Maciej Babinski (Warsaw, Poland 1931)
recorder, illustrator, painter, designer, teacher.
babinski migrou with the family to England in 1940, because of the Second World War, 1939-1945. He begins his artistic training, taking watercolor classes with Father Raphael Williams O.S.B., who introduces him to the technique of outdoor painting. In 1949, he settled with his family in Montreal, Canada, where he studied painting with John Goodwin Lyman, at McGill University. In addition, he takes engraving classes with Eldon Grier and takes courses in drawing and painting with Goodrich Roberts, at the Art Association of Montreal. In Roberts's studio, he paints landscapes, interiors and still lifes. At the same time, it approaches the vanguard group Les Automatstes [The Automatists], gathered around Paul-Émile Borduas, and exposes with them, in 1952, at the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Montréal [Museum of Fine Arts of Montreal]. Still in the Canadian phase, he held his first individual, in 1953. In that same year, he moved to Brazil, and remains in Rio de Janeiro until 1965. In the period from Rio he contacts Oswaldo Goeldi, Augusto Rodrigues and Darel, and participates in several salons and collective shows. In 1961, he made 24 Águas-Fortes for the book Cadernos de João, by Aníbal Machado, edited by the 100 bibliophiles of Brazil. Galeria Selearte, in São Paulo, and Petite Galerie, in Rio de Janeiro, house their first individual in Brazil, in 1962 and 1964, respectively. In 1965 he was invited to teach at the Central Institute of Arts of the University of Brasília - ICA/UnB, from which he leaves a year later due to political persecution. After living eight years in São Paulo, from 1966 to 1974, he moved to Minas Gerais, first to Araguari and then to Uberlândia, and will teach at the Federal University of Uberlândia - UFU, where he is from 1979 to 1987. With the political amnesty, he was reinstated to UnB in 1988, he remained there until he retired, in 1991, when he moved to Várzea Alegre, in the interior of Ceará. In 2004, the Babinski retrospective is held: 50 years from Brazil, at the Caixa Cultural Complex in Brasília.
Critical Comment
The travel experience defines the contours of Babinski's production, and the combination of traditions and models learned throughout the successive displacements it performs gives particular features to his work. The English and Canadian periods are characterized by initiation into different techniques (watercolor, painting and engraving) and by contact with figurative art and with the "automatic" paintings of the abstract group gathered around Paul-Émile Borduas. Brazil in the 1950s, in turn, makes it possible to meet the new figurations in painting and with the graphic production of Darel, Augusto Rodrigues and Oswaldo Goeldi. The inspiration taken from the universe of Goeldi is noticeable in Babinski's engraving album, published in 1967, full of dreamlike elements, deformed, sometimes grotesque, figures. There it is also possible to notice marks of Alfred Kubin's work, a reference for Goeldi himself. If in the engravings the precise incisions and the profusion of traits are placed at the service of fantastic and allegorical compositions - and themes of social content, Exodus, 1967, for example -, in the landscapes (watercolors and paintings) the gesture is observed. Loose to define superimposed planes, built on a wide chromatic range. The evident freedom of the hand is combined with the care, almost geometric, with the composition: "I believe that my whole landscape is always restructured in relation to the horizontal and the vertical", he says. artist. Thus, the luminous landscapes of Araguari and the panoramic views of the Triângulo Mineiro assume the foreground in the work of the 1970s and 1980s. By the explosion of vivid colors, always contrasted as illuminated in the wind, 2000. The location of some axes within the wide production of Babinski should not lead to the illusory establishment of "phases" or "styles" clearly demarcated. On the contrary, with each new landing, the traveler benefits from what he sees and learns, but without leaving aside what he carries in his luggage. The deformed figures (O Filho, 2003), the social accent (Chacina, 1993) and the landscaping of a lyrical tone (Twilight Landscape - Sítio Exu, 2003) are present in all trips.
