Odetto Guersoni (Jaboticabal SP 1924 - São Paulo SP 2007)
Printmaker, painter, draftsman, illustrator, sculptor.
He studied painting and decorative arts at the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios de São Paulo - Laosp [São Paulo School of Arts and Crafts] between 1941 and 1945. During that period, he exhibited at the Sindicato dos Artistas Plásticos [Visual Artists' Union] and frequented the circle of artists of the Grupo Santa Helena. In 1947, he took part in the exhibition 19 Pintores [19 Painters] at Galeria Prestes Maia, was awarded a scholarship by the French government and traveled to Paris, where he began working in printmaking. Back in Brazil, in 1951, he founded the Oficina de Arte [Art Workshop] in São Paulo. In 1954, he returned to Europe for a year, funded by the International Labour Organization - ILO. In Geneva, he studied printmaking with René Cottet (1902 - 1992) and, in Paris, worked in the studio of Stanley Hayter (1901 - 1988). From 1956 to 1957, he served on the board of the União dos Artistas Plásticos de São Paulo [São Paulo Visual Artists' Union]. From 1960 onward, he attended, as a trainee, art schools in the United States and Japan, such as The New York School of Printing and Osaka University. In 1971, also in Japan, he attended the studio of I. Jokuriti. Two years later, he was named best printmaker of the year by the Associação Paulista de Críticos de Arte - APCA [São Paulo Art Critics Association]. He took part, with a special room, in the Ibero-American Biennial of Montevideo in 1983. The Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo - Pesp [São Paulo State Pinacotheca] held a retrospective of his work in 1994.
Critical Commentary
Odetto Guersoni explores the broad spectrum of possibilities of printmaking. In addition to using techniques such as metal engraving, lithography, screen printing and especially woodcut, in the 1950s he developed filigraphy, in which the forms he created were given embroidery stitches made by Bonadei (1906 - 1974). And, in the 1960s, plastigraphy, in which he made prints on pasty surfaces obtained from plaster or another malleable material. In the 1970s, his technical investigations were associated with pictographic and ideographic images, research into archaic symbols, Brazilian rock paintings and plant forms. The drawings are reduced to stylized, geometric forms and transformed into abstract, graphic elements.
The artist works with few matrices which, organized into rectangles, squares or circles, become modules to be combined. Guersoni juxtaposes them, adds to them, alters their colors and thus composes colorful mandalas and structural geometries. Based on concise compositions, he produces color vibrations through optical illusions. In many of his woodcuts of the 1980s he uses smooth wood, knives, saws, gouges and punches, avoiding the natural textures of the wood. In printing, he abandons vibrant color and uses inks mixed with colorless bases, obtaining transparencies through overlays.
Critiques
"Guersoni, a rare and extraordinary figure of the arts in São Paulo - painter, printmaker, sculptor - is an artist whose path we celebrate in this retrospective of his work. He comes from a time when the practice of art was steeped in lyricism, uncertainties and restlessness. Restlessness that hung in the air of a still provincial city, where each conquest tasted of victory, in the ever more gigantic space of the new metropolis. Artistic circles, the few art galleries, the annual salons and newspaper criticism were links of strength in the quest of the young. The celebration of the elders in the search for everyone's full realization, surrounded by a healthy amateurism. Odetto comes from that enviable time, and his art bears the marks of silent searching, of his loyalty to knowing and making, a vocation to keep following his own path. In revisiting Odetto Guersoni's work and trajectory, we celebrate the victory of the man and his permanence in time. This space that welcomed him as the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios now welcomes him as a Museum, at the most solemn moment of an artist with his work fifty years later".
Emanoel Araújo
ARAÚJO, Emanoel. Odetto/50 depois. In: GUERSONI, Odetto. Guersoni: 50 anos de percurso do artista, 1944/1994. Texto José Roberto Teixeira Leite; apresentação Emanoel Araújo. São Paulo: Pinacoteca do Estado, 1994. p. 3.
"Odetto Guersoni cultivated a painting of cool observation of reality. He had frequented the union's circle of artists and drawn close to the painters of the Grupo Santa Helena, especially Mario Zanini. After studies in Paris (1948), he would turn to printmaking, a graphic modality he cultivated with constant commitment. Guersoni became involved in the paths of abstraction: from the series of his fanciful plastigraphs (a graphic modality using plaster that he invented in the 1960s) he would later shift radically to wholly geometric forms. Mention should be made of the activity of this artist in pressing for solutions to the problems of his profession, since the days of the union".
