Ubirajara Ribeiro (São Paulo SP 1930 - idem 2002)
Ubirajara Ribeiro was a watercolorist, printmaker, painter, teacher and architect. In 1948, he studied painting with Vicente Mecozzi (1909–1964) and, between 1952 and 1954, studied with Pedro Corona, João Rossi (1923–2000) and Waldemar da Costa (1904–1982). He graduated in architecture from the Universidade Mackenzie in 1954. In 1956, he moved to Salvador and attended the open printmaking course taught by Mario Cravo Júnior (1923) at the Escola de Belas Artes of the Universidade da Bahia.
In 1960, he received a scholarship from the French government and trained at the office of the architects Guillaume Gillet (1912–1987) and Paul Chemetov (1928) in Paris. In the 1960s, he was part of the group of five architect-painters, alongside Maurício Nogueira Lima (1930–1999), Flávio Império (1935–1985), Sérgio Ferro (1938) and Samuel Szpigel (1936). He began his teaching career at the Faculdade de Arquitetura of the Universidade Mackenzie and at the Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado (FAAP).
Until the mid-1970s, he was very active in architecture, with projects such as the Presbyterian cathedral in Brasília, the Mataripe Refinery in Salvador and the master plan for Campos do Jordão, in São Paulo, among others. In 1971, together with Walter Maffei, he designed the installation of the 11th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo. The following year, he took intaglio printmaking classes with Evandro Carlos Jardim (1935) at the Escola de Comunicações e Artes of the Universidade de São Paulo (ECA/USP).
In 1976, he left architecture for good to devote himself to the visual arts. In 1980, he organized the exhibition Papéis e Cia. [Papers & Co.] at the Paço das Artes, which led to the Cooperativa de Artistas Plásticos de São Paulo, dissolved that same year.
Critical Commentary
In the early 1960s, Ubirajara Ribeiro's work shows affinities with Pop art, exploring erotic suggestions related to advertising. The artist begins to use pieces of furniture and other makeshift materials as "frames" in his works, as in A Luta [The Fight], 1965, in which he combines old materials with a refined painting technique. The insertion of letters or words is also frequent in his work.
His output is organized in series of works linked by thematic concerns. In works shown in 1987, he starts from postcards from 1903-1904, on which he intervenes or creates collages. His works have great lightness as well as a playful character.
As the critic Angélica de Moraes notes, the artist, one of the country's leading watercolorists, shifts the main axis of his inquiry from the pictorial question to the realm of drawing. Although he uses the traditional materials of watercolor, his main concern is not the patch of color but the line, the gesture of the brush.
The artist moves very freely between figuration and abstraction, producing works in a wide variety of techniques: drawing, watercolor, painting, printmaking and object.
Critiques
"(...) Of the three Brazilian artists who introduced Pop art into the country, Cordeiro, Wesley and Ubirajara, we find the third the most successful of all. If Wesley captured the ironic, irreverent and aggressive spirit of Pop art, Ubirajara captured its playful, light, dancing and musical spirit. Pop art is against serious art and the serious, severe notion of composition. In Pop art, especially in Ubirajara's case, a spirit of lightness prevails that plays and toys with compositional elements. With great mastery and sensitivity, by the way. The viewer is almost invited - as also in the case of Neo-Concretism - to take an active part in the compositional game. The cult of severe, well-structured, closed composition is over. What prevails in Pop art are compositional games, open to everyone's playful collaboration. Ubirajara proved himself a master of lightness, inventiveness, good taste and poetry."
Théon Spanudis
[Texto escrito originalmente em 1964]
SPANUDIS, Théon. O pop-art de Ubirajara. Habitat, nº 79, 1964, apud PECCININI, Daisy. (Coord.). O objeto na arte: Brasil anos 60. São Paulo: FAAP, 1978, p. 206-207.
"The territory through which Ubirajara's art advances is a subtle fabric of memories and gestures, articulations floating between the conscious and the unconscious, halfway between the definition of form and its dispersal in space. His target is the moment that does not repeat itself, the fragment of time captured by the gesture. (...). One of the country's greatest master watercolorists, he shifts the main axis of his inquiry from the pictorial question to the realm of drawing. Although he still uses the traditional materials of watercolor, the focus is now not the patch of color but the gesture of the brush, the line. Without being graphic, the result benefits from Ubirajara's familiarity and experience in building from the line (...)"
