Otávio Roth (São Paulo SP 1952 - Idem 1993)
Printmaker, graphic designer, illustrator and teacher.
In 1971, on a scholarship, he traveled to Israel, where he began taking photographs. The following year, in São Paulo, he enrolled in the advertising course at the Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing (ESPM). He went to London in 1974 and, under the influence of Paul Piestch (1911 - 2012), learned printmaking and handmade papermaking techniques. On a British Council scholarship, he graduated in art and design from Hornsey College of Art in 1977. That year, he moved to Oslo, where he worked as a designer, illustrator and printmaker.
In 1979, back in São Paulo, he founded the handmade paper mill Handmade Oficina de Papel. That same year, an album of 30 of his linocuts was published by CJS Graphics in New York. He was named best printmaker of the year by the Associação Paulista de Críticos de Arte (APCA) and created a woodcut for the first Vladimir Herzog Journalism Award for Amnesty and Human Rights. In the 1980s, he continued his research into papermaking and taught workshops and courses at several institutions, including ESPM, the Universidade de São Paulo (USP) and the Center for Book Arts in New York. In that city, in 1981, Roth worked as an assistant to the American painter and photographer Chuck Close (1940 - 2021), and his prints on human rights were shown at the headquarters of the United Nations (UN). Among his publications, a highlight is his adaptation, with the writer Ruth Rocha (1931), of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for children.
Critical Commentary
Throughout his career, Otávio Roth devoted himself above all to developing, researching and promoting the art of handmade paper. He was concerned with the use and dissemination of paper as an expressive material, and was a pioneer in spreading handmade paper through courses, workshops, publications and exhibitions. In the early 1990s, he worked with the writer Ruth Rocha and the illustrator Raquel Coelho on a series of children's books published by Editora Melhoramentos. In this series, paper is clearly used beyond its mere role as a support. The figures and scenes are all built through the basic procedure of cutting and pasting - very common in children's and school activities. Countless kinds of paper are used, from handmade papers to industrial ones found in stores. By taking advantage of the patterns and textures created or found, a unity is achieved between material and representation. In this way, a piece of white, fibrous paper can be a cloud on one page, sea foam on another and a bird's plumage on the next.
Alongside his publishing work, Roth developed a painting method he called pulp painting, which consists of painting not on paper but with paper itself, using a dyed cellulose pulp placed in squeeze tubes.
Critiques
"Otávio Roth is a multifaceted artist. Teacher, printmaker, draftsman, papermaker. He turned the act of making paper into his very palette and the structure of his work. There is no support and work, but a single object. He is one of the Brazilian pioneers in the invention of artist's paper and was one of its most prominent promoters. His images are close to humor, and he discourses on the structure of language while also keeping a diary of intimate events that touched his sensibility. It is a body of work with a strongly personal accent and constant invention. Paper is a fascinating object: calendar, newspaper, clothing, packaging, letter, novel, computer tape, document, record, check, property, history. Otávio Roth's action centered on this symbol of the age and transformed it, in his discreet way, into the logbook of an intimate and joyful artist. A paradoxical and beautiful experience".
Jacob Klintowitz
KLINTOWITZ, Jacob. O ofício da arte: a pintura. Abram Szajman. São Paulo, SESC, 1987.
