Carlos Bracher (Juiz de Fora MG 1940)
Carlos Bracher is a painter, draftsman, sculptor and engraver. He attended the Society of Fine Arts Antônio Parreiras, in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, around 1959. Between 1965 and 1966, in Belo Horizonte, he was a student of Fayga Ostrower (1920–2001) at Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). He studied mural and mosaic techniques with Inimá de Paula (1918–1999), at the Municipal School of Fine Arts.
In 1967, he received the award for travel abroad from the National Salon of Fine Arts (SNBA), in Rio de Janeiro. January. He traveled to Europe, settled mainly in Paris and Lisbon, where he studied painting and exhibited in local galleries. He returned to Brazil in the mid-1970s and took up residence in Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais.
In 1989, his trajectory was celebrated with the retrospective exhibition of 30 years of work, entitled Painting Semper, presented in São Paulo, Curitiba, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia and Belo Horizonte. The following year, he produced a series of paintings in honor of the centenary of the death of the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890), shown in several galleries and museums in Brazil and abroad. Published, among them Bracher, by the critic Olívio Tavares de Araújo, released by the publisher Métron in 1989, and Bracher: From Ouro to Steel, published by Editora Salamandra in 1992.
Critical comment
In the 1960s, still in the training period - when he studied with Fayga Ostrower (1920 - 2001), at the Federal University of Minas Gerais - UFMG -, Carlos Bracher predominantly paints the Baroque churches and the houses Colonial Mineiro. It creates images that are often subjected to great deformations, approaching expressionism, as in the picture Igreja da Glória, 1965, in which he uses wide and materical brush strokes. At the end of that decade, his works indicate admiration for Cubism, as can be seen in Ouro Preto Noturna, 1968, which presents great formal simplification. Bracher replaces the loose brush stroke with a more impersonal one, creating smooth surfaces, enhancing the contour lines and the almost sculptural definition of the shapes, with the predominance of a chromatic range consisting of cold tones.
As the critic Olívio Tavares notes. de Araújo, Bracher presents a dramatic view of the Minas Gerais landscape. The landscapes of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo are also marked by this drama, given mainly by the dense and dark chromatic range, as in Estação da Luz, São Paulo, 1989, in which the brush stroke is once again wide and gestural. Throughout his career, the artist has, as a frequent theme, the landscape and is dedicated to the "dramatic and magical exercise of understanding it".
Criticism
"Everyone in the area knows that current fashion is that of the 'new' painting. That is: being of the vanguard, at that moment, consists of dealing again with canvas, oil paints, many gestures, many colors and a lot of declaration of love for this millenary activity. It is a pleasure to discover that there is also the painting 'usual', which is neither old nor recent, but above the contingencies of the moment. Fads and pressures around him, one of these resistant ones is certainly Carlos Bracher from Minas Gerais, since he was meant by people and by an artist, he dedicated himself to a figurative painting, of expressionist filiation, based on traditional techniques that he mastered to perfection. (...) Its colors are dark and dense, but, paradoxically, they are not tragic, dark."
Olívio Tavares de Araújo
Carlos Bracher: Marinhas. Preface by António Carlos L. de Figueiredo Presentation by Olívio Tavares de Araújo Belo Horizonte: Matiz Arte Galeria, 1987.
"Carlos Bracher is part of a family of painters that begins with Grunewald, Rembrandt, Goya, arriving at Van Gogh and the German expressionists at the beginning of this century. Bracher belongs to this family of artists who make the catharsis of their personal demons while conveying the catharsis of the demons of their time. Bracher's painting is an exorcist, and through it they leak individual and collective emotions. (as Pound said, the artist has the 'antennas of the species'). I could add that it is also a homeostatic painting: it guarantees to its author conditions of psychic 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. Today, Belo Horizonte, May 4, 1989.
"There is no such commitment of fidelity to objective reality in Bracher, with its relations of volume and space, of color and light sensation. On the contrary, the motives that paint are pretexts for the pictorial (visionary) adventure, for diving into an indeterminate universe of shapes and lights, from which the picture, the work of art, which is the transfigured world will emerge. Bracher learned this magic. It does not have the theory of it, it will not be able to learn it analytically. But you know it with your hands. and produces it, transforming the impenetrable matter of the world into a colorful paste and poetic handwriting. In short, in a language created by man and called painting".
Ferreira Gullar
Ferreira Gullar.
