Paulo Roberto Leal (Rio de Janeiro RJ 1946 - Idem 1991)
Paulo Roberto Leal was a plastic artist, graphic artist and curator. Employee of the Central Bank from 1967 onwards, he carried out his first visual programming work in 1969, producing catalogs of visual arts exhibitions in Rio de Janeiro. That same year, he contacted the neoconcretist Osmar Dillon. In the 1970s, he began experimenting with materials related to his work at the Central Bank, such as paper coils. He taught a course on creativity with paper at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro (MAM/RJ) and received an award at the 11th International Biennial of São Paulo, in 1971. The following year, he joined, alongside Franz Weissmann and Humberto. Espíndola, the Brazilian representation at the 36th Venice Biennial. On the occasion of the exhibition O Gesto Creator, Olívio Tavares de Araújo made a film about his work, in 1977. He acted as curator of the Museum of Values of the Central Bank until 1980.
In 1984, in partnership with Marcus de Lontra Costa and Sandra Magger, was the curator of the show Como Vai Você, Geração 80?, at the School of Visual Arts at Parque Lage (EAV/Parque Lage), in Rio de Janeiro. In 1995, the Iconographic and Textual Reference Center PRL was designed at MAM/RJ, with the documentation left by the artist under the custody of Armando Mattos. In 2000, the exhibition Projeto Concreto/PRL took place, at the Centro Cultural da Light, in Rio de Janeiro, and, in 2007, 102 works of his authorship were gathered at the Exhibition of Matter, at the Museum of Contemporary Art. (Mac-Niterói).
Critical Comment
Since the early 1970s, Paulo Roberto Leal has been producing works in which he explores the plastic possibilities of paper. Uses kraft wrapping papers, or other nobler ones, to create repetition structures or a variety of modules. In these works, the artist highlights the perishable and conceptual character of his proposal, which can be undone or altered at any time. In the Armaged series, it features articulated papers, windingly wrapped inside transparent acrylic boxes. In his works, he maintains a dialogue with the work of Osmar Dillon, an artist who works with visual poems created in acrylic boxes, establishing games between words, shapes and colors. In series such as disarms and des-mov-em, it is perceived its questioning of the limits of the painting.
In 1974, it starts to produce the interlinings, canvas cutouts joined by machine seams. Subsequently, they are painted and glued to various supports, as in the Armors series. As noted by critic Roberto Pontual, Leal searches in the module and multiple for the basis of his works, mixing elements related to art with the refinement of kinetic art.
According to the critic, since 1978, the artist reveals the growing desire to be approach the painting, without, however, changing its work process. In the series Armoras and Quasar, 1980, the importance of color is highlighted, which creates atmospheres, also used in a symbolic way. In a later production, Paulo Roberto Leal also seeks an integration with the environment and architecture of the expository site, as in the work Regata, 1985.
Criticism
"(...) Far beyond mechanical. This was the expressive space - that is to say, multisensory - that the neoconcretes proposed. He continues to be, with the diversities that time brings, the field of work of many of our constructives today. Among them, Paulo Roberto Leal will be the one whose work It has been demonstrating from the beginning, 10 years ago, the most immediate, continuous and irreversible repertoire of the original spirit and practice of neoconcretism. Not mimetically or on a whim. The link results from a mixture of individual predisposition and absorption of the substrate collective, of an already being on the inside and a being attentive to the outside. So, like the Lygia Clark of modulated surfaces and animals in the 1950s, Leal in the 70s, and even now, has not stopped articulating part with part. Fundamentally a builder by geometry, he is not interested in the monolithic, indivisible and final unity, closed in each work. He is interested in the multiplicity, the grouping, the articulation, the meeting point but also the partition. Between chaos and order, what is dispersed and what is compacted is the balance of vital forces opposing what matters to it. And the balance, thinking about the dynamic vocation of the term, exists more in the line of confluence of the parts than in each of them, isolated. There it becomes an axis, agreement, harmony". Aracy Amaral. São Paulo: MAM; Paris: Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1988.
