Iole de Freitas (Belo Horizonte MG 1945)
Sculptor, printmaker and multimedia artist.
She studied design at the Escola Superior de Desenho Industrial - ESDI in Rio de Janeiro. In 1970, she moved to Milan, where she worked as a designer at Olivetti's Corporate Image Studio under the architect Hans von Klier. Between 1973 and 1981, she produced experimental work in photography and Super-8 film, in which the representation of the body emerges as the main theme. In the early 1980s, she turned to the three-dimensional field, making the Aramões, dense structures of wire, tubes, saws and fabric. In 1986, she received a Fulbright-Capes grant for research at the Museum of Modern Art - MoMA in New York. From 1987 to 1989, she was director of Funarte's Instituto Nacional de Artes Plásticas in Rio de Janeiro. In 1991, she received the Vitae Visual Arts Grant. She teaches sculpture at the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage - EAV/Parque Lage in Rio de Janeiro. In the 1990s, she began making large-scale sculptures. Some works are designed for specific sites, such as the Capela do Morumbi in São Paulo and the Galpão Embra in Belo Horizonte. These works reveal a dialogue with the exhibition space and its architectural elements. The sculptures made between 1995 and 1997 are more fluid, executed in semi-transparent materials.
Critical Commentary
Iole Antunes de Freitas came into contact with avant-garde art through dance, which she studied in her youth. Between 1964 and 1965, she studied design at the Escola Superior de Desenho Industrial - ESDI in Rio de Janeiro. Five years later, she moved to Milan, working as a designer for Olivetti. She began working as an artist in 1973. In her early works she explored her own image, photographed or filmed. According to the art critic Sônia Salzstein, "the language of the work takes shape as photographic sequences, experimental films and installations (...) The body is a structuring element; it touches on questions related to female identity and the organization of the image of one's own body".1
In 1984, abandoning photographic images, the artist turned to the production of reliefs. She used wire, cords, tubes, cloth and metal mesh. These pieces are called Aramões. According to the art critic Rodrigo Naves, in them "the fragmentation that appeared in the photographs takes on a new, denser and more meaningful aspect (...) The questions of the work find a more direct and plastic expression, without the need for literal reference to the human body".2 In 1988, the pieces became more structured, frequently using metal mesh to construct volumes.
The relationship between architecture and sculpture became increasingly present in Iole de Freitas's work. In 1996, metal mesh was placed directly in the exhibition space, without supporting structures. The following year, works in perforated metal mesh and slate were included in her retrospective at the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo - MAM/SP and at the Paço Imperial in Rio de Janeiro.
In 1999, she installed the piece Dora Maar na Piscina [Dora Maar in the Pool] at the Museu do Açude in Rio de Janeiro. She used materials such as stainless steel tubing and polycarbonate, which gave her sculpture a new look. The artist composes more intense sinuous forms that seek to bring a new dynamic to the place where they are installed.
Notes
1 FREITAS, Iole de. Iole de Freitas. Rio de Janeiro: Centro de Arte Hélio Oiticica, 2000. p.52.
2 NAVES, Rodrigo. Entre lugar e paisagem. In: BASBAUM, Ricardo (org.). Arte contemporânea brasileira: texturas, dicções, ficções, estratégias. Rio de Janeiro: Rios Ambiciosos, 2001. 413 p. (N-Imagem). p.133
Critiques
"The works point to our ignorance. They force perception to forget. They demand a new sensory organization. Of Iole's earlier works, they keep only the question of the body present, at the center. Not depicted and kept at a distance, the body remains the door, now invisible, through which we enter. It is from the body that we must set out to reinvent space - the space we do not know and which is in the works. And it is the most archaic bodily schemes that these sculptures contradict and mock, starting with upright posture, which we have agreed to call human, and which humans first teach, through blackmail, to their most domestic animal. The gaze must forget so as not, crudely put, to 'end up on all fours'. No horizon, no verticality, and even the volumes are ineffable. From Nature they bring an aerial component that I cannot call lightness without risking belittling the intelligent negation of gravity, of mass, that these sculptures carry out. In this invented space there has been a radical act of reduction".
Paulo Sérgio Duarte
FREITAS, Iole de. Iole de Freitas. Rio de Janeiro: Galeria Paulo Klabin, 1987.