Walter Zanini
ZANINI, Walter. Os artistas surgidos com a exposição dos '19'. In: ___ (Org.). História geral da arte no Brasil. São Paulo: Instituto Walther Moreira Salles: Fundação Djalma Guimarães, 1983. p. 652.
"After completing the decorative arts course at the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios de São Paulo in 1945, Odetto Guersoni tried for about two years to live from his painting, as he states in an interview. After the success of the exhibition 19 Pintores, in 1947, in which he took part, he went to Paris, where he trained at the École Normale d'Apprentissage Industriel, in the graphic arts sector. On his return, he began teaching at vocational schools. His activity as a graphic arts teacher kept him close to printmaking; as he states, this closeness led him to devote himself entirely to printmaking, whose complexity values rigor. In his interview, he shows enthusiasm for techniques, both when he discusses them eruditely and when he specifies those that characterize his works. In this sense, plastigraphy is his invention, insofar as it transposes an age-old technique to printmaking. Used by Guersoni at the beginning of the 1960s, it was recognized as innovative by critics at the time of the exhibition at the MAM in Rio, in 1963, as can be read in newspapers or in the catalogue written by Walter Zanini.
Odetto Guersoni thus brings to artistic printmaking principles of ancient printing techniques, with which he also began his informal research. It is certain that plastigraphy encourages quick gestures and free incisions, compared with those made in wood. The engraving is done on a pasty surface, as the name indicates. Made of plaster, white lead, oil, turpentine and drier, the paste, once applied to the wood, allows Guersoni to explore contrasts and textures, which, incidentally, is less observed in his later woodcuts. As for these, seeking to eliminate grain, knots and other accidents of the wood, Guersoni recovers a woodcut technique quite similar to that of the Japanese print, in which smoothness predominates.
At the beginning of the 1970s it is above all the smooth matrix that interests him: with it, he carries out graphic research based on geometric forms. Starting from several matrices or from just one, Odetto Guersoni composes series that value the square, rectangular or circular form: modules that, juxtaposed and overlapped, build his works, an example of which is Jogo de Formas [Play of Forms], of 1971. In it, two matrices are used, differing only in size. Repeated in different colors and partially overlapped, they are arranged so as to close in on themselves, like their smaller counterpart, which forms a square at the center. This play of simple forms is interpreted by the artist as symbolic, a basic dimension of his work: 'I execute my works within a graphic universe common to all: symbols and their combinations. I start from a single element or a set of them, which allows me multiple compositions, juxtaposing or repeating them. (...) I have made fifteen, twenty different prints combining just one module.'
The interview from early 2000 retains the ideas present in a 1975 text, when Guersoni states that he starts 'from an element or a set of them, playing with them or juxtaposing them in structural repetitions (in search of) some of their multiple possibilities of combination'. He continues: 'With these elements, translated into wooden plates, engraved or cut out, and once their combinations have been found, I execute the final drawing on a support-sketch, which makes it possible to place the inked plates in the determined spaces. Then come the successive printings of the plates, with the necessary number of repetitions, until the work is fully realized. The possibilities of combination are infinite, which makes the act of searching extremely fascinating'".
Mayra Laudanna
LAUDANNA, Mayra. Odetto Guersoni. In: GRAVURA: arte brasileira do século XX. Apresentação Ricardo Ribenboim; texto Leon Kossovitch, Mayra Laudanna, Ricardo Resende. São Paulo: Itaú Cultural: Cosac & Naify, 2000. p. 216.