Individual exhibitions
1970 - Curitiba PR - Individual, at the Public Library of State of Paraná
1971 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Multiples, at the Ipanema Art Gallery
1972 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at the Ipanema Art Gallery
1973 - Brasília DF - Individual, Oscar Seraphico Art Gallery
1973 - Brasília DF - Individual, at the mainline gallery
1974 - Campinas SP - Individual, at the Girassol Art Gallery
1974 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at Galeria Arte Global
1975 - Porto Alegre RS - Individual at the IAB/RS Art Gallery
1975 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at the Graffiti Gallery
1976 - Brasília DF - Individual, at the Oscar Art Gallery Seraphico
1983 - Niterói RJ - inhabitants, at the art gallery UFF
1984 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at the São Paulo Art Gallery
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Concreto concert, at the gallery 110 Contemporary Art
Collective exhibitions
1970 - Belo Horizonte MG - 2nd National Contemporary Art Salon
1970 - Belo Horizonte MG - 4th National Hall of French Culture
1970 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 19th National Salon of Modern Art, at MAM/RJ - Acquisition Award
1970 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 2nd Summer Salon, at MAM/RJ
1970 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Transfigured materials, in the Goeldi room
1970 - São Paulo SP - Pre-Bienal of São Paulo, at Fundação Bienal - Awarded
1971 - Curitiba PR - 28th Salão Paranaense, at the Public Library of Paraná
1971 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Multiple Exhibition, at Petite Galeria
1971 - São Paulo SP - 11th São Paulo International Biennial, at the Bienal Biennial Foundation - São Paulo Biennial Award
1971 - São Paulo SP - 5th Youth Contemporary Art, at MAC/USP
1972 - São Paulo SP - 4th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1972 - São Paulo SP - Art/Brazil/Today: 50 years later, at the Galeria da Collectio
1972 - São Paulo SP - Sesquicentennial Art Exhibition of Independence and Plastic Brazil - 72, at Fundação Bienal
1972 - São Paulo SP - Multiples Brasileiros, at the Multiple Art Gallery
1972 - Venice (Italy) - 36th Venice Biennale
1973 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 22nd National Salon of Modern Art
1973 - Santo André SP - 6th Salão de Arte Contemporânea de Santo André, in Paço Municipal
1974 - Belo Horizonte MG - 5th University Art Salon - Acquisition Award
1974 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Nacional 74, at Fundação Bienal
1975 - São Paulo SP - New and brand new Brazilian recorders, at MAC/USP
1976 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Art Now, at MAM/RJ
1976 - São Paulo SP - 8th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, in the MAM/SP 
1977 - Belo Horizonte MG - 5th Global Winter Hall, at Fundação Palácio das Artes
1977 - Brasília DF - 5th Global Winter Hall 
1977 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 5th Global Winter Salon, at MNBA  
1977 - São Paulo SP - 5th Global Winter Salon, at Masp
1978 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 3rd Art Now: Latin America, Sensitive Geometry, at MAM/RJ
1979 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 2nd National Salon of Plastic Arts, at MAM/RJ 
1979 - São Paulo SP - 11th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP 
1979 - São Paulo SP - 15th São Paulo International Biennial, at the Bienal Foundation  
1980 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Panorama of the new Latin American painting
1980 - Curitiba PR - 37th Salão Paranaense, at the Guaíra Theater
1980 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Another painting, At Noa Noa
1980 - Venice (Italy) Bookstore - 40th Venice Biennale
1981 - Belo Horizonte MG - 13th National Contemporary Art Hall of Belo Horizonte, at the Museum of Art of Pampulha
1981 - Porto Alegre RS - Brazilian artists from the 60s and 70s in the Rubem Knijnik collection, in the space at Galeria Chaves
1982 - Belo Horizonte MG - 14th National Salon of Contemporary Art in Belo Horizonte, At the Pampulha Art Museum
1982 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Brazil 60 years of modern art: Gilberto Chateaubriand collection, at the José de Azeredo Perdigão Modern Art Center
1982 - London (England) - Brazil 60 years of modern art: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, at the Barbican Art Gallery
1982 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 5th National Salon of Plastic Arts, at MAM/RJ - Acquisition Award
1982 - São Paulo SP - in Comunicabile/Inter-communicable, at MAC/USP
1983 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - à Flor da Pele: Painting and Pleasure, at the Rio Business Center Gallery
