Luiz Paulo Baravelli (São Paulo SP 1942)
Luiz Paulo Baravelli is a painter, draftsman, sculptor, printmaker, teacher and columnist. He studied drawing and painting at the Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado (Faap), in São Paulo, from 1960 to 1962. During this period, he studied with Wesley Duke Lee (1931-2010), whose works became an important reference in his production. In 1964, he began studying architecture at the Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo of the Universidade de São Paulo (FAU/USP). He taught drawing at the Escola Superior de Desenho Industrial de Ribeirão Preto and at the Instituto de Artes e Decoração (Iade), in São Paulo. He was one of the founders of the Escola Brasil, together with Carlos Fajardo (1941), José Resende (1945) and Frederico Nasser (1945).
In 1975 and 1976, he was co-editor of the magazine Malasartes and, from 1981 to 1983, of the magazine Arte em São Paulo. He also wrote columns for the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo from 1985 to 1986. Early in his career, he produced paintings close to Pop Art. In the late 1960s, he began making objects from industrial materials. From the 1970s onward, he devoted himself exclusively to painting, creating works that often used irregularly shaped supports. The urban landscape and the human figure were the predominant themes of his work.
Critical Commentary
Luiz Paulo Baravelli's works of the mid-1960s show the decisive influence of his teacher Wesley Duke Lee (1931 - 2010). According to the historian Cláudia Valladão de Mattos, "in the pictures Baravelli painted at the time, compositional solutions close to Wesley's recur, such as the use of geometric cuts and [...] the tendency toward compilation and the exploration of numerous materials and media".1 At the same time, he became interested in British Pop Art, especially Ron Kitaj (1932 - 2007), Peter Blake (1932), David Hockney (1937) and Richard Hamilton (1922 - 2011).
In the canvases made until 1967, he worked with Pop iconography and traditional painting procedures, combining graphic icons, drawings and geometrized figures with marked brushstrokes. In the late 1960s, he became increasingly interested in unconventional materials. Gradually, he moved away from the craft of painting and began working with objects assembled from designs. He used industrial materials such as Formica, acrylic, plywood and iron, which he cut, creating regular forms that he then arranged impersonally.
In 1970, he exhibited with his colleagues Carlos Fajardo (1941), José Resende (1945) and Frederico Nasser (1945) at the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (MAM/RJ) and at the Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo (MAC/USP). The joint effort encouraged them to keep working together. That year, they set up the Escola Brasil: - a space where the artists taught free art courses. Also in 1970, Baravelli decided to devote himself exclusively to painting. According to the art critic Olívio Tavares Araújo, at that time "he withdraws into a daily and intense practice of observational drawing".2 In 1974, he held his first solo exhibition, showing observational drawings and paintings. His works are figurative and averse to the idea of the avant-garde.
In the 1980s, Baravelli made irregularly shaped canvases, which he calls "recortes" [cutouts]. From then on, this type of work became a constant in his production. In 1996, the artist showed the Série Branca [White Series] at Galeria Nara Roesler, in São Paulo. In it, according to the critic Marilia Saboya de Albuquerque, he takes up some "figure/ground questions that preceded the cutouts".3
Notes
1 MATTOS, Cláudia Valladão de. Entre quadros e esculturas: Wesley e os fundadores da escola Brasil. São Paulo: Discurso Editorial, 1997, p. 39.
2 ARAÚJO, Olívio Tavares. Partes de um ensaio (d'Après Baravelli). In: BARAVELLI, Luiz Paulo. Parte do todo / Partes de agora: (pintura, 1983-1987) / (série das Ovais, 1987). São Paulo: Galeria de Arte São Paulo, 1987. p. 8.
3 ALBUQUERQUE, Marilia Saboya de. Sobre a série Branca. Galeria Nara Roesler, 1996. Disponível em: [http://www.nararoesler.com.br/artistas_txtg_p.asp?idartista=31&onumero=3]. Acesso em: 29 ago. 2005.
