Sérgio Ferro (Curitiba PR 1938)
Sérgio Ferro is a painter, draftsman, architect and teacher. He graduated as an architect from the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of São Paulo (FAU/USP) in 1962. Three years later, he completed a postgraduate degree in Museology and Urban Evolution, also at FAU/USP. In 1965, he participated in the organization of the Opinion 65 Exhibition, at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro (MAM/RJ), where he also exhibited his works. In 1966, he studied Semiology at Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, in São Paulo.
In the 1960s, he joined the group Arquitetura Nova, alongside Flávio Império (1935–1985) and Rodrigo Lefevre (1938–1984). He worked as a professor at the School of Higher Education of Drawing between 1962 and 1968, taught History of Art and Aesthetics at FAU/USP from 1962 to 1970, and taught Architecture at the University of Brasília (UnB) between 1969 and 1970. Due to 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 (Grenoble National School of Architecture), where he founded the Dessin/Chantier Laboratory (Drawing/Carteiro), which he directed from 1982 to 1997. He dedicated himself to figurative painting, inspired mainly in figures present in the drawings and works of Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564). In 1987, he received the award for best painter from the São Paulo Association of Art Critics (APCA). Michel-Ange, Architecte et Sculpteur (1998). He made murals for several institutions in France and Brazil, such as the Latin America Memorial, in 1990, and the Curitiba Memorial, in 1996 and 2002.
Critical Comment
In the decade of 1960, Sérgio Ferro participates in the Grupo Arquitetura Nova, with Flávio Império (1935 - 1985) and Rodrigo Lefèvre (1938 - 1984) aimed at an understanding of the exercise of the profession of architect, simultaneously as a cultural, political and productive action. The group makes proposals for urban public policies, linked to popular housing projects. The residence projects carried out by Sérgio Ferro during the period maintain a dialogue with the production of Vilanova Artigas (1915 - 1985).
Due to the military dictatorship in Brazil, the artist is forced to move to France in 1972. Dedicated to painting and teaching career, teaching at the School of Fine Arts and at the École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture of Grenoble [Grenoble's Superior National Architecture School], France. In painting, he performs works of a figurative character, in which he has as a reference great painters of the history of art, reworking mainly figures present in the drawings and paintings by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475 - 1564). For the artist, at the same time that the figures refer to Michelangelo, they are inserted in another reality, because the light is cinematographic and the musculature, not very faithful to the anatomy and the Renaissance tradition. As the critic Wilson Coutinho points out, Ferro appropriates Michelangelo to endow him with a contemporary apprehension. Thus, it fragments the master's work, leaving absences, placing on the screen a set of modern procedures to bring it as a memory of a dispersed image.
In the paintings of Sérgio Ferro, the space is built from graphic elements and their relationships on the screen. As noted by critic Fábio Magalhães, in many works, however, color and collage intervene definitively, imposing a new spatial organization, overlapping the density of graphics.
Criticism
"(...) it was up to Sérgio Ferro, Flávio Império and Cláudio Tozzi, all trained in architecture, in the second half of the 1960s, the practice of a painting of a sociopolitical spirit. In the case of iron, the bloody figuration would persevere in the paintings during his exile in France".
Walter Zanini
ZANINI, Walter, ed. General History of Art in Brazil. Presentation by Walther Moreira Salles. São Paulo: Instituto Walther Moreira Salles, Djalma Guimarães Foundation, 1983.
