Carlos Bracher (Juiz de Fora MG 1940)
Carlos Bracher is a painter, draftsman, sculptor and printmaker. He attended the Sociedade de Belas Artes Antônio Parreiras in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, around 1959. Between 1965 and 1966, in Belo Horizonte, he studied with Fayga Ostrower (1920–2001) at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG). He studied mural and mosaic techniques with Inimá de Paula (1918–1999) at the Escola Municipal de Belas Artes.
In 1967, he received the foreign travel prize of the Salão Nacional de Belas Artes (SNBA) in Rio de Janeiro. He traveled to Europe, settling mainly in Paris and Lisbon, where he studied painting and exhibited in local galleries. He returned to Brazil in the mid-1970s and went to live in Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais.
In 1989, his career was celebrated with the retrospective exhibition marking 30 years of work, entitled Pintura Sempre [Painting Always], shown in São Paulo, Curitiba, Rio de Janeiro, Brasília and Belo Horizonte. The following year, he produced a series of paintings in homage to the centenary of the death of the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890), shown in various galleries and museums in Brazil and abroad.
Several books on his work have been published, among them Bracher, by the critic Olívio Tavares de Araújo, released by Métron in 1989, and Bracher: Do Ouro ao Aço [From Gold to Steel], published by Salamandra in 1992.
Critical Commentary
In the 1960s, still in his formative period - when he studied with Fayga Ostrower (1920 - 2001) at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais - UFMG -, Carlos Bracher painted mainly the Baroque churches and colonial houses of Minas Gerais. He created images that are often subjected to strong distortions, approaching expressionism, as in the painting Igreja da Glória, 1965, in which he uses broad, textured brushstrokes. By the end of that decade, his works show his admiration for Cubism, as seen in Ouro Preto Noturna, 1968, which presents great formal simplification. Bracher replaced the loose brushstroke with a more impersonal one, creating smooth surfaces, emphasizing outlines and the almost sculptural definition of forms, with a predominantly cool color range.
As the critic Olívio Tavares de Araújo notes, Bracher presents a dramatic vision of the Minas Gerais landscape. His landscapes of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo are also marked by this drama, conveyed mainly by a dense, dark color range, as in Estação da Luz, São Paulo, 1989, in which the brushstroke becomes broad and gestural again. Throughout his career, landscape has been a frequent theme for the artist, who devotes himself to the "dramatic and magical exercise of understanding it".
Critiques
"Everyone in the field knows that the current fashion is 'new' painting. That is: being avant-garde, at this moment, consists of dealing once again with canvases, oil paints, many gestures, many colors and many declarations of love for this age-old activity. By antithesis, there must still be an 'old' painting, that of the purely academic. And it is a pleasure to discover that there is also 'timeless' painting, which is neither old nor recent, but above the contingencies of the moment. This is the painting practiced by those we might call 'resisters'. Artists who believed strongly in their talent and their language and dared not to submit to the fads and pressures around them. One of these resisters is certainly Carlos Bracher, from Minas Gerais. Ever since he came to know himself as a person and as an artist, he has devoted himself to a figurative painting of expressionist lineage, grounded in traditional techniques he mastered to perfection. (...) His colors are dark and dense but, paradoxically, they are not tragic or gloomy".
Olívio Tavares de Araújo
CARLOS Bracher: marinhas. Prefácio de António Carlos L. de Figueiredo. Apresentação de Olívio Tavares de Araújo. Belo Horizonte: Matiz Arte Galeria, 1987.
"Carlos Bracher belongs to a family of painters that begins with Grünewald, Rembrandt and Goya and reaches Van Gogh and the German expressionists of the beginning of this century. Bracher belongs to that family of artists who carry out the catharsis of their personal demons while at the same time conveying the catharsis of the demons of their time. Bracher's painting is exorcistic, and through it emotions, individual and collective, overflow. (As Pound said, the artist has the 'antennae of the race'). I might add that it is also a homeostatic painting: it guarantees its author conditions of psychological balance and survival in the universe. Although very well camouflaged, there are tense, anxious, obsessive contents in Bracher"
Olívio Tavares de Araújo
ARAÚJO, Olívio Tavares de. Talento à flor da pele. Jornal Hoje, Belo Horizonte, 4 de mai. de 1989.
