Lothar Charoux (Viena, Áustria 1912 - São Paulo SP 1987)
Lothar Charoux was a painter, draftsman and teacher. He began his art studies with his uncle, the Austrian sculptor Siegfried Charoux. He arrived in Brazil in 1928 and settled in São Paulo. In the 1930s, he enrolled at the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios de São Paulo (Laosp), where he met Waldemar da Costa (1904–1982), with whom he studied painting from 1940. He painted landscapes and portraits. He later taught drawing at the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios and at Senai. In 1947, he held his first solo exhibition, at Galeria Itapetininga. From 1948 he turned to constructive concerns. In 1952, he took part in founding the Grupo Ruptura, alongside Waldemar Cordeiro (1925–1973), Geraldo de Barros (1923–1998), Anatol Wladyslaw (1913–2004) and others.
In 1963, together with Hermelindo Fiaminghi (1920–2004) and Luiz Sacilotto (1924–2003), he founded the Associação de Artes Visuais NT – Novas Tendências [NT – New Tendencies Visual Arts Association]. He was honored with a retrospective at the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (MAM/SP) and the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (MAM/RJ) in 1974. In 2005, the book Lothar Charoux: A Poética da Linha [Lothar Charoux: The Poetics of Line], by art historian Maria Alice Milliet, was published.
Critical Commentary
In the 1940s, Lothar Charoux's work is highly varied. The artist paints landscapes showing formal affinities with the painting of Waldemar da Costa (1904 - 1982) and the Grupo Santa Helena, as well as portraits of an Expressionist character.
From 1948, Charoux turns to constructive concerns. According to art historian Ana Maria Belluzzo, the artist frequently works with a preliminary grid that organizes the visual field of his paintings. In the 1950s, he produces the series of black drawings, in which he explores the graphic contrast of the white line against a black surface, enhancing its luminous value. In other works, he seeks to create tension between figure and ground by means of open geometric shapes that cut across the plane in different directions.
For historian Walter Zanini, Charoux's participation in the Grupo Ruptura contributes to the maturity reached by the Concrete movement in those years. In his work, the artist explores, with creativity and skill, questions of line, movement and balance, as well as optical vibrations and the most varied combinatorial games.
Critiques
"An insistently Concrete artist, in the most current sense of the 'Visual Research' group, he nevertheless does not imitate the organic and inorganic generalities of nature, nor does he seek to synthesize plant, animal or mineral schemes in his lines and textures. A kind of classical illuminator, he does not devote himself to a religious theme of palimpsests and canonical or dynastic codices either. There are no biblical or historical episodes in his body of work. One might rather call him a geometer lost in the availability of continuous and harmonic proportions. His works, however current they may be, do not aim at the industrial design solutions of, for example, Mavignier. They remain in the inapplicable metamorphoses of a kaleidoscope whose occasional and ever-changing figures fascinate precisely through the constant of trigonometric truth in everything that is a desperate tendency to escape predetermination. He is thus bound to the art of Luca Pacioli, Jacopo de' Barbari and Vignola, an art that held something of the magic and rhythms of the golden ratio as a foreshadowing of rites and liturgies."
José Geraldo Vieira
CHAROUX, Lothar. Lothar Charoux: retrospectiva. São Paulo: MAM, 1974. p.20 [Texto originalmente publicado no jornal Folha de S. Paulo, 28 fev. 1965].
"Lothar Charoux remains absolutely faithful to the formal questions raised in his Concrete period, in the 1950s. Since then he has been creating virtual spaces in which form is completed, in Gestalt fashion, in the viewer's eye. He uses symmetrically organized lines, and on vertical supports he organizes the visual rhythm created by the relationship between the different linear densities and the single color that serves as background. Later, the purely optical and musical character gives way to a more architectural organization of space; line yields to color."
Frederico Morais
DACOLEÇÃO: os caminhos da arte brasileira. São Paulo: Júlio Bogoricin, 1986.
