Julio Plaza (Madri, Espanha 1938 - São Paulo SP 2003)
Intermedia artist, writer, printmaker and teacher.
Julio Plaza González began his artistic training in the 1950s with independent studies in Madrid. He later attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He came to Brazil in 1967 as part of the Spanish delegation to the 9th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo [São Paulo International Biennial]. He enrolled at the Escola Superior de Desenho Industrial - ESDI [Higher School of Industrial Design] in Rio de Janeiro on a scholarship from Itamaraty. Between 1969 and 1973, he taught visual language and visual arts as artist in residence in the Department of Humanities of the Universidad de Puerto Rico. He then moved to São Paulo, where he became a professor at the Escola de Comunicações e Artes da Universidade de São Paulo - ECA/USP and at the Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado - Faap. In 1975, with Augusto de Campos (1931), he published the books Caixa Preta [Black Box] and Poemóbiles. In 1978, he founded the Centro de Artes Visuais Aster with Donato Ferrari (1933), Walter Zanini (1925) and Regina Silveira (1939), to whom he was married. In 1985, he completed a doctorate in semiotics at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo - PUC/SP. In the 1990s, he taught in the Department of Multimedia of the Institute of Arts at Unicamp. He is the author of theoretical publications on art, such as Videografia em Videotexto [Videography in Videotext], 1986, and Os Processos Criativos com os Meios Eletrônicos: Poéticas Digitais [Creative Processes with Electronic Media: Digital Poetics], with Monica Tavares, 1998. In 2001, he taught a course on the interactions between image and text at Itaú Cultural.
Critical Commentary
Julio Plaza began his art studies in 1957, in Madrid, continuing them in Germany and France. He came to Brazil in 1967 as part of the Spanish delegation to the 9th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, presenting works that engage with the constructive current, such as Elementos Modulares Programados [Programmed Modular Elements], n.d., or Cubos Programados de Vértice (obra aberta) [Programmed Vertex Cubes (open work)], n.d. He settled permanently in Brazil in 1973 when, already married to the artist Regina Silveira (1939), and after a stint as a teacher at the Universidad de Puerto Rico, he accepted an invitation from Professor Walter Zanini (1925) to teach at the Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado - Faap and at the Escola de Comunicações e Artes da Universidade de São Paulo - ECA/USP.
The artist became a well-known and prominent multimedia artist and graphic designer. In São Paulo, he published his first book-object, whose pages are articulated through folds and become three-dimensional. In the following years, he produced other works in a similar vein, such as Poemobiles, 1966, with Augusto de Campos (1931), and artist's books such as Re-Duchamp, 1976, with the same author. He played a major role in promoting and disseminating avant-garde art, as in the creation of the Centro de Artes Visuais Aster together with Regina Silveira, Donato Ferrari (1933) and Walter Zanini. He took part in organizing the exhibitions Prospectiva 74 and Poéticas Visuais [Visual Poetics] (1977) at the Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo - MAC/USP, whose main aim was to present the broad integration of artists with the new mass media.
Critiques
"Here is a popular painting (aimed at a mass audience), consumable, to some extent naive (because it sets no traps), sexy and glamorous (depending on who is looking). Even with these characteristics, Sérgio Romagnolo's work does not fit Richard Hamilton's definition of pop art, as it might seem at first sight. To be truly pop, each of these pieces would have to be mass-produced, at an industrial scale, deal with short-term, cheap solutions, be aimed exclusively at youth and, above all, provoke humor. It is true, however, that in the formation of this young São Paulo artist, contemporaries of pop art - such as Nelson Leirner and Julio Plaza - were the decisive pivot for his personal reflection on the visual arts. It all really began with the exhibition 'Pintura como Meio' [Painting as Medium] (1983), which revealed talented names such as Leda Catunda and Ana Maria Tavares. From that moment on, a new breath of air blew through the art circuit. Producing a figuration that was neither mimetic nor properly gestural, the boldness of the intention lay in preventing painting from becoming a subject, a receptacle of history, the end of the process. If at the time the expression 'conceptual painting' sounded like a swear word, today it is perfectly clear that it is an aesthetic proposal that came to reinvigorate an old and long-suffering question: that of representation".
Lisette Lagnado
BIENAL INTERNACIONAL DE SÃO PAULO, 19., 1987. Catálogo geral. Apresentação de Jorge Wilheim. Introdução de Sheila Leirner. São Paulo: Fundação Bienal, 1987.