"In Bracher there is none of that commitment to fidelity to objective reality, with its relations of volume and space, color and luminous sensation. Quite the contrary, the motifs he paints are pretexts for the pictorial (visionary?) adventure, for a plunge into an indeterminate universe of forms and lights, from which the picture will emerge, the work of art, which is the world transfigured. Bracher has learned this magic. He does not have its theory and would not be able to learn it analytically. But he knows it with his hands. And he produces it, transforming the impenetrable matter of the world into colored paste and poetic handwriting. In short, into a language created by man and called painting".
Ferreira Gullar
FERREIRA GULLAR. In: NUANCE GALERIA DE ARTE. catálogo. Belo Horizonte, 1995
Testimonials
"The possibility of landscape. This dramatic and magical exercise of understanding it. Of exalting it. For many, many years my close relationship with it has endured, as the source and path of my work. My eyes have sought it, and I see how conquering it becomes infinite. Even though my passion turns to it with all fervor, the landscape becomes ever more unfathomable and immense. This magnificent power of the earth, of the ground one treads, of the sky, the sea, trees and mountains. It is the whole of life itself, this air we breathe, the sun, the greens and that vigorous sunset, heralding the night, a gigantic event, that of the landscape (...)"
Carlos Bracher
BRACHER, Carlos. [texto]. In: Destaques Hilton de Pintura : catálogo. Rio de Janeiro, MAM/RJ, 1980.
"(...) I have a very strong stylistic identification with Van Gogh. His painting is very chaotic, disordered. I'm an anti-Cézanne, for example. I'm passionate about Cézanne, but I would never paint like him. He is my antithesis. My work is more morbid, complex, tragic. My thinking is illogical. That's my nature. In disorder I connect with Van Gogh. And it is in disorder that I have to build my order".
Carlos Bracher
BRACHER, Carlos. In: Bracher supera fase Van Gogh. Jornal Hoje em Dia, Belo Horizonte, 20 de ago. de 1992
Solo Exhibitions
1968 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Galeria Guignard
1968 - Juiz de Fora MG - Solo, at Museu Mariano Procópio
1968 - Juiz de Fora MG - Solo, at Galeria Celina
1968 - Goiânia GO - Solo, at Galeria Azul
1968 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Oca
1968 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Itália
1969 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Solo, at Palácio Foz
1969 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Solo, at Museu de Évora
1970 - Paris (France) - Solo, at Galerie Debret
1971 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Galeria Guignard
1971 - Juiz de Fora MG - Solo, at Galeria Celina
1972 - Brasília DF - Solo, at Galeria Mainline
1974 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Bonino
1975 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Galeria AMI
1975 - Brasília DF - Solo, at Oscar Seraphico Galeria de Arte
1976 - Juiz de Fora MG - Solo, at Galeria Pró-Música
1977 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Bonino
1977 - Rome (Italy) - Solo, at Galleria d´Arte del Brasil, Palazzo Pamphilli
1978 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Galeria AMI
1978 - Milan (Italy) - Solo, at Galeria d´Arte Italo-Brasiliana
1978 - Ouro Preto MG - Solo, at Faculdade de Ouro Preto, FAOP
1978 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Galeria AMI
1978 - Brasília DF - Solo, at Galeria Oscar Seráfico
1978 - Brasília DF - Solo, at Galeria Portal
1979 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Bonino
1980 - Cataguases MG - Solo, at Gal-Art
1980 - Brasília DF - Solo, at Galeria Oscar Seráfico
1981 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Galeria AMI
1982 - Brasília DF - Solo, at Galeria Oscar Seráfico
1982 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Bonino
1982 - Curitiba PR - Solo, at Galeria Ida e Anita
