Ivens Machado (Florianópolis SC 1942 - Rio de Janeiro RJ 2015)
Sculptor, printmaker and painter.
Ivens Olinto Machado studied printmaking at the Escolinha de Arte do Brasil in Rio de Janeiro. He was a student of Anna Bella Geiger (1933). In the early 1970s, he made works on paper, using materials such as lined or squared sheets on which he made interventions. In 1974, he held his first solo exhibition at the Central de Arte Contemporânea in Rio de Janeiro. He was awarded in 1973 at the 5th Salão de Verão [Summer Salon] of the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro - MAM/RJ [Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro], with the installation Cerimônia em Três Tempos [Ceremony in Three Times]. His work stands out for the frequent use of building materials such as iron, concrete and clay. His works present raw forms and irregular surfaces that evoke the rough finish of poor houses. Other pieces allude to the sexual universe, through forms that allow associations with the human body. These works, made of cement, contain fragments of colonial roof tiles on their surface. Ivens Machado's work opens up to reflections on social and historical memory through its forms and materials.
Critical Commentary
In the early 1970s, Ivens Machado made works on paper using materials such as lined or squared sheets and notebooks on which he made interventions, as in the series Fluidos Corretores [Correction Fluids] (1974). At first glance, the drawings faithfully reproduce the lines of a notebook. However, the more attentive observer notices that the lines suddenly change direction, break off or remain stuck. As the critic Fernando Cocchiarale notes, the artist imposes another logic on the logic of power of this space marked out for learning. These notebook pages will never be written on. The interrupted lines, displaced from their usual context, belong to the field of art.
The following decade was marked by the artist's greater involvement with sculpture. The work Mapa Mudo [Mute Map] (1979) is a map of Brazil made with shards of green glass embedded in cement. Made during the military dictatorship, the image evokes at once the lush Brazilian forests and the walls of well-protected residences, and is also a symbol of the country's social and political borders. In the opinion of the critic Agnaldo Farias, Ivens Machado's work stands against a project unconcerned with defining the purposes and function of art - it is an art that wants to signify. With the series of objects made of cement and glass shards, Machado opposes a project of tactile art, creating objects that prevent any contact on the part of the observer.
In his production, Ivens Machado therefore starts from elements with no harmonious relationship among them, often using construction materials. He works with raw forms and irregular surfaces, generally of cement, into which other materials are embedded, such as tiles, steel rebar, wood or ceramic roof tiles. As chromatic values he uses the original tones of the materials, such as green glass or ceramic roof tiles; at times he uses pigments such as pó xadrez [powdered pigment]. A notable feature of his production is the sexual connotation of some of his works combined with the brutality of the materials - the result ranges from humor to aggression.
In sculptures such as Trambolhos e Murunduns [Lumps and Mounds] (1985), the artist recovers structures and colors that also recall popular handicrafts and the precariousness of poor dwellings. His sculptures cause strangeness by suggesting identifiable objects, forms of nature or fragments of the human body and by referring to objects of primitive cultures. In works exhibited in 1988, the objects resemble chairs or other furniture, yet they are odd and uncomfortable to look at.
The artist in some way reorganizes the codes of conventional sculpture - he still works with issues such as volume and mass - and became one of the leading representatives of his generation.
Critiques
"Against a project that was unconcerned with defining the purposes and function of art, Ivens's work represents a blockade. This is the first reason for the glass shards on the wall. A border that limits 'against'. At first sight, it is the restoration of a traditional difference. At first sight only, and I will say why. Against the idea of a tactile art, in which the work would be the accommodation of gesture and experience, Ivens's objects prevent us from any intimacy. Things cannot be touched. If I touch them, I get hurt. The removal of the tactile, of gentle handling, of good play, is materially necessary. Here, at the same time that the limit denies and keeps away, it also establishes. And this is the fundamental feature of these works. Ivens's work constitutes the initial landmarks of a territory that is the territory of art. By saying 'I am not', it also says: from here on artistic production has its own space. This is the second reason for the presence of the glass shards. First, defenses; second, foundations. So everything works like a wall - which is at the same time a divider and that which encloses the land where the house is built".
