Carlos Fajardo (São Paulo SP 1941)
Carlos Fajardo is a multimedia artist. From 1963 to 1972, he attended the architecture course at the Universidade Mackenzie, in São Paulo. In the 1960s, he studied painting, drawing, visual communication and art history with Wesley Duke Lee, as well as contemporary music with Diogo Pacheco. In 1966, he took part in founding the Grupo Rex with Wesley Duke Lee, Nelson Leirner, Frederico Nasser, Geraldo de Barros and José Resende, also becoming co-editor of the newspaper Rex Time.
In 1970, he founded the Escola Brasil: together with Luiz Paulo Baravelli, Frederico Nasser and José Resende. He studied intaglio printmaking with Babinski and lithography with Regina Silveira. Early in his career, he worked with various techniques, making objects, paintings, collages, drawings and prints. From 1981, he began exhibiting paintings made up of sets of canvases and painted wooden surfaces, merely leaning against the walls, creating a space between the planes.
Later, he turned to sculpture, exploring questions such as weight, gravity and the support of works on the ground. In 1987, he received the Bolsa Ivan Serpa grant from Funarte and, in 1989, the Bolsa Vitae de Artes. Since 1996, he has taught in the visual arts department of the Escola de Comunicações e Artes of the Universidade de São Paulo (ECA/USP).
Critical Commentary
Early in his career, Carlos Fajardo was influenced by his teacher of drawing, painting, visual communication and art history, Wesley Duke Lee (1931 - 2010). He began with drawing, which, according to the artist, was at the time "the basic support of his plastic reasoning".1 In 1966, he began making figurative works on modified surfaces and took part in founding the Grupo Rex. For an exhibition of the group, he made the sculpture Neutral (1966), a cube of transparent acrylic sheets. For the first time, his work dispensed with figuration and the marks of artistic making. The cube is built on an objective relationship with the materials and follows a set of instructions created by the artist. This detached relationship with the work was influenced by Minimalism, especially Donald Judd (1928 - 1994).2
In 1969, he made the first Fórmicas: paintings made with regular scraps of the material. In the series, the forms repeat in different colors, without the slightest trace of craft. Fajardo composes the pictures with impersonal procedures. With his colleagues Luiz Paulo Baravelli (1942), Frederico Nasser (1945) and José Resende (1945), he founded the Escola Brasil: in 1970. His teaching took up much of his time. From 1977, he painted a series of canvases with figures of women, such as Três Horas/diferentes Pessoas/em Santos/fora de Casa [Three Hours/different People/in Santos/away from Home].
In 1981, Fajardo took on a new relationship with painting. His surfaces grew and were divided into juxtaposed parts. Unity is formed through the relationship of one part to another. Some of these works were shown at the 16th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo. According to the artist, at that time his work "(...) begins to call for large expanses. One has to relate to it in its physical aspects and take into account the distance it sets between things".3 From then on his production lies between painting, sculpture and installation. He articulates the objects with one another in space and incorporates the interval between the pieces. Commenting on his 1989 exhibition at the Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud, the art critic Rodrigo Naves stated that the show "presupposes the close interaction of the works and not merely the lazy juxtaposition of isolated productions".4
From the 1990s onward, he incorporated the most diverse materials and procedures into his work. In 1998, he defended his doctoral thesis at the Escola de Comunicações e Artes of the Universidade de São Paulo - ECA/USP. In 2003, he held the retrospective Poética da Distância [Poetics of Distance], which traveled to several Brazilian cities.
Notes
1 Statement by Carlos Fajardo to Sônia Salzstein in an interview conducted between September and November 2002, published in: FAJARDO, Carlos. Poética da distância. São Paulo: Petrobras, 2003. p. 14.
2 Idem p.15 - 16.
3 Idem p. 20.
4 NAVES, Rodrigo. Fajardo expõe a solidão da arte contemporânea. Folha de S. Paulo. São Paulo, March 2, 1989. Ilustrada, p. 1.
Critiques
"Utterly disregarding the question of their origin, Fajardo's objects locate their genesis in the excess of their presence. What lies behind these phenomena is strictly the same thing that presents itself so immediately to us. And yet, amid this impassive solidity, unaccounted-for impulses slip by, wholly detached from the materials that generate them - an estrangement between the stimulus and its source. Once again matter is an obstacle to the development of sensations rather than their source. Indifferent to the medium that surrounds them, the sensations find themselves grappling with a radical lassitude that produces a true abstraction of the senses".
Rodrigo Naves
NAVES, Rodrigo. Um mar de costas. Gabinete de Arte: Victor Grippo, Hércules Barsotti, Marco do Valle, Eduardo Sued, Carlos Fajardo. São Paulo: Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud, 1984.
