Luiz Pizarro (Rio de Janeiro RJ 1958)
Luiz Pizarro is a painter and art educator. Between 1981 and 1983, he studied at the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage (EAV/Parque Lage). He studied with John Nicholson (1951) and Luiz Ernesto (1955) and attended Luiz Aquila's (1943) open painting studio. In 1984, he took part in the exhibition Como Vai Você, Geração 80? [How Are You, Generation 80?] and, the following year, in the 18th São Paulo International Biennial.
Between 1984 and 1989, he was part of the Atelier da Lapa, alongside Daniel Senise (1955), Angelo Venosa (1954–2022) and João Magalhães (1945). From 1989 to 1991, he shared the Casarão da Lapa with Senise, Maurício Bentes (1958–2003) and Celeida Tostes (1929–1995), a space that served as a studio and teaching center.
Between 1986 and 1990, he taught painting and drawing at EAV/Parque Lage, also working alongside Beatriz Milhazes (1960) and Daniel Senise. From 1990 to 1991, he coordinated the Galpão das Artes project, devoted to promoting contemporary art, at the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (MAM/RJ).
In 1991, he traveled to Europe, living in Portugal until 1992 and then in Germany between 1992 and 1998. Back in Brazil, between 1999 and 2005 he developed educational projects for cultural centers and museums, such as the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes (MNBA), and took part in several exhibitions. In 2006, he received the Bolsa Icatu de Artes grant for an artist residency at the Cité des Arts in Paris.
Critical Commentary
Luiz Pizarro began exhibiting in the 1980s, showing paintings such as Homem no Sofá [Man on the Sofa], 1984, a naked man resting on a sofa, and Sem Título [Untitled], 1986, showing a couple kissing. Pizarro is not concerned with realism in the colors of the human body, using black, blue, violet, green, yellow and red, for example, instead of tones imitating skin color. In 1990, he became interested in researching new materials and produced, besides paintings, three-dimensional works such as the wooden tower shown at the 21st São Paulo International Biennial in 1991. Continuing his research into materials between 1992 and 1998, while living in Germany, Pizarro printed on paraffin images of landscapes made by German travelers who came to Brazil in the 19th century, as in Para que Lado Fica o Paraíso? [Which Way Is Paradise?], 1995.
Between 1998 and 2000, he divided the canvas into geometric areas of color, onto which he inserted black-and-white monotypes based on X-rays of bones and photographs of his own body exercising in weight-training sessions. In 2001, he added to this universe freehand ink drawings of fragments of bodies having sex. Sexuality was addressed again in 2004 in works depicting martial arts fights. In 2006, he returned to using paraffin as a support for landscapes.
Critiques
"Like many of his generation, it was around 1983 that the work of the Rio-born Luiz Pizarro first achieved a fully conquered language. From then on, he made the human body, essentially the male body, the exclusive element of a painting devoted to the fire that both consumes and purifies. A fire that draws on the Mannerist ghost, so that from flesh exposed to the flames of color there arise before us the heavens and hells joined together, through which we pass merely by being in the world. Other illustrious affinities belong to this painting on the edge of the wild, though never catastrophic: it is not hard to see in it the example of William Blake, the English visionary, or of the tormented Mexican Orozco. But beyond the heat of the fire, its soul breathes the pleasure of exorcised drama. The vibration of color cleanses the wounds it had itself opened in the flesh of the body-canvas".
Roberto Pontual
PONTUAL, Roberto. Entre dois séculos: arte brasileira do século XX na coleção Gilberto Chateaubriand. Rio de Janeiro: Edições Jornal do Brasil, 1987.
Solo Exhibitions
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - First solo exhibition, at Galeria Saramenha
1985 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Subdistrito
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Petite Galerie
1988 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Petite Galerie
1989 - Bern (Switzerland) - Solo, at Galeria Cláudio Righetti
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Looking for an Angel, at Paço Imperial
2001 - São Paulo SP - Luiz Pizarro, at Valu Oria Galeria de Arte
Group Exhibitions
1983 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Painting, Painting, at Fundação Casa de Rui Barbosa
1983 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 6th National Visual Arts Salon, at MAM/RJ - acquisition prize
1984 - Fortaleza CE - 7th National Visual Arts Salon
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Como Vai Você, Geração 80? [How Are You, Generation 80?], at EAV/Parque Lage
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 7th National Visual Arts Salon, at MAM/RJ
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Art Construction: 21 Contemporary Artists, at Galeria do Centro Empresarial Rio
1985 - São Paulo SP - 3rd São Paulo Contemporary Art Salon, at Fundação Bienal
1985 - São Paulo SP - 18th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Occupied Territory, at EAV/Parque Lage
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Pinturas Escrete Voladores [Flying Squad Paintings], at Circo Voador
1986 - São Paulo SP - Pinturas Escrete Voladores [Flying Squad Paintings], at Galeria Subdistrito
1986 - São Paulo SP - 1st Helena Rubinstein Young Art Selection, at Masp
1987 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - To the Collector: Tribute to Gilberto Chateaubriand, at MAM/RJ
1988 - Belo Horizonte MG - Climbing the Mountains, at Fundação Clóvis Salgado. Palácio das Artes
1988 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 3x3 - 3 Artistas, 3 Dimensões [3x3 - 3 Artists, 3 Dimensions], at Casa da Cultura Laura Alvim
1988 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 88 x 68: um balanço dos anos [88 x 68: A Review of the Years]
1988 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Abolition, at Galeria de Arte Ipanema
1988 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Hedonism: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, at Galeria Edifício Gilberto Chateaubriand
1988 - São Paulo SP - 19th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1989 - São Paulo SP - Cristiane Canale, Cláudio Fonseca, Beatriz Milhazes, Luiz Pizarro and Luiz Herbini, at MAC/USP
1990 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Arqueos Projects, at Fundição Progresso
1991 - São Paulo SP - 21st São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st On the Way to Niterói: João Sattamini Collection, at Paço Imperial
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Eco Art, at MAM/RJ
1993 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Erotic Art, at MAM/RJ
1993 - Washington D. C. (United States) - Brazil: Images of the 1980s and 1990s, at Art Museum of the Americas
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazil: Images of the 1980s and 1990s, at MAM/RJ
1994 - São Paulo SP - Brazil: Images of the 1980s and 1990s, at Casa das Rosas
1995 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The 1980s: The Stage of Diversity, at MAM/RJ
1995 - São Paulo SP - The 1980s: The Stage of Diversity, at Galeria de Arte do Sesi
1996 - Niterói RJ - Brazilian Contemporary Art in the João Sattamini Collection, at MAC/Niterói
1998 - São Paulo SP - Galeria de Arte São Paulo Collection, at Escritório de Arte São Paulo
1998 - São Paulo SP - Moto Migratório: quatro artistas brasileiros na Alemanha [Migratory Motion: Four Brazilian Artists in Germany], at MAC/USP
1998 - São Paulo SP - The Modern and the Contemporary in Brazilian Art: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection - MAM/RJ, at Masp
2000 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Image of Sound of Gilberto Gil, at Paço Imperial
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Paths of the Contemporary 1952-2002, at Paço Imperial
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Mais de Um [More than One], at Atelier Rio Comprido
2003 - São Paulo SP - 2080, at MAM/SP
2004 - São Paulo SP - The Price of Seduction: From Corset to Silicone, at Itaú Cultural
2004 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Onde Está Você, Geração 80? [Where Are You, Generation 80?], at CCBB
Source: Itaú Cultural
