Darel Valença Lins (Palmares PE 1924 - Rio de Janeiro RJ 2017)
Darel Valença Lins was a printmaker, painter, draftsman, illustrator and teacher. He studied at the Escola de Belas Artes do Recife, now the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE), between 1941 and 1942, while also working as a technical draftsman. In 1946, he moved to Rio de Janeiro. He studied intaglio printmaking with Henrique Oswald (1918–1965) at the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios in 1948 and, two years later, came into contact with Oswaldo Goeldi (1895–1961). He worked as an illustrator for several periodicals, such as Manchete magazine and the newspapers Última Hora and Diário de Notícias. Between 1953 and 1966, he was responsible for the publications of the Sociedade dos Cem Bibliófilos do Brasil.
With the foreign travel prize he received at the Salão Nacional de Arte Moderna (SNAM) in Rio de Janeiro in 1957, he went to Italy, where he stayed until 1960. He illustrated many books, such as Memórias de um Sargento de Milícias [Memoirs of a Militia Sergeant] (1957), by Manuel Antônio de Almeida (1831–1861); Poranduba Amazonense (1961), by Barbosa Rodrigues (1842–1909); São Bernardo (1992), by Graciliano Ramos (1892–1953); and A Polaquinha (2002), by Dalton Trevisan (1925). He taught intaglio printmaking at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (MASP) in 1951; lithography at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes (Enba) in Rio de Janeiro, between 1955 and 1957; and at the Faculdade de Artes Plásticas of the Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado (Faap) in São Paulo, from 1961 to 1964. Between 1968 and 1969, he made panels such as those for the Palácio dos Arcos, headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Brasília.
Critical Commentary
Darel works in several techniques (drawing, printmaking and painting), with an output marked by two main themes: imaginary cities, and angels and machines. As the critic Frederico Morais notes, the cities Darel creates are seen from above or from afar. The artist does not describe specific places, he only suggests houses, streets or buildings. The human figure is not clear either; it appears as an arabesque or a blot. From the 1970s onward, his work changes: what was distant comes closer, and the figures also become more concrete. In the view of the critic Roberto Pontual, the landscapes of favela houses, the views of Italian cities and the angels struggling with machines all reveal the artist's characteristically expressionist interest in the dynamics of light and dark and of full and empty. In some works, Darel's output comes close to fantastic realism.
Critiques
"Figuration, in Darel, is not reduced to an end point, as if he wished to fix reality in its immediate evidence; it is, on the contrary, an instrument for commentary and transcendence, sometimes tempering its dramatizing device through constructive hints or, more often, intensifying it in the direction of fantastic realism. Thus, whether in the landscapes of favela houses suspended in the air of the paper, or in the views evoking old cities of Spain and Italy, heavy with time; whether in the angels in dialogue and struggle with the machine, spirit touching matter, or in the demonology now unleashed in his painting, alchemically armed with color and anguish, it is Darel's calligraphic agility, his characteristically expressionist interest in light and dark and in full and empty, that stands out most as purpose and method. Above all, in his own words, he is drawn to organizing, 'within a poetic climate, birds and machines, machines and people, people and topography and cities. In another sphere, the influence of the social milieu in which I live shows through, everything related to the reality of man. Obviously, I am not attached to the stereotyped forms of nature, nor to traditional sources of inspiration and images. I am besieged by ideas that arise with irrepressible force and that must be translated into invented signs'."
Roberto Pontual
PONTUAL, Roberto. Arte/Brasil/hoje: 50 anos depois. São Paulo: Collectio, 1973.
"Viscerally committed to the human figure, Darel only came to draw his first landscapes in Spain, when he was there on the travel prize he received at the Salão Nacional de Arte Moderna in 1957. 'The European landscape spoke to my pencil', he explains, adding: 'Or perhaps because there was no cane field nor all that social drama I lived through in the interior of Pernambuco'. In Darel's landscapes the city is organized in the distance, seen from above, from afar. He does not describe specific situations; he only suggests buildings, houses, streets, alleys and pulleys, ramps, wires. For a city works like an absurd machine, grinding man up as if inside a gear. From 1978 onward his work changes. What was distant (the city) comes closer; what floated (the angel and/or two-faced female figure) comes down to Earth and becomes flesh and blood. What was merely suggested gains sharpness; color enters his drawing. It is as if Darel had decided to walk the streets of his imaginary city, eager to get to know its people, men and women, settings and brothels. The city became real; it exists, it has a name: it is Imbariê, in the Baixada Fluminense."
