César Romero (Feira de Santana BA 1950)
Graphic artist, illustrator, photographer, critic, physician.
César Romero de Oliveira Cordeiro began his career as a painter in Bahia in 1967. He took part in several salons in Brazil. He produced posters, company logos, graphic projects and record covers. In the late 1970s he wrote regularly about art in newspapers and magazines in Bahia. At that time, he served on the jury of several official salons in the region. He exhibited in Primitive Paintings from Bahia, at the Art Gallery of the Brazilian American Cultural Institute, in Washington DC, United States, in 1973. He is a member of the Association Internationale des Arts Plastiques/AIAP and of Unesco's International Association of Art. In 1979 he received the Personality of the Year award, Outstanding Man of the Northeast 78, in Recife. In 1980 and 1981 he took part in group exhibitions in Hannover, Cologne and Berlin (Germany); Barcelona, Madrid and Bilbao (Spain); and Lisbon (Portugal). In 2001, he opened a solo exhibition at MAM da Bahia, on which occasion he launched a CD-ROM, two videos and a book written by the art critic Jacob Klintowitz.
Critiques
"César Romero's art is based on a constant process of synthesis around his symbols, created not to show the spiritual problems of man, but as a personal script with which to say what he thinks of them and of the way people live today. (...) By choosing symbolism, César Romero avoids the obviousness of direct illustration and leads the viewer to decipher his motifs, for he states his themes so precisely that his intent remains clear. His work is investigative and seeks to uncover the ironies inherent in conveying ideas, without neglecting the secondary aspects that contribute to the aesthetic experience. Calculating, he does not welcome unpredictable accidents and, although his process is one of synthesis, his technique is cumulative, drawing on well-known forms that he adopts, adapts, modifies and combines to give them a meaningful existence. (...) To accommodate the multiplicity of his messages, he invades other territories of creativity and incorporates legacies of literary components or of popular music. (...) Schemes of geometric and optical origin are also frequently worked out by his thinking. The richness of these references is deliberate and tends to balance inspiration, exposed to the rigorous test of the conditioned experiment, which predetermines its results. What first catches the eye in César Romero's work is the clean technique, the beautiful color combinations that may even seem to be all there is. Only later, taking our time, do we begin to notice the meaning of what at first seems to be mere form (...)".
Matilde Matos
CESAR Romero: abordagem: pinturas. Apresentação de Matilde Matos. s.l.: Galeria da Pousada do Carmo, 1976.
Solo Exhibitions
1972 - Aracaju SE - Solo, at Galeria Álvaro Santos
1976 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Museu de Arte da Bahia
1978 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Portal Galeria de Arte
1986 - Brasília DF - Emblematic Bands, at La Galleria
1989 - Salvador BA - Emblematic Bands, at MABA
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Emblematic Bands, at Galeria Bonino
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria de Arte Toulouse
Group Exhibitions
1971 - Salvador BA - 1st Salon of New Artists of the Northeast, at Teatro Castro Alves - honorable mention
1972 - Salvador BA - Bahia 1970s Decade - I.C.B.A.
1973 - Santo André SP - 6th Santo André Contemporary Art Salon, at Paço Municipal
1973 - Washington (United States) - Primitive Paintings From Bahia, at Art Gallery of the Brazilian American Cultural Institute
1975 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Instinct and Popular Creativity, at MNBA
1975 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Bahian Painters, at Petite Galerie
1978 - Brasília DF - Brazilian Santeiros in Bahia de Todos os Santos, at MAB/DF
1978 - Salvador BA - Brazilian Santeiros in Bahia de Todos os Santos, at MABA
1980 - Berlin (Germany) - Moderne Brasilianische Kunst
1980 - Cologne (Germany) - Moderne Brasilianische Kunst
1980 - Feira de Santana BA - 1st Visual Arts Salon, at Museu Regional - honorable mention
1980 - Hannover (Germany) - Moderne Brasilianische Kunst
1980 - Salvador BA - Proposta 80, at MAM/BA - guest artist
1981 - Barcelona (Spain) - 20th Premi Internacional de Dibuix Joan Miró - Fundación Joan Miró
1981 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Exhibition, at Sala de Exposição Mairie de Vila Real
1981 - Madrid (Spain) - Exhibition, at Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Madri
1981 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Artists from Bahia, at Galeria do Ibeu
1982 - Bilbao (Spain) - Muestra Internacional de Arte Gráfica de Bilbao
1983 - Salvador BA - Bahia-Africa-Bahia, at Museu de Arte da Bahia
1983 - São Paulo SP - Contemporary Artists from Bahia and Projeto Arte na Rua, at MAC/USP
1984 - Feira de Santana BA - 2nd Visual Arts Salon, at Museu Regional - special room
1984 - Fortaleza CE - 7th National Visual Arts Salon
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 7th National Visual Arts Salon, at MAM/RJ
1985 - Campinas SP - 12th Campinas Contemporary Art Salon
1985 - São Paulo SP - The Popular as Matrix, at MAC/USP
1985 - São Paulo SP - 2nd Pirelli Young Painting Prize, at Masp
1987 - Santiago (Chile) - 5th Concurso del PREALC, at Galeria Carmen Waugh
1987 - São Paulo SP - 20th Contemporary Art Exhibition, at Chapel Art Show
1988 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Bahia en el Centro, at Centro Cultural de Buenos Aires
1988 - Olinda PE - 41st Pernambuco Contemporary Art Salon, at Centro de Convenções de Pernambuco
1988 - Paris (France) - Man and His Beliefs, at Brasil Inter Art Galerie
1996 - São Paulo SP - Norfest´96: Visual Arts, at D&D Shopping
1997 - Salvador BA - A Toast to Coffee, at Espaço Cafelier
1998 - Paris (France) - Bahia à Paris: arts plastiques d'aujourd'hui, at Galerie Debret
1998 - Salvador BA - Tropicália 30 Years: 40 Bahian Artists, at MAM/BA
1999 - Curitiba PR - Arte-Arte Salvador 450 Years, at Fundação Cultural de Curitiba. Solar do Barão
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Arte-Arte Salvador 450 Years, at Museu Histórico da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro
1999 - Salvador BA - 100 Visual Artists from Bahia, at Museu de Arte Sacra
1999 - Salvador BA - Arte-Arte Salvador 450 Years, at MAM/BA
2002 - São Paulo SP - Contemporary Artists: ABCA Prize 2000/2001, at CCBB
Source: Itaú Cultural