"His works move along the limits of art, as Walter Zanini wrote: 'A theoretical position incisively governs the behavior of Carlos Fajardo, interested in proposing an opening toward other structures for defining art. He creates new and delicate relationships between work and viewer (...)'. (...) The work itself is his field of action. Sound, heat, light and movement are attributed to traditionally silent, motionless, cold pieces, forcing a tension between the intrinsic physicality of the object (iron, plastic, etc.) and the result. And time, through its natural action on matter, is called upon to intervene, as in his concrete cube, transforming it. (...) Frederico Morais observed of Fajardo: '(...) He paints with his eyes, that is, he chooses painting where it is found, or rather, in the very materials used in the construction of things that are not painting. (...) Formica sheets, iron plates or air mattresses. He limits himself to bringing them together, to setting up certain chromatic equations with them (...) between the heaviness of the iron plate (and this sensation is purely visual) and the lightness of the colored plastic mattresses, between full and empty (...)'".
Gabriela S. Wilder
EM BUSCA da essência: elementos de redução na arte brasileira. Apresentação de Sheila Leirner. Texto de Gabriela S. Wilder. São Paulo: Fundação Bienal, 1987. (XIX Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, 1987).
"Carlos Fajardo's sculptures are traps that capture the gaze. The gaze tends to flow continuously through space, bouncing off the body of things, winding around or running quickly along their contours, sliding over the turned edges of the world's topography. The most ethereal of the senses, the gaze spreads through transparencies and only stops when confronted with the opaque. It may then retreat, choose another direction or take advantage of its liquid nature and flow through cracks and edges until it reaches the light. But Fajardo's sculptures work as treacherous bodies that ensnare the gaze on their surfaces, inject it with gravity, forcing it to land and spend time in a patient and problematic scrutiny. Three logics converge in Carlos Fajardo's poetics: that of the occupation of space, that of the surface and that of the formalizing gesture. They compete with one another in the assault on the viewer's eye. (...) The logic of inserting his works into space, whether an architectural setting or a landscape, is rigorously conceived with the aim of destroying from the outset any a priori pretension of the eye, accustomed to wanting to control everything from its comfortable vantage point".
Agnaldo Farias
FARIAS, Agnaldo. Fajardo, Carlos Fajardo. Texto de Agnaldo Farias. Veneza: Exposição Internacional de Arte, 1993. n. p. 45. Bienal de Veneza.
Testimonials
"An artist's oeuvre consists of a coherent body of subjects addressed along his path. Looking at the group of my works included in this text, I perceive even more clearly the marked changes and transformations, the undifferentiated use I make of two-dimensionality and three-dimensionality, and I ask myself where, along this path, I recognize a topography, the landscapes and meeting points that are familiar to me, that is, what is common to my works that gives it the name of an oeuvre?
I recognize, then, that at least one subject is present in all of them and that perhaps this is what gives them unity and permanence: the treatment of the surface. I think that, in painting, the surface is a kind of trap for color, and color moves, in the sequence of my works, from pigment to the texture of materials. I recognize, then, that it is these transformations in the treatment of the surface that lead me to the three-dimensional, to installations, to physical space, which is, after all, the skin of the world".
Carlos Fajardo
FAJARDO, Carlos. Poéticas visuais: a profundidade e a superfície. São Paulo: USP. ECA, 1998. p. 58. (Tese de Doutorado)
Collections
Acervo Museu de Arte do Rio Grande do Sul Ado Malagoli - Margs - Porto Alegre RS
Coleção Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo - MAC/USP - São Paulo SP
Coleção Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo - MAM/SP - São Paulo SP
Coleção Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro - MAM/RJ - Rio de Janeiro RJ
Fundação Demócrito Rocha - Fortaleza CE
Museu de Arte Contemporânea José Pancetti - MACC - Campinas SP
Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand - Masp - São Paulo SP
