João Rossi (São Paulo SP 1923 - Idem 2000)
Painter, engraver, ceramist, sculptor, muralist, teacher.
In 1949 he travels to Uruguay. The following year, he is director of the Christian Association of Young Men of Montevideo, where he is a physical education teacher and, at the same time, of drawing and painting. In 1951 he went to Paraguay to work at the Christian Association of Young Men of Asunción and gives conferences on art and classes on drawing, painting and art history. He teaches outdoor painting and new techniques for using the brush and spatula and forms the Arte Nuevo group. Returns to São Paulo in 1953 and teaches at the School of Crafts of the Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo - MAM/SP alongside Nelson Nóbrega (1900 - 1997), Lívio Abramo (1903 - 1992) and Wolfgang Pfeiffer (1912 - 2003). In 1954, he made the screen Mangacha - nickname of his wife, the ceramist Paraguayan Isabel Olmedo (1926) - and, at the invitation of Flávio Motta (1916), teaches at the Art School of the Armando Álvares Penteado Foundation - faap. He became director of this school in 1959 and of the Faculty of Visual Arts of the same institution in 1962. He participates in the 8th International Biennial of São Paulo in 1965. He performs with Caciporé Torres (1935) the murals History and Evolution of the City of São Paulo, for the facade of the Palácio dos Bandeirantes, in 1968. In 1970, he is a professor at the Faculty of Plastic Arts at Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie. He holds a retrospective exhibition at the Memorial Foundation of Latin America in 1999.
Critical Comment
Self-tidden, João Rossi works in countries such as Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil. It stands out for the use of polymateric technique, characterized by the use of various raw materials in the composition of his work, which he divides into two themes - Amerindian and urban. The Amerindian theme originates in the early 1950s, when it resides in Uruguay and Paraguay, based on the perception of social inequality experienced by the South American Indians. "The Amerindian is non-transferable in the social trait that João Rossi, over the years, managed to reassemble in his engravings (...)".1 marginals, prostitutes, sellers of flowers and fruits and dead children appear here both in engravings, paintings and objects.
Performs the works of the urban axis from 1953, when he returned to São Paulo, and is dedicated to urban development and the lighting of the city center, as in the work Luminosos - Rua Álvaro de Carvalho with Av. 9 de Julho, 1970. The transformation of places like Avenida 9 de Julho, presenting old houses and skyscrapers in the same work. The watercolors, engravings and paintings of this series have in common the tonal gradations based on the overlapping of colors and show São Paulo as a great city. The two themes come together when the artist inserts the Amerindian figure into some landscapes of the urban axis.
Nota
1 CHRISTO, Anthony de. The irreversible face of Latin America. In: ROSSI, João. João Rossi. Elements of sensitive visual communication (1950 to 1980). Campinas: Museum of Contemporary Art of Campinas, 1981.
Criticism
"João Rossi was throughout his long artistic career a painter from the city of São Paulo. His work as an urban landscaper can only be compared with those of Aldo Bonadei and Manuel Martins, at Escola Paulista. It is distinguished from the other great landscapers from São Paulo by capturing aspects of São Paulo Megalopolis, while Bonadei painted above all Bela Vista and Manuel Martins certain aspects of greater human warmth. To apprehend the harsh beauty of buildings and streets, the shadow of skyscrapers and the radiance of the great means of communication, discovering their special light and contemporary melancholy. Mário Schenberg
leite, José Roberto Teixeira. Critical Dictionary of Painting in Brazil. Rio de Janeiro: ArtLivre, 1988.
Carves
Artistic-cultural collection of palaces of the government of the state of São Paulo
Instituto Itaú Cultural - São Paulo SP
Brazilian Museum of Sculpture - Mube - São Paulo SP
Brazilian Art Museum of the Armando Álvares Penteado Foundation - MAB/FAAP - São Paulo SP
Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo - MAC/USP - São Paulo SP
São Paulo Museum of Art of São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand - MASP - São Paulo SP
São Paulo Museum of Modern Art - MAM/SP - São Paulo SP
Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo - PESP - São Paulo SP
Individual exhibitions
1959 - São Paulo SP - individual, at the Young Men's Christian Association
1967 - Individual, at Art Gallery
1975 - Asunción (Paraguay) - Individual, at the Center for Brazilian Studies
1977 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at FAU/USP
1979 - Assunção (Paraguay) - Individual, at Galeria Arte Sanos
1982 - Curitiba PR - Individual, at the Guido Viaro Museum
1982 - Florianópolis SC - Individual, in the gallery da Casa da Cultura
1982 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at Galeria Documenta
1983 - Curitiba PR - Individual, at Casa da Engravura
1983 - São Paulo SP - Retrospective 30 years, at MASP
1987 - Havana (Cuba) - Individual, at the Latin American Gallery
1990 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at the Mário de Andrade Library - APCA Award, Best Recorder of the Year
1990 - São Paulo SP - João Rossi, A work in process, at the Pinacoteca do Estado
1991 - Bogotág (Colombia) - Individual, at Galeria Arte 19
1992 - Assunção (Paraguay) - Individual, at Galeria Lamarca
1992 - São Paulo SP - Retrospective of engravings, at the Pinacoteca do Estado
1994 - São Paulo SP - João Rossi: paintings and engravings, at A Hebraica
1997 - Assunção (Paraguay) - individual, at the Brazilian Embassy
1999 - Brasília DF - Individual, at the Caixa Econômica Federal gallery
1999 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at the Latin America Memorial Gallery
1999 - Curitiba PR - Individual, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
2000 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at Galeria Caixa Econômica Federal
2000 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at A Hebraica
2000 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at the Fernando Silva Gallery - Yázigi
Collective exhibitions
1965 - São Paulo SP - 8th International Biennial of São Paulo, at the Bienal Foundation
1965 - São Paulo SP - Proposal 65, at MAB/FAAP
1966 - São Paulo SP - Three premises, at MAB/FAAP
1972 - São Paulo SP - 2nd International Engraving Exhibition, at MAM/SP
1977 - São Paulo SP - 9th Panorama de Arte Current Brazilian, at MAM/SP
1983 - São Paulo SP - Avenida Paulista, at Galeria Sesc Paulista
1987 - Ribeirão Preto SP - Collective Year 3, at Galeria Ribeirão Preto, plastic arts promotions
1988 - Beijing (China) - 1st Brazil-China Exhibition, at the Fine Arts Gallery of China
1988 - São Paulo SP - The rhythms and forms: contemporary Brazilian art, at Sesc Pompéia
1989 - Copenhagen (Denmark) - Rhythms and Forms: Contemporary Brazilian Art, at the Charlottenborg Museum
1994 - São Paulo SP - Engravings: subtleties and mysteries, printing techniques, at the Pinacoteca do Estado
1995 - São Paulo SP - Projeto Contacto, at Galeria Sesc Paulista
1998 - São Paulo SP - Impressions: The Art of Brazilian Engraving, at the Banespa-Paulista Cultural Space
Source: Itaú Cultural