Eduardo Jardim
JARDIM, Eduardo. Demarcar o território da arte. In: MACHADO, Ivens. Ivens Machado. n. p.
"Ivens does not mold (or carve) his work. He assembles it from independent elements, which sometimes have a meaning of their own, into an autonomous unit different from the original meaning of each of them. He does not merely produce the replica of an image by combining disparate pieces, like a doll built from car parts or, more commonly, like the toucans made of shells and stones in souvenir shops. Those would be replicas, the most banal mimetic principle, whose maximum result (except in the hands of geniuses such as Picasso or Giacometti) is to produce a representation. The merit of Ivens's sculpture lies in managing to imbue his sculptures with an individuality and an existence, even if classifiable only within the category of 'cultural objects', and not according to scientific classifications (inanimate or animate, mineral, vegetable or animal). The references to 'real objects', so to speak, are explicit: mouth, turtle, wing, penis, boomerang, whatever. But they are not exhausted in themselves and create multiple associations that are only defined little by little".
Reynaldo Roels Jr.
ROELS JR., Reynaldo. Autossuficiência da escultura. Jornal do Brasil.
"Iron, cement, glass, wood. Ivens Machado's sculptures are constructions, like houses, buildings, bridges, but they are architectures without a plan. Prototypes of themselves, they are designs without design. Such a constructive repertoire could announce the terms of a certain modernity, and effectively does so, but the forms resulting from this anti-design seem to deliberately contradict any idea of norm, control and/or discipline and, in that sense, are 'retrograde'. They are, so to speak, primitive, prior and averse to any system. There is in them much of the eccentric and manic naturalism of a Gaudí, but their symbolic apprehension goes back to other beginnings. Contemporary dolmens and menhirs, they are like monuments raised to celebrate deities without proper names. Unusual objects, whose solidity, weight and volume determine this monumental quasi-architecture, they are, despite being crooked, like Trambolhos e Murunduns, surprisingly graceful. Sometimes they rest on the floor with the lightness of a wading bird; sometimes they are articulated between corners like an engineering of insects; sometimes they slip away between planes like shapeless caterpillars. And, if they were plants, they would be carnivorous.
But, in fact, beyond this mimicry of appearances, one does not perceive in this attempt at another visuality any intentional reference to a prior 'nature', which makes it difficult for us to resort to possible metaphysics. It is more properly an inaugural physics, dry and raw, matter appropriated directly from phenomenon and emergence. There are no laws of formation or procedures that provide models for a proper classification of this botany of Venus. But, even being nothing, these sculptures are Things, and, if they seek their own identity and meaning, it is because, in our eyes, they cannot contradict this inevitable destiny that we demand of all things. Sterile and denatured fruits, generated by a very personal, non-categorical psychology, they can at most establish a narcissistic order of the Same, private and not public, leaving it to us to politicize them".
Milton Machado
MACHADO, Milton. Ivens Machado. In: BIENAL INTERNACIONAL DE SÃO PAULO, 22., 1994. [Catálogo geral de participantes]. p. 63.