"In recent years, while maintaining all the rigor of his neoconstructivist training and the peculiarities of minimalist visuality, his work has moved away from the system of aesthetic/object production toward a semiotic/communicative language grounded in the exploration of a language of strict correspondence between signifieds and signifiers. He defends the irreducible values of the image, that is, the non-verbal thought expressed in it. (...) His work fits with great assurance into the broad and growing international circuit of poetic visuality arising from multimedia".
Walter Zanini
ZANINI, Walter. Exposição realizado em Belgrado, Julio Plaza e Avatar Moraes. Folha de S. Paulo, 7 de agosto de 1977. In: BIENAL BRASIL SÉCULO XX. Bienal Brasil Século XX. São Paulo: Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, 1994. p. 386.
Solo Exhibitions
1961 - Melilla (Spain) - Solo, at Cassino Militar
1966 - Bilbao (Spain) - Solo, at Galeria Leku-Eder
1966 - Madrid (Spain) - Solo, at Galeria Neblí
1967 - Bilbao (Spain) - Solo, at Galeria Grises
1967 - Pamplona (Spain) - Solo, at Museo de Navarra
1967 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Ibeu
1968 - Montevideo (Uruguay) - Solo, at Galeria U
1968 - San Juan (Puerto Rico) - Solo, at Universidad de Puerto Rico
1969 - Madrid (Spain) - Solo, at Galeria Seiquer
1969 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Galeria do IAB/RS
1972 - San Juan (Puerto Rico) - Solo, at Casa del Libro
1973 - Madrid (Spain) - Julio Plaza 69-72: documentos e ideas [Documents and Ideas], at Galeria Seiquer
1974 - Vitória ES - Solo, at Fundação Cultural Espírito Santo
1975 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Solo, at Cayc
1975 - Córdoba (Argentina) - Solo, at Museo de Córdoba
1975 - São Paulo SP - Camera Obscura, at MAC/USP
1980 - São Paulo SP - Arte como Arte [Art as Art], at MAC/USP
1984 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Luz Azul [Blue Light], at Cooperativa Diferença
1992 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Holograms, at Cooperativa Diferença
1994 - Vila Franca de Xira (Portugal) - Holograms and Videopoems, at Galeria Municipal de Vila Franca de Xira
Group Exhibitions
1960 - Madrid (Spain) - Salón de Mayo de Juventudes Musicales Españolas
1963 - Madrid (Spain) - Festivales de España
1965 - Madrid (Spain) - Group show, at Galeria Biosca
1966 - Barcelona (Spain) - 10th Salón de Mayo
1966 - Barcelona (Spain) - 5th Joan Miró International Drawing Prize, at Fundação Joan Miró
1966 - Madrid (Spain) - 2nd Salón de Corrientes Constructivas [Salon of Constructive Currents], at Galeria Bique
1966 - Madrid (Spain) - Alcántara Prize, at Círculo de Belas Artes
1967 - Spain - Rotor Internacional de Concordancia de Artes, Festivales de España
1967 - Madrid (Spain) - Nueva Generación [New Generation], at Sala Amadís
1967 - São Paulo SP - 9th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1968 - Mayagüez (Puerto Rico) - 1st International Drawing Exhibition, at Universidad de Puerto Rico
1968 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st International Drawing Exhibition, at MAM/RJ
1968 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Art at the Aterro: A Month of Public Art, at Aterro do Flamengo e no Pavilhão Japonês
1968 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Group show, at Petite Galerie
1969 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - International Exhibition of Newest Poetry, at Instituto Torcuato di Tella
1970 - New York (United States) - Arte y Música Latinoamericana [Latin American Art and Music], at Center for Interamerican Relations
1971 - Oxford (England) - Concrete Poetry
1971 - Amsterdam (Netherlands) - Concrete Poetry, at Geemente Museum
1971 - Nuremberg (Germany) - Concrete Poetry
1971 - Porto Alegre RS - Proposições Criativas na Cidade [Creative Propositions in the City], at UFRGS/ Instituto de Artes
1971 - Stuttgart (Germany) - Concrete Poetry
1971 - Ulster (England) - Concrete Poetry
1972 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Screenprint Show, at MNBA
