José Bento (Salvador BA 1962)
Sculptor.
In 1966, José Bento Franco Chaves moves with his family to Belo Horizonte. Self-taught, between 1981 and 1988 he creates a series of miniature scenes and settings made with popsicle sticks. He exhibits some of these pieces at the Palácio das Artes, in Belo Horizonte, in 1989. That same year, he makes small wood and glass boxes inside which he draws with mercury. Around this time, he begins producing sculptures from naturally fallen tree trunks, often from rare, centuries-old trees, which he gathers in the Atlantic Forest region between Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo. In 1990 and 1991, he develops Roda [Wheel], a work that departs from his earlier pieces and boosts his participation in several group exhibitions in Brazil. He receives the Prêmio Brasília de Artes Plásticas at the 12th Salão Nacional de Artes Plásticas (1991-1992), in Rio de Janeiro. In 1993, he holds a solo show at the Casa Guignard, in Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais. From 2000, he also works with glass, mirror and granite. In 2004, he exhibits his sculptures at the Museu de Arte da Pampulha - MAP, in Belo Horizonte.
Critical Commentary
In the 1980s, José Bento makes small sculptures from materials such as popsicle sticks, creating everyday scenes that at times take on a Surrealist character. As the critic Agnaldo Farias notes, these works are interesting for their tiny scale, their finish and their inventiveness, as in Ping-Pong (1981/1982), in which he captures the speed and trajectory of a ball within a static setting. He also creates glass and wood boxes in which he works with mercury, exploring projections or reflections of figures and geometric shapes.
From the 1990s, José Bento produces large-scale works such as A Roda [The Wheel] (1991), made of juxtaposed wooden rods linked by nylon threads which, coiled in a spiral, form a disk about one and a half meters high. When unrolled, the wooden slats form a ribbon that unfolds in gentle undulations through space. In Alfabeto [Alphabet] (1994), he presents small wooden pieces with intriguing, mysterious shapes which, shown in series and arranged on a horizontal plane, reveal the artist's source of inspiration: the sight of the chapel domes in the cemetery near his home. As art historian Aracy Amaral points out, the presence of symbols related to death and religiosity is a constant in José Bento's poetics.
Later, the artist begins working with old tree trunks, taken from trees that fell naturally in the Atlantic Forest, which bear the marks of time. The works, which sometimes reveal a constructive rigor, also carry a mysterious quality. In the "open towers", created from 1993 with stacked wooden slats, linearity and a lightness rarely found in his output predominate.
In pieces produced from 2000 onward, José Bento revisits earlier works in wooden boxes, creating small installations with mirror and glass modules on a floor, also modular, of granite. In these works, the artist explores the ambiguity and surprise arising from the difficulty of distinguishing between reflection and transparency as distinct visual fields. Again in the view of Aracy Amaral, his most recent works, which evoke modern architecture and reveal an illusionistic character, seem to point to a new development in his output.
Collections
Acervo Banco Itaú S.A. - São Paulo SP
Acervo da Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo/Brasil - São Paulo SP
Coleção do Museu de Arte da Pampulha - MAP - Belo Horizonte MG
Museu Nacional de Belas Artes - MNBA - Rio de Janeiro RJ
Critiques
"His early works, small ironic objects, are a kind of 'three-dimensional drawing', since the wood repeats the function of line; he now seems to be developing his work toward a more direct and less literary approach to the concepts of contemporary art, without losing, however, the ironic character that runs through his professional path."
Marcus de Lontra Costa
COSTA, Marcus de Lontra. In: A montanha e o mar: Octaviano Moniz Barreto, Adrianne Gallinari, José Bento. Texto de Marcus de Lontra Costa. Salvador: MAM, 1992. n. p.