1983 - Londrina PR - Solo, at Galeria ArteNossa
1983 - Chile - Solo, at Museu de Arte Contemporânea
1984 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Ars Artis
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Bonino
1985 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Galeria Época
1985 - Brasília DF - Solo, at Galeria Oscar Seráfico
1985 - Madrid (Spain) - Solo, at Galeria da Casa do Brasil
1985 - The Hague (Netherlands) - Solo, at Galeria da Embaixada Brasileira
1985 - Brasília DF - Solo, at Oscar Seraphico Galeria de Arte
1985 - Rome (Italy) - Solo, at Palazzo Doria Pamphilli
1986 - Juiz de Fora MG - Solo, at Galeria da Baronesa
1987 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Bonino
1987 - Belo Horizonte MG - Seascapes, at Matiz Arte Galeria
1987 - Curitiba PR - Solo, at Simões de Assis Galeria de Arte
1989 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Sadalla Galeria de Arte
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Bonino
1989 - Belo Horizonte MG - Paths of Freedom, at Secretaria de Estado da Cultura
1989 - Curitiba PR - Carlos Bracher: Pintura Sempre [Painting Always] - exhibition celebrating 30 years of work, at MAC
1989 - Brasília DF - Carlos Bracher: Pintura Sempre [Painting Always] - exhibition celebrating 30 years of work, at Teatro Nacional de Brasília
1989 - São Paulo SP - Carlos Bracher: Pintura Sempre [Painting Always] - exhibition celebrating 30 years of work, at Masp
1989 - Belo Horizonte MG - Carlos Bracher: Pintura Sempre [Painting Always] - exhibition celebrating 30 years of work, at Palácio das Artes
1989 - Ouro Preto MG - Carlos Bracher: Pintura Sempre [Painting Always] - exhibition celebrating 30 years of work, at Museu da Inconfidência
1989 - Juiz de Fora MG - Carlos Bracher: Pintura Sempre [Painting Always] - exhibition celebrating 30 years of work, at Espaço Cultural Bernardo Mascarenhas
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Carlos Bracher: Pintura Sempre [Painting Always] - exhibition celebrating 30 years of work, at MNBA
1990 - Belo Horizonte MG - Homage to Van Gogh, at Museu de Arte
1990 - São Paulo SP - Homage to Van Gogh, at Galeria Sadalla
1990 - Curitiba PR - Homage to Van Gogh, at Simões de Assis Galeria de Arte
1990 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Homage to Van Gogh, at Galeria Bonino
1990 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Homage to Van Gogh, at Dbieler
1992 - Sabará MG - Sabará of Times, From Gold to Steel, at Espaço Cultural Fundação Belgo-Mineira
1992 - Rotterdam (Netherlands) - Homage to Van Gogh, at World Trade Center
1992 - Auvers-sur-Oise (France) - Homage to Van Gogh, at Musée Daubigny
1992 - London (England) - Homage to Van Gogh, at White Leys
1992 - London (England) - Homage to Van Gogh, at Atrium Gallery
1992 - Beijing (China) - Homage to Van Gogh, at Palácio Imperial
1992 - Tokyo (Japan) - Homage to Van Gogh, at The United Nations University
1992 - Paris (France) - Homage to Van Gogh, at Galerie Debret
1993 - Bogotá (Colombia) - Homenaje a Van Gogh, at Museu de Arte Moderno
1995 - Belo Horizonte MG - Portraits, at Pace Galeria
1995 - Miami (United States) - Solo
1995 - Salvador BA - Flowers, at MCR Galeria de Arte
1996 - Porto Alegre RS - Mutations: Portraits by Bracher, at Galeria Tina Zappoli
1996 - London (England) - Solo
1998 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at IEB/USP
1998 - Brasília DF - Solo, at Espaço Cultural Zumbi dos Palmares da Câmara dos Deputados
2001 - Belo Horizonte MG - Five Times Bracher, at Museu de Arte da Pampulha
2002 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Centro Cultural Oboé
Group Exhibitions
1957 - Juiz de Fora MG - Municipal Fine Arts Salon
1959 - Juiz de Fora MG - Municipal Fine Arts Salon - bronze medal
1959 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 10th National Salon of Fine Arts
1960 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 11th National Salon of Fine Arts - bronze medal in sculpture