"The principle of her sculptures is simple: the structure of the work results solely from the elements needed to keep it 'standing'. Nothing is there that does not fulfill a specifically structural function. When the steel rod can hold the mesh in the desired position, it is left as it is, with no superfluous additions or subtractions. But once the idea and the gesture exceed the strict limits for which the material was conceived, tension arises - the contradiction - from which the work is structured".
Reynaldo Roels Jr.
ROELS JR., Reynaldo. Iole de Freitas. Galeria: Revista de Arte, São Paulo, n. 19, p. 41, 1990.
"Dance was Iole's first training. Even before learning to read, that is, before being introduced to the most established codes for representing thought and emotion, the artist found herself immersed in a universe where knowledge of the world and the representation of subjectivity take shape through the body moving in time and space, brushing against air and light. If this background allowed Iole to establish herself on the international scene of the 1970s (a period in which she lived in Europe for eight years) as one of the most compelling artists linked to performance and body art, it undoubtedly also allowed her to infuse the territory of the visual arts with that special kind of perception of the world so characteristic of dance, when, on returning to Brazil in the 1980s, she turned to questions closer to the visual arts. In the pieces (...) there is, therefore, a reasoning, a knowledge of the body in time and space which, though not originating in the territory of the visual arts, radically contaminates it, causing all the limits that hold its main modalities in tension to expand, forming an amalgam that ends up broadening the very concept of art and decisively breaking the canonical separation between the 'arts of space' (painting, sculpture) and the 'arts of time' (dance, theater). Her current works are, I would say, the culmination of an extremely singular process by an artist who, although in recent years she has chosen the visual arts as her preferred form of expression, has known how not to confine the expression of her experience of the world to the narrowness of the parameters established for these modalities. On the contrary, she has brought to them a distinct and apparently unusual knowledge, which has only served to further expand their expressive possibilities".
Tadeu Chiarelli
CHIARELLI, Tadeu. Artista coreografa formas espaciais: Iole de Freitas. O Estado de S. Paulo, São Paulo, 15 set. 1994. Caderno 2, p. D2.
Biennials
1974 - Biennale di Venezia “Arte e Cinema”, Italy
1975 - IX Biennale de Paris, France
1981 - XVI Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil
Solo Exhibitions
1974 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo exhibition of photographic sequences, with screenings of her films Light Work and Elements, at Galeria Luiz Buarque de Holanda e Paulo Bittencourt
1976 - Milan (Italy) - Solo, with installation and photographic sequence, at Galleria Giancarlo Bocchi
1978 - São Paulo SP - Retrospective of her 1970s work: video, films and photographic sequences, at Galeria Arte Global
1982 - São Paulo SP - Harmonia dos Mistos [Harmony of the Mixed], at Foto Galeria Fotóptica
1984 - São Paulo SP - Aramões, at Galeria Arco
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Paulo Klabin
1987 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Margs
1988 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud
1990 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Paço Imperial
1992 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud
1993 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Anna Maria Niemeyer
1994 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Casa de Cultura Mario Quintana, in the Arte Brasileira Contemporânea series of the Instituto de Artes Visuais do Rio Grande do Sul
1994 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud
1995 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at MNBA
1995 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Paço Imperial
1997 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Anna Maria Niemeyer
1997 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud
1997 - São Paulo SP - O Corpo da Escultura: a obra de Iole de Freitas 1972-1997 [The Body of Sculpture: The Work of Iole de Freitas 1972-1997], at MAM/SP
1999 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at MAP
