Britto Velho (Porto Alegre RS 1946)
Painter, draftsman, printmaker, teacher and sculptor.
Carlos Carrion de Britto Velho moves to Buenos Aires (Argentina), where he lives from the age of eleven to nineteen and makes his first paintings. In 1965 he returns to Porto Alegre, where he exhibits for the first time in 1971. He studies lithography with Danúbio Gonçalves in 1974. The following year, he travels to Paris (France) and does an internship at the Desjobert lithography studio. There he paints the series Reflexões e Variações sobre a América Latina [Reflections and Variations on Latin America], in which figures in dark colors appear blindfolded and with microphones, which, according to the artist, represent a denunciation of the dictatorship of the time. He stays in Paris until 1976, when he returns to Brazil and teaches painting at the Ateliê Livre da Prefeitura de Porto Alegre from 1978 to 1981. At this time a change occurs in his work. The figures have eyes again and, as at the start of his career, are painted in lighter tones. In 1981, the figures gain a third eye, which according to the artist signifies the eye of inner vision. In the paintings, people, animals and everyday objects interact, such as elephants on wheels turning into vehicles, and vehicles with human limbs. From then on, all his paintings show three eyes, until 1995, when he returns to painting figures with two eyes. He is invited by Rede Brasil Sul de Comunicações of Porto Alegre to create a billboard for the project Vamos Colorir a Cidade [Let's Color the City]. He moves to São Paulo in 1985 and, the following year, takes part in the 2nd Havana Biennial. He participates in the Projeto Extremos, a painting exhibition with Aprígio Fonseca, Dina Oliveira and Leonel Mattos shown in 10 Brazilian state capitals. He is invited by Sesc Pompeia in São Paulo to design the poster for the exhibition Gente de Fibra [People of Fiber], in which he takes part with sculptures. In 1991, he moves back to Porto Alegre, where he receives tributes from the Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Porto Alegre - MAC and the Museu de Arte do Rio Grande do Sul Ado Malagoli - Margs, which highlight his work. At this time he holds the retrospective O Realismo Mágico de Britto Velho [The Magical Realism of Britto Velho], with works dating from 1975. He currently lives in Porto Alegre, where he teaches private painting courses in his studio.
Critiques
"Man is the aim of Britto Velho's work, while he never ceases his research into rigorously applying strong colors to predetermined areas. His paintings are dominated by a certain satirical/humorous atmosphere of the human being in search of his greater destiny. He assembles and dismembers anatomy in continuous reworking, clearly intuitive in character."
Ivo Zanini
EXTREMOS: Aprigio, Britto Velho, Dina Oliveira e Leonel Mattos. São Paulo: Espaço Cultural Cásper Líbero, 1987.
"Carlos Carrion de Britto Velho produces an unusual art that immediately evokes images of the unconscious, and thus falls within André Breton's theories of Surrealism. His way of painting is a form of exorcism and, at the same time, a reflection between conscious reality and unconscious 'reality'. Let us first define his art as imaginative, in the sense of Herbert Kühn, a scholar of the primitive cave art of Europe. According to Kühn, the imaginative style is one that presents a fantasy or an experience of the artist in an 'unreal', dreamlike and sometimes 'abstract' way. The imaginative style is opposed to the 'sensory' style, which directly reproduces nature or the subject of the canvas. Britto Velho is an imaginative artist, since his fantasy springs from beyond the real, is born from the unconscious, and is a product of Eros in its broadest form. His images are not products of reason or logic, but of the active image of the unconscious, an exorcising of phantoms in permanent dialogue between conscious and unconscious. The image in Britto Velho is the shadow of a delirium, the sparkling projection of a fascination witnessed by memory. Hence such images neither please nor displease; they simply exist in a primitive state."
Alberto Beuttenmüller
BEUTTENMÜLLER, Alberto. A Arte Imaginativa de Britto Velho. In: VELHO, Britto. Carlos Carrion de Britto Velho: pinturas. São Paulo: Paço das Artes, 1988.