1963 - Belo Horizonte MG - Group show, at Salão da Secretaria de Educação
1963 - Juiz de Fora MG - Municipal Fine Arts Salon - silver medal
1963 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 14th National Salon of Fine Arts
1965 - Belo Horizonte MG - Group show, at Salão da Secretaria de Educação
1965 - Juiz de Fora MG - Municipal Fine Arts Salon - gold medal
1967 - Belo Horizonte MG - Group show, at Salão da Secretaria de Educação
1967 - Juiz de Fora MG - Municipal Fine Arts Salon - special room
1967 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 18th National Salon of Fine Arts - foreign travel award
1968 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Three Aspects of Contemporary Brazilian Painting
1968 - Lima (Peru) - Three Aspects of Contemporary Brazilian Painting
1968 - Montevideo (Uruguay) - Three Aspects of Contemporary Brazilian Painting
1969 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Group show with Juarez Machado
1969 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Contemporary Brazilian Landscape, at Instituto Brasil-Estados Unidos, IBEU
1969 - São Paulo SP - 1st Visual Arts Fair of the International Association of Art, at Hilton Hotel
1970 - Paris (France) - Group show, at Galerie Bernheim-Jeune
1970 - Paris (France) - Salon Saint Honoré - Matignon, at Galerie Transposition
1971 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 50 Years of Brazilian Art, at MAM / RJ
1972 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, at Instituto Brasil-Estados Unidos, IBEU
1973 - Belo Horizonte MG - Salão Global, at Museu de Arte
1973 - São Paulo SP - 5th Current Panorama of Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1974 - Belo Horizonte MG - Permanent Values of the Arts in Minas, at Galeria AMI
1975 - Belo Horizonte MG - 10 National Artists, at Galeria AMI
1976 - Belo Horizonte MG - 4th Salão Global, at Palácio das Artes - special room
1976 - Belo Horizonte MG - Artists from Minas Gerais, at Faculdades da UFMG
1976 - Belo Horizonte MG - Nello Nuno Salon, at Palácio das Artes - special room
1976 - São Paulo SP - 8th Current Panorama of Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1977 - Belo Horizonte MG - The Minas Gerais Landscape, at Palácio das Artes
1977 - Belo Horizonte MG - Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, at Palácio das Artes
1977 - Juiz de Fora MG - inaugural exhibition, at Capela Galeria de Artes
1979 - Belo Horizonte MG - Group show with Álvaro Apocalypse, at Galeria AMI
1980 - Belo Horizonte MG - Hilton Painting Highlights, at Palácio das Artes
1980 - Brasília DF - Hilton Painting Highlights, at Fundação Cultural
1980 - Curitiba PR - Hilton Painting Highlights, at Teatro Guaíra
1980 - Porto Alegre RS - Hilton Painting Highlights, at Margs
1980 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Hilton Painting Highlights, at MAM/RJ
1980 - São Paulo SP - Hilton Painting Highlights, at MAM/SP
1981 - Belo Horizonte MG - 8th Salão Global, at Palácio das Artes - special room
1981 - Belo Horizonte MG - Minas Gerais Art in the Spotlight, at Fundação Palácio das Artes
1981 - Belo Horizonte MG - Six Artists from Minas, at Ami Galeria de Arte
1981 - Brasília DF - Group show, at Fundação Cultural de Brasília
1981 - Juiz de Fora MG - The Brachers, at Galeria Pró-Música
1981 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Group show, at MAM/RJ
1981 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 8th Global Winter Salon, at MAM/RJ
1981 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at MAM/SP
1981 - São Paulo SP - 8th Global Winter Salon, at Masp
1982 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Spring with Flowers, at Cláudio Gil Studio de Arte
1983 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Self-Portrait in Brazilian Painting, at Galeria de Arte Banerj
1983 - Santiago do Chile (Chile) - Group show with Fani Bracher
1983 - São Paulo SP - 14th Current Panorama of Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1984 - Belo Horizonte MG - opening exhibition, at Galeria CEMIG