"Charoux's drawing is an ardent pursuit of precision and objectivity. His geometry is almost scholastic, seldom straying from the problems found in the textbooks of the discipline. We do not mean by this that these are elementary problems of school geometry. No science is more modern, or more necessary to the spirit of contemporary man. Without its study, what is fundamental in our time on the visual plane would either go unnoticed or be misunderstood: how could we understand the mechanism - and more than the mechanism, the inner secret - of this vast field of new forms that the sciences and modern technology have brought, and bring every day, into everyday use, that is, into the knowledge of our senses and our imagination? Charoux is a modest and conscientious intermediary between this vast field of new, unprecedented or unusual forms, as if explained and codified by geometry, and us, the laypeople, the careless passersby, their distracted or unaware consumers. All these gestalts, or new ideas, or at least ideas characteristic of our time, are indispensable to their lives, and therefore to their sensory organization and, ultimately, to their sensibility. His black-and-white drawing, delicately modulated, which won a prize in São Paulo, is based on a figure that is new in geometry though old in engineering: the turbine, or, as the books define it, an infinite number of uncertain elements with continuity. The elements are associated so as to give a certain direction. In the turbine, the element-points are distributed in a perfect circle, with the inclination of the strokes or fillets varying along the circumference, but always keeping the same angle. The black-and-white modulation that delighted us in Charoux's drawing came from this successive inclination, within the same angle and space."
Mário Pedrosa
PEDROSA, Mário. Acadêmicos e modernos: textos escolhidos III. São Paulo: Edusp, 1998. pp.257-259.
Solo Exhibitions
1947 - São Paulo SP - First solo exhibition, at Galeria Itapetininga
1950 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Galeria Anjo Azul
1957 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Petite Galerie
1958 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Ginásio Português
1962 - Campinas SP - Solo, at Galeria Aremar
1965 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria NT Novas Tendências
1970 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Ami Galeria de Arte
1971 - Campinas SP - Solo, at Galeria Girassol
1971 - Santos SP - Solo, at CCBEU
1971 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Alberto Bonfiglioli
1972 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Astréia
1973 - Asunción (Paraguay) - Solo, at Galeria da Missão Cultural Brasileira
1973 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Grupo B
1974 - São Paulo SP - Retrospective, at MAM/SP
1976 - Brasília DF - Solo, at Fundação Cultural do Distrito Federal
1976 - Goiânia (Goiás) - Solo, at Galeria P. D. Araújo
1976 - Milan (Italy) - Solo, at Centro Ítalo-Brasileiro
1978 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Arte Global
1978 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at MAM
1979 - Montevideo (Uruguay) - Solo, at Galería Karlen Gugelmeier
1979 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Alberto Bonfiglioli
Group Exhibitions
1942 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 48th National Salon of Fine Arts - Modern Division, at MNBA
1942 - São Paulo SP - 7th Salon of the Visual Artists' Union, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1944 - São Paulo SP - 9th Salon of the Visual Artists' Union, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1946 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 6 Novíssimos [6 Newest Artists], at IAB/RJ
1946 - Santiago (Chile) - Exposición de Pintura Contemporánea Brasileña [Exhibition of Contemporary Brazilian Painting], at Universidad de Santiago de Chile
1946 - Valparaíso (Chile) - Exposición de Pintura Contemporánea Brasileña [Exhibition of Contemporary Brazilian Painting]
1947 - São Paulo SP - 19 Pintores [19 Painters], at Galeria Prestes Maia
1947 - São Paulo SP - Bonadei, Di Cavalcanti, Noêmia Mourão, Lothar Charoux, Oswald de Andrade Filho, Lúcia Suané, Cesar Lacanna, Mario Zanini e Raphael Galvez, at Galeria Itapetininga
1949 - Salvador BA - 1st Bahia Fine Arts Salon, at Hotel Bahia - first prize and gold medal
1950 - Salvador BA - 2nd Bahia Fine Arts Salon, at Galeria Belvedere da Sé
1951 - Salvador BA - 3rd Bahia Fine Arts Salon, at Galeria Belvedere da Sé
1951 - São Paulo SP - 1st São Paulo International Biennial, at Pavilhão do Trianon
1952 - São Paulo SP - 2nd São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1952 - São Paulo SP - Grupo Ruptura, at MAM/SP
