Sérgio Ferro (Curitiba PR 1938)
Sérgio Ferro is a painter, draftsman, architect and teacher. He graduated in architecture from the Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo of the Universidade de São Paulo (FAU/USP) in 1962. Three years later, he completed a graduate program in museology and urban evolution, also at FAU/USP. In 1965, he helped organize the exhibition Opinião 65 at the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (MAM/RJ), where he also showed his work. In 1966, he studied semiology at the Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie in São Paulo.
In the 1960s, he was part of the Grupo Arquitetura Nova, together with Flávio Império (1935–1985) and Rodrigo Lefèvre (1938–1984). He taught at the Escola de Formação Superior de Desenho between 1962 and 1968, taught art history and aesthetics at FAU/USP from 1962 to 1970, and taught architecture at the Universidade de Brasília (UnB) between 1969 and 1970. Because of the military dictatorship in Brazil, he moved to France in 1972.
From 1972 to 2003, he taught at the École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Grenoble, where he founded the Dessin/Chantier (drawing/building site) laboratory, which he directed from 1982 to 1997. He devoted himself to figurative painting, drawing inspiration mainly from figures in the drawings and works of Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564). In 1987, he received the best painter award from the Associação Paulista de Críticos de Arte (APCA).
His publications include the books O Canteiro e o Desenho [The Building Site and the Drawing] (1979), Michelangelo: Notas por Sérgio Ferro [Michelangelo: Notes by Sérgio Ferro] (1981) and Michel-Ange, Architecte et Sculpteur (1998). He has made murals for several institutions in France and Brazil, such as the Memorial da América Latina, in 1990, and the Memorial de Curitiba, in 1996 and 2002.
Critical Commentary
In the 1960s, Sérgio Ferro takes part in the Grupo Arquitetura Nova, with Flávio Império (1935 - 1985) and Rodrigo Lefèvre (1938 - 1984), which is devoted to understanding the practice of architecture as at once a cultural, political and productive activity. The group puts forward proposals for urban public policy linked to low-income housing projects. The houses Sérgio Ferro designs in this period are in dialogue with the work of Vilanova Artigas (1915 - 1985).
Because of the military dictatorship in Brazil, the artist is forced to move to France in 1972. He devotes himself to painting and to a teaching career, teaching at the School of Fine Arts and at the École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Grenoble, France. In painting, he produces figurative works that take great painters of art history as references, reworking mainly figures from the drawings and paintings of Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475 - 1564). For the artist, while the figures refer to Michelangelo, they belong to another reality, because the light is cinematic and the musculature hardly faithful to anatomy and the Renaissance tradition. As the critic Wilson Coutinho points out, Ferro appropriates Michelangelo to give him a contemporary reading. He thus fragments the master's work, leaving gaps and bringing to the picture plane a set of modern procedures that present it as the memory of a dispersed image.
In Sérgio Ferro's paintings, space is built from graphic elements and their relationships on the canvas. As the critic Fábio Magalhães notes, however, in many works color and collage intervene decisively, imposing a new spatial organization that overrides the density of the graphic work.
Critiques
"(...) It fell to Sérgio Ferro, Flávio Império and Cláudio Tozzi, all trained as architects, to practice a painting of sociopolitical spirit in the second half of the 1960s. In Ferro's case, the gory figuration would persist in his paintings during his exile in France."
Walter Zanini
ZANINI, Walter, org. História geral da arte no Brasil. Apresentação de Walther Moreira Salles. São Paulo: Instituto Walther Moreira Salles, Fundação Djalma Guimarães, 1983.