Solo Exhibitions
1963 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at MAM/RJ
1978 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Solo, at Galeria Sagazola
1978 - Coimbra (Portugal) - Solo, at the invitation of the Gulbenkian Foundation
1978 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Solo, at the invitation of the Gulbenkian Foundation
1978 - Porto (Portugal) - Solo, at the invitation of the Gulbenkian Foundation
1980 - São Paulo SP - Odetto Guersoni, at Galeria Alberto Bonfiglioli
1983 - Ribeirão Preto SP - Solo, at Itaugaleria
1983 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Alberto Bonfiglioli
1986 - São Paulo SP - Guersoni em Duas e Três Dimensões [Guersoni in Two and Three Dimensions], at Galeria Arte Aplicada
1990 - São Paulo SP - Guersoni: signos astrológicos: xilogravuras [Guersoni: Astrological Signs: Woodcuts], at Arte Aplicada I Galeria e no Espaço Jean Louis Prieto
1993 - Campinas SP - Solo, at Galeria de Arte da Unicamp
1994 - São Paulo SP - Guersoni: 50 anos de percurso do artista, 1944-1994 [Guersoni: 50 Years of the Artist's Path, 1944-1994], at Pinacoteca do Estado
1995 - São Paulo SP - Receives the APCA Best Printmaker of the Year award
1999 - Santos SP - Solo, at Pinacoteca Benedito Calixto
2001 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at A Hebraica Galeria de Arte
Group Exhibitions
1944 - São Paulo SP - 9º Salão do Sindicato dos Artistas Plásticos [9th Salon of the Visual Artists' Union], at Galeria Prestes Maia
1946 - São Paulo SP - 10º Salão do Sindicato dos Artistas Plásticos [10th Salon of the Visual Artists' Union], at Galeria Prestes Maia
1947 - São Paulo SP - 19 Pintores [19 Painters], at Galeria Prestes Maia
1948 - Paris (France) - Peintres et Graveurs Étrangers [Foreign Painters and Printmakers], at École des Beaux-Arts
1949 - São Paulo SP - 13º Salão do Sindicato dos Artistas Plásticos [13th Salon of the Visual Artists' Union], at Galeria Prestes Maia
1951 - São Paulo SP - 1º Salão Paulista de Arte Moderna [1st São Paulo Salon of Modern Art], at Galeria Prestes Maia - silver medal
1952 - São Paulo SP - 17º Salão Paulista de Belas Artes [17th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon], at Salões do Trianon
1952 - São Paulo SP - 2º Salão Paulista de Arte Moderna [2nd São Paulo Salon of Modern Art], at Galeria Prestes Maia
1953 - São Paulo SP - 2ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo [2nd São Paulo International Biennial], at Pavilhão dos Estados
1954 - São Paulo SP - 3º Salão Paulista de Arte Moderna [3rd São Paulo Salon of Modern Art], at Galeria Prestes Maia
1955 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 4º Salão Nacional de Arte Moderna [4th National Salon of Modern Art]
1955 - Salvador BA - 5º Salão Baiano de Belas Artes [5th Bahia Fine Arts Salon], at Belvedere da Sé - honorable mention
1955 - São Paulo SP - 4º Salão Paulista de Arte Moderna [4th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art], at Galeria Prestes Maia
1957 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 6º Salão Nacional de Arte Moderna [6th National Salon of Modern Art]
1957 - São Paulo SP - 12 Artistas de São Paulo [12 Artists from São Paulo], at Galeria de Arte das Folhas
1957 - São Paulo SP - 6º Salão Paulista de Arte Moderna [6th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art], at Galeria Prestes Maia
1958 - São Paulo SP - 7º Salão Paulista de Arte Moderna [7th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art], at Galeria Prestes Maia - acquisition prize
1959 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 8º Salão Nacional de Arte Moderna [8th National Salon of Modern Art], at MAM/RJ
1959 - São Paulo SP - 8º Salão Paulista de Arte Moderna [8th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art], at Galeria Prestes Maia
1960 - São Paulo SP - 9º Salão Paulista de Arte Moderna [9th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art], at Galeria Prestes Maia
1961 - São Paulo SP - 10º Salão Paulista de Arte Moderna [10th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art], at Galeria Prestes Maia
1962 - São Paulo SP - Prêmio Leirner de Arte Contemporânea [Leirner Prize for Contemporary Art], at Galeria de Arte das Folhas
1962 - São Paulo SP - Prêmio Leirner de Arte Contemporânea [Leirner Prize for Contemporary Art], at Galeria de Arte da Folha - 1st printmaking prize
1963 - Curitiba PR - 20º Salão Paranaense de Belas Artes [20th Paraná Fine Arts Salon], at Biblioteca Pública do Paraná