Angélica de Moraes
[Texto do catálogo da exposição individual realizada na Galeria Paralelo 23, em 1992]
LOUZADA, Maria Alice do Amaral, LOUZADA, Júlio. Artes plásticas Brasil 1996 : seu mercado, seus leilões. Fotografia de Sérgio Guerini. São Paulo: Júlio Louzada, 1996. p. 702-703.
"He belongs to a generation that, in the 1960s, under the influence of American Pop art and the new European figurations, reintroduced the figure into Brazilian art as well, bringing to an end the heyday of the two abstractions, the constructive and the informal. Among others, Antônio Dias, Rubens Gerchman, Roberto Magalhães, Carlos Vergara, Wanda Pimentel and Maria do Carmo Secco stood out in Rio. In São Paulo, Wesley Duke Lee (strictly speaking, a little older than Ubirajara), Marcello Nitsche, Cláudio Tozzi and José Roberto Aguilar (younger than him). All of them were extremely active in the 1970s and 1980s and are today, so to speak, established.
Someone who followed these movements early and closely was Walter Zanini, then director of the Museu de Arte Contemporânea of USP and organizer of now historic exhibitions such as 'Jovem Gravura', 'Jovem Desenho' and 'Jovem Arte Nacional'. With first-hand knowledge, Zanini writes in his substantial História Geral da Arte no Brasil that Ubirajara has been developing 'a calm and refined output, predominantly graphic, extended over time through groups of works governed by thematic concerns'. Even when he paints or ventures into other techniques, he remains above all a draftsman, in his subtlety, his intimate spirit, his connection with a very personal universe of fantasies treated sotto voce, almost as a soliloquy, speaking more to himself, without giving in to effects, without wanting to impress.
It is true that, from a certain angle, Ubirajara Ribeiro's work always impresses: through its brilliance, its virtuosity. Endowed with exceptional talent and technique, he inevitably produces impeccable, seductive works, often veiled in a slight aura of mystery. But in his case these are not external devices or tricks of the trade, artificially assembled to please. They are the natural way in which the work emerges, the end point of a limpid, fluent and (at least apparently) serene process that flows into a precise beauty.
(...)
Ubirajara makes drawings, watercolors, prints, paintings and objects, always with the same broad command of technique; he investigates them in their specific qualities and uses them as supports for different inquiries within the expressive process itself. He moves with complete freedom between figuration and abstraction, and it is impressive how he masters both languages. In one series he takes pains to control every step and every result; in another he invokes the collaboration of the unforeseen and of chance. Each proposal generates its own solutions.
(...)
Ubirajara Ribeiro is undoubtedly an inventor, not only of forms but also of ways of obtaining them. He creates within creation. Confined to apparently even conventional limits - intimacy, soliloquy, small formats, watercolor, the delicate gesture - he preserves in art its basic coefficient of experimental adventure."
Olívio Tavares de Araújo
RIBEIRO, Ubirajara. Segmentos. São Paulo: Múltipla de Arte, 2001.
Solo Exhibitions
1960 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Ponto de Encontro
1964 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Mobilínea
1964 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Seta Galeria de Arte
1965 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Mobilínea
1965 - Taubaté SP - Solo, at Galeria Mobilínea
1966 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Ponto de Encontro
1969 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Seta Galeria de Arte
1972 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Seta Galeria de Arte
1975 - São Paulo SP - Ubirajara Ribeiro: Retrospective, at MAC/USP
1977 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Graphus Galeria de Arte - APCA Award
1979 - Caxias do Sul RS - Solo, at Clube Juvenil
1979 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Itaugaleria
1980 - Recife PE - Solo, at Artespaço Galeria de Arte