Solo Exhibitions
1963 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Teatro de Arena
1963 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria São Luís
1965 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Margs
1965 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Mobilínea
1967 - São Paulo SP - Exhibition, at Faap
1973 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Fernando Milan
1974 - Salônica (Greece) - Solo, at Galeria ZHTA-MI
1975 - Grenoble (France) - Solo, at Musée de Grenoble
1976 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Fernando Milan
1977 - Chambéry (France) - Solo, at Maison des Jeunes et de la Culture
1977 - Grenoble (France) - Solo, at Galerie La Tête de l'Art
1978 - Grenoble (France) - Solo, at Galerie La Tête de l'Art
1979 - Vence (France) - Solo, at Galeria Murs Ouverts
1980 - Paris (France) - Solo, at Galerie Saint-Guillaume
1981 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Masp
1982 - Grenoble (France) - Solo, at Atelier J.Y. Noblet
1982 - Corenc (France) - Solo, at Castelo de la Condamine
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Petite Galerie
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Rio Design Center
1985 - Le Touquet-Paris-Plage (France) - Solo, at Galerie Centre d'Art Plastique Contemporaine
1985 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria de Arte São Paulo
1986 - Grenoble (France) - Solo, at Galerie J.Y. Noblet
1987 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria de Arte São Paulo
1988 - Le Touquet (France) - Solo, at Galeria D'Art Contemporain
1988 - Barbizon (France) - Solo, at Galeria L'Entrée des Artistes
1989 - Brussels (Belgium) - Solo, at Galerie Contrast
1989 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Masp
1990 - Le Touquet-Paris-Plage (France) - Solo, at Galeria J.P. Carlier
1990 - Barbizon (France) - Solo, at Galeria L'Entrée des Artistes
1990 - Taiyan (China) - Solo, at Museu D'Art
1991 - Brussels (Belgium) - Solo, at Galerie Contrast
1991 - Lille (France) - Solo, at Galerie Contrast
1991 - Metz (France) - Solo, at Galerie Contrast
1991 - Paris (France) - Solo, at Galerie Mann
1991 - Rouen (France) - Solo, at Galeria du Carme
1991 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Escritório de Arte São Paulo
1992 - Ille-sur-Têt (France) - Solo, at Igreja de Saint Etienne
1992 - Barbizon (France) - Solo, at Galerie L'Entrée des Artistes
1992 - San Francisco (United States) - Solo, at Gallery Eleonore Austerlevz
1992 - Le Touquet (France) - Solo, at Galeria J.P. Carlier
1993 - Hong Kong (China) - Solo, at Galeria M & W
1993 - Ille-sur-Têt (France) - Solo, at Hospici d'Ille
1993 - Paris (France) - Solo, at Galerie Le Monde de l'Art
1993 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Escritório de Arte São Paulo
1994 - Rouen (France) - Solo, at Espace d'Art Contemporain
1995 - Florianópolis SC - Sérgio Ferro: Drawings and Prints, at Museu Victor Meirelles
1995 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Votre Galeria de Arte
1996 - Curitiba PR - Solo, at Simões de Assis Galeria de Arte
1997 - Barbizon (France) - Solo, at Galeria L'Entrée des Artistes
1997 - Paris (France) - Solo, at Espace d'Art Contemporain
1998 - Paris (France) - Solo, at Galeria Le Monde de l'Art
1998 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Escritório de Arte São Paulo
1998 - São Paulo SP - Sérgio Ferro, at Galeria de Arte São Paulo
1999 - Curitiba PR - Solo, at Simões de Assis Galeria de Arte
Group Exhibitions
1965 - Porto Alegre RS - Avant-Garde Painters, at Margs
1965 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Opinião 65, at MAM/RJ
1965 - São Paulo SP - Proposals 65, at MAB/Faap
1966 - São Paulo SP - 3 Premises, at MAB/Faap
1966 - São Paulo SP - 7 Painters, at Galeria Aliança Francesa
1967 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Nova Objetividade Brasileira [New Brazilian Objectivity], at MAM/RJ
1967 - São Paulo SP - Exhibition, at Faap