"No genetic engineering, cloning or DNA experiments. The gaúcho painter Carlos Carrion de Britto Velho, disappointed with humanity's inability to solve its own problems, has been turning the human animal into a more efficient animal-human, using magical realism and chromatic abstraction as his tools. At first sight, the artist's work draws attention through its almost abusive use of color, an affront to the fragile nuances of academic art, a proposal of chromatic autonomy that often dispenses with and even overrides form. His magical realism, a conscious extension of Surrealism, by contrast turns the focus to the whole figure, after a phase of obsession with parts or only with heads."
Gleber Pieniz
PIENIZ, Gleber. Pintor gaúcho, Britto Velho traz a Joinville as cores e as formas do novo ser humano. Disponível em: [www.an.com.br/adframe/frameset.htm]. Acesso em: 18 de setembro de 2001.
"Britto Velho's approach is psychological, the essence of human behavior reflected in the importance of its parts. Here he comes close to Wesley, in the importance of eroticism in human behavior, in the Freudian charge of actions referring to eternal symbols, to Jungian archetypes, in the formation of new representations that refer back to the original configuration. Roberto Magalhães presents color as the result of a phase of alchemical transformation, of man's discovery through the action and reaction of the passions, with red, green and yellow carrying the values of Eros and Thanatos in conflict, whereas Britto Velho frees color from literary metaphors, creates dynamic spatial tensions, makes the work vibrate, moves the eye across the areas, and balances a harmonious whole through the discord between the parts. This is one of the high points of Britto Velho's work: the dialogues of impossible colors, yellow-orange on a violet ground next to green, blues separated by red on violet. He gives the areas their exact dimension, delimits them by form, and spaces out figures isolated in their own worlds that at the same time yearn for dialogue, whether through the tension of colors seeking to merge or through psychological meaning, in the achievement of psychic wholeness. His figuration is striking for its almost grotesque forms of phallic noses, vulval mouths and women's boots containing buttocks and lips, in clear allusion to the foci of sexual attraction, sharp tongues between voracious teeth, beings reduced to big heads and legs. As a characteristic mark, figures with three eyes and the flat cut-out of the image."
Walter de Queiroz Guerreiro
GUERREIRO, Walter Queiroz. Disponível em: [www.an.com.br/adframe/frameset.htm]. Acesso em 18 de setembro de 2001.
Testimonials
"I have a fixation on color and use it as the boundary between kitsch and the serious... Now I have narrowed the lens to the figure alone, as if it contained the whole universe... I don't like to theorize too much, but I have a certain understanding of what I do from what people say about it. Sometimes I disagree with some opinions, but a work cannot be closed."
Britto Velho
Disponível em: [www.an.com.br/adframe/frameset.htm]. Acesso em: setembro de 2001.
"The artist crystallizes in his work the historical moment in which he lives. It was when I lived in Paris that I began to discover Brazil, Latin America and their problems. I had lived in Argentina from the age of nine to 19, which contributed to my interest. That is why, in that Paris phase, I made my darkest paintings, with blindfolded figures and microphones, which I used to denounce the dictatorship of the time... I am obsessed with the human figure. While many painters tend to turn everything into things, I tend to humanize everything, and I notice the humor there can be in certain objects, such as a chair, for example... when I began painting three eyes on the figures, I first thought of paying homage to Picasso, then I realized it was a mysticism that had been in me for a long time, and the third eye represented the eye of inner vision."
Britto Velho
VELHO, Britto. Entrevista concedida, por telefone, ao Itaú Cultural. São Paulo, 18 de setembro de 2001.
