoking new interpretations in the spectator. (19th São Paulo International Biennial, 1987), Semovente (Paço das Artes, 1989) and Indoor Landscape – Landscape for Protected Space of Nature (25th São Paulo International Biennial, 2002). That same year, the book Artur Lescher is published, with texts by Aracy Amaral, Rafael Vogt and Arthur Nestrovski, by the publisher Cosac & Naify.
In recent years, he participated in important individual exhibitions, such as Artur Lescher, at the Artium Institute (2023), in São Paulo; Observatory, at Farol Santander (2022), in Porto Alegre; Suspension, at Pinacoteca Station (2019), in São Paulo; and asterisms, at the Almine Rech Gallery (2019), in Paris. His works are part of outstanding collections, such as the Museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires (Malba), the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH) and the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, consolidating its relevance in Brazilian contemporary art and International.
Critical Comment
In the opinion of art historian Aracy Amaral, Artur Lescher's artistic trajectory is related to a poetics of space, approaching design and architecture. In addition, the materials with which he works help to determine the direction of his works.
In his proposal for the 19th International Bienal de São Paulo, in 1987, he installed two polygons - or aerolites - separated by the Frames and glass of the building, revealing the supposedly neutral space of the building. As the art historian Tadeu Chiarelli notes, Lescher emphasizes the poetic dimension of the internal space of the Bienal building, transforming it, through the aluminum polygon, into a place of dream reverberations, which seems reflected in the exterior, where the Plastic polygon, seen through transparent glass, almost transformed into mirrors.
Note the artist's concern to allow the spectator to perceive the affective perception of the space in which objects of great structural lightness are installed, as in the semi-moving, installation created for the Paço da Artes, in São Paulo (1989). Already in its sculptural production, it creates objects in stone, wood or metal, of great strangeness, because they are removed from their functional character, or because, with a dose of irony, they seem to challenge balance and gravity.
Criticism
"Initially, the objects were related to engineering: planes, aerolites, houses and factory roofs. A poetics of constructive and functional impulses. Add rational objects - hollow structures, regular solids - with corrosive, unstable materials, characteristic of susceptibility - mercury, heated water, salts. Now Artur Lescher presents us, in the Nara Roesler gallery, eight comments Made from forms made of wood, metal and stone, on the law of gravity, traction and compression".
Agnaldo Farias
LESCHER, Artur. Arthur Lescher. Text Agnaldo Farias; Photography Romulo Fialdini. São Paulo: Galeria Nara Roesler, 1998. p. [10].
"Artur Lescher makes sculptural drawings. He is an artist of projects that discuss the mechanisms of all objects. His works border on engineering. But, unexpectedly, and with a certain amount of irony, They subvert the functional expectations that their shapes seemed to promise. This pendulum of theirs, for example. Made of wood, with a perfectly round body, it has the memory of a drawing measure. But it does not write. Or rather, it performs invisible scriptures, indecipherable to the naked eye".
Katia Canon
Pencil and paper: about freedom, stripping and meaning. Curatorship Katia Canton; Text Katia Canton; Translation Brian Honeyball. São Paulo: Galeria Nara Roesler, 2000. p. [7].
"Lescher has the charm of the apparently clumsy, perpetual teenager type, shy, friendly smile, half hiding, but deep down knowing what he wants and what he likes and how to do what he wants As an artist, he exhibits as a constant poetics of space and beauty in ways that bring him closer to the problems of design, architecture and research with materials with which he elaborates his projects. They preceded fifty years ago, when the young Concretists of São Paulo were delighted with the contributions of the Swiss delegation present to the I Biennial and which favored industrialized support, wooden conglomerate, aluminum or polished steel, as well as the application of the paint mechanically, rejecting artisanal manuality (...)
Serial work has always been pursued by Artur Lescher: an idea in the head and its gradual development through pieces that unfold in others, from the first idea. (...) But, from their homes (and balloons), the dialogue of their forms is with the space that contains their pieces. The dialogue with space and the serial marks, at the same time, their predilection for modular exercises".
Aracy Amaral
AMARAL, Aracy. The tactic of elegance: between the spatial and the serial. In: Lescher, Artur. Artur Lescher. Text Aracy Amaral, Rafael Vogt, Arthur Nestrovski; Photography Romulo Fialdini, Fausto Chermont, Vitor Facciolla, Domingues, Mark James Timoner. São Paulo: Cosac & Naify, 2002.