1967 - São Paulo SP - 6 Painters of the New Objectivity, at IAB/SP
1975 - Grenoble (France) - La Ville, at UAP Grenoble
1976 - Grenoble (France) - Vingt Acquisitions, at Musée de Grenoble
1976 - Paris (France) - International Contemporary Art Fair, at Grand Palais
1978 - Villeparisis (France) - Travaux sur Papier
1979 - Grenoble (France) - Expo 79, at Musée de Grenoble
1979 - Annecy (France) - 1st Art Actuel, at Maison des Jeunes et de la Culture d'Annecy-le-Vieux
1979 - São Paulo SP - Return to the Figure, at Museu Lasar Segall
1980 - France - 30 Créateurs d'Aujourd'hui - traveling
1980 - Grenoble (France) - Fête du Travailleur Alpin
1980 - Rueil Malmaison (France) - Communication Poesie
1980 - Roussillon (France) - Les Travailleurs et les Arts, at Château de Roussillon
1982 - Stockholm (Sweden) - Stockholm International Art Expo
1982 - Paris (France) - Octogone
1983 - Grenoble (France) - 10 Années d'Acquisitions, at Musée de Grenoble
1983 - Grenoble (France) - Architecture et Arts Plastiques
1983 - Grenoble (France) - Les Larmes D'Eros, at Galerie JC David
1984 - Paris (France) - Figure, Figures, at Espace Gare de L'Est
1984 - Paris (France) - Figuration Critique, at Grand Palais
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Active Brazilian Painting, at Espaço Petrobras
1985 - Brasília DF - Brazilianness and Independence, at Teatro Nacional Cláudio Santoro
1985 - Valence (France) - 1960-1980: Autour de la Figuration Narrative, at Musée de Valence
1985 - Bourgoin-Jallieu (France) - Exposition d'Art Contemporain
1985 - Paris (France) - MAC 2000 Group Show
1985 - Valence (France) - 1960-1985: Autour de la Figuration Narrative, at Musée de Valence
1986 - Dunkerque (France) - Les Figurations, at Musée d'Art Contemporain de Dunkerque
1987 - Gent (Belgium) - Linearte: Foire D'Art International
1987 - Paris (France) - Figurations d'Aujourd'hui, at MJC les Hautes de Belleville
1988 - Paris (France) - Figuration Critique, at Grand Palais Bordeaux
1988 - São Paulo SP - 63/66 Figure and Object, at Galeria Millan
1988 - São Paulo SP - Eros and Thanatos, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1989 - Paris (France) - Exhibition, at Hotel de Ville. Musée de la Passion de Dunkerque
1990 - New York (United States) - Artexpo
1991 - Paris (France) - Mémoires de la Liberté, at Centre Georges Pompidou
1991 - Tokyo (Japan) - Mémoires de la Liberté
1991 - Warsaw (Poland) - at Museu Zacheta
1992 - São Paulo SP - The Seduction of Volumes: The Three-Dimensional Works of the MAC, at MAC/USP
1993 - Rome (Italy) - Sacred Art Biennial
1994 - São Paulo SP - Memory of Freedom, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1995 - São Paulo SP - Art Pain Colloquium, at MAC/USP
1997 - Belgium - La Passion de Dunkerque, at Vlaamse Kerkdagen
1997 - Curitiba PR - Casa Cor Sul, at Simões de Assis Galeria de Arte
1998 - Brasília DF - Football Art, at Ministério das Relações Exteriores
1998 - São Paulo SP - Football Art, s.l.
1998 - São Paulo SP - 5th Art and Antiques Salon, at Clube Paineiras do Morumby
1998 - São Paulo SP - Galeria de Arte São Paulo Collection, at Galeria de Arte São Paulo
1999 - Curitiba PR - Highlights of Brazilian Painting, at Simões de Assis Galeria de Arte
1999 - Florianópolis SC - Drawings and Prints: MVM Collection - 1994 to 1999, at Museu Victor Meirelles
2001 - São Paulo SP - 4 Decades, at Nova André Galeria
2001 - São Paulo SP - 8th Art and Antiques Salon, at A Hebraica
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilianart Project, at Almacén Galeria de Arte
2003 - São Paulo SP - Israel and Palestine: Two States for Two Peoples, at Sesc Pompéia
2004 - São Paulo SP - 450 X 45, at Nova André Galeria
2005 - São Paulo SP - Various Paths, at Nova André Galeria
2005 - Curitiba PR - 10 Brazilian Painters, at Simões de Assis Galeria de Arte
2007 - São Paulo SP - Wall of Fame, at Nova André Galeria
2010 - São Paulo SP - One Day It Will Have to Have Ended: 1969/74, at Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo
Source: Itaú Cultural