Testimonies
"The possibility of the landscape. This dramatic and magical exercise of understanding it. to praise it. For many, many years, my coexistence with her has remained, as a source and path of my work. My eyes have searched her and I realize how infinite it becomes to conquer her. Even if my passion turns to her with all the fervor, the landscape becomes increasingly unfathomable and immense. This magnificent power of the earth, of the ground where it treads, of the sky, of the sea, of trees and mountains. It is all and life itself, this air that we breathe, the sun, the greens and that vigorous twilight that sets, foreshadowing the night, gigantic event, that of the landscape (...)"
Carlos Bracher
Bracher, Carlos [text] In: Hilton Highlights of Painting : Catalog. Rio de Janeiro, MAM/RJ, 1980.
"(...) I have a very strong stylistic identification with Van Gogh. His painting is very chaotic, cluttered. I'm an anti-Cézanne, for example. I have a passion for Cézanne, but I would never do a painting like his. It's the antithesis of me. My work is more morbid, complex, tragic. My thinking is illogical. This is in my nature. In the clutter I connect with Van Gogh. And it is in the disorder that I have to build my order."
Carlos Bracher
Bracher, Carlos. In : Bracher overcomes the van Gogh phase. 1992
Individual exhibitions
1968 - Belo Horizonte MG - Individual, at the Guignard Gallery
1968 - Juiz de Fora MG - Individual, at the Mariano Procópio Museum
1968 - Juiz de Fora MG - Individual, at Galeria Celina
1968 - Goiânia GO - Individual, at Galeria Azul
1968 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at Galeria Oca
1968 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at Galeria Italy
1969 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Individual, at Foz Palace
1969 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Individual, at the Évora Museum
1970 - Paris (France) - Individual, Galerie Debret
1971 - Belo Horizonte MG - Individual, at the Guignard Gallery
1971 - Juiz de Fora MG - Individual, at Galeria Celina
1972 - Brasília DF - Individual, at the mainline gallery
1974 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at the Bonino Gallery
1975 - Belo Horizonte MG - Individual, at the AMI
1975 - Brasília DF - Individual, at Oscar Seraphico Art Gallery
1976 - Juiz de Fora MG - Individual, at the Pró-Música Gallery
1977 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at the Bonino Gallery
1977 - Rome (Italy) - Individual, at the Galleria d'Arte del Brasil, Palazzo Pamphilli
1978 - Belo Horizonte MG - Individual, at Ami
1978 - Milan (Italy) - Individual, at Galeria d'Arte Italo-Brasiliana
1978 - Ouro Preto MG - Individual, at the Faculty of Ouro Preto, FAOP
1978 - Belo Horizonte MG - Individual, at the Ami Gallery
1978 - Brasília DF - Individual, at Galeria Oscar Serafico
1978 - Brasília DF - Individual, at Galeria Portal
1979 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at the Bonino Gallery
1980 - Cataguases - Individual, at Gal-Art
1980 - Brasília DF - Individual, at Galeria Oscar Serafico
1981 - Belo Horizonte MG - Individual, at the Ami Gallery
1982 - Brasília DF - Individual, at Galeria Oscar Serafico
1982 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at the Bonino Gallery
1982 - Curitiba PR - Individual, at Galeria Ida and Anita
1983 - Londrina PR - Individual, at Galeria Artenossa
1983 - Chile - Individual, at the Museum of Contemporary Art
1984 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at the Ars Artis Gallery
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ -Individual, at the Bonino Gallery
1985 - Salvador BA - Individual, at the Época Gallery
1985 - Brasília DF - Individual, at the Oscar Serafico gallery
1985 - Madrid (Spain) - Individual, in the Galeria da Casa do Brasil
1985 - Hague (Holland) - Individual, at the Brazilian Embassy Gallery
1985 - Brasília DF - Individual, at Oscar Seraphico Art Gallery
1985 - Rome (Italy) - Individual, at Palazzo Doria Pamphilli
1986 - Juiz de Fora MG - Individual, at the Baronesa Gallery
1987 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at the Bonino Gallery
1987 - Belo Horizonte MG - Marines, at Matiz Arte Galeria
1987 - Curitiba PR - Individual, at Simões de Assis Art Gallery
1989 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at Sadalla Galeria de Arte
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at the Bonino Gallery
1989 - Belo Horizonte MG - Caminhos da Liberdade, at the Secretary of State for Culture
1989 - Curitiba PR - Carlos Bracher : Painting Semper - Commemorative exhibition of 30 years of Work, at MAC
1989 - Brasília DF - Carlos Bracher : Painting Semper - Commemorative Exhibition of 30 years of work, at the National Theater of Brasília