1972 - San Juan (Puerto Rico) - Creation-Creación, at Universidad de Puerto Rico
1973 - São Paulo SP - Acquisitions, at MAC/USP
1974 - Amsterdam (Netherlands) - Visual Poetry International
1974 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Brasil 74, at Cayc
1974 - Montevideo (Uruguay) - Festival de la Postal Creativa [Creative Postcard Festival], at Galeria U
1974 - Rotterdã (Netherlands) - Visual Poetry International
1974 - São Paulo SP - 8th Young Contemporary Art, at MAC/USP
1974 - São Paulo SP - Prospectiva 74, at MAC/USP
1974 - Utrecht (Netherlands) - Visual Poetry International
1975 - Copenhagen (Denmark) - Art Systems in Latin America, at Louisiana Museum
1975 - Kraków (Poland) - Kraków International Biennial
1975 - Ferrara (Italy) - Arte de Sistemas [Systems Art], at Galleria Civica D'Arte Moderna
1975 - Paris (France) - Video-Art, at Espace Cardin
1975 - São Paulo SP - The 1970s, at MAC/USP
1975 - São Paulo SP - Panorama of Art, at Gabinete de Artes Gráficas
1975 - Slovenia (Yugoslavia) - Paix-75-30 ONU, at Galerie Slovenj Gradec
1976 - Antwerp (Belgium) - Small Press Festival, at Galerie Kontakt
1976 - São Paulo SP - 2nd Multimedia, at MAC/USP
1977 - Barcelona (Spain) - Latin-America 76, at Fundació Joan Miró
1977 - Belgrade (Yugoslavia) - Exposition Internationale des Arts Plastiques
1977 - Madrid (Spain) - Nueva Generación [New Generation], at Palacio de Velázquez
1977 - Paris (France) - Artist Books, at Galerie Hecate
1977 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Identification of Artist - a book, at EAV/Parque Lage
1977 - São Paulo SP - Poéticas Visuais [Visual Poetics], at MAC/USP
1978 - Amsterdam (Netherlands) - From Bookworks to Mailworks, at Alkmar Municipal Museum
1978 - Amsterdam (Netherlands) - Printed in Brazil, at Other Books and So
1978 - Budapest (Hungary) - Fiatal Művészek Klubja
1978 - São Paulo SP - 1st São Paulo International Video Art Meeting, at MIS/SP
1978 - São Paulo SP - Homage to Kasimir Malevich, at Gabinete de Artes Gráficas
1978 - São Paulo SP - Artists' Books, at Gabinete de Artes Gráficas
1979 - Campina Grande PB - The Book as Art, at Museu de Arte da Fundação Universidade Regional do Nordeste
1979 - New York (United States) - Contemporary Brazilian Works on Paper: 49 artists, at Nobé Gallery
1979 - São Paulo SP - Gerox: Exhibition of Xerox Prints, at Espaço Max Pochon
1980 - São Paulo SP - Xerographs, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1981 - Porto Alegre RS - Brazilian Artists of the 1960s and 70s in the Rubem Knijnik Collection, at Espaço NO Galeria Chaves
1981 - São Paulo SP - Contemporary Brazilian Artists, at Escritório de Arte São Paulo
1981 - São Paulo SP - 16th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1981 - São Paulo SP - Foto/Ideia [Photo/Idea], at MAC/USP
1981 - São Paulo SP - Heliography Show, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1982 - Caxias do Sul RS - Artemicro, at Universidade de Caxias do Sul
1982 - Coimbra (Portugal) - Artemicro, at Círculo das Artes Plásticas
1982 - La Plata (Argentina) - Libros de Artistas [Artists' Books], at Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes
1982 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Artemicro, at Cooperativa Diferença
1982 - Madrid (Spain) - Libros de Artistas [Artists' Books], at Salas Pablo Ruiz Picasso
1982 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Artemicro, at MAM/RJ
1982 - São Paulo SP - Arte pelo Telefone [Art by Telephone], at MIS/SP
1982 - São Paulo SP - Artemicro, at MIS/SP
1982 - São Paulo SP - Incomunicabile/Incomunicável [Incommunicable], at MAC/USP
1983 - Dallas (United States) - Artemicro, at Bath House Cultural Center
1983 - Ribeirão Preto SP - Xerography: A Brazilian Sample, at Galeria Campus-USP-Banespa
1983 - San Juan (Puerto Rico) - 6th San Juan Biennial of Latin American and Caribbean Printmaking, at Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña
1983 - São Paulo SP - Art in the Street