2002 - Niterói RJ - Sobrevoo [Overflight], at MAC/Niterói
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Iole de Freitas: esculturas [Iole de Freitas: Sculptures], at Galeria Anna Maria Niemeyer
2002 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Centro Universitário Maria Antonia
2002 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud
2003 - Brasília DF - Expansão [Expansion], at CCBB
2004 - São Paulo SP - Conversa Contemporânea [Contemporary Conversation], at Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud
2004 - Vila Velha ES - Uns Nadas [A Few Nothings], at Museu Vale do Rio Doce
Group Exhibitions
1973 - São Paulo SP - 7th Young Contemporary Art, at MAC/USP
1973 - São Paulo SP - Expo-Projeção 73, at Espaço Grife
1975 - Belgrade (Yugoslavia) - Festival of Expanded Media
1975 - Paris (France) - 9th Paris Biennale
1976 - Belgrade (Yugoslavia) - Photographie as Art Work, at Muzej Savremene Umetnosti
1976 - Frankfurt (Germany) - Körpersprache, at Kunstverein
1976 - Innsbruck (Austria) - Women Art New Tendencies, at Galerie Krinzinger
1977 - Milan (Italy) - Corpo e Figura, at Palazzo della Permanente
1977 - Montreal (Canada) - 03 23 03 - Premières Rencontres Internationales d'Art Contemporain
1977 - Ravenna (Italy) - Arte e Cinema, at Pinacoteca Comunale di Ravenna
1977 - Rome (Italy) - L'Occhio dell'Immaginario, at Galleria d'Arte Moderna
1978 - Venice (Italy) - Venice Biennale
1980 - Milan (Italy) - Quasi Cinema, at Centro Internazionale di Brera
1981 - São Paulo SP - 16th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1981 - São Paulo SP - 2nd São Paulo Salon of Visual Arts, at Paço das Artes
1981 - São Paulo SP - Contemporary Brazilian Artists, at Escritório de Arte São Paulo
1981 - São Paulo SP - Foto/Ideia [Photo/Idea], at MAC/USP
1984 - Paris (France) - Corpo e Alma [Body and Soul], at Espaço Latino-Americano
1984 - São Paulo SP - Tradition and Rupture: A Synthesis of Brazilian Art and Culture, at Fundação Bienal
1987 - São Paulo SP - Foto/Ideia [Photo/Idea], at MAC/USP
1988 - São Paulo SP - 19th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Rio Today, at MAM/RJ
1989 - São Paulo SP - 10 Sculptors, at Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud
1991 - Belo Horizonte MG - Junia Penna, Fabíola Moulin, Mabe Bethônico, Marconi Drummond Lage, Nydia Negromonte, Ricardo Homem, Roberto Bethônico, Solange Pessoa and Iole de Freitas, at EMBRA
1991 - São Paulo SP - 22nd Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1991 - São Paulo SP - O Clássico Contemporâneo [The Contemporary Classic], at Paço das Artes
1992 - Curitiba PR - 10th Curitiba City Printmaking Show/America Show, at Museu da Gravura
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Contemporary Art, at EAV/Parque Lage
1992 - São Paulo SP - The Seduction of Volumes: The Three-Dimensional Works of the MAC, at MAC/USP
1992 - São Paulo SP - Anos 60/70: Coleção Gilberto Chateaubriand/Museu de Arte Moderna-RJ [The 1960s/70s: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection/Museu de Arte Moderna-RJ], at Galeria de Arte do Sesi
1994 - Caracas (Venezuela) - Cartographies: 14 Latin American Artists, at Museo Alejandro Otero
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1ª Poética da Reflexão [1st Poetics of Reflection], at Galeria I do Conjunto Cultural da CEF
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Cartographies: 14 Latin American Artists, at EAV/Parque Lage
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Trenches: Art and Politics in Brazil, at MAM/RJ
1994 - São Paulo SP - 2ª Arte Cidade: a cidade e seus fluxos [2nd Arte Cidade: The City and Its Flows], at Vale do Anhangabaú (Edifício Guanabara, Banco do Brasil, Edifício da Eletropaulo)
1994 - São Paulo SP - Contaminated Photography, at CCSP
1994 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Brasil Século XX [20th Century Brazil Biennial], at Fundação Bienal
1994 - Winnipeg (Canada) - Cartographies: 14 Latin American Artists, at Winnipeg Art Gallery
1995 - Lausanne (Switzerland) - Rio: mistérios e fronteiras [Rio: Mysteries and Frontiers], at Musée de Pully
1995 - Londrina PR - Brazilian Art: Confrontations and Contrasts, at Pavilhão Internacional Octávio Cesário Pereira Júnior
1995 - Madrid (Spain) - Cartographies, at Espaço la Caixa
1995 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Rio: mistérios e fronteiras [Rio: Mysteries and Frontiers], at MAM/RJ
1995 - São Paulo SP - Between Drawing and Sculpture, at MAM/SP