1963 - São Paulo SP - 12º Salão Paulista de Arte Moderna [12th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art], at Galeria Prestes Maia
1963 - São Paulo SP - 7ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo [7th São Paulo International Biennial], at Fundação Bienal
1964 - São Paulo SP - 13º Salão Paulista de Arte Moderna [13th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art], at Galeria Prestes Maia - domestic travel prize
1965 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Salão Nacional de Belas Artes [National Salon of Fine Arts], at MNBA
1965 - São Paulo SP - 8ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo [8th São Paulo International Biennial], at Fundação Bienal
1966 - São Paulo SP - 15º Salão Paulista de Arte Moderna [15th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art], at Galeria Prestes Maia
1967 - Campinas SP - 3º Salão de Arte Contemporânea de Campinas [3rd Campinas Contemporary Art Salon], at Museu de Arte Contemporânea José Pancetti
1967 - São Paulo SP - 9ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo [9th São Paulo International Biennial], at Fundação Bienal
1968 - Bradford (England) - First International Print Biennale
1968 - Salvador BA - 2ª Bienal Nacional da Bahia [2nd Bahia National Biennial]
1968 - São Paulo SP - 17º Salão Paulista de Arte Moderna [17th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art], at Galeria Prestes Maia
1968 - São Paulo SP - 19 Pintores [19 Painters], at Tema Galeria de Arte
1969 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Salão da Bússola [Compass Salon], at MAM/RJ
1969 - São Paulo SP - 1º Panorama de Arte Atual Brasileira [1st Panorama of Current Brazilian Art], at MAM/SP
1970 - São Paulo SP - A Gravura Brasileira [Brazilian Printmaking], at Paço das Artes
1970 - São Paulo SP - Antonio Henrique Amaral, Odetto Guersoni, Tomie Ohtake, Pedro Tort e Gerda Brentani [Antonio Henrique Amaral, Odetto Guersoni, Tomie Ohtake, Pedro Tort and Gerda Brentani], at Galeria Alberto Bonfiglioli
1970 - São Paulo SP - Pré-Bienal de São Paulo [São Paulo Pre-Biennial], at Fundação Bienal
1971 - São Paulo SP - 11ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo [11th São Paulo International Biennial], at Fundação Bienal - acquisition prize
1971 - São Paulo SP - 3º Panorama de Arte Atual Brasileira [3rd Panorama of Current Brazilian Art], at MAM/SP
1972 - Carpi (Italy) - Triennale Internazionale della Silografia Contemporanea [International Triennial of Contemporary Woodcut] - gold medal
1972 - São Paulo SP - 2ª Exposição Internacional de Gravura [2nd International Print Exhibition], at MAM/SP
1972 - São Paulo SP - 4º Salão Paulista de Arte Contemporânea [4th São Paulo Contemporary Art Salon], at Masp - 1st printmaking prize
1972 - São Paulo SP - 4º Salão Paulista de Arte Contemporânea [4th São Paulo Contemporary Art Salon], at Masp
1972 - São Paulo SP - Salão Internacional de Gravura do Nugrasp [Nugrasp International Print Salon] - MAM/SP - Novo Mundo Prize
1973 - Punta del Este (Uruguay) - 1º Encontro de Gravura dos Países da Bacia do Prata [1st Printmaking Meeting of the River Plate Basin Countries] - international prize
1973 - Santo André SP - 6º Salão de Arte Contemporânea de Santo André [6th Santo André Contemporary Art Salon], at Paço Municipal
1974 - São Paulo SP - 6º Panorama de Arte Atual Brasileira [6th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art], at MAM/SP
1975 - São Paulo SP - 13ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo [13th São Paulo International Biennial], at Fundação Bienal - acquisition prize
1976 - Florence (Italy) - 5ª Biennale Internazionale della Grafica d'Arte [5th International Biennial of Graphic Art]
1976 - Ibiza (Spain) - Bienal de Gravura [Print Biennial]
1976 - São Paulo SP - O Desenho Jovem dos Anos 40 [Young Drawing of the 1940s], at Pinacoteca do Estado
1977 - São Paulo SP - 9º Panorama de Arte Atual Brasileira [9th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art], at MAM/SP
1977 - São Paulo SP - Os Grupos: a década de 40 [The Groups: The 1940s], at Museu Lasar Segall
1977 - Washington D.C. (United States) - The Original and its Reproduction: a Melhoramentos project, at Brazilian-American Cultural Institute
1978 - Curitiba PR - 1ª Mostra Anual de Gravura Cidade de Curitiba [1st Curitiba City Annual Printmaking Exhibition], at Centro de Criatividade
1978 - São Paulo SP - 19 Pintores [19 Painters], at MAM/SP
1979 - Ibiza (Spain) - Bienal de Gravura [Print Biennial]