1980 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Sesc Paulista
1981 - Florianópolis SC - Solo, at Masc
1981 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Galeria Guignard
1981 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Sesc Paulista
1982 - Guarujá SP - Solo, at Hotel Jequitimar
1982 - São Paulo SP - Art on Paper, at Galeria Suzanna Sassoun
1983 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Sesc Paulista
1985 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at CCSP
1987 - São Paulo SP - The Parts (of) Ubirajara, at Paulo Figueiredo Galeria de Arte
1991 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Espaço Cultural Quo Vadis
1992 - Bauru SP - Solo, at Prefeitura Municipal de Bauru
1992 - Santos SP - Solo, at Centro Cultural Patrícia Galvão
1992 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Paralelo 23
1993 - São Paulo SP - The End-A-Final, at Paulo Figueiredo Galeria de Arte
1993 - Sonoma (United States) - Solo, at Sonoma University Art Gallery
1993 - Washington (United States) - Solo, at University Art Gallery
1993 - Washington (United States) - Solo, at Biblioteca do Congresso
1998 - Campinas SP - Solo, at Tênis Clube
1998 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Espaço Azul
2000 - Belém PA - Solo, at Centro Cultural Brasil Estados Unidos
2001 - São Paulo SP - Ubirajara Ribeiro: Segments, at Múltipla de Arte
Group Exhibitions
1956 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Petit Salon, at Maison de France - foreign travel prize
1956 - Salvador BA - Modern Artists from Bahia, at Galeria Oxumaré
1957 - São Paulo SP - Artists from Bahia, at MAM/SP
1958 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 7th National Salon of Modern Art, at MAM/RJ
1958 - São Paulo SP - 7th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1961 - São Paulo SP - 10th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia - acquisition prize
1964 - São Paulo SP - 13th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art - gold medal
1965 - Porto Alegre RS - 5 Avant-Garde Painters, at Margs
1965 - São Paulo SP - 2nd Young National Drawing Exhibition, at MAC/USP
1965 - São Paulo SP - Proposals 65, at MAB/Faap
1966 - Campinas SP - 1st São Paulo Youth Modern Art Salon, at MACC
1966 - Campinas SP - 2nd Campinas Contemporary Art Salon - acquisition prize
1966 - Curitiba PR - 23rd Paraná Fine Arts Salon, at Biblioteca Pública do Paraná
1966 - São Paulo SP - 15th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1966 - São Paulo SP - Galeria Cosme Velho: Opening Exhibition, at Galeria Cosme Velho
1966 - São Paulo SP - Three Premises, at MAB/Faap
1967 - Campinas SP - 3rd Campinas Contemporary Art Salon, at MACC
1967 - São Caetano do Sul SP - 1st São Caetano do Sul Contemporary Art Salon
1967 - São Paulo SP - 16th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art - acquisition prize
1967 - São Paulo SP - 6 Painters of the New Objectivity, at IAB/SP
1968 - Campo Grande MS - 28 Artists from the Collection of the Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo, at Diário da Serra
1968 - São Caetano do Sul SP - 2nd São Caetano do Sul Contemporary Art Salon
1969 - Fortaleza CE - 28 Artists from the Collection of the Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo, at Centro de Artes Visuais Raimundo Cela
1971 - São Paulo SP - 11th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Fundação Bienal
1972 - Campinas SP - 8th Campinas Contemporary Art Salon, at MACC - acquisition prize
1972 - São Paulo SP - 2nd International Print Exhibition, at MAM/SP
1972 - São Paulo SP - Galeria Urano: Opening Exhibition, at Galeria Urano
1972 - São Paulo SP - Waldemar da Costa Retrospective: Tribute to the Master, at MAM/SP
1973 - Brasília DF - Architect-Painters, at Touring Club do Brasil
1974 - Barcelona (Spain) - Arte Grafico Brasileño Hoy, at Sala de Exposiciones de la Dirección General de Bellas Artes
1974 - São Paulo SP - Prospectiva'74, at MAC/USP
1978 - São Paulo SP - 1st Show of Furniture and Unusual Objects, at Paço das Artes - award winner
1978 - São Paulo SP - Vagrant Myths, in a parking lot on Rua Augusta
1978 - São Paulo SP - The Object in Art: Brazil in the 1960s, at MAB/Faap