Critiques
"(...) Baravelli seeks to establish the relationships between time-space, the simultaneous times of human consciousness and cultural references. The artist's perception of time-space is the scientific one. For him, there is a constant universal interrelationship, the time and space of physics, the relationships we sense in the theory of relativity and in the popular notion of interplanetary travel. That is the artist's first plane. The second relates psychological time, the simultaneity of human consciousness, holder of memories and of past, present and future. The cultural reference in these relationships is provided by drawing, a mere indicator of ideas and knowledge. And the artist, as he critically comments on his measuring instrument, painting, creates a distance between the represented image and its meaning. The images comment on themselves, constantly alerting the viewer to their illusory character, their character as representation. It is commentary within commentary, an iconic language that knows itself and yet assumes its socially sanctioned role: to represent through the image".
Jacob Klintowitz
KLINTOWITZ, Jacob. Versus: 10 anos de crítica de arte. Jacob Klintowitz. Pietro Maria Bardi. São Paulo, Espade, 1978. p. 92.
"Quoting Paul Klee, Luiz Paulo Baravelli likes to recall, approvingly, that 'every limitation is a support'. This is a surprising position in an artist as inventive and diverse as he is, whose protean temperament, with its metamorphoses and avatars, almost disorients less attentive observers. (...) For it is true that he moves with the utmost naturalness between supports, techniques and even varied styles. Sometimes he works on the traditional format of the canvas, the window-rectangle, sometimes on wooden cutouts and/or reliefs with unexpected contours. Sometimes he uses the sensual texture of encaustic, full-bodied, savorable, sometimes an absolutely flat painting that is almost a brush drawing. Sometimes he resorts to an almost realist and poetic figuration based on life drawing, sometimes to the most forceful and expressive distortions, which shatter the figure with a violence comparable to that of Picasso's most dramatic phases. Throughout his work, he ventures into various themes, ranging from undifferentiated, infinite, imaginary landscape to the human being in details enlarged and investigated beyond measure. And at times he even reduces figuration to an extreme synthesis, 'radical representations of visible reality' that become virtually abstract constructions. And yet, behind all this, there is a single project, absolutely precise and circumscribed, limited and supported: a project of making painting".
Olívio Tavares de Araújo
ARAÚJO, Olívio Tavares de. Luiz Paulo Baravelli. Galeria: revista de arte, São Paulo: Area Editorial, n. 7, p. 24-28, 1987.
Testimonials
"For me, style is an area and not a road. To the idea of the (military) avant-garde I oppose the idea of (agricultural) cultivation. This area borders on or overlaps other areas, of other artists, or is crossed by avant-garde troops that arrive, leave their mark and exit through the other edge. So, without any self-promotion, I define my 'style' as Baravellist".
Luiz Paulo Baravelli
BARAVELLI, Luiz Paulo. Baravelli. (Texto manuscrito).