Solo Exhibitions
1975 - Milan (Italy) - Solo, at Galeria Milano
1977 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1978 - Milan (Italy) - Solo, at Studio Sant'Andrea
1978 - Venice (Italy) - Solo, at Galeria Il Canale
1979 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Saramenha
1983 - Turin (Italy) - Solo, at Galeria Tucci Russo
1984 - Bari (Italy) - Solo, at Grazia Terrible Internacional Research Center
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Thomas Cohn
1985 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Luisa Strina
1986 - Milan (Italy) - Solo, at Piero Cavellini
1987 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Saramenha
1987 - Toronto (Canada) - Solo, at Mercer Union Gallery
1988 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Perspectivas Recentes da Escultura Contemporânea Brasileira [Recent Perspectives of Contemporary Brazilian Sculpture], at Galeria Funarte - Sala Sérgio Milliet
1988 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Luisa Strina
1990 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Thomas Cohn
1991 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Luisa Strina
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Paço Imperial
2001 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - O Engenheiro de Fábulas [The Engineer of Fables], at Paço Imperial
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Artur Fidalgo Escritório de Arte
2002 - Vila Velha ES - O Engenheiro de Fábulas [The Engineer of Fables], at Museu Vale do Rio Doce
Group Exhibitions
1966 - Salvador BA - 1ª Bienal Nacional de Artes Plásticas [1st National Visual Arts Biennial]
1971 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 3º Salão de Verão [3rd Summer Salon], at MAM/RJ
1973 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 5º Salão de Verão [5th Summer Salon], at MAM/RJ - 1st prize
1973 - São Paulo SP - 12ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo [12th São Paulo International Biennial], at Fundação Bienal
1974 - São Paulo SP - 8ª Jovem Arte Contemporânea [8th Young Contemporary Art], at MAC/USP
1974 - São Paulo SP - Prospectiva 74, at MAC/USP
1975 - Philadelphia (United States) - Video Art, at The Institute of Contemporary Art
1975 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Mostra de Arte Experimental de Filmes Super-8, Audiovisual e Videotape [Experimental Art Exhibition of Super-8 Films, Audiovisual and Videotape], at Galeria Maison de France
1977 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Identification of Artist - a book, at EAV/Parque Lage
1981 - São Paulo SP - 16ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo [16th São Paulo International Biennial], at Fundação Bienal
1985 - Paris (France) - 13ª Bienal de Paris [13th Paris Biennale]
1985 - Rome (Italy) - Nuove Trame dell'Arte, at Galeria Genazzano
1985 - São Paulo SP - 16º Panorama de Arte Atual Brasileira [16th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art], at MAM/SP
1986 - New York (United States) - Couriers: Six Brazilian Artists, at New House Gallery
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Transvanguarda e Culturas Nacionais [Transavantgarde and National Cultures], at MAM/RJ
1987 - Paris (France) - Modernidade: Arte Brasileira do Século XX [Modernity: 20th-Century Brazilian Art], at Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
1987 - São Paulo SP - 19ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo [19th São Paulo International Biennial], at Fundação Bienal
1988 - New York (United States) - Brazil Projects
1988 - São Paulo SP - Modernidade: arte brasileira do século XX [Modernity: 20th-Century Brazilian Art], at MAM/SP
1988 - São Paulo SP - Panorama de Arte Atual Brasileira [Panorama of Current Brazilian Art], at MAM/SP
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - A Ordem Desfeita [The Undone Order], at 110 Arte Contemporânea
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Rio Hoje [Rio Today], at MAM/RJ
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Transvanguarda e Culturas Nacionais; Rio Hoje [Transavantgarde and National Cultures; Rio Today], at MAM/RJ
1990 - Brasília DF - Prêmio Brasília de Artes Plásticas [Brasília Visual Arts Award], at Museu de Arte de Brasília
1990 - Gibellina (Italy) - Intervento Permanente, at Palazzo di Lorenzo
1990 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Projetos Arqueos [Arqueos Projects], at Fundição Progresso