Solo Exhibitions
1971 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Galeria Pancetti
1972 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Galeria Pancetti
1973 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Solo, at Galeria Van Riel
1973 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Galeria Gerdau
1973 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Itália
1976 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Galeria Eucatexpo
1978 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Galeria Centro Comercial
1980 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Galeria Independência
1980 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Macunaíma
1982 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Kraft Escritório de Arte
1984 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Galeria Teatro Mágico
1985 - Porto Alegre RS - Carlos Carrion de Britto Velho: Pintura e Gravura [Carlos Carrion de Britto Velho: Painting and Printmaking], at Cambona Centro de Arte
1985 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Tema Arte Contemporânea
1987 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Tema Arte Contemporânea
1988 - São Paulo SP - Carlos Carrion de Britto Velho: Pinturas [Carlos Carrion de Britto Velho: Paintings], at Paço das Artes
1991 - Porto Alegre RS - O Realismo Mágico de Britto Velho [The Magical Realism of Britto Velho], at Bolsa de Arte
1991 - Porto Alegre RS - O Realismo Mágico de Britto Velho [The Magical Realism of Britto Velho], at Espaço Cultural BFB
1991 - São Paulo SP - O Realismo Mágico de Britto Velho [The Magical Realism of Britto Velho], at Masp
1992 - Porto Alegre RS - Projeto Obra em Evidência [Work in Focus Project], at Museu de Arte Contemporânea
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - O Realismo Mágico de Britto Velho [The Magical Realism of Britto Velho], at MNBA
1993 - Porto Alegre RS - Projeto Presença [Presence Project], at Margs
1994 - Porto Alegre RS - Britto Velho: pinturas [Britto Velho: Paintings], at Bolsa de Arte
1994 - Porto Alegre RS - Britto Velho: pinturas [Britto Velho: Paintings], at Margs
1994 - São Paulo SP - Britto Velho: pinturas [Britto Velho: Paintings], at Mônica Filgueiras Galeria de Arte
1994 - São Paulo SP - Britto Velho: pinturas [Britto Velho: Paintings], at MAM/SP
1996 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Cézar Prestes Arte
1997 - Passo Fundo RS - Solo, at Museu de Artes Visuais Ruth Schneider
1997 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Silvio Nery Fonseca Escritório de Arte
1998 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Galeria Gestual
1999 - Joinville SC - Pinturas [Paintings], at Galeria Victor Kursancew - Casa da Cultura de Joinville
1999 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Mube
Group Exhibitions
1971 - Porto Alegre RS - 5th Porto Alegre City Salon, at Reitoria da UFRGS
1974 - Belo Horizonte MG - 6th Belo Horizonte National Art Salon
1974 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 3rd Visual Arts Show - State of Rio de Janeiro
1974 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 23rd National Salon of Modern Art, at MAM/RJ
1974 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Nacional/74 [National Biennial/74], at Fundação Bienal
1976 - Goiânia GO - 3rd CAIXEGO
1976 - Porto Alegre RS - 9 Artistas Plásticos Gaúchos [9 Visual Artists from Rio Grande do Sul], at Posto de Informações Turísticas Açorianos - Epatur
1976 - São Paulo SP - 7th São Paulo Contemporary Art Salon, at Paço das Artes