Solo Exhibitions
1975 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Paintings 72/75, at MAM/RJ
1977 - São Paulo SP - Recent Paintings, at Galeria Luisa Strina
1979 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Luisa Strina
1980 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Luisa Strina
1982 - São Paulo SP - Paintings on Indeterminacy, at Paulo Figueiredo Galeria de Arte
1984 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Galeria Tina Zappoli
1984 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria São Paulo
1985 - São Paulo SP - Recent Cutouts, at Galeria São Paulo
1985 - Tokyo (Japan) - Solo, at Hara Museum of Contemporary Art
1989 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria São Paulo
1991 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Documenta
1991 - São Paulo SP - Legends of the Beginning, at Galeria São Paulo
1992 - São Paulo SP - Baravelli: 50 Years, at MAC/USP
1993 - São Paulo SP - God, at Galeria São Paulo
1993 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria São Paulo
1995 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Paço Imperial
1996 - Belo Horizonte MG - White Series, at Kolams Galeria de Arte
1996 - São Paulo SP - White Series, at Galeria Nara Roesler
2000 - São Paulo SP - Panoramas, at Galeria Nara Roesler
2002 - São Paulo SP - Interior/Exterior, at Galeria Nara Roesler
2004 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Múltipla de Arte
2004 - São Paulo SP - Couples Series, at Galeria Nara Roesler
Group Exhibitions
1967 - São Paulo SP - 9th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Fundação Bienal - Itamaraty Acquisition Prize
1967 - São Paulo SP - 1st Young Contemporary Art, at MAC/USP
1968 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Baravelli, Fajardo, Nasser, Resende, at Petite Galerie
1968 - São Paulo SP - Baravelli, Fajardo, Nasser, Resende, at Galeria Art-Art
1970 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Baravelli, Fajardo, Nasser, Resende, at MAM/RJ
1970 - São Paulo SP - Baravelli, Fajardo, Nasser, Resende, at MAC/USP
1971 - Asunción (Paraguay) - Carlos Fajardo, Frederico Nasser, Luiz Paulo Baravelli, at Galeria da Missão Cultural Brasileira
1971 - São Paulo SP - 3rd Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1972 - Asunción (Paraguay) - Luiz Paulo Baravelli, Frederico Nasser, José Resende and Carlos Fajardo, at Galeria da Missão Cultural Brasileira
1972 - São Paulo SP - 4th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1972 - São Paulo SP - Art/Brazil/Today: 50 Years Later, at Galeria da Collectio
1972 - São Paulo SP - Brasil Plástica 72 - special room, at Fundação Bienal - acquisition prize
1972 - São Paulo SP - Art Exhibition for the Sesquicentennial of Independence and Brasil Plástica - 72, at Fundação Bienal
1972 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Multiples, at Galeria Múltipla de Arte
1973 - Belo Horizonte MG - 5th Global Winter Salon, at Fundação Palácio das Artes
1973 - São Paulo SP - 5th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1974 - Campinas SP - 9th Campinas Contemporary Art Salon, at MACC
1974 - São Paulo SP - 6th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1974 - São Paulo SP - Galeria Luisa Strina: Inaugural Exhibition, at Galeria Luisa Strina
1975 - São Paulo SP - 7th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1976 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Art Now I, at MAM/RJ - Light Acquisition Prize
1977 - Belo Horizonte MG - 5th Global Winter Salon, at Fundação Palácio das Artes
1977 - Brasília DF - 5th Global Winter Salon, at Fundação Cultural do Distrito Federal
1977 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 5th Global Winter Salon, at MNBA
1977 - São Paulo SP - 9th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1977 - São Paulo SP - 5th Global Winter Salon, at Masp
1978 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - 15 Young Artists from Brazil, at Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires
1978 - Caracas (Venezuela) - Quatro Artistas Brasileños
1978 - São Paulo SP - 10th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1978 - São Paulo SP - 15 Young Artists from Brazil, at MAB/Faap
1978 - São Paulo SP - 5th Global Winter Salon, at Masp
1978 - São Paulo SP - The Object in Art: Brazil in the 1960s, at MAB/Faap
