Gil Vicente (Recife PE 1958)
Painter, draftsman, printmaker, photographer and sculptor. He began his studies at the Escolinha de Artes do Recife in 1972 and, from 1974, also attended the studios of the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco - UFPE. In 1975, he won first prize at the Salão dos Novos of the Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Olinda, Pernambuco. In 1978, he held his first solo exhibition, Pinturas, Desenhos e Gravuras [Paintings, Drawings and Prints], at Galeria Abelardo Rodrigues, Recife. That year, he took part in founding the Oficina Guaianases de Gravura. After finishing secondary school, he devoted himself exclusively to the visual arts. He won a scholarship from the French government and studied in Paris from 1980 to 1981. In 1984, he exhibited at the 15th Panorama da Arte Atual Brasileira at the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo - MAM/SP. In 1989, in Recife, he took part in the Ateliê Coletivo, where he made woodcuts under the guidance of Gilvan Samico (1928). The documentary Gil Vicente - Ofício e Silêncio [Gil Vicente - Craft and Silence] was released alongside the exhibition Figuras/Pinturas [Figures/Paintings] in 1996, at Galeria Futuro 25, Recife. From then on, his solo exhibitions traveled to several Brazilian cities. In 2001, he took part in the 3rd Bienal de Artes Visuais do Mercosul in Porto Alegre and, the following year, in the 25th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo.
Critical Commentary
Gil Vicente's work keeps to materials such as paper, pencil, charcoal, India ink, gouache, oil and canvas, and to traditional techniques such as printmaking, photography and sculpture. The artist does not seek to innovate or to mix materials and supports, although he recognizes that in contemporary art it is possible to work with anything. This simplicity of means is matched by an attempt to reduce as much as possible the personal style he associates with mannerism.
In the 1997 exhibition Sessenta Cabeças e Outros Desenhos [Sixty Heads and Other Drawings], he uses only India ink and charcoal on white paper, which allows for a play of contrasts. In the drawings, the black background establishes a deep solitude enveloping the figures. In the heads, he emphasizes anguished features that disfigure the faces, which always lack something.
In the 2002 show Guaches Recentes [Recent Gouaches], he works with color and the consistency of paint, making use of overlays and broad, quick brushstrokes, exploring large areas of color, although the tones are restrained. The subject matter remains close: bodies and objects that evoke the solitude of human life.
In Suite Safada [Naughty Suite], 2005, the artist covers book pages with India ink, leaving only parts of the spaces between the words uncovered, thereby revealing pornographic scenes hidden in these veins.
This respect for the characteristics of the material is one facet of his rigor. Melancholic, as he says, Gil Vicente does not refrain from expressing his political opinions. An eloquent example is the 2007 series Inimigos [Enemies], in which he portrays himself violently killing current political leaders, from Lula and Bush to Benedict XVI and Queen Elizabeth II.
Critiques
"This quality, which we may call communicability, is the primary characteristic of the pictorial output of this restless artist from Pernambuco, who is not bound to intellect, to a style or to any particular technique. In his paintings, the drawing is perfect and the paint is worked with care, in thin layers and smooth textures, giving his compositions an aesthetic refinement that has nothing to do with exoticism or with the elaborate forms that populate modern painting. (...) Fruit, vegetables and tropical settings are a constant theme for the artist, but it is portraits and nudes that have occupied his most recent canvases. (...) At first sober and restrained, Gil now seems to have matured in his way of living everyday life, loosening up and breaking with an introspection that shadowed his compositions".
Luiz Fernando Freire
GIL Vicente. Ventura, Rio de Janeiro: Spala, n.4, p.100-110, jun./ago. 1988.
Solo Exhibitions
1978 - Recife PE - Gil Vicente: Paintings, Drawings and Prints, at Abelardo Rodrigues Galeria de Artes
1980 - Olinda PE - Gil Vicente: Paintings and Drawings, at MAC/PE
1982 - Recife PE - Gil Vicente: Paintings, at Galeria Futuro 25
1983 - Belém PA - Gil Vicente: Gouaches, at Elf Galeria de Arte
1984 - Recife PE - Gil Vicente: Paintings, at Galeria Futuro 25
1986 - Recife PE - Gil Vicente: Landscapes, at Galeria Futuro 25
1987 - Fortaleza CE - Solo, at Duailibe Galeria
1988 - Recife PE - Gil Vicente: Recent Gouaches, at Officina Galeria
1990 - Recife PE - Gil Vicente: Paintings, at Galeria Vicente do Rego Monteiro
1993 - Recife PE - Gil Vicente: Still Lifes, at Galeria Futuro 25
1996 - Recife PE - Gil Vicente: Paintings, at Galeria Futuro 25
1997 - Salvador BA - Paintings with a Model, at Paulo Darzé Galeria de Arte
1997 - São Paulo SP - Sixty Heads, at Galeria Nara Roesler