1953 - São Paulo SP - 2nd São Paulo International Biennial, at Pavilhão dos Estados
1954 - São Paulo SP - 3rd São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1955 - São Paulo SP - 3rd São Paulo International Biennial, at Pavilhão das Nações
1955 - São Paulo SP - 4th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia - acquisition prize
1956 - São Paulo SP - 1st National Exhibition of Concrete Art, at MAM/SP
1957 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st National Exhibition of Concrete Art, at MAM/RJ
1957 - São Paulo SP - 4th São Paulo International Biennial, at Pavilhão Ciccillo Matarazzo Sobrinho
1957 - São Paulo SP - 6th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia - small silver medal
1957 - Tokyo (Japan) - 4th Tokyo Biennial
1958 - São Paulo SP - 7th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1958 - São Paulo SP - Clark, Weissmann e Charoux, at Galeria de Arte da Folha
1958 - São Paulo SP - Contemporary Art Exhibition, at MAM/SP - 1st prize/drawing
1959 - Leverkusen (Germany) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1959 - Munich (Germany) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1959 - São Paulo SP - 5th São Paulo International Biennial, at Pavilhão Ciccillo Matarazzo Sobrinho
1959 - Vienna (Austria) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Hamburg (Germany) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Lisbon (Portugal) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Madrid (Spain) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Paris (France) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - São Paulo SP - 9th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia - acquisition prize
1960 - Utrecht (Netherlands) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1961 - São Paulo SP - 10th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia - acquisition prize
1961 - São Paulo SP - 6th São Paulo International Biennial, at Pavilhão Ciccillo Matarazzo Sobrinho
1962 - São Paulo SP - 11th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia - large silver medal
1963 - Campinas SP - Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, at Museu Carlos Gomes
1963 - São Paulo SP - 7th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1963 - São Paulo SP - Galeria Novas Tendências: coletiva inaugural [Galeria Novas Tendências: Inaugural Group Show], at Associação de Artes Visuais Novas Tendências
1964 - São Paulo SP - 13th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art - gold medal
1965 - Campinas SP - 1st Contemporary Art Salon - 1st prize/drawing
1965 - São Paulo SP - 8th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1966 - Campinas SP - Seis Pesquisadores da Arte Visual [Six Researchers of Visual Art], at MACC
1966 - Salvador BA - 1st National Visual Arts Biennial
1966 - São Paulo SP - 15th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1966 - São Paulo SP - Seis Pesquisadores da Arte Visual [Six Researchers of Visual Art], at MAC/USP
1966 - São Paulo SP - Three Premises, at MAB/Faap
1967 - Brasília DF - 4th Federal District Salon of Modern Art, at Teatro Nacional Cláudio Santoro
1967 - São Paulo SP - 9th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1968 - Asunción (Paraguay) - Tres Aspectos del Dibujo Contemporáneo Brasileño
1968 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Tres Aspectos del Dibujo Contemporáneo Brasileño
1968 - La Paz (Bolivia) - Tres Aspectos del Dibujo Contemporáneo Brasileño
1968 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 17th National Salon of Modern Art, at MAM/RJ - jury exemption
1968 - Santiago (Chile) - Tres Aspectos del Dibujo Contemporáneo Brasileño
1968 - Santos SP - 1st Santos Modern Art Salon - acquisition prize for best body of work
1968 - São José dos Campos SP - Cinco Pesquisadores da Arte Visual [Five Researchers of Visual Art]
1968 - São José dos Campos SP - Cinco Pesquisadores de Arte Visual [Five Researchers of Visual Art]
1968 - São José dos Campos SP - Seis Pesquisadores da Arte Visual [Six Researchers of Visual Art]
1968 - São Paulo SP - 17th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art - acquisition prize
1968 - São Paulo SP - 19 Pintores [19 Painters], at Tema Galeria de Arte
1969 - Belo Horizonte MG - 1st Belo Horizonte National Contemporary Art Salon, at Museu da Pampulha - acquisition prize
1969 - Curitiba PR - 26th Paraná Salon, at Federação das Indústrias do Paraná - first prize/drawing
1969 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Salão da Bússola [Compass Salon], at MAM/RJ
1969 - Santo André SP - 2nd Santo André Contemporary Art Salon, at Paço Municipal - acquisition prize