1989 - São Paulo SP - Carlos Bracher :Painting Always - Commemorative Exhibition of 30 years of work, at MASP
1989 - Belo Horizonte MG - Carlos Bracher :Painting Always - Commemorative Exhibition of 30 years of work, at Palácio das Artes
1989 - Ouro Preto MG - Carlos Bracher :Painting Always - Commemorative Exhibition 30 years of work, at the Inconfidência Museum
1989 - Juiz de Fora MG - Carlos Bracher :Pintura Semper - Commemorative Exhibition of 30 years of work, at the Bernardo Mascarenhas Cultural Space
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Carlos Bracher :Pintura Semper - Commemorative exhibition of 30 years of work, at the MNBA
1990 - Belo Horizonte MG - Homage to Van Gogh, at the Museum of Art
1990 - São Paulo SP - Homage to Van Gogh, Sadalla Gallery
1990 - Curitiba PR - Homage to Van Gogh, at Simões de Assis Art Gallery
1990 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Homage to Van Gogh, at the Bonino Gallery
1990 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Homage to Van Gogh, at Dbieler
1992 - Sabará MG - Sabará of the times, from gold to steel, at the Belgo-Mineira Foundation Cultural Space
1992 - Rotterdam (Holland) - Homage to Van Gogh, at the World Trade Center
1992 - Auvers-sur-Oise (France) - Homage to Van Gogh, at the Musée Daubigny
1992 - London (England) - Homage to Van Gogh, White Leys
1992 - London (England) - Homage to Van Gogh, at the Atrium Gallery
1992 - Beijing (China) - Homage to Van Gogh, at the Imperial Palace
1992 - Tokyo (Japan) - Homage to Van Gogh, at The United Nations University
1992 - Paris (France) - Homage to Van Gogh, at the Galerie Debret
1993 - Bogotá (Colombia) - Homenaje a Van Gogh, at the Museum of Modern Art
1995 - Belo Horizonte MG - Portraits, at Pace Galeria
1995 - Miami (United States) - Individual
1995 - Salvador BA - Flores, at the MCR Art Gallery
1996 - Porto Alegre RS - Mutations : Portraits of Bracher, at Galeria Tina Zappoli
1996 - London (England) - Individual
1998 - São Paulo SP - individual, at IEB/USP
1998 - Brasília DF - Individual, at the Zumbi dos Palmares Cultural Space of the Chamber of Deputies
2001 - Belo Horizonte MG - Five times Bracher, at the Pampulha Art Museum
2002 - Belo Horizonte MG - Individual, at the Oboé Cultural Center
Collective exhibitions
1957 - Juiz de Fora MG - Municipal Salon of Fine Arts
1959 - Juiz de Fora MG - Municipal Hall of Belas Arts - 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 - Collective, in the Hall of the Department of Education
1963 - Juiz de Fora MG - Municipal Salon of Fine Arts - Silver Medal
1963 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 14th National Salon of Fine Arts
1965 - Belo Horizonte MG - Collective, in the Hall of the Department of Education
1965 - Juiz de Fora MG - Municipal Salon of Fine Arts - Gold Medal
1967 - Belo Horizonte MG - Collective, in the hall of the Department of Education
1967 - Juiz de Fora MG - Municipal Hall of Fine Arts - Special Room
1967 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 18th National Salon of Fine Arts - Exterior 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), collective with Juarez Machado
1969 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Brazilian contemporary landscape, at the Instituto Brasil-Estados Unidos, Ibeu
1969 - São Paulo SP - 1st Fair of Plastic Arts, of the International Association of Plastic Arts, at the Hilton Hotel
1970 - Paris (France) - press conference, at Galerie Bernhein-Jeune
1970 - Paris (France) - Salon Saint Honoré - Matignon, at the Galerie Transposition
1971 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 50 years of Brazilian art, at MAM / RJ
1972 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, at the Instituto Brasil-Estados Unido, Ibeu
1973 - Belo Horizonte MG - Global Hall, at the Art Museum
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 the AMI Gallery
1975 - Belo Horizonte MG - 10 national artists, at the AMI
1976 - Belo Horizonte MG - 4th Global Hall, at Palácio das Artes - Special Room
1976 - Belo Horizonte MG - Artistas Mineiros, at the UFMG Colleges
1976 - Belo Horizonte MG - Nello Nuno Hall, 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 the Palácio das Artes
1977 - Belo Horizonte MG - Gilberto Collection Chateaubriand, at Palácio das Artes
1977 - Juiz de Fora MG - Inaugural Exhibition, at the Chapel Gallery of Arts
1979 - Belo Horizonte MG - Collective with Álvaro Apocalypse, at AMI
1980 - Belo Horizonte MG - Hilton Highlights of Painting, at Palácio das Artes
1980 - Brasília DF - Hilton Highlights of Painting, at the Cultural Foundation
1980 - Curitiba PR - Hilton Highlight of Painting, at the Theater Guaíra