Collections
Museu de Arte do Rio Grande do Sul Ado Malagoli - Porto Alegre RS
Amnesty International - Oslo (Noruega)
Azabu Museum - Tóquio (Japão)
Civil Liberties Bureau - Tóquio (Japão)
Ford Foundation - Nova York (Estados Unidos)
Hebrew University - Jerusalém (Israel)
International Red Cross - Genebra (Suíça)
Leopold Hoesch Museum, Düren (Alemanha)
Museu de Arte Brasileira da Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado - MAB/Faap - São Paulo SP
Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo - MAC/USP - São Paulo SP
Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand - Masp - São Paulo SP
Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo - MAM/SP - São Paulo SP
Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro - MAM/RJ - Rio de Janeiro RJ
Museum of Modern Art, Rijeka (Croácia)
Nordjyllands Kunstmuseum, Aalborg (Dinamarca)
Palais des Nations - Genebra (Suíça)
Peace Museum - Chicago (Estados Unidos)
UN International Center - Viena (Áustria)
United Nations - Nova York (Estados Unidos)
Solo Exhibitions
1978 - Solo exhibition of prints celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights
1978 - Paris (France) - Solo, at Palais de Chaillot
1978 - Oslo (Norway) - Solo, at Informasjonsenteret
1981 - Vienna (Austria) - Solo, at International Center
1981 - New York (United States) - Solo, at the UN and at Automation House
1981 - Geneva (Switzerland) - Solo, at Palais des Nations
1982 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Masp
1982 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at MAM/RJ
1983 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Arco Arte Contemporânea
1983 - Vitória ES - Solo, at Galeria da UFES
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria César Aché
1984 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Museu de Arte da Bahia
1984 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Palácio das Artes
1984 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at CCSP
1985 - California (United States) - Solo, at University Art Gallery
1985 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Paulo Figueiredo Galeria de Arte - APCA Research Prize
1986 - Idaho (United States) - Solo, at Prichard Gallery, University of Idaho
Group Exhibitions
1972 - São Paulo SP - O Fotógrafo Desconhecido [The Unknown Photographer], at MAC/USP
1974 - Santo André SP - 7th Santo André Contemporary Art Salon, at Paço Municipal
1979 - São Paulo SP - Coletiva Eros [Eros Group Show], at Galeria de Arte Aplicada
1980 - São Paulo SP - 12th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1982 - London (England) - A Hundred Years of Art Education group show, at New Gallery
1983 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 6th National Visual Arts Salon, at MAM/RJ
1984 - Fortaleza CE - 7th National Visual Arts Salon
1984 - Havana (Cuba) - 1st Latin American Biennial
1984 - Niterói RJ - Coletiva Entre o Meio e o Fim [Between the Middle and the End Group Show], at Galeria da UFF
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Coletiva Papel como Linguagem [Paper as Language Group Show], at Galeria Sergio Milliet
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Os Papéis do Papel [The Roles of Paper], at Funarte. Centro de Artes
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 7th National Visual Arts Salon, at MAM/RJ
1984 - São Paulo SP - Coletiva Papel Imagem e Construção [Paper, Image and Construction Group Show], at Galeria Arco Arte Contemporânea
1984 - São Paulo SP - 15th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1984 - São Paulo SP - Tradição e Ruptura [Tradition and Rupture], at Fundação Bienal
1985 - Bradford (England) - 7th British Print Biennale
1985 - United States - Brazil 10 traveling exhibition, with Bob Nugent
1985 - São Paulo SP - Destaques da Arte Brasileira Contemporânea [Highlights of Contemporary Brazilian Art], at MAM/SP
1985 - São Paulo SP - Trends of the Artist's Book in Brazil, at CCSP
1986 - Mexico - 5th Ibero-American Art Biennial
1986 - Porto Alegre RS - Barker, Nugent, Roth - Expressões em Papel [Expressions in Paper], at Margs
1986 - Rijeka (Yugoslavia) - 10th International Exhibition of Original Drawing, at Museum of Modern Art
1986 - São Paulo SP - 1st Helena Rubinstein Young Art Selection, at Masp
1987 - Illinois (United States) - 21st Bradley National Print and Drawing Exhibition
1987 - Los Angeles (United States) - International Contemporary Art Fair
1987 - New York (United States) - Brazil Design, at Art Directors Club
1987 - San Luis Obispo (United States) - Group show, at University Art Gallery
1987 - São Paulo SP - 100 Selected Drawings, at Paulo Figueiredo Galeria de Arte
1987 - São Paulo SP - Highlights of Contemporary Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1987 - São Paulo SP - The Craft of Art: Painting, at Sesc
1987 - São Paulo SP - 18th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1988 - Aalborg (Denmark) - Exhibition, at Nordjyllands Kunstmuseum
1988 - Düren (Germany) - 2nd International Paper Biennial, at Leopold Hoesch Museum
1988 - New York (United States) - Exhibition, at United Nations Headquarters
1988 - Rijeka (Yugoslavia) - 8th Exhibition of Original Drawings, at Museum of Modern Art
1989 - Kyoto (Japan) - The Garden, at Kyoto Museum
1990 - São Paulo SP - Gente de Fibra [People of Fiber], at Sesc Pompeia
1990 - São Paulo SP - 21st Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Reciclo [Recycle], at Funarte. Centro de Artes
1993 - São Paulo SP - 3rd International Studio of Image Technologies, at Instituto de Artes da Unesp
Posthumous Exhibitions
1994 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Brasil Século XX [20th Century Brazil Biennial], at Fundação Bienal
2001 - São Paulo SP - Museu de Arte Brasileira: 40 Years, at MAB/Faap
2006 - Porto Alegre RS - O Papel de Otavio - A Presença de Otavio Roth no Rio Grande do Sul [Otavio's Paper - The Presence of Otavio Roth in Rio Grande do Sul], at Margs
Source: Itaú Cultural