1976 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Nacional [National Biennial], at Fundação Bienal
c. 1977 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Group show, at Galeria Arco
c. 1977 - Washington (United States) - 5 Pintores Gaúchos [5 Painters from Rio Grande do Sul], at Instituto Cultural Brasileiro Americano
c. 1977 - Zurich (Switzerland) - Group show, at Galeria Semilha Hubert - guest artist
1977 - Belo Horizonte MG - 9th Belo Horizonte National Art Salon
1977 - Curitiba PR - 34th Paraná Salon
1977 - Goiânia GO - 4th CAIXEGO
1977 - Porto Alegre RS - 4th Porto Alegre Visual Arts Salon
1977 - São Paulo SP - 9th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1982 - Brasília DF - Arte Gaúcha Hoje [Gaúcho Art Today], at Galeria Oswaldo Goeldi
1982 - Porto Alegre RS - Arte Gaúcha Hoje [Gaúcho Art Today], at Margs
1982 - Porto Alegre RS - O Panorama das Artes no Sul [The Panorama of the Arts in the South], at Espaço Cultural Yázigi
1983 - Curitiba PR - 5th Brazilian Drawing Show, at Teatro Guaíra
1983 - Porto Alegre RS - Coletiva de Arte Nacional [National Art Group Show], at Kraft Escritório de Arte
1983 - Porto Alegre RS - Do Passado ao Presente - 100 Anos de Artes Plásticas do Rio Grande do Sul [From Past to Present - 100 Years of Visual Arts in Rio Grande do Sul], at Galeria Cambona
1983 - Recife PE - 36th Pernambuco Visual Arts Salon, at Museu do Estado de Pernambuco
1983 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 6th National Visual Arts Salon, at MAM/RJ
1983 - São Paulo SP - Arte Gaúcha Hoje [Gaúcho Art Today], at Fundação Bienal
1983 - São Paulo SP - 14th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1984 - Fortaleza CE - 7th National Visual Arts Salon
1984 - Porto Alegre RS - Group show, at Estágio Armazém de Arte
1984 - Porto Alegre RS - Lixo de Atelier [Studio Waste], at Espaço Cultural Yázigi
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 7th National Visual Arts Salon, at MAM/RJ
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Gaúchos, at Galeria do Ibeu
1984 - São Paulo SP - 2nd São Paulo Contemporary Art Salon, at MIS/SP
1984 - São Paulo SP - Gaúchos, at Paço das Artes
1985 - Porto Alegre RS - Carlos Carrion de Britto Velho: Pintura e Gravura [Carlos Carrion de Britto Velho: Painting and Printmaking], at Cambona Centro de Arte
1985 - São Paulo SP - Grupo Gaúcho: pintura [Gaúcho Group: Painting], at Galeria Alberto Bonfiglioli
1986 - Curitiba PR - 7th Curitiba City Printmaking Show, at Casa da Gravura Solar do Barão
1986 - Havana (Cuba) - 2nd Havana Biennial
1986 - Porto Alegre RS - 100 Anos do Automóvel [100 Years of the Automobile], at Galeria Bolsa de Arte
1986 - São Paulo SP - 4th São Paulo Contemporary Art Salon, at Fundação Bienal
1986 - São Paulo SP - Tema Arte Contemporânea - Ontem-Hoje-Amanhã [Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow]
1987 - Brasília DF - Coletiva 14 Anos [14 Years Group Show], at Oscar Seraphico Galeria de Arte
1987 - São Paulo SP - Extremos [Extremes], at Fundação Cásper Líbero
1987/ca.1989 - Belém PA - Extremos [Extremes], at Galeria Arte Liberal
1987/ca.1989 - Belém PA - Extremos [Extremes], at Museu da Universidade Federal do Pará
1987/ca.1989 - Belo Horizonte MG - Extremos [Extremes], at Manoel Macedo Galeria de Arte
1987/ca.1989 - Belo Horizonte MG - Extremos [Extremes], at Museu de Arte de Belo Horizonte
1987/ca.1989 - Brasília DF - Extremos [Extremes], at Galeria Oscar Seraphico
1987/ca.1989 - Curitiba PR - Extremos [Extremes], at MAC/PR
1987/ca.1989 - Florianópolis SC - Extremos [Extremes], at Espaço de Arte