Frederico Morais
MORAIS, Frederico. Dacoleção: os caminhos da arte brasileira. Introdução de Cesar Luis Pires de Mello. São Paulo: Júlio Bogoricin Imóveis, c1986.
"There is no doubt that there is a world, an original and personal cosmic vision inherent in Darel's visual language: in drawing and printmaking, in oil painting and in watercolors, the city emerges with its hidden corners and its symbolic monuments. Urban life attains a choral drama, in which the plurality of plastic elements mirrors the multiplicity of subjects at work in the author's soul; the scattered experiences and the crossed influences of the metropolis meet and live in a form of incisive, rapid strokes in drawing, and in numerous, delimited fields of color in painting."
Pedro Manuel Gismondi
GISMONDI, Pedro Manuel. [texto]. In: O Estado dos Afetos: desenho e gravura. Curitiba, 1991. [Texto de apresentação da mostra individual, realizada na Galeria Seta, em 1965.]
"(...) beauty and nightmare mark Darel's work. How can these two words be united - only Darel knows, because he lives his dreams, not as an unreal man, but as a man. Who inhabits the enormous cities if not Darel himself, who dreams and idealizes? Dreaming and idealizing are the ideal of a man, of a woman. In Darel, besides the artistic side itself, there is a concern with the totality of the human being in its fullness. The powerless clash of the individual with the machine. The dark cities where one or another lit window attests that they are inhabited. Psychoanalyzed or not, he is a great artist, and I have something to say about the resplendent mystery of his work. From it, from the print as much as from the oil and the drawing, emanates the great mystery of living."
Clarice Lispector
LISPECTOR, Clarice. Gravuras de Darel [álbum], edição única realizada por Julio Pacello, 1968. In: TRÊS mestres da gravura em metal: Darel, Grassmann, Gruber. São Paulo, 1995.
Testimonials
"Then I began to learn printmaking. I met Poty, Goeldi, Augusto Rodrigues, Iberê Camargo and Henrique Oswald, who was my first teacher; I called him Lilico. He died young. (...)
I learned printmaking with Henrique Oswald at the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios, where you didn't pay anything, there were materials and a fabulous press. I remember that when I walked in and saw a guy making a print, I immediately thought: 'This is a cinch'. And I made a little print. When I pulled the proof, I was disappointed. It was an extremely difficult thing. (...)
Nobody made lithographs anymore in the 1950s; it had entered a period of total decline. In the 1940s, lithography was what printed magazines like O Malho and A Semana. It was the offset of the time. It was used not as artistic work, but in the press. (...)
So I bought a press and set it up on Rua Taylor, in Lapa, trying to revive lithography in the artistic sense. I remembered Munch, the Norwegian painter who made lithographs in the 1910s as an artistic expression.
In that workshop I made only lithographs; I was a teacher not tied to the Belas Artes, I was an independent teacher and made a point of being so. I didn't want to be an Enba professor. I also wanted to show that lithography was a form of artistic expression and not a mere reproduction process. (...)
The three great woodcut artists in Brazil, in my opinion, are Goeldi, Lívio Abramo and Marcelo Grassmann. (...) Grassmann did things that looked simple. He cut along the grain, a very simple thing, but his expression is something else! Lívio Abramo was refinement itself; he had 300 tiny pieces to cut and did it on end grain. He did a lot on end grain, full of impressionism (...).
When I started making lithographs, I thought the lithographer was someone who drew and printed, and I was wrong. (...) I realized (...) that there is a division: there is the lithographer and there is the printer. It dawned on me when I had a flash of insight and argued with myself: 'Given Lautrec's size, his physique, if it weren't for the printers he would never have made a single lithograph'. Nowadays the printer is indispensable. There are even those who know how to handle the stone.