1983 - São Paulo SP - 17th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1984 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Artists' Books Biennial
1984 - Dallas (United States) - Brasil Works, at Bath House Cultural Center
1984 - São Paulo SP - Poesia Evidência [Poetry Evidence], at PUC/SP
1985 - Porto Alegre RS, Curitiba PR - Arte pelo Telefone [Art by Telephone], at Margs and Biblioteca Municipal de Curitiba
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Caligrafias e Escrituras [Calligraphies and Writings], at Funarte
1985 - São Paulo SP - Art and Technology, at MAC/USP
1985 - São Paulo SP - Art New Media/Multimedia: Brazil 70/80, at MAB/Faap
1985 - São Paulo SP - Multimedia, at Faap
1985 - São Paulo SP - Trends of the Artist's Book in Brazil, at CCSP
1985 - São Paulo SP - Transcriar [Transcreate], at CCSP
1985 - São Paulo SP - Transcriar [Transcreate], at MAC/USP
1985 - São Paulo SP, Porto (Portugal) - Transcriar, at MAC/USP and Centro Unesco
1986 - Fortaleza CE - 1st International Exhibition of Ephemeral Sculptures, at Fundação Demócrito Rocha
1986 - Fortaleza CE - Imagine: The Planet Greets the Comet, at Arte Galeria
1986 - Porto Alegre RS - Paths of Brazilian Drawing, at Margs
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brasil High Tech, at Galeria de Arte Centro Empresarial
1986 - São Paulo SP - The Turn of the Century, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1986 - São Paulo SP - Triluz, at MIS/SP
1987 - Brasília DF - 1st Latin American Show of Art Research
1987 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Idehologia, at Museu Gulbenkian da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian
1987 - São Paulo SP - The Fabric of Taste: Another Look at Everyday Life, at Fundação Bienal
1987 - São Paulo SP - Energy and Art, at Fundação Museu de Tecnologia
1987 - São Paulo SP - Foto/Ideia [Photo/Idea], at MAC/USP
1987 - São Paulo SP - Idehologia, at MAC/USP
1987 - São Paulo SP - Imagic Word, at MAC/USP
1988 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Triluz, at Cooperativa Diferença
1988 - Campinas SP - 13th Campinas Contemporary Art Salon, at MACC
1989 - Madrid (Spain) - Tendencias Geométricas en España: 1957-1989 [Geometric Tendencies in Spain], at Centro Cultural de La Villa
1991 - Asturias (Spain) - Fiat Lux, at Caja de Ahorros de Asturias
1991 - Gijón (Spain) - Fiat Lux, at Caja de Ahorros de Asturias
1991 - São Paulo SP - 2nd International Studio of Image Technology, at Sesc Pompeia
1991 - São Paulo SP - Tribute to Avenida Paulista, at Galeria Sesc Paulista - prize em arte comunicação of the APCA
1992 - Alicante (Spain) - Entorn Holografia, at Centre Cultural d'Alcoi
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Atlantic Retrospective of Independent Video, at Associação Cândido Mendes
1993 - Florence (Italy) - Brasil: Segni d'Arte, at Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze
1993 - Milan (Italy) - Brasil: Segni d'Arte, at Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense
1993 - Rome (Italy) - Brasil: Segni d'Arte, at Centro de Estudos Brasileiros
1993 - São Paulo SP - Brazil, Small Formats, Few Words, at Documenta Galeria de Arte
1993 - São Paulo SP - Paraver: Visual Poetry, at Faculdade Santa Marcelina
1993 - Venice (Italy) - Brasil: Segni d'Arte, at Fondazione Scientifica Querini Stampalia
1994 - Belo Horizonte MG - Book-Poem-Object, at Biblioteca Pública Estadual Luiz de Bessa
1994 - Belo Horizonte MG - Poetics of Visuality, at Palácio das Artes
1994 - Fortaleza CE - 1st Brazilian Book Fair
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Book-Object: The Frontier of Voids, at CCBB
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Via Fax, at Museu do Telefone
1994 - Santo André SP - Plus Poesia: Contemporary Poetry Show, at Porto Entreposto Cultural
1994 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Brasil Século XX, at Fundação Bienal
1995 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Electronic Art Show of the National Virtual Reality Bank, at CCCM