1984 - Belo Horizonte MG - The Hero's Face, at Palácio das Artes
1984 - Brasília DF - Active Brazilian Painting, at Fundação Cultural
1984 - Curitiba PR - Simões de Assis Galeria de Arte: Inaugural Exhibition, at Simões de Assis Galeria de Arte
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Toma de Minas a Estrada, at Hotel Nacional
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Self-Portrait, at Aliança Francesa
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Active Brazilian Painting, at Espaço Petrobras
1985 - Belo Horizonte MG - The Portrait of the Collector Gilberto Chateaubriand and the Self-Portraits, at Galeria CEMIG
1985 - Curitiba PR - Color and Lyricism (Bracher, Marx and Fang), at Simões de Assis Galeria de Arte
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Portrait of the Collector Gilberto Chateaubriand and the Self-Portraits, at Banerj
1985 - São Paulo SP - Mothers and the Flower in the Vision of 33 Painters, at Ranulpho Galeria de Arte
1986 - Belo Horizonte MG - 18th National Art Salon, at Museu de Arte - special room
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Painting and Poetry, at Galeria do BNDES
1987 - Curitiba PR - Contemporary Artists, at Simões de Assis Galeria de Arte
1987 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Between Two Centuries (Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection), at MAM/RJ
1987 - São Paulo SP - The Craft of Art: Painting, at SESC Pompéia
1989 - São Paulo SP - Thirty-Three Ways of Seeing the World, at Ranulpho Galeria de Arte
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Eco Art, at MAM/RJ
1992 - São Paulo SP - 7th Brazilian Art Salon, at Fundação Mokiti Okada
1993 - Fortaleza CE - 23 Years, at Galeria Ignez Fiuza
1994 - Ouro Preto MG - The Virtual Identity, at Museu da Inconfidência
1995 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Minas Landscape. Minas além das Gerais
1995 - Belo Horizonte MG - Nuance Galeria de Arte Inaugural Exhibition, at Nuance Galeria de Arte
1995 - Fortaleza CE - 46th April Salon
1995 - Minas Gerais - The Landscape of Minas, at Galeria da Turminas
1995 - Minas Gerais - Minas, from the Land to Man, at 14º Congresso de Medicina Física e Reabilitação
1995 - São Paulo SP - 14th Sociarte Contemporary Artists Exhibition
1995 - São Paulo SP - Brazil-Japan Art, at Fundação Mokiti Okada
1996 - Belo Horizonte MG - Improvisation for Guignard, at Espaço Cultural Bamerindus Seguros
1996 - London (England) - Group show, at Cynthia Bourne Gallery
1996 - Porto Alegre RS - Human Nature, at Galeria Tina Zappoli
1996 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Twice Minas - Fani and Carlos Bracher, at Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil
1997 - Curitiba PR - Casa Cor Sul, at Simões de Assis Galeria de Arte
1999 - Curitiba PR - Highlights of Brazilian Painting, at Simões de Assis Galeria de Arte
1999 - São Paulo SP - 6th São Paulo Art and Antiques Salon, at Sociedade Hebraica
2000 - Brasília DF - Group show with Fani Bracher, at Sala de exposições do Espaço Cultural da Câmara dos Deputados
2001 - Belo Horizonte MG - Exhibition of the Great Masters of National Painting, at Galeria Michelângelo
2001 - Fortaleza CE - Portraits: Belchior Seen by Great Names and by Himself, at Centro Cultural Oboé
2001 - São Paulo SP - Instant Biographies, at Casa das Rosas
2002 - São Paulo SP - Open Opera: Celebration, at Casa das Rosas
2003 - Porto Alegre RS - Humanities, at Galeria Tina Zappoli
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Belchior: Portraits and Self-Portraits, at Centro Cultural da Justiça Federal
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Projeto Brazilianart, at Almacén Galeria de Arte
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Caixa Treasures: Brazilian Modern Art in the Caixa Collection, at Conjunto Cultural da Caixa
2005 - Porto Alegre RS - The Gathering, at Galeria Tina Zappoli
Source: Itaú Cultural