1979 - São Paulo SP - 11th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1979 - São Paulo SP - Return to the Figure: The 1960s, at Museu Lasar Segall
1980 - São Paulo SP - 12th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1980 - São Paulo SP - Art and Research, at MAC/USP
1981 - São Paulo SP - 13th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1981 - São Paulo SP - Art and Research, at MAC/USP
1981 - São Paulo SP - Contemporary Brazilian Artists, at Escritório de Arte São Paulo
1983 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 3 x 4 Large Formats, at Galeria do Centro Empresarial Rio
1983 - São Paulo SP - 14th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1983 - São Paulo SP - 17th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Fundação Bienal
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Wood, Material of Art, at MAM/RJ
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Long Live Painting, at Petite Galerie
1984 - São Paulo SP - The Urban and Industrial Dimensions in São Paulo Figurative Painting, at Traço Galeria de Arte
1984 - São Paulo SP - Tradition and Rupture: A Synthesis of Brazilian Art and Culture, at Fundação Bienal
1984 - Venice (Italy) - 41st Venice Biennale
1985 - Brasília DF - Brazilianness and Independence, at Teatro Nacional Cláudio Santoro
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 8th National Visual Arts Salon, at MAM/RJ
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Velha Mania: Brazilian Drawing, at EAV/Parque Lage
1985 - São Paulo SP - Highlights of Brazilian Contemporary Art, at MAM/SP
1985 - São Paulo SP - Tendencies of the Artist's Book in Brazil, at CCSP
1985 - Tokyo (Japan) - Today's Art of Brazil, at Hara Museum of Contemporary Art
1986 - New York (United States) - Six Brazilian Artists, at Snug Harbor Cultural Center
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Christian Dior Contemporary Art Exhibition: Painting, at Paço Imperial
1986 - São Paulo SP - 17th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1986 - São Paulo SP - Landscape as Seen by Aguilar, Baravelli, Granato, Marcello Nitsche, Tomoshigue, at Galeria Múltipla de Arte
1987 - São Paulo SP - 20th Contemporary Art Exhibition, at Chapel Art Show
1987 - São Paulo SP - Parts of the Whole, at MAM/SP
1988 - São Paulo SP - 63/66 Figure and Object, at Galeria Millan
1988 - São Paulo SP - MAC 25 Years: Recent Acquisitions and Donations, at MAC/USP
1988 - São Paulo SP - Parts of Now, at Galeria São Paulo
1989 - São Paulo SP - 20th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Fundação Bienal
1989 - São Paulo SP - 20th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1989 - São Paulo SP - Galeria São Paulo Collection, at Galeria de Arte São Paulo
1990 - Atami (Japan) - 9th Brazil-Japan Contemporary Art Exhibition
1990 - Brasília DF - 9th Brazil-Japan Contemporary Art Exhibition
1990 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 9th Brazil-Japan Contemporary Art Exhibition
1990 - São Paulo SP - 9th Brazil-Japan Contemporary Art Exhibition, at Fundação Brasil-Japão
1990 - São Paulo SP - The Multiple as Seen by Baravelli, Marcello Nitsche, Maria Bonomi, Norberto Nicola, Peticov and Vlavianos, at Galeria Múltipla de Arte
1990 - Sapporo (Japan) - 9th Brazil-Japan Contemporary Art Exhibition
1990 - Tokyo (Japan) - 9th Brazil-Japan Contemporary Art Exhibition
1991 - Havana (Cuba) - 4th Havana Biennial - special room
1991 - São Paulo SP - Legends of the Beginning, at Galeria São Paulo
1991 - São Paulo SP - National x International in Brazilian Art, at Paço das Artes
1992 - Campinas SP - Award Winners of the Campinas Contemporary Art Salons, at MACC
1992 - Poços de Caldas MG - Brazilian Modern Art: Collection of the Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo, at Casa da Cultura de Poços de Caldas
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st On the Way to Niterói: João Sattamini Collection, at Paço Imperial
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Contemporary Art, at EAV/Parque Lage
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Coca-Cola 50 Years with Art, at MAM/RJ
1992 - São Paulo SP - The Seduction of Volumes: The Three-Dimensional Works of the MAC, at MAC/USP
1992 - São Paulo SP - Dominant White, at Galeria de Arte São Paulo
1992 - São Paulo SP - Coca-Cola 50 Years with Art, at MAM/SP
1992 - São Paulo SP - 7th Brazilian Art Salon, at Fundação Mokiti Okada M.O.A.
