Rubens Matuck (São Paulo SP 1952)
Rubens Matuck is an illustrator, engraver, painter, sculptor, draftsman, graphic designer and teacher. He graduated in Architecture from the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of São Paulo (FAU/USP) in 1977. He attended painting studios with Aldemir Martins and Flexor; of engraving with Evandro Carlos Jardim and Renina Katz; and sculpture with Van Acker. In the 1980s, he completed his training with photogravure courses with Thereza Miranda, photographic language with Cláudio Kubrusly, manufactured handmade paper with Otávio Roth and oil painting with Jorge Mori. Between 1968 and 1994, he worked as an illustrator for several newspapers and magazines, such as Última Hora, Jornal da Tarde, Folha da Tarde, O Estado de S. Paulo, Playboy, Visão, Exame, Cláudia, ISTOÉ, among others.
Produced logos, typography works, as well as illustrations and covers for children's books. In 1979, he founded the publishing house João Pereira, in São Paulo, with Feres Lourenço Khoury, Luise Weiss and Rosely Nakagawa. He wrote and illustrated a series of children's books, such as the Cerrado, the Pantanal, the Amazon (1987 series), Tudo é Semente (1993, with Carlos Matuck), Plantando a friendship (1996) and Aldemir Martins (1999, with Nilson Moulin). In 1993, he received the Jabuti Award for the illustration of the children's book O Shoe Furado, by Mario Quintana.
Critical Comment
Rubens Matuck's work benefits from learning and experience with different modalities of expression. Artistic: painting, watercolor, drawing, engraving and photography. The engraving, which occupies a prominent role in this production, begins in 1972. In the work, there is an option for direct techniques (such as the dry tip), which does not require acids and mediating elements between the gesture, the wood or the sheet of metal. Regarding the graphic work, critics point out the designer's technical precision and the concern with composition. The landscapes, human and animal figures, as in Pisces, 1985/1987, announce the artist's preferences, who also perform portraits.
The interest in Brazil - physical environment, human types and ways of life - manifests itself early and gives rise to a series of trips. across the country, which become the central axis of this work. At each trip, a notebook (more than 80 in total), in which topography, morphologies, ecosystems, plants and animals of all kinds are recorded. In the scripts traced, the traveling artist, with a strong ethnographic vocation, collects and classifies what he finds: seeds, tree leaves, photos, writings, popular toys, etc. And, like a bricoleur, he builds his works with the help of different techniques: watercolor, pastel, colored pencils, photography. The writings complete the plastic records. In this sense, there is a continuity between the visual and literary productions, carried out in a parallel and complementary way, in addition to being strongly committed to education and the defense of the environment. It is not by chance that children are a privileged target of the formative and engaged work of Rubens Matuck.
Criticism
"Collects various objects and tools, seeds and leaves, magazine clippings, animal photos, popular toys, who are often the starting point of their works, exhibitions and publications. She loves papers, usually manufactures her own sheets, on which she draws and calligraphs poetry. She has a special predilection for Japanese papers, which can be cut and dyed".
Flávio Motta
Rubens Matuck. Presentation by João Cândido Galvão. São Paulo: São Paulo Art Gallery, 1987.
"Designer of the finest and lord of the hand that reveals the mysteries of things and beings. Connoisseur of fish, birds, animals and people. Matuck who knows and captures the lightness of the traits and the rawness of dreams, the map of friendship and takes to paper the doubts and certainties of the arts. Caravaneiro and Artist. From the dust of times suggests portraits, research of souls, lord of black and white, owner of the riches of colors, lord of arabic affection, mixed in these dreams the crucible of friendship. My friend".
aldemir Martins
MATUCK, Rubens. Rubens Matuck. São Paulo, Val de Almeida Jr. Art Office, 1993.
"Rubens Matuck's engraving belongs to the passages: what is conceived in it extends to the other arts, ruled in it, proportional. The power of analogy, which also brings together figure and letter, drawing and calligraphy, nature and artifice, everything, in short, because, as in Terence, nothing of the human is alien to Matuck. Everything conspires with everything, so that the engraving does not stand out as a first art, but As the first example of the others. Lines, Systems: The engraving, exemplary, the most arts and, eccentric, highlights an artist and artist, Leonardo, whose drawings and texts of a hyperbolized nature in the bull or the whirlwind reverberate in the gold plated support From Matuck, who admires him, emulates him, the scene that prevents diving beyond the support; ricocheting, gold makes the Leonardian perspective opaque in the glow, which refuses its century and its open glass to history. In the passage, time can circulate, supernading, like the past, figures of mastery: the engraver Rubens Matuck finds himself beginning in 1972 with Marcelo Grassmann, continuing with Evandro Jardim in the domain of technique, later balancing himself with Guyer Salles, which relieves him of the weight of attachment, shaking cultural limitations with Renina Katz. In this memorial line, the passage proves to be inclusive, approaching terms outside it arbitrary, unraveling only virtual systems in some multiplicity: the analogy is the evidence of the homology of systems and sequences. An example of this is the ordering, by Rubens Matuck, of direct techniques to the detriment of the mediated ones, in which the acid of the strong waters and the painted waters hurts without a hand. In the exclusion of these, the inclusion of the elected together is strengthened, so that even those with the most difficult approximation fraternize, such as the black way of berceau, burnisher or scraper and the dry tips or buris of the immediate incisions. Such an alliance extends to the tools, classified, collected, sharp, loved, in a movement that, displacer, does not focus, attracting partnerships, such as that of printer, Roberto Grassmann, very active in the work".