1992 - Curitiba PR - 10ª Mostra da Gravura Cidade de Curitiba/Mostra América [10th Curitiba City Printmaking Show/America Show], at Museu da Gravura
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1ª A Caminho de Niterói: Coleção João Sattamini [1st On the Way to Niterói: João Sattamini Collection], at Paço Imperial
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Contemporary Art, at EAV/Parque Lage
1992 - São Paulo SP - A Sedução dos Volumes: os tridimensionais do MAC [The Seduction of Volumes: MAC's Three-Dimensional Works], 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
1992 - Termoli (Italy) - Brazilian Contemporary Art
1993 - Niterói RJ - 2ª A Caminho de Niterói: Coleção João Sattamini [2nd On the Way to Niterói: João Sattamini Collection], at MAC/Niterói
1993 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - A Rarefação dos Sentidos: Coleção João Sattamini - anos 70 [The Rarefaction of the Senses: João Sattamini Collection - 1970s], at EAV/Parque Lage
1993 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Arte Erótica [Erotic Art], at MAM/RJ
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Livro-Objeto: a fronteira dos vazios [Book-Object: The Frontier of Voids], at CCBB
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Trincheiras: arte e política no Brasil [Trenches: Art and Politics in Brazil], at MAM/RJ
1994 - São Paulo SP - 22ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo [22nd São Paulo International Biennial], at Fundação Bienal
1994 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Brasil Século XX [20th-Century Brazil Biennial], at Fundação Bienal
1994 - São Paulo SP - Espelhos e Sombras [Mirrors and Shadows], at MAM/SP
1995 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Espelhos e Sombras [Mirrors and Shadows], at CCBB
1995 - São Paulo SP - Livro-Objeto: a fronteira dos vazios [Book-Object: The Frontier of Voids], at MAM/SP
1996 - Brasília DF - Arte e Espaço Urbano: quinze propostas [Art and Urban Space: Fifteen Proposals], at Ministério das Relações Exteriores - Palácio do Itamaraty
1996 - Brasília DF - Quatro Mestres Escultores Brasileiros Contemporâneos: Arte e Espaço Urbano: Quinze Propostas [Four Contemporary Brazilian Master Sculptors: Art and Urban Space: Fifteen Proposals], at Fundação Athos Bulcão
1996 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Mensa/Mensae, at Funarte - Centro Nacional de Folclore e Cultura Popular
1996 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Transparências [Transparencies], at MAM/RJ
1997 - Curitiba PR - A Arte Contemporânea da Gravura [Contemporary Printmaking], at Museu Metropolitano de Arte de Curitiba
1997 - Niterói RJ - Entre Esculturas e Objetos [Between Sculptures and Objects], at MAC/Niterói
1997 - Porto Alegre RS - 1ª Bienal de Artes Visuais do Mercosul [1st Mercosul Visual Arts Biennial], at Aplub; Casa de Cultura Mário Quintana; DC Navegantes; Edel; Usina do Gasômetro; Instituto de Artes da UFRGS; Fundação Bienal de Artes Visuais do Mercosul; Margs; Espaço Ulbra; Museu de Comunicação Social; Reitoria da UFRGS and Theatro São Pedro
1997 - Porto Alegre RS - Vertente Cartográfica [Cartographic Strand], at Usina do Gasômetro
1997 - São Paulo SP - Arte Cidade: a cidade e suas histórias [Arte Cidade: The City and Its Stories]
1997 - São Paulo SP - Tridimensionalidade na Arte Brasileira do Século XX [Three-Dimensionality in 20th-Century Brazilian Art], at Itaú Cultural
1998 - Belo Horizonte MG - Tridimensionalidade na Arte Brasileira do Século XX [Three-Dimensionality in 20th-Century Brazilian Art], at Itaú Cultural
1998 - Brasília DF - Tridimensionalidade na Arte Brasileira do Século XX [Three-Dimensionality in 20th-Century Brazilian Art], at Galeria Itaú Cultural
1998 - Niterói RJ - Espelho da Bienal [Mirror of the Biennial], at MAC/Niterói
1998 - Penápolis SP - Tridimensionalidade na Arte Brasileira do Século XX [Three-Dimensionality in 20th-Century Brazilian Art], at Galeria Itaú Cultural
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 16º Salão Nacional de Artes Plásticas [16th National Visual Arts Salon], at MAM/RJ
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Arte Brasileira no Acervo do Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo: doações recentes 1996-1998 [Brazilian Art in the Collection of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo: Recent Donations 1996-1998], at CCBB
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Terra Incógnita [Terra Incognita], at CCBB