The artist, the lithographer, knows all the chemistry of lithography. Lautrec used to say: 'You learn to make a lithograph in two hours, and you make a lithograph in six years'. He knew the subject well. Today there is the so-called AP, the artist's proof. He stays next to the printer, making several attempts to get his blacks right, to choose his reds, his blues. Once the color and the tones are defined, whether it will be in graphite or dense black, this or that, he makes the AP. The artist does not stand over the press to make 300 lithographs."
Darel Valença Lins - [Sesc Tijuca, 21 de dezembro de 1986]
GRAVURA brasileira hoje II: depoimentos. Rio de Janeiro: Oficina de gravura SESC-Tijuca, 1995. v. 2
Solo Exhibitions
1949 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Biblioteca Nacional
1951 - Recife PE - Darel: Painting and Drawing, at Gabinete Português de Leitura
1952 - Milan (Italy) - Darel, at Galeria Stendhal
1953 - São Paulo SP - Darel: Intaglio Prints, at Masp
1958 - Rome (Italy) - Solo, at Galeria Il Siparietto
1960 - São Paulo SP - Darel: Drawings, at Galeria São Luís
1961 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Petite Galerie
1963 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Solo, at Galeria Lascaux
1963 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Darel: Paintings and Drawings, at Petite Galerie
1964 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Darel: Paintings and Drawings, at Petite Galerie
1965 - Rome (Italy) - Darel: Watercolor, Drawing and Printmaking, at Galeria de Arte da Casa do Brasil
1965 - Rome (Italy) - Darel: Drawing and Watercolor, at Palazzo Doria Pamphili
1965 - São Paulo SP - Darel: Watercolor, at Seta Galeria de Arte
1966 - Olinda PE - Darel: Paintings, at MAC/PE
1967 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Mirante das Artes
1968 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Darel: Paintings, at Gabinete Barcinski
1969 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Studies for the Palácio dos Arcos Panels, at MAM/RJ
1969 - São Paulo SP - Darel: Painting and Drawings, at Galeria Cosme Velho
1970 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Grupo B
1972 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Cosme Velho
1972 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria No Sobrado
1973 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Darel: Paintings, at Galeria Vernissage
1973 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Múltipla de Arte
1975 - Brussels (Belgium) - Darel: Drawings and Watercolors, at Palais des Beaux-Arts
1976 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Galeria Oficina de Arte
1977 - Copenhagen (Denmark) - Darel: Drawings and Watercolors, at Cat Galeria
1978 - São Paulo SP - Darel: Drawings and Watercolors, at Cristina Faria de Paula Galeria de Arte
1979 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Darel: Drawings and Watercolors, at Galeria Gravura Brasileira
1980 - Curitiba PR - Darel 1970-1980, at Biblioteca Pública do Paraná
1981 - Porto Alegre RS - Darel: Watercolor, Printmaking and Tempera, at Galeria do Centro Comercial de Porto Alegre
1981 - Porto Alegre RS - Darel: Painting, Drawing and Lithography, at Galeria Guignard
1981 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Darel: Paintings and Drawings, at Galeria César Aché
1981 - São Paulo SP - Darel: Drawings, at Galeria Ars Artis
1982 - Vitória ES - Darel: Recent Lithographs and Drawings, at Galeria de Arte e Pesquisa da Ufes
1985 - Recife PE - Darel: 30 Years Later, at Galeria Futuro 25
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Darel: Lithographs, at Galeria Gravura Brasileira
1985 - São Paulo SP - Darel: Recent Paintings and Drawings, at Galeria Alberto Bonfiglioli
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Darel: Lithographs, at Galeria Paulo Cunha
1987 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Darel: Paintings
1987 - São Paulo SP - Darel: Intaglio Prints and Lithographs, at Galeria Intersul
1988 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Darel: The 1970s
1990 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo
1991 - Curitiba PR - The State of Affections, at Sala Miguel Bakun IV