Leon Kossovitch and Mayra Laudanna
Investigations : The Brazilian Engraving Presentation Ricardo Ribenboim; Text Leon Kossovitch, Mayra Laudanna. São Paulo: Itaú Cultural, 2000.
Individual exhibitions
1973 - São Paulo SP - Papers on paper at FAU/USP
1978 - São Paulo SP - Watercolors, at Galeria Tenda
1978 - São Paulo SP - O Papel as Support, at the Pinacoteca do Estado
1979 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at Galeria Kairós
1980 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at Galeria Lácio
1981 - São Paulo SP - Individual metal engraving, at Galeria Sesc Paulista
1981 - São Paulo SP - Art on paper, at the Suzana Sassoun Gallery
1982 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at the Tenda Gallery
1983 - Assuncion (Paraguay) - individual, at the Brazil-Paraguay Cultural Institute
1983 - São Paulo SP - Calligraphic Landscapes, at the 50s
Gallery 1987 - São Paulo SP - wood, instruments and objects, at Sesc Pompéia
1987 - São Paulo. Paulo SP - Individual, at the São Paulo Art Gallery
1990 - São Paulo SP - Caricatures, at the Sé of the Metro station
1993 - São Paulo SP - Paintings, at the art office Val de Almeida Jr.
1993 - São Paulo SP - Paintings, at Casa da Cultura São Carlos
1994 - São Paulo SP - Urupin, at the São Paulo Museum of Art - MASP
1995 - São Paulo SP - Homage to Leonardo da Vinci, at the Val de Almeida Art Office Jr.
1995 - São Paulo SP - Poesias Dada, at Teuto Escola de Idiomas
1997 - São Paulo SP - Passion for lyrics, at PUC/SP - Nadir Gouvêa Kfouri Library
1998 - SÃO PAULO SP - Calyphilografia: Calligraphies of Nietzsche, at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo. Faculty of Communication and Philosophy
1998 - São Paulo SP - Homage to Leonardo da Vinci, at Galeria Compasso
2000 - São Paulo SP - Oil, Gold and Silver, at the Val de Almeida Gallery
Exhibitions collective
1969 - São Paulo SP - Caricatures of the Press, at Colégio Equipe
1970 - São Paulo SP - Sanson Flexor students, at Galeria Chelsea
1971 - São Paulo SP - Caricaturists, at Paço das Artes
1973 - São Paulo SP - FAU/USP students, at the Social Service of Commerce - SESC 
1974 - São Paulo SP - 4 caricaturists from the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo, at Galeria Azulão
1975 - Angouleme (France) - International Comics Show
1975 - São Paulo SP - 4 new artists, at Galeria 167
1975 - São Paulo SP - Xylograph, at FAU/USP
1977 - Porto Alegre RS - Engraving, at SESC
1978 - São Paulo SP - Art and its processes: paper as a support, in the Pinacoteca do Estado
1979 - Belo Horizonte MG - Watercolors of Brazil, at the Clóvis Salgado Foundation. Palácio das Artes
1979 - Brasília DF - Panorama of the young Brazilian watercolor, at Galeria Oscar Seraphico
1979 - São Paulo SP - Madeira, at Galeria Tenda
1981 - San Juan (Porto Rico) - Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano y del Caribe
1981 - São Paulo SP - Collective, at MAC/USP
1981 - São Paulo SP - Retrospective exhibition of João Pereira editions, at Pinacoteca of the State
1981 - São Paulo SP - Whale Protection, at the Institute of Architects of Brazil. Department of São Paulo - IAB/SP
1981 - São Paulo SP - Papers on paper, at the Suzana Sassoum Gallery
1982 - São Carlos SP - Watercolor, at the Federal University of São Carlos - UFSCar
1982 - São Paulo SP - 15 artists, at Galeria Sesc Paulista
1982 - São Paulo SP - Woodworking, at Galeria Tenda
1983 - San Juan (Porto Rico) - Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano y Del Caribbean
1984 - São Paulo SP - Metal engraving, in the subway
1984 - São Paulo SP - The book as a work of art, at CCSP
1984 - São Paulo SP - Reunion, at Livraria Pena Azul