Criticism
"Maciej Babinski was one of the awardees at the São Paulo Contemporary Art Salon, the most discussed of the salons. They were selected and awarded according to their club colors. The awards, by regions and approximations, were truly prophetic, as they anticipated the discussions around the Brazilian football team, where our dear Oswaldo Brandão was passed over by a coach from Rio de Janeiro, the players Idem, etc. When commenting on this exhibition, it is essential to obey the chosen criteria, thus combining critical orthodoxy with the sporting commentary, in an amalgam that is so expensive and specific to our cordial and peaceful country. The center of the discussion was the painter Maciej Babinski, winner of the first prize. He is an artist-player of proven services provided. But, despite this, it is necessary to note that he is not prepared for modern football, since he does not know how to support it, and his limited impressionist-expressionist football only does the trick. He is certainly unable to keep up with the current evolution, where all players play in all positions and are equally responsible for the team's offensive and defensive power. In fact, he is a player without creativity, incapable of innovation and much less of serving the famous ideal of the Dutch carousel".
Jacob Klintowitz
Klintowitz, Jacob. Versus: Ten Years of Art Criticism. 1978.
"The Cariri Valley, in the south of Ceará, land of Vicente Leite, José Rangel, Barrica, Aldemir Martins and Sérvulo Esmeraldo, now welcomes Maciej Babinski.
Such an important presence, in such fertile soil, will certainly make revenge of good fruits. Notorious painter, draftsman and engraver, Babinski's contribution to the visual arts is also inscribed in the area of teaching. Professor Babinski is responsible for the training of important artists in the country.
The Polish from Canada who landed in Rio de Janeiro in 1953, bringing in his luggage the experiences lived as a member of the group Les Automatstes, the vanguard of Montreal at the time soon filled the eyes of Brazil.
Not by chance, his first-time friends were Oswaldo Goeldi, Augusto Rodrigues, Darel Valença and Newton Cavalcanti. These artists kept alive the expressionist figurative tradition of fidelity to the roots of popular art.
Babinski was in a hurry to become a Brazilian artist.
Condition conquered in a journey of generous exchanges, and which configures a beautiful Drawing on a map of Brazil: from Rio de Janeiro went to Brasília in 1965, from there to São Paulo, until reaching the Triângulo Mineiro - first in Araguari, then Uberlândia, until returning as reinstated teacher at UnB, in Brasília, from where he would leave retired in 1991. Already decided by the Cariri from Ceará, he first tried Crato, but it was in Várzea Alegre, at Sítio Exu, that he found his land of the promise". VARSÓVIA A Várzea Alegre. In: Babinski. Graphic work and recent paintings. Fortaleza: Secult, 1995.
"Babinski, this is the name of the painting with dense roots in European modernity and Extensive ramifications in the American vanguards that are now established in the studio and easel in the intense light of the joyful floodplain of our Sertão from Ceará. It is in the familiar of the clipping, that this recent loving image of the artist at the heart of his Lydia provides the composition of his painting, it is right there that you can rest your gaze, so that you can also travel through the strange with which he confronts, in this adventure of his with the form, translated into the boldness of his pictorial taste. [...] in this other aspect, that of drawing and engraving [...] you can go through - black and white - the mastery of the incision, the line, of the impression forged in the most expressive language, where Goeldi, Darel and Augusto Rodrigues [...] are ascendants in the direct line of a Babinski Carioca, in the 1950s, of a Babinski candango and then from São Paulo, in the 60s and 70s, and a Babinski from the 80s. Brazilian Babinski can be enjoyed as the score he makes with his work in the history of art, and in the life and death movements of his time. These are themes that a strong and powerful impulse, largely revolutionary, aroused in the artist and that were serving as a spice for the progress of the construction of his place in art; a deep look at the monstrous, through the deforming lenses that modernity invented, in its perception of the human; the vision of the individual monsters that rose from there; the contemplation of interiorized, tender and solemn landscapes, which the return trips to a lost time allowed to find again; and, above all, the revelation of the art of engraving, serving an intense and responsible journey in the history of the invention of the form".
Milton Cabral Viana
VIANA, Milton Cabral. To see Babinski. In: Babinski. Graphic Work and recent paintings. Fortaleza: Secult, 1995.