1991 - Curitiba PR - The State of Affections, at Solar do Rosário
1991 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Darel: Intaglio and Lithography, at MNBA
1991 - São Paulo SP - Darel: The Space of the Artist as a Young Man, at Paço das Artes
1996 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Darel: Drawing, Intaglio and Lithography, at Instituto Cultural Villa Maurina
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Darel: Printmaking, Photomontage, Lithography and Plotting
Group Exhibitions
1948 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 54th National Salon of Fine Arts, at MNBA - bronze medal in printmaking
1952 - Feira de Santana BA - 1st Feira de Santana Modern Art Exhibition, at Banco Econômico
1952 - Recife PE - 1st Recife Modern Art Salon - printmaking prize
1952 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st National Salon of Modern Art - domestic travel prize
1952 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Exhibition of Brazilian Artists, at MAM/RJ
1954 - Goiânia GO - Exhibition of the National Congress of Intellectuals
1954 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Black and White Salon, at Palácio da Cultura
1956 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Railway Salon, at MEC
1957 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 6th National Salon of Modern Art - foreign travel prize
1958 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Sea Salon
1961 - São Paulo SP - 6th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Pavilhão Ciccilo Matarazzo Sobrinho
1962 - São Paulo SP - Marcelo Grassmann, Eduardo Sued, Oswaldo Goeldi and Darel, at Galeria Residência
1962 - São Paulo SP - Selection of Brazilian Artworks from the Ernesto Wolf Collection, at MAM/SP
1963 - São Paulo SP - 7th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Fundação Bienal - best national draftsman prize
1963 - São Paulo SP - Marcelo Grassmann and Darel, at Seta Galeria de Arte
1964 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 2nd The Face and the Work, at Galeria Ibeu Copacabana
1964 - Tokyo (Japan) - 4th International Biennial Exhibition of Prints
1965 - Bonn (Germany) - Brazilian Art Today
1965 - London (England) - Brazilian Art Today, at Royal Academy of Arts
1965 - Lugano (Switzerland) - 9th Esposizione Internazionale di Bianco e Nero
1965 - São Paulo SP - 8th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Fundação Bienal
1965 - Vienna (Austria) - Brazilian Art Today
1966 - Cornell (United States) - Contemporary Brazilian Printmakers, at Universidade de Cornell
1966 - Lugano (Switzerland) - 10th Esposizione Internazionale di Bianco e Nero
1966 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Artist and the Machine, at MAM/RJ
1966 - São Paulo SP - The Artist and the Machine, at Masp
1967 - São Paulo SP - 9th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Fundação Bienal
1969 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 7th JB Art Summary, at MAM/RJ
1969 - São Paulo SP - 1st Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1972 - Curitiba PR - 29th Paraná Salon, at Teatro Guaíra - guest artist - acquisition prize/drawing
1972 - São Paulo SP - Art/Brazil/Today: 50 Years Later, at Galeria da Collectio
1976 - São Paulo SP - 8th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1979 - Curitiba PR - 1st Brazilian Drawing Show, at Museu de Arte do Paraná
1979 - São Paulo SP - 15th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Fundação Bienal
1980 - Curitiba PR - 3rd Curitiba Annual Printmaking Show, at Casa da Gravura Solar do Barão
1980 - São Paulo SP - 12th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1981 - São Paulo SP - 6th Art at the Centro Campestre, at Centro Campestre Sesc Brasílio Machado Neto
1982 - Penápolis SP - 5th Northwest Visual Arts Salon, at Fundação Educacional de Penápolis. Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Penápolis
1983 - Olinda PE - 2nd Exhibition of the Abelardo Rodrigues Visual Arts Collection, at MAC/PE
1983 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 6th National Visual Arts Salon, at MAM/RJ
1984 - Ribeirão Preto SP - Brazilian Printmakers of the 1950s/60s, at Galeria Campus USP-Banespa