1985 - São Paulo SP - Engravings, at the ARCO Galeria de Arte
1987 - São Paulo SP - The plot of taste: another look at everyday life, at Fundação Bienal
1987 - São Paulo SP - 18th Panorama das Artes Plásticas, at MAM/SP
1987 - Taipei (Taiwan) - Collective, at the School of Fine Arts
1988 - Belo Horizonte MG - 10th National Watercolor Salon - Guest Artist
1988 - São Paulo SP - Collective, at Escola Ibeji Equipe
1988 - São Paulo SP - Juréia, at Sadalla Galeria de Arte
1988 - São Paulo SP - 1st National Watercolors Hall of FASM, Faculdade Santa Marcelina
1989 - São Paulo SP - Exhibition 10 years of João Pereira, at the Pinacoteca do Estado
1990 - São Paulo SP - 1000 words, at Galeria Box Blue
1991 - São Paulo SP - A Mata, at MAC/USP
1992 - São Paulo SP - Amazônia Legal, at Fundação Memorial da América Latina - Fmal
1992 - São Paulo SP - Homage to Aldemir Martins, at Galeria Forma
1992 - São Paulo SP - Os Araweté - A Tupi people in the Amazon, at the CCSP
1993 - São Paulo SP - 100 years of football and art, at the Pinacoteca do Estado
1994 - São Paulo SP - Flags: 60 artists They honor the 60th anniversary of USP, at MAC/USP
1995 - Bratislava (Slovakia) - Bratslava Illustration Biennial
1995 - São Paulo SP - 16 years of the João Pereira editions, in the Alliance Française Gallery
1995 - São Paulo SP - Illustration of the children's book in Brazil and Germany, at the Monteiro Lobato Children's Library
1995 - São Paulo SP - Caracol of the illustration, at the Goethe Institut
1995 - São Paulo SP - Iole Calcographic Atelier: 15 years old, at Sesc Pompéia
1996 - Mexico City (Mexico) - Watercolor of Brazil, at the Museu Nacional de la Acuararela
1996 - São Paulo SP - One hundred years of Belmonte, at the Citibank Cultural Space
1996 - São Paulo SP - UBU, the Pataphysics of the Tropics, at the Armando Álvares Penteado Foundation - FAAP
1996 - São Paulo SP - Bandeiras, at the SESI Art Gallery
1996 - São Paulo SP - Ex Libris/Home Page, at the Paço das Artes
1997 - Budapest (Hungary) - Collective of the Aquarelistas da Fasm, at Galeria Panónia
1997 - São Paulo SP - 10 years of the Aquarelistas Nucleus of Faculdade Santa Marcelina, at Fasm
1997 - Sechuan (China) - press conference Brazilians
1998 - Maracaibo (Venezuela) - 3rd Barro de América Bienal, at the Art Center of Maracaibo Lia Bermúdez
1998 - São Paulo SP - Impressions: The Art of Engraving Brazilian, at the Banespa-Paulista Cultural Space
2000 - Berlin (Germany) - Man/Nature/Technology, at the Brazilian Cultural Institute in Germany
2000 - Penápolis SP - Man/Natureness/Technology, at Galeria Itaú Cultural
2000 - São Caetano do Sul SP - Art and Craft, at the 1st Visual Arts Circuit of São Caetano do Sul
2000 - São Paulo SP - Collection of engraving in Metal, at the Banespa-Paulista Cultural Space
2000 - São Paulo SP - Image and violence/The invisible body, at SESC Vila Mariana
2000 - São Paulo SP - Investigations. The Brazilian engraving, at Itaú Cultural
2000 - São Paulo SP - Investigations: the artist's work, at Itaú Cultural
2000 - São Paulo SP - Dishes for Art, at the Lasar Segall Museum
2000 - São Paulo SP - Brasilis Typography, at FAAP
2001 - Brasília DF - Man/Nature/Technology, at Galeria Itaú Cultural
2001 - Penápolis SP - Investigations. The Brazilian engraving, at the Itaú Cultural Gallery
2001 - Brasília DF - Investigations. The Brazilian engraving, at Galeria Itaú Cultural
2001 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Watercolor, at the Light Cultural Center
2001 - São Paulo SP - Typography Brasilis, at FAAP
2001 - São Paulo SP - Rubens Matuck and Cláudia Simões, at Galeria Val de Almeida Júnior
2003 - São Paulo SP - Meeting Place: Amélia Toledo Entre Nós, at Unicid
Source: Itaú Cultural