Individual exhibitions
1963 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at Galeria Teatro de Arena
1963 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at Galeria São Luís
1965 - Porto Alegre RS - Individual, at Margs
1965 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at the Mobilínea Gallery
1967 - São Paulo SP - Show, FAAP
1973 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at Galeria Fernando Milan
1974 - Salonica (Greece) - Individual, at Galeria Zhta-Mi
1975 - Grenoble (France) - Individual, Museé de Grenoble
1976 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at the Fernando Milan Gallery
1977 - Chambéry (France) - Individual, at the Maison des Jeunes et de la Culture
1977 - Grenoble (France) - Individual, at the Galerie La Tete de l'art
1978 - Grenoble (France) - Individual, at the Galerie La Tete de l'Art
1979 - Wins (France) - Individual, at Murs Ouverts Gallery
1980 - Paris (France) - Individual, at Galerie Saint-Guillaume
1981 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at Masp
1982 - Grenoble (France) - Individual, at Atelier J.Y. Noblet
1982 - Corenc (France) - Individual, at Castelo de la Condamine
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at Petite Galerie
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at Rio Design Center
1985 - Le Touquet-Paris-Plage (France) - Individual, at the Galerie Center d'Art Plastique Contemporaine
1985 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at São Paulo Art Gallery
1986 - Grenoble (France) - Individual, at Galerie J.Y. Noblet
1987 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at the São Paulo Art Gallery
1988 - Le Touquet (France) - Individual, at Galeria d'Art Contemporain
1988 - Barbizon (France) - Individual, at the L'Entrée des Artistes. Galeria 1989 - Brussels (Belgium) - Individual, at the Galerie Contrast
1989 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at MASP
1989 - Brussels (Belgium) - Individual, at the Galerie Contrast
1990 - Le Touquet-Paris-Plage (France) - Individual, at the J.P. Carlier 1990 - Barbizon (France) - Individual, at Galeria L'Entrée des Artistes
1990 - Taiyan (China) - Individual, at the Museu d'Art
1991 - Brussels (Belgium) - Individual, at Galerie Contrast
1991 - Lille (France) - Individual, at Galerie Contrast
1991 - Metz (France) - Individual, at Galerie Contrast
1991 - Paris (France) - Individual, at Galerie Mann
1991 - Rouen (France) - Individual, at Galeria du Carme
1991 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at the São Paulo Art Office Paulo
1992 - Ille-sur-Têt (France) - Individual, at the Church of Saint Etienne
1992 - Barbizon (France) - Individual, at the Galerie L'Entrée des Artistes
1992 - San Francisco (United States) - Individual, at Gallery Eleonore Austerlevz
1992 - Le Tduquet (France) - at Galeria J.P. Carlier
1993 - Hong Kong (China) - Individual, at the M & w
1993 - Ille-sur-têt (France) - Individual, at the hospici d'ille
1993 - Paris (France) - individual, at the Galerie Le Monde de L'art
1993 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at the São Paulo Art Office
1994 - Rouen (France) - Individual, at Espace d'Art Contemporain
1995 - Florianópolis SC - Sérgio Iron: drawings and prints, at the Victor Meirelles Museum
1995 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at the VOTRE Art Gallery
1996 - Curitiba PR - Individual, at Simões de Assis Art Gallery
1997 - Barbizon (France) -Individual, at Galeria L'Entrée des Artistes
1997 - Paris (France) - Individual, at the Espace d'art Contemporain
1998 - Paris (France) - Individual, at Galeria Le Monde de L'Arte
1998 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at the São Paulo Art Office
1998 - São Paulo SP - Sérgio Ferro, at the São Paulo Art Gallery
1999 - Curitiba PR - Individual, at Simões de Assis Art Gallery
Collective exhibitions
1965 - Porto Alegre RS - Vanguard painters, at Margs