Solo Exhibitions
1989 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Palácio das Artes, Sala Arlinda Corrêa
1992 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Galeria Pace
1993 - Ouro Preto MG - Solo, at Casa Guignard
1994 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Galeria Manoel Macedo
2001 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Marília Razuk Galeria de Arte
2003 - Belo Horizonte MG - José Bento: obras recentes [José Bento: Recent Works], at Celma Albuquerque Galeria de Arte
2003 - São Paulo SP - José Bento: obras recentes [José Bento: Recent Works], at Marília Razuk Galeria de Arte
2004 - Belo Horizonte MG - José Bento, at MAP
Group Exhibitions
1988 - Belo Horizonte MG - 20th National Art Salon, at Museu de Arte de Belo Horizonte
1989 - Belo Horizonte MG - 22nd National Art Salon, at Museu de Arte de Belo Horizonte
1990 - São Paulo SP - Prospecção 90 [Prospecting 90], at Galeria Subdistrito
1991 - Belo Horizonte MG - 23rd National Art Salon, at Museu de Arte de Belo Horizonte - acquisition prize
1991 - Belo Horizonte MG - A Prova dos Nove [The Acid Test], at Companhia de Energia de Minas Gerais. Espaço Cultural Galeria de Arte
1991 - Belo Horizonte MG - Bonfim, at Grande Galeria do Palácio das Artes
1991 - Belo Horizonte MG - Murilo Rubião Projeto Memória Viva [Murilo Rubião Living Memory Project], at Palácio das Artes
1991 - Brasília DF - 2nd Brasília National Salon, at Museu de Arte Moderna, Instituto Brasileiro de Cultura - Travel Prize within Brazil
1991 - Brasília DF - Prêmio Brasília de Artes Plásticas 1991/XII Salão Nacional de Artes Plásticas [Brasília Visual Arts Prize 1991/12th National Visual Arts Salon], at Museu de Arte de Brasília
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Bonfim, at EAV/Parque Lage
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Prêmio Brasília de Artes Plásticas 1991/XII Salão Nacional de Artes Plásticas [Brasília Visual Arts Prize 1991/12th National Visual Arts Salon], at Funarte
1992 - Salvador BA - A Montanha e o Mar [The Mountain and the Sea], at MAM/BA
1993 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 13th National Visual Arts Salon, at Ibac - award winner
1993 - São Paulo SP - Encounters and Tendencies, at MAC/USP
1994 - Belo Horizonte MG - Abjetos [Abjects], at Centro Cultural da UFMG
1994 - Juiz de Fora MG - America, at UFJF
1994 - Ouro Preto MG - A Identidade Virtual [The Virtual Identity], at Museu da Inconfidência
1995 - São Paulo SP - Minerações - Ações de Mim, de Minas, de Minério/Minério de Minerar, at LR Escritório de Arte
1996 - Brasília DF - Art and Urban Space: Fifteen Proposals, at the 5th Brasília Visual Arts Forum, at Palácio Ministério das Relações Exteriores. Palácio do Itamaraty
1996 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Cinco Artistas Mineiros [Five Artists from Minas Gerais], at Mosteiro dos Jerónimos
1996 - Madrid (Spain) - Cinco Artistas Mineiros [Five Artists from Minas Gerais], at Casa de América
1997 - Belo Horizonte MG - 25th Belo Horizonte National Art Salon
1997 - Belo Horizonte MG - Cinco Artistas Mineiros [Five Artists from Minas Gerais], at Ponteio Lar Shopping
1997 - Belo Horizonte MG - Prospecções: arte nos anos 80 e 90 [Prospections: Art in the 1980s and 1990s], at Fundação Clóvis Salgado. Palácio das Artes
1997 - Lima (Peru) - 1st Ibero-American Biennial
1997 - São Paulo SP - Diversidade da Escultura Contemporânea Brasileira [Diversity of Contemporary Brazilian Sculpture] - Ministério da Cultura/Itaú Cultural, on Avenida Paulista
1997 - São Paulo SP - Tridimensionalidade na Arte Brasileira no Século XX [Three-Dimensionality in 20th-Century Brazilian Art], at Itaú Cultural
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 16th National Visual Arts Salon, at MAM/RJ
2000 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Sculpture: From the Pinacoteca to the Jardim da Luz, at Pinacoteca do Estado
2000 - São Paulo SP - Marcos Coelho Benjamim, José Bento e Fernando Lucchesi, at Museu Brasileiro da Escultura
2001 - São Paulo SP - Arco das Rosas: marchand como curador [Arco das Rosas: The Dealer as Curator], at Casa das Rosas
2002 - Madrid (Spain) - Arco/2002, at Parque Ferial Juan Carlos I
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Paths of the Contemporary 1952-2002, at Paço Imperial
2002 - São Paulo SP - 10 Anos Marília Razuk [10 Years of Marília Razuk], at Marília Razuk Galeria de Arte
2002 - São Paulo SP - Amilcar de Castro e Cinco Artistas Mineiros [Amilcar de Castro and Five Artists from Minas Gerais], at Marília Razuk Galeria de Arte
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilianart Project, at Almacén Galeria de Arte
2004 - Belo Horizonte MG - Pampulha, Collected Work: 1943-2003, at MAP
Source: Itaú Cultural