Individual exhibitions
1953 - Montreal (Canada) - Babinski: watercolors, drawings and prints, at the street residence Sherbrooke
1956 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Babinski: watercolors, drawings and engravings, at Enba
1960 - Montreal (Canada) - Babinski: watercolors, drawings and prints, Université Catholique de Montreal
1962 - São Paulo SP - Babinski: Drawings, at the Selearte Gallery
1964 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Babinski: watercolors and prints, at Petite Galerie
1965 - Brasilia DF - Babinski: watercolors, drawings and engravings, in the French alliance
1967 - São Paulo SP - Babinski: watercolors, drawings and prints, in the Brooklin Vocational Gymnasium Paulista
1969 - São Paulo SP - Babinski: watercolors, drawings and prints, at the Clube dos Amigos do MAM/SP
1971 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at the Portal Art Gallery
1973 - São Paulo SP - Babinski: paintings, watercolors and engravings, at the Collectio Gallery
1975 - São Paulo SP - Babinski: Watercolors, at Galeria Luisa Strina
1977 - Araguari MG - Babinski: paintings, watercolors, drawings and engravings, at the Clube Recreativo de Araguari
1977 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at the Luisa Strina Gallery
1978 - Otawa (Canada) - Babinski: watercolors, drawings and engravings, at the Algonquin College Gallery
1979 - São Paulo SP - Babinski: Watercolors, at the Luisa Strina Gallery
1980 - Uberlândia MG - Babinski: painting, watercolors, drawings and engravings, at UFU
1981 - São Paulo SP - Babinski: Watercolors, at the Luisa Strina Gallery
1981 - Uberlândia MG - Babinski: Watercolors, at UFU
1981 - Washington (United States) - Babinski: watercolors and engravings, at the Brazilian American Cultural Institute
1983 - Uberaba MG - Babinski: paintings, drawings and engravings, at the Cultural Foundation of Uberaba
1984 - Araguari MG - Babinski: paintings, at the Casa da Cultura de Araguari
1984 - Assunção (Paraguay) - Babinski: engravings, at the house from Brazil
1984 - São Paulo SP - Babinski: Paintings, at Galeria Luisa Strina
1986 - São Paulo SP - Maciej Babinski: Watercolors, at Galeria Luisa Strina
1988 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at Galeria Luisa Strina
1991 - São Paulo SP - Babinski: Paintings, at Galeria Luisa Strina
1992 - São Paulo SP - Babinski: Engravings, at the Mário de Andrade
1994 - Brasília DF - Babinski: engravings, at UnB
1994 - São Paulo SP - Babinski: Paintings, at Galeria Luisa Strina
1994 - Várzea Alegre CE - Babinski: Paintings
1995 - Fortaleza CE - Maciej: graphic work and recent paintings, at the Centro Cultural da Abolíção
1996 - Florianópolis SC - Maciej Antoni Babinski: drawings, Watercolors, at the Victor Meirelles Museum
1998 - São Paulo SP - Paperworks, at the Kim Esteves Space
1999 - Uberlândia MG - Babinski: Oils and recent watercolors, at the Elisabeth Gallery Nasser
2000 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at the São Paulo Art Office
2003 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at the André Millan Gallery
2004 - Brasília DF - Babinski: 50 years of Brazil, at the Cultural Complex of the box
Collective exhibitions
1950 - Montreal (Canada) - L'Exposition des Rebelles, at Sherbrooke Street
1950 - Montreal (Canada) - Spring Exhibition, at the Musée de Beaux Arts de Montréal
1951 - Montreal (Canada) - Spring Exhibition, at the Musée de Beaux Arts of Montréal
1952 - Montreal (Canada) - Spring Exhibition, at the Musée de Beaux Arts de Montréal
1952 - Montreal (Canada) - The Borduas Group, at the Musée de Beaux Arts de Montreal
1956 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 5th National Salon of Modern Art
1957 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 6th National Salon of Modern Art
1957 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Salão For All, at MEC
1958 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 7th National Salon of Modern Art, at MAM/RJ
1959 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 8th National Salon of Modern Art, at MAM/RJ