1965 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Opinion 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 Français
1967 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - New Brazilian Objectivity, at MAM/RJ
1967 - São Paulo SP - Mostra, 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 the Museé de Grenoble
1976 - Paris (France) - International Contemporary Art Fair, at the Grand Palais
1978 - Villeparisis (France) - Travaux Sur Papier
1979 - Grenoble (France) - Expo 79, at the Museé de Grenoble
1979 - Annecy (France) - 1st Art Actuel, at Maison des Jeunes et de la Culture d'Annecy-le-Vieux
1979 - São Paulo SP - back to the figure, at the Lasar Segall Museum
1980 - France - 30 Createurs d'Aujourd'hui - Itinerant
1980 - Grenoble (France) - Fête du Travailleur Alpin
1980 - Rueil Malmaison (France) - Communication Poesie
1980 - Roussillon (France) - Les Travailleurs et Les Arts, at the Chateau de Roussilion
1982 - Stockholm (Sweden) - Stockholm International Art Expo
1982 - Paris (France) - Octogone
1983 - Grenoble (France) - 10 Années d'achisitions, at the Museé de Grenoble
1983 - Grenoble (France) - Architecture et Arts Plastiques
1983 - Grenoble (France) - Les Larmes d'Eros, NA Galerie JC David
1984 - Paris (France) - Figures, Figures, No Espace Gare de l'Est
1984 - Paris (France) - Figuration Critique, at the Grand Palais
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Acting Brazilian painting, at Espaço Petrobras
1985 - Brasília DF - Brazilianity and independence, at the Cláudio Santoro National Theater
1985 - Valence (France) - 1960-1980: Autour de la Figuration Narrative, at the Musée de Valence
1985 - Bourgoin-Jallieu (France) - Exposition d'Art Contemporain
1985 - Paris (France) - Collective MAC 2000
1985 - Valence (France) - 1960-1985: Autour de la Figuration Narrative, at the Musée de Valence
1986 - Dunkerque (France) - Les Figurations, at the Musée d'Art Contemporain de Dunkerque
1987 - Gent (Belgium) - Linear: Foire d'Art International
1987 - Paris (France) - Figurations d'Aujourd'hui, at MJC Les Hautes de Belleville
1988 - Paris (France) - figuration Critique, at the Grand Palais Bordeaux
1988 - São Paulo SP - 63/66 Figure and object, at the Millan Gallery
1988 - São Paulo SP - Eros and Thanatos, at the Pinacoteca do Estado
1989 - Paris (France) - Shows, at the Hotel de Ville. Musée de la Passion de Dunkerque
1990 - New York (United States) - Artexpo
1991 - Paris (France) - Memoires de la Liberté, at the Center Georges Pompidou
1991 - Tokyo (Japan) - Memoires de la Liberté
1991 - Warsaw (Poland) - at the Zacheta Museum
1992 - São Paulo SP - The Seduction of Volumes: Os three-dimensional MAC, at MAC/USP
1993 - Rome (Italy) - Sacred Art Biennial
1994 - São Paulo SP - Memory of Liberty, at the Pinacoteca do Estado
1995 - São Paulo SP - Colloquium Art Dor, at MAC/USP
1997 - Belgium - La Passion de Dunkerque, at Vlaamse Kerkdagen
1997 - Cutitiba PR - Casa Cor Sul, at Simões de Assis Art Gallery
1998 - Brasília DF - Futebol Arte, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
1998 - São Paulo SP - Futebol Arte, s.l.
1998 - São Paulo SP - 5th Art Salon and Antiquity, at Clube Paineiras do Morumby
1998 - São Paulo SP - Galeira Collection of Art São Paulo, at the São Paulo Art Gallery
1999 - Cutitiba PR - Highlights of Brazilian painting, at Simões de Assis Galeria de Art
1999 - Florianópolis SC - Drawings and engravings: MVM Collection - 1994 to 1999, at the Victor Meirelles Museum
2001 - São Paulo SP - 4 decades, at Nova André Galeria
2001 - São Paulo SP - 8th Art and Antiquity Salon, at A Hebraica
2003 - Rio de Janeiro - BrazilianArt Project, at Almacén Art Gallery
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 Caminhos, in the new André Galeria
2005 - Curitiba PR - 10 Brazilian painters, at Simões de Assis Art Gallery
2007 - São Paulo SP - Wall of Fame, in the new André Galeria
2010 - São Paulo SP - One day you will have to have finished: 1969/74, at the Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo
Source: Itaú Cultural