1994 - Poços de Caldas MG - Unibanco Collection: Exhibition Celebrating Unibanco's 70th Anniversary, at Casa da Cultura de Poços de Caldas
1994 - São Paulo SP - Flags: 60 Artists Celebrate USP's 60 Years, at MAC/USP
1994 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Brasil Século XX, at Fundação Bienal
1994 - São Paulo SP - Landscapes
1995 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Unibanco Collection: Exhibition Celebrating Unibanco's 70th Anniversary, at MAM/RJ
1996 - Niterói RJ - Brazilian Contemporary Art in the João Sattamini Collection, at MAC/Niterói
1996 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Art: 50 Years of History in the MAC/USP Collection: 1920-1970, at MAC/USP
1996 - São Paulo SP - Flags, at Galeria de Arte do Sesi
1996 - São Paulo SP - 2nd United Artists: Utopia, at Casa das Rosas
1998 - Niterói RJ - Mirror of the Biennial, at MAC/Niterói
1998 - São Paulo SP - The Art of Exhibiting Art, at MAM/SP
1998 - São Paulo SP - Galeria de Arte São Paulo Collection, at Galeria de Arte São Paulo
1998 - São Paulo SP - Elective Affinities I: The Collector's Eye, at Casa das Rosas
1998 - São Paulo SP - Contemporary Art, at Sérgio Caribé Galeria de Arte
1998 - São Paulo SP - The 1970s, at Galeria de Arte São Paulo
1998 - São Paulo SP - Figurations: 30 Years in Brazilian Art, at MAC/USP
1999 - São Paulo SP - 8 Brazilian Artists, at Sérgio Caribé Galeria de Arte
1999 - São Paulo SP - Everyday/Art. Consumption - Paratodos, at Itaú Cultural
1999 - São Paulo SP - Transparencies, at Escritório de Arte Rosa Barbosa
2000 - Belém PA - Arte Pará 2000, at Museu de Arte de Belém
2000 - São Paulo SP - The Human Figure in the Itaú Collection, at Itaú Cultural
2001 - São Paulo SP - Museu de Arte Brasileira: 40 Years, at MAB/Faap
2002 - Fortaleza CE - Ceará Rediscovers Brazil, at Centro Dragão do Mar de Arte e Cultura
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Paths of the Contemporary 1952-2002, at Paço Imperial
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
2002 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Multiples 30 Years Later, at Múltipla de Arte
2002 - São Paulo SP - Open Opera: Celebration, at Casa das Rosas
2002 - São Paulo SP - Gate 2, at Galeria Nara Roesler
2002 - São Paulo SP - Who Makes the Biennials, at Galeria Múltipla de Arte
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Grupo Rex/Escola Brasil, at MAM/RJ
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Projeto Brazilianart, at Almacén Galeria de Arte
2003 - São Paulo SP - The Subversion of Media, at Itaú Cultural
2003 - São Paulo SP - Compressors and Condensers
2003 - São Paulo SP - Aesthetics of the Fluid, at MAM/SP
2003 - São Paulo SP - MAC USP 40 Years: Contemporary Interfaces, at MAC/USP
2003 - São Paulo SP - My Friends, at MAM/SP
2004 - São Paulo SP - Biennials, at Hotel Sofitel São Paulo
2004 - São Paulo SP - New Acquisitions: 1995 - 2003, at MAB/Faap
2004 - São Paulo SP - The Price of Seduction: From Corset to Silicone, at Itaú Cultural
2005 - São Paulo SP - Art in Metrópolis, at Instituto Tomie Ohtake
Biennials
1991 4th Havana Biennial - special room - Havana, Cuba
1989 20th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo - Fundação Bienal - São Paulo, SP
1984 41st Venice Biennale - Venice, Italy
1983 17th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo - Fundação Bienal - São Paulo, SP
1967 9th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo - Fundação Bienal - Itamaraty Acquisition Prize - São Paulo, SP
Salons
1992 - Award winner at the Campinas Contemporary Art Salons - MACC - Campinas, SP - 7th Brazilian Art Salon - Fundação Mokiti Okada M.O.A. - São Paulo, SP
1977 - 5th Global Winter Salon - Fundação Cultural do Distrito Federal - Brasília, DF - 5th Global Winter Salon - MNBA - Rio de Janeiro, RJ
1972 - Brasil Plástica 72 - special room - Fundação Bienal - acquisition prize - São Paulo, SP
1967 - 1st Young Contemporary Art - MAC/USP - São Paulo, SP
Source: Itaú Cultural