1960 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 9th National Salon of Modern Art, at MAM/RJ
1961 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 10th National Salon of Modern Art
1962 - Curitiba PR - Salão do Paraná, at the Public Library of Paraná
1962 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 11th National Salon of Modern Art
1963 - London (England) - Brazilian Art Today
1963 - Vienna (Austria) - Brazilian Today
1963 - Brussels (Belgium) - Brazilian Art Today
1963 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 12th National Salon of Modern Art
1963 - São Paulo SP - 1st Exhibition of the Young National Drawing, at FAAP
1964 - Belo Horizonte MG - 1st Exhibition of the Young National Drawing, at MAP
1964 - Curitiba PR - 1st Exhibition of the Young National Drawing
1964 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 13th National Salon of Modern Art
1964 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 2nd The face and the work, at the IBEU Copacabana Gallery
1964 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - O Nu na Arte Contemporânea, at Galeria Ibeu Copacabana
1965 - Brasília DF - 2nd Federal District Modern Art Salon
1965 - London (England) - Brazilian Art Today, at the Royal Academy of Arts
1965 - Rio de January RJ - 3rd Summary of Art JB, at MAM/RJ - Prize of Critics
1965 - Santiago (Chile) - 2nd American Engraving Biennial, at the Contemporary Art Museum
1966 - Belo Horizonte MG - 21st Salon of Fine Arts of the City of Belo Horizonte, at MAP - Acquisition Award
1966 - Bonn (Germany) - Brazilian Art Today, at BeethonVenhalle
1966 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Salão de Abril, at MAM/RJ - Drawing Award
1966 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Self-portraits, at Galeria Ibeu Copacabana
1966 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The artist and the machine, in the MAM/RJ
1966 - São Paulo SP - The artist and the machine, at MASP
1967 - Belo Horizonte MG - Salão do Pequeno Quadro - Prize in engraving
1967 - Belo Horizonte MG - Maciej Babinski and Evandro Carlos Jardim: Engravings, at UFMG. EBA
1967 - Campinas SP - Maciej Babinski and Evandro Carlos Jardim: engravings
1967 - São Paulo SP - 9th São Paulo International Biennial, at the Bienal Foundation
1967 - São Paulo SP - Maciej Babinski and Evandro Carlos Jardim: engravings, at MAC/USP
1968 - Krakow (Poland) - 2nd International Engraving Biennial
1968 - Geneva (Switzerland) - Cabinet des Estampes
1968 - New York (United States) - South American Engravers, at the South American Center
1968 - Quito (Ecuador) - 1st Bienal de Quito
1969 - Florianópolis SC - Maciej Babinski and Evandro Carlos Jardim: engravings, at Masc
1969 - Santos SP - Maciej Babinski and Evandro Carlos Jardim: engravings, at the Municipal Department of Tourism and Sports
1970 - São José do Rio Pardo SP - Maciej Babinski and Evandro Carlos Jardim: engravings
1970 - São Paulo SP - The Brazilian engraving, at Paço das Artes
1971 - São Paulo SP - 3rd Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1972 - Capri (Italy) - 2nd Triennale Internazionale della Contemporary Xylography
1972 - São Paulo SP - Arte/Brazil/Today: 50 years Then, at the Gallectio Gallery
1975 - Paris (France) - Brazilian graphic art, at the Musée Galliera
1975 - Vienna (Austria) - Brazilian graphic art, at the Albertina Museum
1975 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Brazilian graphic art, at the Gulbenkian Foundation
1976 - Massachusetts (United States) - Brazilian graphic art, at Bristol Community College
1976 - São Paulo SP - 7th Salão Paulista de Arte Contemporânea, at Paço das Artes - Governor of the State Award
1977 - São Paulo SP - Awarded at the 7th Salão Paulista: Painting, at Galeria Vasp
1978 - Curitiba PR - 1st Annual Exhibition of Engraving City of Curitiba, at the Creativity Center
1978 - São Paulo SP - The art and its processes: the paper as a support, at the Pinacoteca do Estado
1982 - Mexico City (Mexico) - 3rd Iberoamerican Biennial of Art, in Mexico City