1984 - São Paulo SP - 15th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1984 - São Paulo SP - Tradition and Rupture: A Synthesis of Brazilian Art and Culture, at Fundação Bienal
1985 - Penápolis SP - 6th Northwest Visual Arts Salon, at Fundação Educacional de Penápolis. Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Penápolis
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 8th National Visual Arts Salon, at MAM/RJ
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Encounters, at Petite Galerie
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Old Habit: Brazilian Drawing, at EAV/Parque Lage
1985 - São Paulo SP - 100 Itaú Works, at Masp
1985 - São Paulo SP - 18th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Fundação Bienal
1985 - São Paulo SP - Highlights of Brazilian Contemporary Art, at MAM/SP
1986 - Curitiba PR - 7th Collection of the National Print Museum - Casa da Gravura, at Museu Guido Viaro
1986 - Porto Alegre RS - Paths of Brazilian Drawing, at Margs
1988 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Pioneers and Disciples, at Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. Centro de Arte Moderna José de Azeredo Perdigão
1989 - Olinda PE - Viva Olinda Viva, at Atelier Coletivo
1989 - Recife PE - Memory Game
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Memory Game, at Montesanti Galleria
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Printmaking: 4 Themes, at EAV/Parque Lage
1989 - São Paulo SP - Memory Game, at Galeria Montesanti Roesler
1990 - Curitiba PR - 9th Curitiba City Printmaking Show, at Museu da Gravura - guest artist/special lithography gallery
1990 - Curitiba PR - 9th Guest Artists: Lithographs, at Casa Romário Martins
1991 - Curitiba PR - Museu Municipal de Arte: Collection, at Museu Municipal de Arte
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Fine Art Printmaking in Brazil: A Proposal for Mapping, at CCBB
1992 - Santo André SP - Lithography: Methods and Concepts, at Paço Municipal
1993 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Brazilian Matrices and Prints: Guita and José Mindlin Collection, at Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. Centro de Arte Moderna José de Azeredo Perdigão
1994 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Brasil Século XX, at Fundação Bienal
1994 - Beijing (China) - Contemporary Art in Brazil: Works on Paper, at Yan Huang Art Museum
1995 - São Paulo SP - Three Masters of Intaglio Printmaking: Darel, Grassmann, Gruber, at Museu Banespa
1996 - São Paulo SP - Ex Libris/Home Page, at Paço das Artes
1997 - Barra Mansa RJ - Contemporary Lines: Tribute to Brazilian Printmaking, at Centro Universitário de Barra Mansa
1997 - São Paulo SP - The Artists' City, at MAC/USP
1998 - São Paulo SP - Impressions: The Art of Brazilian Printmaking, at Espaço Cultural Banespa
1998 - São Paulo SP - The Collectors - Guita and José Mindlin: Matrices and Prints, at Galeria de Arte do Sesi
1999 - Niterói RJ - Rio Printmaking Show: Banerj Collection, at Museu Histórico do Ingá
1999 - São Paulo SP - Lithography: Fidelity and Memory, at Espaço de Arte Unicid
2000 - Curitiba PR - Badep Collection Exhibition, at SEEC
2000 - São Paulo SP - Investigations. Brazilian Printmaking, at Itaú Cultural
2000 - São Paulo SP - Art Market no. 9, at Ricardo Camargo Galeria
2000 - São Paulo SP - The Angels Are Back, at Pinacoteca do Estado
2001 - Brasília DF - Collections of Brazil, at CCBB
2001 - Brasília DF - Investigations. Brazilian Printmaking, at Itaugaleria
2001 - Penápolis SP - Investigations. Brazilian Printmaking, at Galeria Itaú Cultural
2001 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Image of the Sound of Antônio Carlos Jobim, at Paço Imperial
2001 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Watercolor, at Centro Cultural Light
2002 - Passo Fundo RS - Prints: Paulo Dalacorte Collection, at Museu de Artes Visuais Ruth Schneider
2002 - Porto Alegre RS - Drawings, Prints, Sculptures and Watercolors, at Garagem de Arte
2002 - Porto Alegre RS - Prints: Paulo Dalacorte Collection, at Museu do Trabalho
2003 - São Paulo SP - Entre Aberto, at Gravura Brasileira
2004 - São Paulo SP - New Acquisitions: 1995 - 2003, at MAB/Faap
Source: Itaú Cultural