1980 - Porto Alegre RS - Hilton Highlight of Painting, at Margs
1980 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Hilton Highlights of Painting, at MAM/RJ
1980 - São Paulo SP - Hilton Highlights of Painting, at MAM/SP
1981 - Belo Horizonte MG - 8th Global Hall, at Palácio das Artes - Special Room
1981 - Belo Horizonte - Minas Gerais art in the Palácio das Foundation Arts
1981 - Belo Horizonte MG - Six artists from Minas, at AMI Art Gallery
1981 - Brasília DF - Collective, at the Cultural Foundation of Brasília
1981 - Juiz de Fora MG - Os Bracher, at Galeria Pró-Música
1981 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Collective, at MAM/RJ
1981 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 8th Global Winter Salon, at MAM/RJ 
1981 - São Paulo SP - Collective, at MAM/SP
1981 - São Paulo SP - 8th Global Winter Hall, at MASP 
1982 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Primavera com Flores, at Cláudio Gil Studio de Arte
1983 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Self-portrait in Brazilian painting, at the Banerj Art Gallery
1983 - Santiago de Chile (Chile) - Collective with Fani Bracher
1983 - São Paulo SP - 14th Current panorama of Brazilian art, at MAM/SP
1984 - Belo Horizonte - Inauguration Exhibition, at the Cemig Gallery
1984 - Belo Horizonte MG - The Hero's Face, at Palácio das Artes
1984 - Brasília DF - Painting Brazilian active, at the Cultural Foundation
1984 - Curitiba PR - Simões de Assis Art Gallery: Inaugural Exhibition, at Simões de Assis Art Gallery
1984 - Rio de Janeiro - Takes the road from Minas, at the Hotel Nacional
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Self-portrait, at Aliança Français
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian painting active, at Espaço Petrobras
1985 - Belo Horizonte MG - The portrait of the collector Gilberto Chateaubriand and the self-portraits, at the Cemig Gallery
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, in the Banerj
1985 - São Paulo SP - The mothers and the flower in the vision of 33 painters, at the Ranulpho Art Gallery
1986 - Belo Horizonte MG - 18th National Salon of Art, at the Museum of Art - Special Room
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Painting and Poetry, at the BNDES Gallery
1987 - Curitiba PR - Contemporary Artists, at Simões de Assisi Art Gallery
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 to see the world, at Ranulpho Art Gallery
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Eco Art, at MAM/RJ 
1992 - São Paulo SP - 7th Brazilian Art Salon, at the Mokiti Okada Foundation
1993 - Fortaleza CE - 23 years old, at the Ignez Fiuza Galeria
1994 - Ouro Preto MG - The identity virtual, at the Inconfidência Museum
1995 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Mineira Landscape. Minas Além das Gerais
1995 - Belo Horizonte MG - Inaugural Exhibition Nuance Art Gallery, at Nuance Art Gallery
1995 - Fortaleza CE - 46th Salon of April
1995 - Minas Gerais - The landscape of Minas, in the GALLERY OF TURMINAS
1995 - MINAS GERAIS - MINAS, FROM TERRA TO MAN, at the 14th Congress of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
1995 - São Paulo SP - 14th Exhibition of Contemporary Artists of Sociarte
1995 - São Paulo SP - Brazil-Japan Art, at the Mokiti Okada Foundation
1996 - Belo Horizonte MG - Improvisation for Guignard, at the Bamerindus Seguros Cultural Space
1996 - London (England) - collective Cynthia Bourne Gallery
1996 - Porto Alegre RS - Human Nature, at the Tina Zappoli Gallery
1996 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Twice Minas - Fani and Carlos Bracher, at the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil
1997 - Curitiba PR - Casa Cor Sul, at Simões de Assis Galeria de Art
1999 - Curitiba PR - Highlights of Brazilian Painting, at Simões de Assis Art Gallery
1999 - São Paulo SP - 6th São Paulo Art and Antiquity Salon, at the Hebrew Society
2000 - Brasília DF - Collective with Fani Bracher, in the exhibition hall of the Cultural Space of the Chamber of Deputies
2001 - Belo Horizonte MG - Exhibition of the Great Masters of the National painting, at Galeria Michelângelo
2001 - Fortaleza CE - Portraits: Belchior seen by great names and by himself, at the Oboé Cultural Center
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 the Cultural Center of Federal Justice
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - BrazilianArt Project, at Almacén Art Gallery
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Treasures of the box: Brazilian modern art in the Caixa collection, Caixa Cultural Complex
2005 - Porto Alegre RS - The meeting, at the Tina Zappoli Gallery
Source: Itaú Cultural