1987/ca.1989 - Florianópolis SC - Extremos [Extremes], at Masc
1987/ca.1989 - Olinda PE - Extremos [Extremes], at MAC/Olinda
1987/ca.1989 - Porto Alegre RS - Extremos [Extremes], at Bolsa de Arte de Porto Alegre
1987/ca.1989 - Recife PE - Extremos [Extremes], at Gabinete de Arte Brasileira
1987/ca.1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Extremos [Extremes], at Galeria Anna Maria Niemeyer
1987/ca.1989 - Salvador BA - Extremos [Extremes], at MAM/BA
1987/ca.1989 - Salvador BA - Extremos [Extremes], at O Cavalete Galeria de Arte
1988 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Prints, at EAV/Parque Lage
1988 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Prints, at MNBA
1990 - São Paulo SP - Gente de Fibra [People of Fiber], at Sesc Pompeia
1991 - Porto Alegre RS - O Realismo Mágico de Britto Velho [The Magical Realism of Britto Velho], at Espaço Cultural BFB
1991 - São Paulo SP - Grandes Formatos [Large Formats], at MAM/SP
1992 - Porto Alegre RS - 360 Graus de Pintura Agora [360 Degrees of Painting Now], at Museu de Arte Contemporânea
1993 - Porto Alegre RS - Arte Sul 93 [South Art 93], at Margs
1993 - Porto Alegre RS - O Olhar Contemporâneo - Descentramento e Posição e Pintura Mais Representação [The Contemporary Gaze - Decentering and Position and Painting Plus Representation], at Museu de Arte Contemporânea
1994 - Porto Alegre RS - A Arte e a Bola [Art and the Ball], at Museu de Arte Contemporânea
1995 - Porto Alegre RS - A Arte Vê a Moda [Art Looks at Fashion], at Museu de Arte Contemporânea
1996 - Montevideo (Uruguay) - 1st Porto Alegre in Montevideo, at Centro de Exposições Átrio
1996 - Porto Alegre RS - 1st International Open-Air Sculpture Exhibition, at Sesc Campestre
1996 - Porto Alegre RS - Arte Sul 96 [South Art 96], at Margs
1996 - Porto Alegre RS - 1st Sesc Sculpture: International Open-Air Sculpture Exhibition, at Sesc Campestre
1997 - Porto Alegre RS - Dois Artistas [Two Artists], at Espaço de Arte 24 de outubro
1997 - Porto Alegre RS - Parallel Exhibition, at Galeria Cezar Prestes Arte
1998 - Porto Alegre RS - Cinco Dimensões [Five Dimensions], at Cézar Prestes Arte
1999 - Porto Alegre RS - Garagem de Arte: mostra inaugural [Garagem de Arte: Inaugural Exhibition], at Garagem de Arte
2000 - Bento Gonçalves RS - Coletiva de Gravura [Print Group Show], at Universidade de Caxias do Sul
2000 - Canela RS - Coletiva de Gravura [Print Group Show], at Universidade de Caxias do Sul
2000 - Caxias do Sul RS - Coletiva de Gravura [Print Group Show], at Universidade de Caxias do Sul
2000 - Caxias do Sul RS - Coletiva de Gravura [Print Group Show], at Centro de Convivência da Universidade de Caxias do Sul
2000 - Farroupilha RS - Coletiva de Gravura [Print Group Show], at Universidade de Caxias do Sul
2000 - Guaporé RS - Coletiva de Gravura [Print Group Show]
2000 - Nova Prata RS - Coletiva de Gravura [Print Group Show], at Universidade de Caxias do Sul
2000 - Porto Alegre RS - Figura na Pintura: Acervo Museu de Arte Contemporânea do Rio Grande do Sul [The Figure in Painting: Collection of the Museu de Arte Contemporânea do Rio Grande do Sul], at MAC/PR
2000 - Vacaria RS - Coletiva de Gravura [Print Group Show], at Universidade de Caxias do Sul
2000 - Veranópolis RS - Coletiva de Gravura [Print Group Show], at Universidade de Caxias do Sul
2001 - Porto Alegre RS - Exhibition in Honor of Nelson Jungbluth's 80th Birthday, at Museu do Trabalho
2002 - Porto Alegre RS - Drawings, Prints, Sculptures and Watercolors, at Garagem de Arte
Source: Itaú Cultural
