Niobe Xandó (Campos Novos Paulista, SP, 1915 - São Paulo, 2010)
Niobe Xandó was a self-taught painter, draftswoman and writer. She spent her childhood and adolescence in the interior of São Paulo state, moving to the capital in 1932. At 16 she married João Baptista Ribeiro Rosa, a prominent activist, and began attending the meeting places of the Communist Party. She began her career as a visual artist in 1947, the year she met the painters Yoshiya Takaoka (1909-1978) and Geraldo de Barros (1923-1998) at the studio of the teacher and artist Raphael Galvez (1895-1961). Her first solo exhibition took place in 1953 in São Paulo, at the Livraria das Bandeiras bookshop on Praça da República.
After separating from her first husband, she married the Czech intellectual Alexandre Bloch, through whom she became a friend of Vilém Flusser, who wrote articles about her work. In 1957, she traveled to Madrid, La Coruña and Paris. Her work gained prominence in 1965 at the 8th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo. After that period, she moved with her husband to Salvador. In 1968, the couple went to Europe, passing through Paris, London and Stockholm, returning to Brazil in 1971 and living in São Paulo until 1980.
Xandó traveled to New York in 1981 and 1983, before returning to Brazil for good. Among the exhibitions that brought her to the fore are the 10th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, in 1969, where her work was shown in the special room of Magical, Fantastic and Surrealist Art, and the 1st Bienal Latino-Americana de São Paulo, in 1978, where her work represented the influence of African and Indigenous cultures on Brazilian art.
Critical Commentary
Niobe Xandó began painting in the 1950s, producing figurative works with carefully handled color that reveal multiple references, among them Paul Gauguin, Edvard Munch and Marc Chagall. Gradually, her work moved toward a fantastic imagery increasingly close to abstraction, as in Bicho Estranho [Strange Creature] (1966) and Ave-Flor II [Bird-Flower II] (1967). The theme of masks was developed consistently during the 1960s and became a recurring motif in the artist's work from then on. It was also in that decade that she created the Totens [Totems] series, in which she covered wooden volumes with the lines and colors used in the Máscaras [Masks]. Another strong line of research is the one linked to Lettrism, a movement of the 1960s and 1970s that sought to create a new writing based on symbols. Although she never officially joined this group, Xandó produced works in tune with such ideas, such as O Enigma da Nova Escrita I [The Enigma of the New Writing I] (1966) and Brasil (1970). About these works, Xandó remarks in a 1969 letter: "My problem with letters is to contract, that is, to eliminate lines, to write the most with the least of them". At the same time, the artist addresses the clash between the archaic and the contemporary in works that can be grouped under the name - coined by herself - mechanicism, such as O Círculo Branco [The White Circle] (1970) and Black Power II (1970), about which the artist reflects in a 1978 letter: "Little by little these mechanical elements came to dominate my work. I felt two things then: horror and attraction. I think this is a conflict between the primitive and today's world".
Solo Exhibitions
1953 - São Paulo SP - The artist's first solo exhibition, at Livraria das Bandeiras
1956 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Clubinho dos Artistas do MAM/SP
1957 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Galeria Belvedere da Sé
1957 - La Coruña (Spain) - Solo, at Aliança Francesa
1957 - Madrid (Spain) - Solo, at Café Cézanne
1961 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Associação Cristã de Moços
1962 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Astréia
1964 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Astréia
1966 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Astréia
1969 - London (England) - Solo, at Walton Gallery
1969 - Paris (France) - Solo, at Galerie de L'Université
1971 - Stockholm (Sweden) - Solo, at Castelo Spokslott
1975 - Washington (United States) - Solo, at Art Gallery of The Brazilian Culture
1977 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Azulão
1980 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Ars Artis
1981 - São Paulo SP - Solo exhibition Arte em Xerox [Xerox Art], at Pinacoteca do Estado
1983 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Ars Artis
1989 - São Paulo SP - Retrospective, at Galeria de Arte Paulo Vasconcelos
1999 - Santos SP - Retrospective, at Pinacoteca Benedito Calixto
2003 - São Paulo SP - Fantastic Flowers and Masks, at Espaço Cultural BM&F
2004 - São Paulo SP - Lettrism and Mechanicism in the Work of Niobe Xandó, at MAM/SP
2007 - Ribeirão Preto SP - Solo, at Galeria de Arte Marcelo Guarnieri
2008 - Curitiba PR - Anthological Exhibition, at Museu Oscar Niemeyer
Group Exhibitions
1951, 56 and 65 - Salão Paulista de Arte Moderna, at Galeria Prestes Maia, São Paulo (small silver medal in the 1956 edition and State Governor Prize in the 1965 edition).
1959 - 4th International Exhibition, Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris, France.
1969 - Três Desenhistas [Three Draftsmen] (together with Grimberg and Macreau), Galeria Ivan Spencer, Ibiza, Spain.
1970 - 12 Contemporary Brazilian Artists, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, England.
1982 - Contemporary Latin American Art, New York, United States.
1982 - Women of the Americas, Kouros Gallery, New York.
1985 - 7th Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition, Atami, Kyoto and Tokyo, Japan; Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
2001 - Abstract Tendencies: Collection Exhibition, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Campinas, Campinas, SP.
Source: Itaú Cultural