Captures
Miguel Library Angel Arango - Bogotá (Colombia)
São Paulo Cultural Center - São Paulo SP
Instituto Itaú Cultural - São Paulo SP
National Institute of Fine Arts - Rio de Janeiro RJ
Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo - MAC/USP
São Paulo Museum of Modern Art - MAM/SP
National Museum of Fine Arts - MNBA - Rio de Janeiro RJ
Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo
Individual exhibitions
1989 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at MAM/SP
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Macunaíma Project, at Funarte
1989 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at MAC/USP
1990 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at Paço Imperial
1991 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at the gallery Millan
1993 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at the Millan Gallery
1998 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at Galeria Nara Roesler
1998 - São Paulo SP - Exhibition Program 98, at CCSP
2002 - São Paulo SP - Elliptical, at Galeria Nara Roesler
Collective exhibitions
1984 - Curitiba PR - 6th Mostra da Engraving Cidade de Curitiba
1984 - São Paulo SP - Art at Rua 2, organized by MAC/USP
1985 - São Paulo - SP - 3rd São Paulo Contemporary Art Salon, at the Bienal Foundation
1985 - São Paulo SP - What about the drawing?, at the Humberto Gallery
1986 - São Paulo SP - Aerólito Space Project, with Elisa Stecca, in the Commercial Art Sub-District
1987 - São Paulo SP - 19th São Paulo International Biennial, at the Biennial Foundation
1989 - Brasília DF - Novos Values of Latin American/Brazil Art, at MAB/DF
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 11th National Salon of Plastic Arts, at Funarte - Acquisition Award
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Macunaíma Project, Funarte
1989 - São Paulo SP - Contemporary Art São Paulo, Recent Perspectives, at CCSP
1990 - Madrid (Spain) - Brazilian artists, at Casa do Brasil
1990 - Paris (France) - Brazilian artists, at the Latin American Culture Center
1990 - São Paulo SP - Appropriations, at the Paço das Artes
1991 - Fortaleza CE - 2nd International Exhibition of Ephemeral Sculpture
1991 - São Paulo SP - 22nd Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1991 - São Paulo SP - Fine Arts Exhibition Program, at CCSP
1992 - São Paulo SP - Millan Gallery: Inaugural Exhibition, at the Millan Gallery
1992 - São Paulo SP - Annual Program for Visual Arts Exhibition, at Fundação Bienal
1993 - São Paulo SP - Meetings and Trends, at MAC/USP
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Artists from São Paulo, at Paço Imperial
1994 - São Paulo SP - 2nd Art City: The City and Its Flows, in the Anhangabau Valley
1994 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Brasil Século 20th, at the Biennial Foundation
1994 - São Paulo SP - Sculpture Collective, at Espaço Namour
1995 - Curitiba PR - recorded object, at the Engraving Museum
1995 - São Paulo SP - 1st United Artists, at Casa das Rosas
1995 - São Paulo SP - Between drawing and sculpture, at MAM/SP
1996 - São Paulo SP - Metal and its connections, at Sesc Pompéia
1996 - São Paulo SP - in the limits of photography, at Sesc Pompéia
1997 - São Paulo SP - Choir for 14 Voices, at Galeria Nara Roesler
1997 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Projects, at Espaço de Arte
1998 - Belo Horizonte MG - Terra e Mar à Vista, in Itaú cultural
1998 - Brasília DF - Terra e Mar à Vista, at Galeria Itaú Cultural
1998 - São Paulo SP - City Cannibal, at Paço das Artes
1998 - São Paulo SP - Annual Exhibition Program Plastic Arts, at CCSP
1998 - São Paulo SP - Terra e Mar à Vista, at Itaú Cultural
1998 - São Paulo SP - Viagens, at Itaú Cultural
1999 - Belém PA - 3rd ART ELECTROMIDIA: Virtual Exhibition, at Rua Boaventura da Silva x Av. Doca de Souza Franco
1999 - Belo Horizonte MG - 3rd Art Electromidia: Virtual Exhibition, at Av. Contorno X Av. Amazonas