1979 - São Paulo SP - 11th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1979 - São Paulo SP - Technical Prints, at Faculdade Padre Manoel da Nóbrega
1979 - São Paulo SP - Drawing as an Instrument, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1979 - São Paulo SP - Return to the Figure: The 1960s, at Museu Lasar Segall
1979 - Washington (United States) - Brazilian Artists, at BACI
1980 - São Paulo SP - 12th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1981 - Bogotá (Colombia) - 10 Artistas Brasileños, at Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá
1981 - Campinas SP - Architects/Visual Artists, at MACC
1981 - Ribeirão Preto SP - Group Print Show, at Itaugaleria
1982 - Penápolis SP - 5th Northwest Visual Arts Salon, at Fundação Educacional de Penápolis. Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Penápolis
1982 - São Paulo SP - Lettres à Moi Même, at Galeria Suzanna Sassoun
1983 - São Paulo SP - 14th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1983 - São Paulo SP - Amnesty International/Brazil, at MIS/SP
1983 - São Paulo SP - Avenida Paulista, at Galeria Sesc Paulista
1984 - The Hague (Netherlands) - Color and Drawing of Brazil
1984 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Color and Drawing of Brazil
1984 - London (England) - Color and Drawing of Brazil
1984 - Madrid (Spain) - Color and Drawing of Brazil
1984 - Paris (France) - Color and Drawing of Brazil
1984 - Rome (Italy) - Color and Drawing of Brazil
1984 - São Paulo SP - 15th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1984 - São Paulo SP - Color and Drawing of Brazil, at MAM/SP
1985 - California (United States) - Brazil: 10 works on paper, at Sonoma State University Art Gallery
1985 - Penápolis SP - 6th Northwest Visual Arts Salon, at Fundação Educacional de Penápolis. Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Penápolis
1985 - São Paulo SP - The Art of the Imaginary, at Galeria Encontro das Artes
1985 - São Paulo SP - Arte Movimento, at Paulo Figueiredo Galeria de Arte
1985 - São Paulo SP - Art New Media/Multimedia: Brazil 70/80, at MAB/Faap
1985 - São Paulo SP - Six Printmakers, at Arte Movimento
1985 - São Paulo SP - Transcriar, at CCSP. Divisão de Artes Plásticas
1985 - São Paulo SP - Transcriar, at MAC/USP
1986 - Italy - Red Project - Progetto Rosso
1986 - Los Angeles (United States) - 1st Los Angeles International Art Fair
1986 - São Paulo SP - Red Project-Progetto Rosso, at MAB/Faap
1986 - São Paulo SP - XX-XXI: A Turn of the Century, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1987 - California (United States) - Brazil, Small Formats, at Sonoma University Art Gallery
1987 - Los Angeles (United States) - 2nd Los Angeles International Art Fair
1987 - São Paulo SP - 18th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1987 - São Paulo SP - Imagic Word, at MAC/USP
1987 - Washington (United States) - Brazil, Small Formats, at Biblioteca do Congresso
1988 - Campinas SP - 13th Contemporary Art Salon, at MACC - acquisition prize
1988 - São Paulo SP - 1st FASM National Watercolor Salon, at Faculdade Santa Marcelina
1988 - São Paulo SP - 63/66 Figure and Object, at Galeria Millan
1988 - São Paulo SP - 6th São Paulo Contemporary Art Salon
1988 - São Paulo SP - Watercolor: Paint, Brush, Water, Paper, at Paço das Artes
1988 - São Paulo SP - Juréia, at Sadalla Galeria de Arte
1988 - São Paulo SP - MAC 25 Years: Recent Acquisitions and Donations, at MAC/USP
1988 - São Paulo SP - Message to Mario Schenberg, at Funarte
1989 - São Paulo SP - To Each His Own, at Masp
1989 - Juiz de Fora MG - To Each His Own, at Museu Mariano Procópio
1990 - Belém PA - São Paulo Watercolor, at Galeria Elf
1990 - Curitiba PR - 9th Guest Artists: Lithographs, at Casa Romário Martins
1990 - Curitiba PR - 9th Curitiba City Printmaking Show, at Museu da Gravura
1990 - Curitiba PR - ApósAquarela: Contemporary Watercolor in São Paulo: Watercolor Language Study Group, at Museu Municipal de Arte
1990 - Itu SP - ApósAquarela: Contemporary Watercolor in São Paulo: Watercolor Language Study Group, at Espaço Cultural Almeida Júnior
1990 - Juiz de Fora MG - Olhar Van Gogh, at Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora. Centro de Estudos Murilo Mendes