Solo Exhibitions
1978 - São Paulo SP - Solo - paintings, at Galeria Luisa Strina
1980 - São Paulo SP - Solo - collages, at Galeria Luisa Strina
1980 - São Paulo SP - Solo - prints, at Galeria Universo
1983 - São Paulo SP - Solo - paintings, at Galeria Luisa Strina
1984 - Niterói RJ - Painting, at Galeria de Arte da UFF
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Fajardo, at MAM/RJ
1984 - São Paulo SP - Fajardo, at MAC/USP
1984 - São Paulo SP - Sculpture, at Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud
1987 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Sculpture Cycle - installation, at Galeria Sérgio Milliet/Funarte
1988 - Vitória ES - Installation, at Galeria Usina
1989 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud
1991 - São Paulo SP - Carlos Fajardo: Sculptures, at Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud
1991 - São Paulo SP - Installation, at Capela do Morumbi
1992 - Asunción (Paraguay) - Sculptures, at Centro de Estudos Brasileiros - Embaixada do Brasil
1992 - Pelotas RS - Installation, at UFRGS
1992 - Porto Alegre RS - Brazilian Contemporary Art Project - sculpture and installation, at Casa de Cultura Mario Quintana
1992 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria André Millan
1996 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Objetos Direto [Direct Objects], at Galeria Paulo Fernandes
1997 - São Paulo SP - Solo: sculptures and drawings, at A.S Studio
1998 - São Paulo SP - Visual Poetics: Depth and Surface, at Paço das Artes
1999 - Vitória ES - Installation, at Galeria de Arte e Pesquisa do Centro de Arte/Ufes
2000 - São Paulo SP - Sculptures, at Galeria Millan - Rua Fradique Coutinho
2003 - Porto Alegre RS - Poetics of Distance, at Margs
2003 - Recife PE - Poetics of Distance, at MAM/PE
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Poetics of Distance, at Centro de Arte Hélio Oiticica
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Poetics of Distance, at MAM/RJ
2003 - Salvador BA - Poetics of Distance, at MAM/BA
2003 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Dan Galeria
2003 - São Paulo SP - Poetics of Distance, at Pinacoteca do Estado
Group Exhibitions
1966 - São Paulo SP - Discovery of America, at Rex Gallery
1966 - São Paulo SP - Flash Back, at Rex Gallery
1966 - São Paulo SP - Galeria Rex: Inaugural Exhibition, at Rex Gallery & Sons
1967 - São Paulo SP - 1st Young Contemporary Art, at MAC/USP
1967 - São Paulo SP - 9th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Fundação Bienal
1968 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Baravelli, Fajardo, Nasser and Resende, at Petite Galerie
1968 - São Paulo SP - Baravelli, Fajardo, Nasser and Resende, at Galeria Art-Art
1968 - São Paulo SP - Grupo Rex Exhibition
1970 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Baravelli, Fajardo, Nasser and Resende, at MAM/RJ
1970 - São Paulo SP - Baravelli, Fajardo, Nasser and Resende, at MAC/USP
1971 - Asunción (Paraguay) - Carlos Fajardo, Frederico Nasser, Luiz Paulo Baravelli, at Galeria da Missão Cultural Brasileira
1972 - Asunción (Paraguay) - Luiz Paulo Baravelli, Frederico Nasser, José Resende and Carlos Fajardo, at Galeria da Missão Cultural Brasileira
1972 - São Paulo SP - 1st São Paulo National Biennial, at Fundação Bienal - guest artist
1972 - São Paulo SP - Art/Brazil/Today: 50 Years Later, at Galeria da Collectio
1972 - São Paulo SP - Art Exhibition for the Sesquicentennial of Independence and Brasil Plástica - 72, at Fundação Bienal
1973 - Campinas SP - 9th Campinas Contemporary Art Salon, at MAC/Campinas - guest artist
1973 - São Paulo SP - 5th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art: Paintings, at MAM/SP
1974 - São Paulo SP - Galeria Luisa Strina: Inaugural Exhibition, at Galeria Luisa Strina
1974 - Campinas SP - 9th Campinas Contemporary Art Salon, at MAC/Campinas - guest artist
1976 - São Paulo SP - Art at the Centro Campestre, at Sesc/Pompeia
1978 - São Paulo SP - The Object in Art: Brazil in the 1960s, at MAB/Faap
1978 - Venice (Italy) - 39th Venice Biennale
1978 - São Paulo SP - Papers & Co., at Paço das Artes
1979 - São Paulo SP - Drawing as Instrument, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1979 - São Paulo SP - Return to the Figure: The 1960s, at Museu Lasar Segall
1981 - São Paulo SP - 16th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Fundação Bienal
1981 - São Paulo SP - Contemporary Brazilian Artists, at Escritório de Arte São Paulo