1999 - Bogotá (Colombia) - From Brazil: Alquimias y Pros Processos, at the Luis Ángel Arango Library
1999 - Campinas SP - 3rd Art Electromidia: Virtual Exhibition 
1999 - Campo Grande MS - 3rd Art Electromidia: Virtual Exhibition, at Av. Afonso Pena X R. Treze de Maio
1999 - Cuiabá MT - 3rd Art Eletromidia: Virtual Exhibition, at Av. Fernando Correia da Costa
1999 - Jundiaí SP - 3rd Art Electromidia: Virtual Exhibition, at Av. Nove de Julho, 1400
1999 - Manaus AM - 3rd Art Eletromidia: Virtual Exhibition, at Av. Paraíba X Rua Efigênio Sales
1999 - Osasco SP - 3rd Art Electromidia: Virtual Exhibition, at Av. dos Autonomistas
1999 - Porto Alegre RS - 3rd Art Electromidia: Virtual Exhibition, at Av. Goethe X Rua Mostardeiro and Rua Vinte e Quatro de Outubro x Rua Bordini
1999 - Recife PE - 3rd Art Electromidia: Virtual Exhibition
1999 - Ribeirão Preto SP - 3rd Art Electromidia: Exhibition Virtual, at Av. Presidente Vargas
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 3rd Art Electromidia: Virtual Exhibition, at Av. Venceslau Brás X R. General Severiano; Praça da Bandeira - West Radial, close to Praça da Bandeira; Humaitá - Largo do Humaitá
1999 - Salvador BA - 3rd Art Electromidia: Virtual Exhibition, at Av. Tancredo Neves
1999 - Santo André SP - 3rd Art Electromid: Virtual Exhibition, on r. Dom Pedro II X R. Catechesis
1999 - Santos SP - 3rd Art Electromidia: Virtual Exhibition
1999 - São Paulo SP - 3rd Art Electromidia: Virtual Exhibition, at Av. Cidade Jardim x Av. Brig. Faria Lima Faria Lima; Av. Brig. Faria Lima x Av. Rebouças; Av. Eng. Luís Carlos Berrini X Av. Águas Espraiadas;Rua Vergueiro x Av. Paulista; Av. Juscelino Kubitschek x Av. Brig. Faria Lima; Av. Paulista x Al. Campinas
1999 - São Vicente SP - 3rd Art Electromidia: Virtual Exhibition, at Av. Presidente Wilson X Av. Antônio Emmerich
2000 - Berlin (Germany) - Man/Nature/Technology, at the Brazilian Cultural Institute in Germany
2000 - Lisbon (Portugal) - 20th century: Art of Brazil, at the José de Azeredo Perdigão Modern Art Center
2000 - Penápolis SP - Man/Nature/Technology, at Galeria Itaú Cultural
2000 - Quito (Ecuador) - Dialogue: Contemporary Art Brazil/Ecuador, Cultural Center of La Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador
2000 - São Paulo SP - Dialogue: Contemporary Art Brazil/Ecuador, at the Latin America Memorial. Galeria Marta Traba
2000 - São Paulo SP - Between art and design: MAM collection, at MAM/SP
2000 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian sculpture: from the Pinacoteca to Jardim da Luz, at the Pinacoteca do State
2000 - São Paulo SP - Pencil and paper, at Galeria Nara Roesler
2001 - Brasília DF - Man/Nature/Technology, at Galeria Itaú Cultural
2001 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - O Spirit of our time, at MAM/RJ
2001 - São Paulo SP - 4th Barro de América Biennial, at the Latin America Memorial
2001 - São Paulo SP - The spirit of our time, at MAM/SP
2001 - São Paulo SP - Tension Network, at Paço das Artes
2002 - São Paulo SP - 20 artists / 20 years old, at the CCSP
2002 - São Paulo SP - 25th International Biennial of São Paulo, at Fundação Bienal
2002 - São Paulo SP - CidadeProject / CidadeExperiência, at MAM/SP
2002 - São Paulo SP - Inflatables, at Sesc Belenzinho
2002 - São Paulo SP - Open Opera: Celebration, at Casa das Rosas
2002 - São Paulo SP - Six artists at the 25th Bienal de São Paulo, at Galeria Nara Roesler
2003 - Brasília DF - Artur Lescher and Claudia Jaguaribe, in the contemporary cultural space Venâncio
2003 - Madrid (Spain) - ARCO/2003, at Parque Ferial Juan Carlos I
2003 - São Paulo SP - Arco 2003, at Galeria Nara Roesler
2003 - São Paulo SP - Constructivism and the Way of Clothing, at MAM/SP
2003 - São Paulo SP - My Friends, at MAM/SP
2004 - Madrid (Spain) - Arco/2004, at Parque Ferial Juan Carlos I
2004 - São Paulo SP - Contemporary Art at the Municipal Collection, at CCSP 
2004 - São Paulo SP - reincarnated painting, at Paço das Artes
Source: Itaú Cultural