1996 - Caracas (Venezuela) - Entretelas, at Museo Alejandro Otero
1996 - Niterói RJ - Brazilian Contemporary Art in the João Sattamini Collection, at MAC/Niterói
1996 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Rio Biennial, at MAM/RJ
1996 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Rio: mistérios e fronteiras [Rio: Mysteries and Frontiers], at MAM/RJ
1996 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Transparencies, at MAM/RJ
1996 - São Paulo SP - 2nd United Artists: Utopia, at Casa das Rosas
1996 - São Paulo SP - Women Artists in the MAC Collection, at MAC/USP
1997 - Curitiba PR - Contemporary Printmaking, at Museu Metropolitano de Arte de Curitiba
1997 - São Paulo SP - 3rd United Artists: Light, at Casa das Rosas
1997 - São Paulo SP - Precursores e Pioneiros Contemporâneos [Contemporary Precursors and Pioneers], at Paço das Artes
1997 - São Paulo SP - Three-Dimensionality in 20th-Century Brazilian Art, at Itaú Cultural
1998 - Belo Horizonte MG - Group show, at Galeria de Arte Celma Albuquerque
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 Galeria Itaú Cultural
1998 - Niterói RJ - Mirror of the Biennial, at MAC/Niterói
1998 - Penápolis SP - Three-Dimensionality in 20th-Century Brazilian Art, at Galeria Itaú Cultural
1998 - Ribeirão Preto SP - The Dimensions of Contemporary Art, at Museu de Arte de Ribeirão Preto Pedro Manuel-Gismondi
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Art in the Collection of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo: Recent Donations 1996 - 1998, at CCBB
1998 - São Paulo SP - 24th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1998 - São Paulo SP - The Art of Exhibiting Art, at MAM/SP
1998 - São Paulo SP - Transitive Forms: Brazilian Art, Construction and Invention 1970/1998, at Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud
1998 - São Paulo SP - The Modern and the Contemporary in Brazilian Art: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection - MAM/RJ, at Masp
1999 - Belém PA - 5th Unama Small Format Salon, at Universidade da Amazônia. Galeria de Arte
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Mostra Rio Gravura [Rio Printmaking Show]. Impressões Contemporâneas [Contemporary Impressions], at Paço Imperial
2000 - Lisbon (Portugal) - 20th Century: Art of Brazil, at Centro de Arte Moderna José de Azeredo Perdigão
2000 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Situations: Brazilian Art of the 1970s, at Fundação Casa França-Brasil
2000 - São Paulo SP - Brasil + 500 Rediscovery Exhibition, at Fundação Bienal
2000 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Sculpture: From the Pinacoteca to the Jardim da Luz, at Pinacoteca do Estado
2000 - São Paulo SP - Investigations. The Artist's Work, at Itaú Cultural
2001 - Campinas SP - (Almost) Ephemeral Art, at Itaú Cultural
2001 - Oxford (England) - Experiment Experiência: Art in Brazil 1958-2000, at Museum of Modern Art
2001 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Spirit of Our Time, at MAM/RJ
2001 - São Paulo SP - The Spirit of Our Time, at MAM/SP
2002 - Niterói RJ - The Recent MAC Collection, at MAC/Niterói
2002 - Niterói RJ - Coleção Sattamini: esculturas e objetos [Sattamini Collection: Sculptures and Objects], at MAC/Niterói
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Artefoto, at CCBB
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Paths of the Contemporary 1952-2002, at Paço Imperial
2002 - São Paulo SP - 12 Sculptures, at Galpão de Design
2002 - São Paulo SP - Form and the Technical Image in the Art of Rio de Janeiro: 1950-1975, at Paço das Artes
2002 - São Paulo SP - Photographs in the Collection of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, at MAM/SP
2003 - Brasília DF - Artefoto, at CCBB
2003 - Madrid (Spain) - ARCO/2003, at Parque Ferial Juan Carlos I
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilianart Project, at Almacén Galeria de Arte
2003 - São Paulo SP - The Subversion of Media, at Itaú Cultural
2003 - São Paulo SP - ARCO 2003, at Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud
2003 - São Paulo SP - Marcantonio Vilaça - Contemporary Passport, at MAC/USP
2003 - Vila Velha ES - The Salt of the Earth, at Museu Vale do Rio Doce
2004 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 30 Artists, at Mercedes Viegas Escritório de Arte
2004 - São Paulo SP - Contemporary Art: An Open History, at Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud
Source: Itaú Cultural, Sampa.art.br