1980 - São Paulo SP - 12º Panorama de Arte Atual Brasileira [12th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art], at MAM/SP
1982 - Maracaibo (Venezuela) - Bienal de Gravura [Print Biennial] - award winner
1982 - Penápolis SP - 5º Salão de Artes Plásticas da Noroeste [5th Noroeste Visual Arts Salon], at Fundação Educacional de Penápolis - Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Penápolis
1982 - São Paulo SP - Do Modernismo à Bienal [From Modernism to the Biennial], at MAM/SP
1982 - São Paulo SP - Ismenia Coaracy, Odetto Guersoni e Alice Brill [Ismenia Coaracy, Odetto Guersoni and Alice Brill], at Galeria Sesc Paulista
1983 - Montevideo (Uruguay) - 1ª Bienal de Grabado Iberoamericano [1st Ibero-American Print Biennial], at Museo de Arte Contemporáneo - special room
1983 - Montevideo (Uruguay) - Bienal Ibero-Americana [Ibero-American Biennial]
1984 - Curitiba PR - 6ª Mostra da Gravura Cidade de Curitiba [6th Curitiba City Printmaking Exhibition], at Fundação Cultural
1984 - Curitiba PR - 6º A Xilogravura na História da Arte Brasileira [6th Woodcut in the History of Brazilian Art], at Casa Romário Martins
1984 - Ourinhos SP - Homenagem à Arte da Gravura no Brasil [Tribute to the Art of Printmaking in Brazil], at Itaugaleria
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - A Xilogravura na História da Arte Brasileira [Woodcut in the History of Brazilian Art], at Funarte - Galeria Sérgio Milliet
1984 - São Paulo SP - Tradição e Ruptura: síntese de arte e cultura brasileiras [Tradition and Rupture: A Synthesis of Brazilian Art and Culture], at Fundação Bienal
1985 - São Paulo SP - 3º Salão Paulista de Arte Contemporânea [3rd São Paulo Contemporary Art Salon], at Fundação Bienal
1987 - Campinas SP - 1ª Bienal Internacional de Gravura [1st International Print Biennial], at MACC
1988 - São Paulo SP - Os Ritmos e as Formas: arte brasileira contemporânea [Rhythms and Forms: Contemporary Brazilian Art], at Sesc Pompeia
1989 - Copenhagen (Denmark) - Os Ritmos e as Formas: arte brasileira contemporânea [Rhythms and Forms: Contemporary Brazilian Art], at Museu Charlottenborg
1991 - Valparaíso (Chile) - 10ª Bienal Internacional de Arte [10th International Art Biennial] - acquisition prize
1993 - João Pessoa PB - Xilogravura: do cordel à galeria [Woodcut: From Cordel to Gallery], at Funesc
1994 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Brasil Século XX [20th-Century Brazil Biennial], at Fundação Bienal
1994 - São Paulo SP - Gravuras: sutilezas e mistérios, técnicas de impressão [Prints: Subtleties and Mysteries, Printing Techniques], at Pinacoteca do Estado
1994 - São Paulo SP - Xilogravura: do cordel à galeria [Woodcut: From Cordel to Gallery], at Metrô e no Masp
1996 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Tendências Construtivas no Acervo do MAC/USP: construção, medida e proporção [Constructive Tendencies in the MAC/USP Collection: Construction, Measure and Proportion], at CCBB
1998 - São Paulo SP - Impressões: a arte da gravura brasileira [Impressions: The Art of Brazilian Printmaking], at Espaço Cultural Banespa - Paulista
1998 - São Paulo SP - Os Colecionadores - Guita e José Mindlin: matrizes e gravuras [The Collectors - Guita and José Mindlin: Matrices and Prints], at Galeria de Arte do Sesi
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Mostra Rio Gravura - São Paulo: gravura hoje [Rio Print Exhibition - São Paulo: Printmaking Today], at Palácio Gustavo Capanema
2000 - São Paulo SP - Investigações - A Gravura Brasileira [Investigations - Brazilian Printmaking], at Itaú Cultural
2001 - Brasília DF - Investigações - A Gravura Brasileira [Investigations - Brazilian Printmaking], at Itaú Cultural
2001 - Penápolis SP - Investigações - A Gravura Brasileira [Investigations - Brazilian Printmaking], at Itaú Cultural
2003 - São Paulo SP - A Xilogravura [The Woodcut], at Escritório de Arte Augusta 664
2003 - São Paulo SP - Arte & Artistas: exposição dos dezenove pintores [Art & Artists: Exhibition of the Nineteen Painters], at Masp - Galeria Prestes Maia
2004 - São Paulo SP - Coletiva de Artistas Contemporâneos [Group Show of Contemporary Artists], at Esporte Clube Sírio
2004 - São Paulo SP - Gesto e Expressão: o abstracionismo informal nas coleções JP Morgan Chase e MAM [Gesture and Expression: Informal Abstraction in the JP Morgan Chase and MAM Collections], at MAM/SP
2005 - São Paulo SP - Pequenas Grandes Obras [Small Great Works], at Cultural Blue Life
Source: Itaú Cultural