1998 - São Paulo SP - 24ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo [24th São Paulo International Biennial], at Fundação Bienal
1998 - São Paulo SP - O Moderno e o Contemporâneo na Arte Brasileira: Coleção Gilberto Chateaubriand - MAM/RJ [The Modern and the Contemporary in Brazilian Art: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection - MAM/RJ], at Masp
2000 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Século 20: arte do Brasil [20th Century: Art of Brazil], at Centro de Arte Moderna José de Azeredo Perdigão
2000 - Niterói RJ - Coleção Sattamini: dos materiais às diferenças internas [Sattamini Collection: From Materials to Internal Differences], at MAC/Niterói
2000 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brasilidades [Brazilianities], at Centro Cultural Light
2000 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Situações: arte brasileira anos 70 [Situations: Brazilian Art of the 1970s], at Fundação Casa França-Brasil
2000 - São Paulo SP - Arte Conceitual e Conceitualismos: anos 70 no acervo do MAC/USP [Conceptual Art and Conceptualisms: the 1970s in the MAC/USP Collection], at Galeria de Arte do Sesi
2000 - São Paulo SP - Brasil + 500 Mostra do Redescobrimento [Brazil + 500 Rediscovery Exhibition], at Fundação Bienal
2000 - São Paulo SP - Escultura Brasileira: da Pinacoteca ao Jardim da Luz [Brazilian Sculpture: From the Pinacoteca to the Jardim da Luz], at Pinacoteca do Estado
2001 - Porto Alegre RS - Coleção Liba e Rubem Knijnik: arte brasileira contemporânea [Liba and Rubem Knijnik Collection: Brazilian Contemporary Art], at Margs
2001 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Espelho Cego: seleções de uma coleção contemporânea [Blind Mirror: Selections from a Contemporary Collection], at Paço Imperial
2001 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - O Espírito de Nossa Época [The Spirit of Our Time], at MAM/RJ
2001 - São Paulo SP - Espelho Cego: seleções de uma coleção contemporânea [Blind Mirror: Selections from a Contemporary Collection], at MAM/SP
2001 - São Paulo SP - O Espírito de Nossa Época [The Spirit of Our Time], at MAM/SP
2002 - Brasília DF - Fragmentos a Seu Ímã [Fragments to Their Magnet], at Espaço Cultural Contemporâneo Venâncio
2002 - Niterói RJ - Acervo em Papel [Collection on Paper], at MAC/Niterói
2002 - Niterói RJ - Coleção Sattamini: esculturas e objetos [Sattamini Collection: Sculptures and Objects], at MAC/Niterói
2002 - Niterói RJ - Diálogo, Antagonismo e Replicação na Coleção Sattamini [Dialogue, Antagonism and Replication in the Sattamini Collection], at MAC/Niterói
2002 - Porto Alegre RS - Violência e Paixão [Violence and Passion], at Santander Cultural
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1ª Mostra Rio Arte Contemporânea [Rio Contemporary Art Show], at MAM/RJ
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Caminhos do Contemporâneo 1952-2002 [Paths of the Contemporary 1952-2002], at Paço Imperial
2002 - São Paulo SP - A Forma e a Imagem Técnica na Arte do Rio de Janeiro: 1950-1975 [Form and the Technical Image in the Art of Rio de Janeiro: 1950-1975], at Paço das Artes
2002 - São Paulo SP - Cidadeprojeto / cidadeexperiência [Cityproject / Cityexperience], at MAM/SP
2002 - São Paulo SP - Mapa do Agora: 50 anos da arte brasileira Coleção Sattamini [Map of Now: 50 Years of Brazilian Art, Sattamini Collection], at Instituto Tomie Ohtake
2003 - Porto Alegre RS - 4ª Bienal de Artes Visuais do Mercosul [4th Mercosul Visual Arts Biennial], at Cais do Porto
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 11º Universidarte [11th Universidarte], at Universidade Estácio de Sá
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1º Projéteis de Arte Contemporânea [1st Contemporary Art Projectiles], at Funarte
2003 - São Paulo SP - Arte e Sociedade: uma relação polêmica [Art and Society: A Controversial Relationship], at Itaú Cultural
2003 - São Paulo SP - Arteconhecimento: 70 anos USP [Artknowledge: 70 Years of USP], at MAC/USP
2004 - São Paulo SP - 26ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo [26th São Paulo International Biennial], at Fundação Bienal
2004 - São Paulo SP - Fotografia e Escultura no Acervo do MAM - 1995 a 2004 [Photography and Sculpture in the MAM Collection - 1995 to 2004], at MAM/SP
2005 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Coletiva 2005 [Group Show 2005], at Mercedes Viegas Escritório de Arte
Source: Itaú Cultural