1983 - São Paulo SP - Project reinterpretation, at the Pinacoteca do Estado
1984 - Niterói RJ - Adriano, Leal, Ronaldo, Sued, at the UFF Art Gallery
1984 - São Paulo SP - 2nd São Paulo Contemporary Art Salon, at the MIS/SP - Acquisition Award
1984 - São Paulo SP - Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection: Portrait and Self-Portrait of Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP 
1984 - São Paulo SP - Tradition and Rupture: Art Synthesis and Brazilian culture, at Fundação Bienal
1985 - Ribeirão Preto SP - Drawing, at Itaugaleria
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Art Construction: 21 contemporary artists, at the Rio Empresarial Center
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Velha Mania: Brazilian design, at EAV/Parque Lage
1985 - São Paulo SP - 18th São Paulo International Biennial, at the Biennial Foundation
1985 - São Paulo SP - Drawings, at the Bonfiglioli Cultural Center
1985 - São Paulo SP - Transcriar, at CCSP
1985 - São Paulo SP - Transcreate, at MAC/USP
1986 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Latin American Biennial of Art on Paper
1986 - Niterói RJ - At Ponta do Lapán, at the UFF Art Gallery
1986 - Porto Alegre RS - Paths of Brazilian Drawing, in the Margs
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Occupied territory, at EAV/Parque Lage
1986 - São Paulo SP - 17th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1986 - Vitória ES - Atelier 78, at the Federal University of Espírito Santo. Art and Research Gallery
1987 - Ivry-sur-seine (France) - Ouverture Brésilienne, at the Center d'Art Contemporain. Galerie Fernand Léger
1987 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - to the collector: tribute to Gilberto Chateaubriand, at MAM/RJ
1987 - São Paulo SP - 5th São Paulo Contemporary Art Salon Pinacoteca do Estado
1988 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 10th National Salon of Plastic Arts, at Funarte - Acquisition Award
1988 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Abolition, at the Ipanema Art Gallery
1988 - São Paulo SP - Modernity: 20th Century Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Rio Hoje, at MAM/RJ
Posthumous exhibitions
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st on the way to Niterói: João Sattamini Collection, at the Imperial Palace
1992 - São Paulo SP - 60's/70's: Gilberto Chateubriand Collection/Museum of Modern Art-RJ, at the Galeria de Arte do Sesi
1993 - Niterói RJ - 2nd on the way to Niterói: João Sattamini Collection, at MAC-Niterói
1993 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The rarefaction of the senses: João collection Sattamini - 70's, at EAV/Parque Lage
1993 - São Paulo SP - The modern design in Brazil: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, at the SESI Art Gallery
1998 - São Paulo SP - Multiples, NA Valu Oria Art Gallery
1998 - São Paulo SP - The Modern and the Contemporary in Brazilian Art: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection - MAM/RJ, at MASP
2000 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Situations: Brazilian Arts 70s, in the Fundação Casa França-Brasil
2000 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Concrete Project Paulo Roberto Leal, at the Light
2001 - Porto Alegre RS - Liba Collection and Rubem Knijnik: contemporary Brazilian art, Margs
2002 - Niterói RJ - Dialogue, antagonism and replication in the Sattamini collection, at MAC-Niterói
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Caminhos do Contemporâneo 1952-2002, at Paço Imperial
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Genealogy of Space, at the Parque das Ruínas gallery
2002 - São Paulo SP - Map of the Now: Recent Brazilian Art in the João Sattamini Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Niterói, at the Instituto Tomie Ohtake
2003 - Belo Horizonte MG - Geometric, at Léo-Bahia Contemporary Art
2003 - Campos dos Goytacazes RJ - Poem Planar-Spatial, at SESC
2003 - Nova Friburgo RJ - Planar-Spatial Poem, at Galeria Sesc Nova Friburgo
2004 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 30 artists, at Mercedes Viegas Art Office
2005 - Belo Horizonte MG - 40/80: A Brazilian Art Exhibition, at Léo Bahia Contemporary Art
2005 - Campos dos Goytacazes RJ - Besieged Image, at Sesc
2005 - Petrópolis RJ - besieged image, at the Sesc Petrópolis gallery
2005 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - besieged image, at the Sesc Copacabana gallery
2005 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - n_multiplos, in art 21 Gallery
2005 - São Paulo SP - Homo Ludens: from the account to vertigo, at Itaú Cultural
2005 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Artecontemporânea, at Mercedes Viegas Contemporary Art
2007 - Niterói RJ - From matter is born form, in MAC-Niterói
Source: Itaú Cultural