1983 - Olinda PE - 2nd exhibition of the Abelardo Rodrigues Collection of Plastic Arts, at MAC/Olinda
1983 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 3x4 Large Formats, in the gallery of the Business Center Rio
1983 - São Paulo SP - 14th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1984 - Ribeirão Preto SP - Brazilian recorders 50/60, at the Campus-USP-Banespa
1984 - São Paulo SP - Tradition and Rupture: Synthesis of Brazilian Art and Culture, at Fundação Bienal
1985 - São Paulo SP - 18th International Biennial of São Paulo, at Fundação Bienal
1985 - São Paulo SP - Highlights of Brazilian Contemporary Art, at MAM/SP
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Christian Dior Exhibition of Contemporary Art: Painting, at the Paço Imperial
1986 - São Paulo SP - 17th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, in the MAM/SP
1987 - São Paulo SP - 18th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1987 - São Paulo SP - The plot of taste: another look at everyday life, at Fundação Bienal
1987 - São Paulo SP - 20th Contemporary Art Exhibition, at Chapel Art Show
1988 - Brasília DF - UnB teachers, at the French Embassy
1988 - São Paulo SP - 1st National Watercolors Hall from FASM, at Faculdade Santa Marcelina
1988 - São Paulo SP - 63/66 Figure and object, at Galeria Millan
1989 - Brasília DF - Tradition and Contemporaneity - Artists from Brasília, 2nd Flaac
1989 - São Paulo SP - 20th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1990 - Brasília DF - Brazilian Art, at MAB/DF
1990 - Brasília DF - Collective exhibition, at the Galeria do Conjunto Cultural da CEF
1990 - Brasília DF - Brasília Award for Plastic Arts, at MAB/DF - Awarded
1991 - São Paulo SP - A Mata, at MAC/USP
1991 - São Paulo SP - Man and Nature MAC/USP
1993 - João Pessoa PB - woodcut: from cordel to the gallery, at Funesc
1993 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The role of Rio, in the Paço Imperial
1993 - São Paulo SP - Recorders, at Adriana Penteado Contemporânea
1993 - São Paulo SP - The modern design in Brazil: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, at the SESI Art Gallery
1994 - Belo Horizonte MG - The other band from the land, at Fundação Clóvis salty. Palácio das Artes
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The modern design in Brazil: Gilberto Chateubriand Collection, at MAM/RJ
1994 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Brasil Século 20th, at the Bienal Foundation
1994 - São Paulo SP - Poetics of Resistance: aspects of Brazilian engraving, at the SESI Art Gallery
1994 - São Paulo SP - Woodcut: from cordel to the gallery, in the subway
1994 - Uberlândia and Belo Horizonte MG - A Another Banda da Terra
1995 - São Paulo SP - Collective 34, at Adriana Penteado Contemporânea
1996 - Osasco SP - 3rd Art Exhibition, at Centro Universitário FIEO
1998 - São Paulo SP - Affinities Selectives, at Casa das Rosas
1998 - São Paulo SP - Collectors Guita and José Mindlin: matrices and engravings, at the SESI Art Gallery
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Rio Engraving Show. Monica and George Kornis Collection, at the Correios Cultural Space
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Rio Engraving Show. Brazilian modern engraving: Collection National Museum of Fine Arts, in the MNBA
2000 - São Paulo SP - Investigations. The Brazilian engraving, at Itaú Cultural
2001 - Brasília DF - Collections of Brazil, at CCBB
2001 - Brasília DF - Investigations. The Brazilian engraving, at Galeria Itaú Cultural
2001 - Penápolis SP - Investigations. The Brazilian engraving, at Galeria Itaú Cultural
2001 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Watercolor, at the Light Cultural Center
2001 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The spirit of our time, at MAM/RJ 
2001 - São Paulo SP - Art Hoje, at Arvani Arte
2001 - São Paulo SP - The spirit of our time, at MAM/SP
2001 - Uberlândia MG - Brazilian prints from the muna collection: 60's, 70's and 80's, at MUNA
2002 - Brasília DF - JK - An aesthetic adventure, in the cultural complex of Caixa
Source: Itaú Cultural