1982 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Between the Stain and the Figure, at MAM/RJ
1983 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 3 x 4 Large Formats, at Galeria do Centro Empresarial Rio
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Wood, Material of Art, at MAM/RJ
1984 - São Paulo SP - Tradition and Rupture: A Synthesis of Brazilian Art and Culture, at Fundação Bienal
1984 - São Paulo SP - Victor Grippo, Hércules Barsotti, Marco do Valle, Eduardo Sued, Carlos Fajardo, at Gabinete de Arte
1985 - Niterói RJ - A Light on the City, at Galeria de Artes UFF
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 8th Visual Arts Salon, at Funarte
1985 - São Paulo SP - 16th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art: Three-Dimensional Forms, at MAM/SP
1985 - São Paulo SP - Tendencies of the Artist's Book in Brazil, at CCSP
1986 - Fortaleza CE - 1st International Exhibition of Ephemeral Sculptures, at Fundação Demócrito Rocha
1986 - Porto Alegre RS - 1st Porto Alegre City Arts Festival
1986 - São Paulo SP - The New Dimension of the Object, at MAC/USP
1986 - São Paulo SP - Pedra dura em água molha, tano bate até que dura, at Museu da Casa Brasileira
1987 - Porto Alegre RS - 2nd Porto Alegre City Arts Festival, at Atelier Livre da Prefeitura de Porto Alegre
1987 - São João del Rei MG - 19th UFMG Winter Festival
1987 - São Paulo SP - 19th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo - In Search of Essence, at Fundação Bienal
1988 - Poços de Caldas MG - 20th UFMG Winter Festival
1988 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Exhibition of the Prototypes of the Competition A Sculpture for the Sea of Angra, at EAV/Parque Lage
1988 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - A Sculpture for the Sea of Angra, at EAV/Parque Lage
1988 - São Paulo SP - 63/66 Figure and Object, at Galeria Millan
1989 - Nova Almeida ES - 1st Ufes Summer Festival
1989 - São Paulo SP - 10 Sculptors, at Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud
1989 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Painting of the 19th and 20th Centuries: Works from the Banco Itaú Collection, at Galeria Itaú Cultural
1990 - Caxias do Sul RS - Drawings, at Universidade de Caxias do Sul
1990 - Nova Almeida ES - 2nd Ufes Summer Festival
1991 - Curitiba PR - 48th Paraná Salon, at MAC/PR
1991 - Los Angeles (United States) - Los Angeles International Art Fair
1991 - São Paulo SP - 22nd Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1991 - São Paulo SP - National x International in Brazilian Art, at Paço das Artes
1992 - Campinas SP - Award Winners of the Campinas Contemporary Art Salons, at MACC
1992 - Curitiba PR - 2nd Winter Festival, at UFPR
1992 - Niterói RJ - Galeria de Arte UFF: 10 Years, at Galeria de Arte da UFF
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st On the Way to Niterói: João Sattamini Collection, at Paço Imperial
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Gravity and Appearance, at MNBA
1992 - São Paulo SP - The Seduction of Volumes: The Three-Dimensional Works of the MAC, at MAC/USP
1992 - São Paulo SP - Annual Visual Arts Exhibition Program, at CCSP
1993 - Antonina PR - 3rd Winter Festival
1993 - Bogotá (Colombia) - Group show, at Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango
1993 - Caracas (Venezuela) - Cartographies, at Museo Alejandro Otero
1993 - Niterói RJ - 2nd On the Way to Niterói: João Sattamini Collection, at MAC/Niterói
1993 - Ottawa (Canada) - Cartographies, at National Gallery of Canada
1993 - Winnipeg (Canada) - Cartographies, at Winnipeg Art Gallery
1993 - São Paulo SP - The Seduction of Volumes, at MAC/USP
1993 - São Paulo SP - The Cardinal Points of Art, at Casa das Rosas
1993 - Venice (Italy) - 45th Venice Biennale
1994 - Londrina PR - 3rd Londrina Art Week, at Museu de Arte de Londrina
1994 - New York (United States) - Cartographies, at Bronx Museum
1994 - Ouro Preto MG - UFMG Winter Festival
1994 - São Paulo SP - 1st Arte Cidade: City Without Windows, at Matadouro Municipal da Vila Mariana
1994 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Brasil Século XX, at Fundação Bienal
1994 - Uberlândia MG - Uberlândia City Festival, at UFU
1995 - Londrina PR - Brazilian Art: Confrontations and Contrasts, at Pavilhão Internacional Octávio Cesário Pereira Júnior
1995 - Madrid (Spain) - Cartographies, at Fundación La Caixa
1995 - São Paulo SP - 24th Panorama of Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP - Price Waterhouse Prize