1990 - São Paulo SP - 21st Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1990 - São Paulo SP - The Presence of Drawing, at Paço das Artes
1990 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Art, at MAC/USP
1990 - São Paulo SP - Exhibition of the Associação Paulista dos Críticos de Arte, at Jockey Clube de São Paulo
1990 - São Paulo SP - Pantanal, at Sadalla Galeria de Arte
1991 - Santos SP - 3rd Santos National Biennial, at Centro Cultural Patrícia Galvão
1991 - São Paulo SP - Contemporary Watercolor, at Renato Magalhães Gouvêa Escritório de Arte
1991 - São Paulo SP - Artist-Architects, at Masp
1991 - São Paulo SP - Seminal Artists, at Casa das Rosas
1991 - São Paulo SP - Citizenship: 200 Years of the Declaration of the Rights of Man, at Sesc Pompéia
1991 - São Paulo SP - Graphic Record: Original Lithographs, at Kramer Galeria de Arte
1991 - São Paulo SP - Records and Impressions: Seminal Artists, at Casa das Rosas
1991 - São Paulo SP - Tribute to Avenida Paulista, at Galeria Sesc Paulista - best event of the year award
1992 - Campinas SP - Prizewinners of the Campinas Contemporary Art Salons, at MACC
1992 - Curitiba PR - 10th Curitiba City Printmaking Show/America Show, at Museu da Gravura
1992 - Jundiaí SP - Jundiaí Art Salon
1992 - Santo André SP - Lithography: Methods and Concepts, at Paço Municipal
1992 - Santo André SP - Re Luz: Watercolor Moments, at Paço Municipal
1993 - Mococa SP - 10th Mococa Contemporary Art Salon
1993 - São Paulo SP - 1st São Paulo Watercolor Salon, at Faculdade Santa Marcelina - 1st prize
1993 - São Paulo SP - Brazil: Small Formats, Few Words, at Documenta Galeria de Arte
1993 - Washington (United States) - Brazil Small Formats, at Biblioteca do Congresso Americano
1994 - Londrina PR - 3rd Londrina Art Week, at Museu de Arte de Londrina
1994 - Piracicaba SP - Brazilian Naïve Art Biennial, at Sesc
1994 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Brasil Século XX, at Fundação Bienal
1994 - São Paulo SP - The Animals, at Galeria Paralelo 23
1994 - São Paulo SP - Unity and Confrontation, at Escola Panamericana de Arte
1995 - Santo André SP - 23rd Santo André Contemporary Art Salon, at Paço Municipal
1995 - São Bernardo do Campo SP - Book-Objects, at Espaço Henfil de Cultura
1995 - São Paulo SP - The Great Journey, at Palácio do Governo
1995 - São Paulo SP - Watercolor, at Faculdade Santa Marcelina
1995 - São Paulo SP - Art for Less, at Trilha Arte Contemporânea
1995 - São Paulo SP - From the European Avant-Gardes and Brazilian Modernism to Contemporary Visuality, at MAC/USP
1995 - São Paulo SP - Arte Atual Brasil Project, at Renato Magalhães Gouvêa Escritório de Arte
1995 - São Paulo SP - Contact Project, at Galeria do Sesc Paulista
1996 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Art: 50 Years of History in the MAC/USP Collection: 1920-1970, at MAC/USP
1996 - São Paulo SP - Ex Libris/Home Page, at Paço das Artes
1998 - São Paulo SP - Figurations: 30 Years in Brazilian Art, at MAC/USP
1998 - São Paulo SP - The Collectors - Guita and José Mindlin: Matrices and Prints, at Galeria de Arte do Sesi
1999 - São Paulo SP - Lithography: Fidelity and Memory, at Espaço de Artes Unicid
1999 - São Paulo SP - Subterrâneos, at Cultura Inglesa
1999 - São Paulo SP - Transparencies, at Escritório de Arte Rosa Barbosa
2000 - Mexico City (Mexico) - 12th Ibero-American Art Biennial, at Palacio de Bellas Artes de la Ciudad de México
2000 - São Paulo SP - The Pirelli Collection in the MAM Collection: Brazilian Art in the 1960s, at MAM/SP
2000 - São Paulo SP - The Role of Art, at Galeria de Arte do Sesi
2000 - São Paulo SP - New Work, at MAC/USP
2001 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Watercolor, at Centro Cultural Light
2001 - São Paulo SP - Art Today, at Arvani Arte
2002 - São Paulo SP - Who Makes the Biennials, at Galeria Múltipla de Arte
Posthumous Exhibitions
2003 - São Paulo SP - Art and Society: A Controversial Relationship, at Itaú Cultural
2003 - São Paulo SP - The Subversion of Media, at Itaú Cultural
2004 - São Paulo SP - The Price of Seduction: From Corset to Silicone, at Itaú Cultural
Source: Itaú Cultural