1995 - São Paulo SP - Art in the 21st Century: The Humanization of Technologies, at MAC/USP
1995 - São Paulo SP - Art in the 21st Century: The Humanization of Technologies, at Fundação Memorial da América Latina
1995 - São Paulo SP - Book-Object: The Frontier of Voids, at MAM/SP
1996 - São Paulo SP - Ex Libris/Home Page, at Paço das Artes
1997 - São Paulo SP - 3rd United Artists III: Light, at Casa das Rosas
1997 - São Paulo SP - The Artists' City, at MAC/USP
1997 - São Paulo SP - Cubed, at Paço das Artes
1998 - São Paulo SP - The Collectors - Guita and José Mindlin: Matrices and Prints, at Galeria de Arte do Sesi
1999 - São Paulo SP - Ases da Capa [Cover Aces], at MIS/SP
2000 - New York (United States) - Contemporary Artists' Books, at Yale University
2000 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Situations: Brazilian Art of the 1970s, at Casa França-Brasil
2000 - São Paulo SP - Conceptual Art and Conceptualism: The 1970s in the MAC/USP Collection, at Galeria de Arte do Sesi
2000 - São Paulo SP - The Role of Art, at Galeria de Arte do Sesi
2001 - Belo Horizonte MG - International Poetry Biennial, at Centro de Cultura Alto Vera Cruz
2001 - Curitiba PR - Videopoems, at Solar do Barão
2001 - Porto Alegre RS - Liba and Rubem Knijnik Collection: Brazilian Contemporary Art, at Margs
2001 - São Paulo SP - Trajectory of Light in Brazilian Art, at Itaú Cultural
2001 - Vila Franca de Xira (Portugal) - Artist's Book, at Galeria de Alverca
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Paths of the Contemporary 1952-2002, at Paço Imperial
2003 - São Paulo SP - MAC USP 40 Years: Contemporary Interfaces, at MAC/USP
Posthumous Exhibitions
2003 - Curitiba PR - Imagética, at Casa Romário Martins
2003 - São Paulo SP - The Subversion of Media, at Itaú Cultural
2004 - São Paulo SP - Contemporary Art in the Municipal Collection, at Centro Cultural São Paulo
2004 - São Paulo SP - Ícones São Redondos [Icons Are Round], at Centro Universitário da USP - Maria Antonia
2004 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Centro Universitário Maria Antonia
2004 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Museu de Arte Contemporânea da USP
2005 - Chicago (United States) - Tropicália: A Revolution in Brazilian Culture, at Museum of Contemporary Art
2005 - São Paulo SP - 60 Pós - 60 [60 Post-60], at Centro Cultural São Paulo
2005 - São Paulo SP - Cinético_Digital [Kinetic_Digital], at Itaú Cultural
2006 - London (United Kingdom) - Tropicália: A Revolution in Brazilian Culture, at Barbican Art Gallery
2006 - New York (United States) - Tropicália: A Revolution in Brazilian Culture, at The Bronx Museum of the Arts
2006 - São Paulo SP - MAM at Oca, at Oca
2007 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Artists' Films: Brazil 1965-80, at Oi Futuro - Flamengo
2007 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Tropicália: A Revolution in Brazilian Culture, at Museu de Arte Moderna
2007 - São Paulo SP - The 1970s - Art as Question, at Instituto Tomie Ohtake
2007 - São Paulo SP - Itaú Contemporâneo: Art in Brazil 1981-2006, at Itaú Cultural
2008 - Brasília DF - Obranome II, at Museu Nacional do Conjunto Cultural da República
2008 - São Paulo SP - Laços do Olhar [Ties of the Gaze], at Instituto Tomie Ohtake
2010 - São Paulo SP - Memórias Reveladas [Revealed Memories], at Museu de Arte Brasileira
2010 - São Paulo SP - Tékhne, at Museu de Arte Brasileira
2010 - São Paulo SP - Um Dia Terá Que Ter Terminado [One Day It Will Have to Have Ended]: 1969/74, at Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo
2011 - Brussels (Belgium) - Gravura Extrema [Extreme Printmaking], at Centre de la Gravure et de l'Image Imprimée La Louvière
2011 - Porto (Portugal) - From Page to Space: Published Paper Sculptures, at Fundação de Serralves
2011 - Viamão RS - Um Ponto de Ironia [A Point of Irony], at Fundação Vera Chaves Barcellos
2012 - São Paulo SP - Poetry, at Galeria Virgílio
2012 - Viamão RS - Julio Plaza, Construções Poéticas [Poetic Constructions], at Fundação Vera Chaves Barcellos. Sala Pomares
Source: Itaú Cultural