1995 - São Paulo SP - Drawing in São Paulo 1956-1995, at Galeria Nara Roesler
1996 - Londrina PR - 5th Londrina Art Week
1996 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Direct Objects, at Galeria Paulo Fernandes
1996 - São Paulo SP - Excess - installation, at Paço das Artes
1996 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Galeria Millan - Rua Fradique Coutinho, Espaço 0X
1997 - Belo Horizonte MG - 25th Belo Horizonte National Art Salon
1997 - Nova Almeida ES - Ufes Summer Festival
1997 - Porto Alegre RS - 1st Bienal de Artes Visuais do Mercosul, at Fundação Bienal de Artes Visuais do Mercosul
1997 - Porto Alegre RS - Constructive Strand and Design, at Espaço Cultural ULBRA
1997 - São Paulo SP - 25th Panorama of Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1997 - São Paulo SP - 2nd National Shop Window Exhibition, at Morumbi Shopping
1997 - São Paulo SP - Cubed, at Paço das Artes
1997 - São Paulo SP - Art in Motion: Interactive Workshops, at Sesc/Pompeia
1997 - São Paulo SP - Diversity of Brazilian Contemporary Sculpture, at Avenida Paulista - Ministério da Cultura/Itaú Cultural
1997 - São Paulo SP - Three-Dimensionality in 20th-Century Brazilian Art, at Itaú Cultural
1997 - São Paulo SP - United Artists III - Light, at Casa das Rosas
1998 - Belo Horizonte MG - 25th Belo Horizonte National Art Salon, at MAP
1998 - Belo Horizonte MG - Three-Dimensionality in 20th-Century Brazilian Art, at Itaú Cultural
1998 - Brasília DF - Three-Dimensionality in 20th-Century Brazilian Art, at Itaugaleria
1998 - Maracaibo (Venezuela) - 3rd Bienal Barro de América, at Centro de Arte de Maracaibo Lia Bermúdez
1998 - Niterói RJ - 25th Panorama of Brazilian Art, at MAC/Niterói
1998 - Penápolis SP - Three-Dimensionality in 20th-Century Brazilian Art, at Itaugaleria
1998 - Recife PE - 25th Panorama of Brazilian Art, at MAM/PE
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 16th National Visual Arts Salon, at Funarte - guest artist
1998 - Salvador BA - 25th Panorama of Brazilian Art, at MAM/BA
1998 - São Paulo SP - 24th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Fundação Bienal
1998 - São Paulo SP - The 1970s, at Galeria de Arte São Paulo
1998 - São Paulo SP - Frontiers, at Itaú Cultural
1998 - São Paulo SP - Navegar é Preciso [To Sail Is Necessary], at CCSP
1998 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Barro de América Roberto Guevara, at Memorial da América Latina
1998 - Maracaibo (Venezuela) - Bienal Barro de América, at Centro de Arte de Maracaibo Lia Bermúdez
1998 - São Paulo SP - Talent Bank, at FEBRABAN
1999 - São Paulo SP - Everyday/Art. Technique - Art Machines, at Itaú Cultural
1999 - São Paulo SP - Contemporary Legacies III, at MAC/USP
1999 - São Paulo SP - Expanded Territory, at Sesc Pompeia
2000 - Curitiba PR - 12th Curitiba City Printmaking Exhibition. Marks of the Body, Folds of the Soul
2000 - Novo Hamburgo RS - Traveling Exhibition of the MAC Collection, at Centro Universitário Feevale
2000 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Situations: Brazilian Art - 1970s, at Fundação Casa França-Brasil
2000 - São Paulo SP - Brasil + 500 Rediscovery Exhibition. Contemporary Art, at Fundação Bienal
2000 - São Paulo SP - New Work, at MAC/USP
2001 - Goiânia GO - 1st Goiás National Art Salon, at Flamboyant Shopping Center
2001 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Spirit of Our Time, at MAM/RJ
2001 - São Paulo SP - The 1970s: Trajectories, at Itaú Cultural
2001 - São Paulo SP - The Spirit of Our Time, at MAM/SP
2001 - São Paulo SP - Trajectory of Light in Brazilian Art, at Itaú Cultural
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Paths of the Contemporary 1952-2002, at Paço Imperial
2002 - São Paulo SP - 25th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo - special room, at Fundação Bienal
2002 - São Paulo SP - 4th Artecidadezonaleste, at Sesc/Belenzinho
2002 - São Paulo SP - Open Opera: Celebration, at Casa das Rosas
2003 - Recife PE - See Again/See the New, at MAMAM
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Grupo Rex/Escola Brasil, at MAM/RJ
2003 - São Paulo SP - Aesthetics of the Fluid, at Espaço MAM - Villa-Lobos
2003 - São Paulo SP - MAC USP 40 Years: Contemporary Interfaces, at MAC/USP
2003 - São Paulo SP - My Friends, at Espaço MAM - Villa-Lobos
2004 - Madrid (Spain) - Arco/2004, at Parque Ferial Juan Carlos I
2004 - São Paulo SP - Contemporary Art in the Municipal Collection, at CCSP
Source: Itaú Cultural