1969 - São José dos Campos SP - 1st Contemporary Art Salon - first prize
1969 - São Paulo SP - 1st Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1969 - São Paulo SP - 1st São Paulo Contemporary Art Salon, at Masp
1970 - Campinas SP - 6th Campinas Contemporary Art Salon, at MACC
1970 - Mogi das Cruzes SP - Mogi-Arte - 1st prize
1970 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 19th National Salon of Modern Art, at MAM/RJ
1970 - Santo André SP - 3rd Santo André Contemporary Art Salon, at Paço Municipal
1970 - São Bernardo do Campo SP - 13th São Bernardo do Campo Art Salon
1970 - São Caetano do Sul SP - São Caetano do Sul Contemporary Art Salon
1970 - São José dos Campos SP - 2nd Contemporary Visual Arts Show
1970 - São Paulo SP - 1st Contemporary Art Salon
1970 - São Paulo SP - 2nd Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1970 - São Paulo SP - Feira da Arte 70 [Art Fair 70]
1971 - Piracicaba SP - 3rd Piracicaba Contemporary Art Salon
1971 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Eletrobrás Art Salon, at MAM/RJ - acquisition prize
1971 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 20th National Salon of Modern Art
1971 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 50 Years of Brazilian Modern Art, at MAM/RJ
1971 - Santos SP - 1st Visual Arts Biennial - 1st prize
1971 - São Paulo SP - 2nd Contemporary Art Salon
1971 - São Paulo SP - 3rd Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP - prize/drawing
1971 - São Paulo SP - 3rd São Paulo Contemporary Art Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1972 - Florianópolis SC - 1st Visual Arts Salon of Ilha de Santa Catarina
1972 - Jundiaí SP - 3rd Jundiaí Art Meeting, at Museu Histórico e Cultural - gold medal
1972 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 21st National Salon of Modern Art, at MEC
1972 - São Paulo SP - 2nd International Print Exhibition, at MAM/SP
1972 - São Paulo SP - Art/Brazil/Today: 50 Years Later, at Galeria da Collectio
1972 - São Paulo SP - Independence Sesquicentennial Art Show and Brasil Plástica - 72, at Fundação Bienal
1972 - São Paulo SP - Múltiplos Brasileiros [Brazilian Multiples], at Galeria Múltipla de Arte
1972 - São Paulo SP - Waldemar da Costa Retrospective: Tribute to the Master, at MAM/SP
1972 - São Paulo SP - Waldemar da Costa Retrospective: Tribute to the Master, at MAM/SP
1973 - Porto Alegre RS - 2nd Visual Arts Salon, at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. Instituto de Artes - acquisition prize
1973 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 22nd National Salon of Modern Art
1973 - São Paulo SP - 12th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1974 - Campinas SP - 9th Campinas Contemporary Art Salon, at MACC
1974 - Santo André SP - 7th Santo André Contemporary Art Salon, at Centro Cívico, Paço Imperial - acquisition prize
1974 - São Paulo SP - 6th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1975 - Penápolis SP - 1st Noroeste Visual Arts Salon, at Fundação Educacional de Penápolis. Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Penápolis
1975 - São Paulo SP - 13th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1976 - Penápolis SP - 2nd Noroeste Visual Arts Salon, at Fundação Educacional de Penápolis. Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Penápolis
1976 - São Paulo SP - Young Drawing of the 1940s, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1977 - Maldonado (Uruguay) - 2nd International Drawing Biennial
1977 - São Paulo SP - 9th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1977 - São Paulo SP - The Groups: The 1940s, at Museu Lasar Segall
1977 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Constructive Project in Art: 1950-1962, at Pinacoteca do Estado and MAM/RJ
1978 - Penápolis SP - 3rd Noroeste Visual Arts Salon, at Fundação Educacional de Penápolis. Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Penápolis
1978 - São Paulo SP - 19 Pintores [19 Painters], at MAM/SP
1978 - São Paulo SP - The Biennials and Abstraction: The 1950s, at Museu Lasar Segall
1979 - São Paulo SP - 11th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1980 - Penápolis SP - 4th Noroeste Visual Arts Salon, at Fundação Educacional de Penápolis. Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Penápolis
1980 - São Paulo SP - 12th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1981 - São Paulo SP - Contemporary Brazilian Artists, at Escritório de Arte São Paulo
1982 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Brazil 60 Years of Modern Art: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, at Centro de Arte Moderna José de Azeredo Perdigão
1982 - London (England) - Brazil 60 Years of Modern Art: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, at Barbican Art Gallery