1998 - João Pessoa PB - Sixty Heads and Other Drawings, at Núcleo de Arte Contemporânea
1998 - Salvador BA - Sixty Heads and Other Drawings, at MAM/BA
1999 - Recife PE - Gil Vicente: Drawings, at MAMAM
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Gil Vicente: Drawings, at MAM/RJ
2000 - Porto Alegre RS - Gil Vicente: Drawings, at MAC/RS
2003 - Curitiba PR - Solo, at Museu Metropolitano de Arte de Curitiba
2004 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Nara Roesler
Group Exhibitions
1975 - Olinda PE - Salão dos Novos [New Artists Salon], at MAC/PE - first prize
1976 - Recife PE - 29th Official Art Salon, at Museu do Estado de Pernambuco
1977 - Olinda PE - Gil Vicente, Aprígio and Frederico, at Galeria Corredor
1977 - Recife PE - 30th Official Art Salon, at Museu do Estado de Pernambuco - first prize in painting
1977 - Recife PE - New Pernambuco Artists, at Museu do Estado de Pernambuco
1977 - Recife PE - Drawing and Printmaking, at Abelardo Rodrigues Galeria de Artes
1978 - Curitiba PR - 1st Curitiba Annual Printmaking Show, at Centro de Criatividade
1978 - Recife PE - 31st Official Art Salon, at Museu do Estado de Pernambuco
1979 - Belo Horizonte MG - Brazilian Lithography, at Fundação Palácio das Artes
1979 - Curitiba PR - 2nd Curitiba Annual Printmaking Show, at Centro de Criatividade
1979 - Recife PE - 7 Artists in Focus, at Galeria de Arte
1979 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Oficina Guaianases, at Galeria Gravura Brasileira
1980 - Curitiba PR - 37th Paraná Salon, at Teatro Guaíra
1980 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 3rd National Visual Arts Salon
1980 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 3rd National Visual Arts Salon, at MNBA
1980 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Gil Vicente, Maria Tomaselli and Luciano Pinheiro, at Centro Cultural Candido Mendes
1981 - Piracicaba SP - 14th Piracicaba Contemporary Art Salon, at Casa das Artes Plásticas
1981 - Recife PE - 34th Pernambuco Visual Arts Salon, at Museu do Estado de Pernambuco - Funarte prize
1981 - Recife PE - Panorama of Current Art in Pernambuco, at Galeria Lula Cardoso Ayres
1982 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 5th National Visual Arts Salon, at MAM/RJ
1983 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 6th National Visual Arts Salon, at MAM/RJ
1984 - São Paulo SP - 15th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Open-Air Painting, at Centro Cultural Candido Mendes. Grande Galeria
1986 - Belém PA - 5th Arte Pará Salon, at Fundação Romulo Maiorana
1986 - Brasília DF - Pernambuco Artists in Brasília, at ECT Galeria de Arte
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Five from Pernambuco, at Galeria Ibeu Copacabana
1987 - Recife PE - Imagination and Sexuality, at Galeria Massangana
1987 - Recife PE - José Cláudio and Gil Vicente, at Museu do Estado de Pernambuco
1988 - Curitiba PR - 8th Grupo Guaianases, at Museu Municipal de Arte
1988 - Recife PE - Gil Vicente, Gilvan Samico and José Barbosa, at Estudio A Galeria de Arte
1988 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Five from Pernambuco, at Galeria de Arte Ibeu Copacabana
1988 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Fascinating World of Naïve Painters, at Paço Imperial
1989 - Olinda PE - Viva Olinda Viva, at Atelier Coletivo
1989 - Recife PE - The Nature of Painting, at Centro Cultural Adalgisa Falcão
1989 - São Paulo SP - Color of Pernambuco, at Ranulpho Galeria de Arte
1990 - Olinda PE - Permanence of Painting, at Atelier Coletivo
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Ateliê Coletivo, at Centro Cultural Candido Mendes
1993 - Hamburg (Germany) - Atelier Coletivo, at Km Wolff
1994 - Recife PE - Battle of Guararapes: A Contemporary View, at Museu do Estado de Pernambuco
1996 - Recife PE - Art and Religion, at Galeria Futuro 25
1997 - Recife PE - The Role of Art, at Espaço Cultural Bandepe
1997 - Recife PE - Seeing the Verse, at Museu de Arte Moderna Aloísio Magalhães
1997 - São Paulo SP - The Face of the Other, at Galeria Nara Roesler
1998 - Fortaleza CE - Ceará and Pernambuco: Dragons and Lions, at Centro Dragão do Mar de Arte e Cultura
1998 - New York (United States) - Art International New York, at Neuhoff Gallery
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Seen Like This from Above It Looks More Like a Sky on the Ground, at MAM/RJ
1999 - São Paulo SP - Northeasts, at Sesc Pompeia
2000 - Recife PE - Ateliê Pernambuco: Tribute to Bajado and the Mamam Collection, at MAMAM
2001 - Porto Alegre RS - 3rd Bienal de Artes Visuais do Mercosul
2002 - Curitiba PR - Works from Faxinal das Artes, at MAC/PR
2002 - Recife PE - In Seven Times, at Amparo Sessenta Galeria de Arte
2002 - São Paulo SP - 25th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Fundação Bienal
2002 - São Paulo SP - Six Artists at the 25th Bienal de São Paulo, at Galeria Nara Roesler
2003 - Madrid (Spain) - ARCO/2003, at Parque Ferial Juan Carlos I
2003 - Recife PE - See Again/See the New, at MAMAM
2003 - São Paulo SP - ARCO 2003, at Galeria Nara Roesler
Source: Itaú Cultural
