Luiz Henrique Schwanke (Joinville SC 1951 - Idem 1992)
Painter, draftsman, sculptor, actor, playwright, scenographer and publicist.
Good in Social Communication from the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), he is self-taught in drawing, painting and sculpture. Since the late 1970s, it has been a constant presence in national exhibitions and salons, standing out with several awards. In parallel with plastic research, he acts as a publicist, playwright, actor and set designer. In 1980, he held an individual show at the Sérgio Milliet Gallery, of the National Art Foundation - Funarte, in Rio de Janeiro, with works that explain recurring issues in his trajectory: the interest in light, the use of industrialized materials and references to the history of art. In the 1980s, he returned to live in Joinville. Between 1985 and 1987, he developed the sequence of linguarudos profiles, drawings and paintings made with a quick gesture, denoting violence and obsession. In 1989, it presents three-dimensional and series works presented at the Joinville Art Museum, some of which are installed in public spaces. Participates in the 21st International Biennial of São Paulo, in 1991, with the Cubo de Luz project, a sculpture made with an immense light beam. In 2003, the Luiz Henrique Schwanke Institute was founded in Joinville.
Critical Comment
Between the 1970s and 1990s, through drawings, paintings, sculptures and installations, Schwanke develops a constant reflection on the place of art in the contemporary world. It articulates procedures characteristic of pop art, conceptualism and minimalism, such as the citation of paradigmatic works in the history of art and the appropriation and creation in series of images and industrialized objects. Also the interest in the dichotomy between light and dark and the role of light in the delineation of objects are questions that permeate its trajectory. The same enraged male profile, with tongue and teeth on display, screaming or vomiting. Some are made over newspaper pages or accounting books sheets. The strokes and strokes are explicitly gestural, as if there were no intermediation between the impulse that generated them and the final image.
At this time, Schwanke begins to produce three-dimensional works with the series creation of plastic objects for domestic use, like buckets, hoses, clothespins and gallons. As the art critic Harry Laus points out, in this series the organization of the elements configures columns and reliefs of wall that refer to classic architectural structures1. The beauty of the design of the objects is highlighted by the repetition and its ordering in compositions of exact proportions. above all the columns installed in public spaces, which stand out for their monumentality.
According to the artist, the subject of the light-dark in the works of the Italian painter Michelangelo Caravaggio (1571 - 1610) becomes for him. An obsession2, instigating research that results in the work Cubo de Luz, presented in 1991, at the 21st International Biennial of São Paulo. A strong beam of light produced with dozens of spotlights arranged below the ground in a large cubic hole constitutes its attempt to shape the light. In Schwanke's words "the cube of light has as a paradox an immaterial, penetrable, visible and impossible contemplation volume"3.
Note
1 - LAUS, Harry. Schwanke's greatest flight. In: Joinville Art Museum. Schwanke sculptures. Joinville: Joinville Museum of Art, 1989.
2 - SCHWANKE, Luiz Henrique. testimonial. In 21st São Paulo International Biennial. General Catalog. São Paulo: Fundação Bienal, Marca D'água, 1991, p. 297.
3 - Idem, p. 298.
Criticism
"Schwanke is one of the most vigorous personalities of contemporary South Brazilian plastic. Now, for neo-expressionism. (...) Schwanke often dwells on fixing, in an aggressive and ironic way, heads that turn into a frown/signs, or anatomical details linked to the erotic parts of the human body, like the breasts.(...) on disposable material - which it uses as a support - Schwanke makes a gestural record of the human being. It composes large panels with rectangles of human profiles, which far from being cliché represent the voracity, violence and individual chaos. Caras/Carrancas emit the howlings of the human beast, whose ensemble, at an exacerbated rhythm, shows the desires of a brutalized society that is self-destructing. (...) The artist, more than a simple record, makes a severe criticism that leads him to To deprive of the current aesthetic standard; (...). Its irreverence accuses the deterioration of Western civilization, on the eve of the 21st century, making, via the collective unconscious, a catastrophic existential reading.(...)"
Adalice Araújo
ARAÚJO, Adalice. Luiz Henrique Schwanke. Gallery: Revista de Arte, São Paulo: Area Editorial, n.6, p.56-57, 1987.
Individual exhibitions
1972 - Florianópolis SC - Individual Masc
1975 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at MNBA
1976 - Florianópolis SC - Individual, at the Studio AZ Gallery
1976 - Joinville SC - Individual, at the gallery Açu-Açu
1976 - Joinville SC - Individual, at the Casa de Cultura
1980 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at the Sérgio Milliet Gallery
1991 - Porto Alegre RS - Individual, at ItaugaLeria
Collective exhibitions
1962 - São Paulo SP - 2nd Children's Art Salon - Honorable Mention in Drawing
1969 - Curitiba PR - 1st Exhibition of Plastic Arts of the Academic Directory Rocha Pombo, at UFPR
1971 - Curitiba PR - 2nd Exhibition of Plastic Arts of the Academic Directory Rocha Pombo, at UFPR
1971 - Curitiba PR - Salão dos Novos - Honorable Mention
1972 - Santa Catarina - 1st Salon of Plastic Arts of Santa Catarina Island
1976 - Curitiba PR - 33rd Salão Paranaense de Belas Artes
1977 - Curitiba PR - 34th Salão Paranaense de Belas Artes
1977 - Curitiba PR - Artists from Santa Catarina, at MAC/USP
1979 - Curitiba PR - 36th Salão Paranaense de Belas Artes - awarded
1979 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 2nd National Salon of Fine Arts MAM/RJ
1983 - Curitiba PR - 5th Brazilian Drawing Exhibition, at the Guaíra Theater
1984 - São Paulo SP - 15th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 8th National Salon of Plastic Arts, at MAM/RJ
1985 - São Paulo SP - 3rd São Paulo Contemporary Art Salon, at the Bienal Foundation
1986 - Curitiba PR - Tradition/Contradição, at MAC/PR
1986 - Fortaleza CE - Imagine: The planet welcomes the comet, in the art gallery
1986 - Porto Alegre RS - Paths of Brazilian Design, at Margs
1986 - São Paulo SP - 4th São Paulo Contemporary Art Salon, at the Bienal - Acquisition Award
1988 - São Paulo SP - 6th São Paulo Contemporary Art Salon
1991 - Porto Alegre RS - BR/80: Painting Brazil 80's, at the Casa de Cultura Mário Quintana
1991 - São Paulo SP - 21st São Paulo International Biennial, at the Bienal Foundation
1991 - São Paulo SP - 22nd Brazilian current art panorama, at MAM/SP
Posthumous exhibitions
1994 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Brasil Século 20th Century, at Fundação Bienal
1996 - Porto Alegre RS - The Poetic Universe of Schwanke, at the Pinacoteca Barão do Santo Ângelo of the Instituto de Artes da UFRGS
1998 - Florianópolis SC - 6th Victor Meirelles National Hall, at MASC
2003 - São Paulo SP - Schwanke Project: Perspective of the Visual Arts in Santa Catarina, at the Latin America Memorial. Galeria Marta Traba
Source: Itaú Cultural