1982 - Penápolis SP - 5th Noroeste Visual Arts Salon, at Fundação Educacional de Penápolis. Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Penápolis
1982 - São Paulo SP - From Modernism to the Bienal, at MAM/SP
1984 - São Paulo SP - Color and Drawing of Brazil, at MAM/SP
1984 - São Paulo SP - Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection: Portrait and Self-Portrait of Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1984 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Movimento das Artes
1985 - Penápolis SP - 6th Noroeste Visual Arts Salon, at Fundação das Artes de Penápolis
1987 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Geometric Abstraction: Concretism and Neo-Concretism, at Fundação Nacional de Arte. Centro de Artes
1987 - São Paulo SP - The Fabric of Taste: Another Look at Everyday Life, at Fundação Bienal
Posthumous Exhibitions
1987 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Geometric Abstraction: Concretism and Neo-Concretism, at Funarte
1987 - São Paulo SP - 1st Geometric Abstraction: Concretism and Neo-Concretism, at MAB/Faap
1988 - São Paulo SP - 15 Years of the Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition, at Fundação Mokiti Okada
1991 - Santos SP - 3rd Santos National Biennial, at Centro de Cultura Patrícia Galvão
1991 - São Paulo SP - Constructivism: Poster Art 40/50/60, at MAC/USP
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st On the Way to Niterói: João Sattamini Collection, at Paço Imperial
1992 - São Paulo SP - Sérgio's View of Brazilian Art: Drawings and Paintings, at Biblioteca Mário de Andrade
1992 - Zurich (Switzerland) - Brasilien: Entdeckung und Selbstentdeckung [Brazil: Discovery and Self-Discovery], at Kunsthaus
1994 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Brasil Século XX, at Fundação Bienal
1996 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Constructive Tendencies in the MAC/USP Collection: Construction, Measure and Proportion, at CCBB
1996 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Art: 50 Years of History in the MAC/USP Collection: 1920-1970, at MAC/USP
1996 - São Paulo SP - Desexp(l)os(ign)ição, at Casa das Rosas
1998 - Niterói RJ - Mirror of the Biennial, at MAC/Niterói
1998 - São Paulo SP - Constructive Art in Brazil: Adolpho Leirner Collection, at MAM/SP
1998 - São Paulo SP - The Modern and the Contemporary in Brazilian Art: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection - MAM/RJ, at Masp
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Constructive Art in Brazil: Adolpho Leirner Collection, at MAM/RJ
1999 - São Paulo SP - Década de 50 e Seus Envolvimentos [The 1950s and Their Involvements], at Jo Slaviero Galeria de Arte
2000 - São Paulo SP - Brazil + 500 Rediscovery Exhibition. Modern Art, at Fundação Bienal
2000 - São Paulo SP - The Role of Art, at Galeria de Arte do Sesi
2000 - Valencia (Spain) - De la Antropofagia a Brasília: Brasil 1920-1950 [From Anthropophagy to Brasília: Brazil 1920-1950], at IVAM. Centre Julio González
2002 - Niterói RJ - Dialogue, Antagonism and Replication in the Sattamini Collection, at Museu de Arte Contemporânea - MAC/Niterói
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Art in the Fadel Collection: From the Restlessness of the Modern to the Autonomy of Language, at CCBB
2002 - São Paulo SP - From Anthropophagy to Brasília: Brazil 1920-1950, at Museu de Arte Brasileira - MAB/Faap
2002 - São Paulo SP - Grupo Ruptura: Revisiting the Inaugural Exhibition, at Centro Universitário Maria Antonia
2002 - São Paulo SP - Map of Now: Recent Brazilian Art in the João Sattamini Collection of the Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói, at Instituto Tomie Ohtake
2003 - Brasília DF - Brazilian Art in the Fadel Collection: From the Restlessness of the Modern to the Autonomy of Language, at CCBB
2003 - Mexico City (Mexico) - Cuasi Corpus: arte concreto y neoconcreto de Brasil: una selección del acervo del Museo de Arte Moderno de São Paulo y la Colección Adolpho Leirner [Quasi Corpus: Concrete and Neo-Concrete Art from Brazil: A Selection from the Collection of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo and the Adolpho Leirner Collection], at Museo Rufino Tamayo
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Order x Freedom, at Museu de Arte Moderna - MAM/RJ
2003 - São Paulo SP - Art and Society: A Controversial Relationship, at Itaú Cultural
2003 - São Paulo SP - MAC USP 40 Years: Contemporary Interfaces, at MAC/USP
2004 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Transitive Modernity, at MAC/Niterói
2004 - São Paulo SP - Construtivos e Cinéticos [Constructivists and Kinetics], at Galeria Berenice Arvani
Source: Itaú Cultural
