Walter Lewy (Bad Oldesloe, Germany 1905 - São Paulo SP 1995)
Walter Lewy was a printmaker, painter, illustrator, landscape designer, draftsman and advertising artist. He studied at the School of Arts and Crafts in Dortmund, Germany, between 1923 and 1927. During this period, he aligned himself with the Magic Realism tendency. In 1928, he took part in group exhibitions in Dortmund, Gelsenkirchen, Boclusim and other cities.
With the economic crisis of 1929, Lewy lost his job as a draftsman at a printing house and went to live with his parents in the countryside, becoming an illustrator of jokes for newspapers. He held his first solo exhibition in Bad Lippspringe in 1932, but it was closed when the German Chamber of Art banned Jews from taking part in artistic life.
Escaping this oppressive situation, the artist emigrated to Brazil in 1938, where he resumed painting professionally. He left behind hundreds of works, which were sent to the Netherlands and later lost during the bombings of World War II (1939-1945).
In Brazil, he settled in São Paulo. In his first years, he devoted himself to advertising drawing and later produced book covers and illustrations for several publishers. He illustrated works by Bertrand Russell, Machado de Assis and Arnold Toynbee, among others. He later worked as a layout artist, letterer and finishing artist at several advertising agencies, including De Carli, Lintas Publicidade, Martinelli, Santos & Santos and Thompson Propaganda.
Critical Commentary
Walter Lewy is regarded as one of the leading names of Surrealism in Brazil, to the point that the artist himself declares:
"I believe that Surrealism was, for me, a need for renewal, not only suited to the moment (between the wars) we were living through, but even an entry into an inexhaustible field. For me, Surrealism is inexhaustible; it is always renewed and, by its very content, remains current."1
His painting is made up of an irrational and delirious personal imagery, mixing lunar landscapes, fantastic plants, and amorphous, indefinite objects, set in a spectral and dreamlike space. There is something in his canvases of the immobility and transcendence of Giorgio de Chirico's metaphysical works. The artist uses flat, intense masses of color, and evokes the imaginary universe of writers such as Jules Verne and Edgar Allan Poe, and of painters such as Max Ernst and Yves Tanguy. Regarding Lewy's work, the critic Sérgio Milliet observes that it has a first phase of distortion of the figure and exploration of the poetic absurd, then passes through the experience of free forms until finally arriving at the painting of a world of cosmic fantasy.2 According to the critic, the artist's mastery of his craft is evident throughout his work, in the cleanness of the execution and the conscious harmony of color and values.
Notes
1 LEWY, Walter. Surrealismo tropical. São Paulo: Espaço Cultural do Banco do Brasil, 1990. p. 2
2 Ibidem.
Critiques
"Despite a period of work, soon after his arrival in Brazil at the end of the 1930s, in which the direct stimulus of the new land led him to depict our popular types and customs, especially through drawings and prints, Walter Lewy's painting, since before his move, but above all in the last fifteen or twenty years, shows a natural connection with Surrealism. In this realm, the atmosphere that attracts him most is one in which he can place a set of symbols with a dreamlike substratum, remaking all objective reality in terms of a new universe of recognizable forms, but displaced from their original situation, or of forms obtained by tearing and accumulating organic, visceral or erotic elements. As in Max Ernst and Yves Tanguy, the two Surrealists whose lineage Lewy is closest to, there is in this mental and narrative painting a desire to comment allegorically on the human condition in the fabric of contemporary life, in search of universal and timeless characteristics that define it beyond the contingencies of a single period and moment. Mental mediation, amalgamating plant and mineral configurations in a world as real as it is fantastic, aims to place the now within the breadth of a flow that abolishes all circumstance of time and place".
Roberto Pontual
PONTUAL, Roberto. Arte/Brasil/hoje: 50 anos depois. São Paulo: Collectio, 1973.
"(...) For sixty years now he has been creating these enchantments with great fidelity to his concepts, developing his fantastic landscapes into a cosmic vision never seen before. Among us, in Brazil, he represents in a singular way the art that creates imaginary worlds, confronts us with the world of dreams, and takes us to a nature of formations and plants rendered in very precise drawing and forms. It is painting of superb technique, comparable to that of the old masters. In very vivid colors, it gives us the pleasure of feeling an astral integration, entirely conceived by the master's mind and brushes. With these works, Walter Lewy, one of the great names of Surrealism, became a sui generis exponent in the history and present of artistic creation in Brazil".
Wolfgang Pfeiffer
HOMENAGEM a Walter Lewy: óleos e litografias. Introduction by Wolfgang Pfeiffer. São Paulo: Faculdade Santa Marcelina, Galeria, 1985.
Solo Exhibitions
1932 - Bad Lippspringe (Germany) - First solo exhibition, closed immediately when the German Chamber of Art banned Jews from taking part in artistic life
1944 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Atelier Clóvis Graciano
1947 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Domus
1956 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Masp
1960 - Campinas SP - Solo, at Galeria Aremar
1963 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria São Luís
1965 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Astréia
1966 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Galeria Guignard
1966 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Brasileira de Arte
1967 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Astréia
1968 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Goeldi
1972 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Portal
1974 - São Paulo SP - Retrospective, at MAM
1974 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Bonfiglioli - best exhibition of the year, ABCA travel prize abroad
1976 - Paris (France) - Solo, at Galerie Debret
1977 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Alberto Bonfiglioli
1982 - São Paulo SP - O Dimensionismo Fantástico de Walter Lewy [The Fantastic Dimensionism of Walter Lewy], at Galeria Uirapuru
1985 - São Paulo SP - Homage to Walter Lewy, at the Gallery of Faculdade Santa Marcelina
1986 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Uirapuru
1989 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Espaço Aldo Marchand
1990 - São Paulo SP - Surrealismo Tropical [Tropical Surrealism], at Espaço Cultural do Banco do Brasil
Group Exhibitions
1941 - São Paulo SP - 1st Art Salon of the National Industry Fair, at Parque da Água Branca
1942 - São Paulo SP - 7th Salon of the Visual Artists' Union, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1944 - São Paulo SP - 9th Salon of the Visual Artists' Union, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1945 - São Paulo SP - Galeria Domus: Inaugural Exhibition, at Galeria Domus
1946 - Santiago (Chile) - Exhibition of Brazilian Artists
1947 - São Paulo SP - Salon of the Visual Artists' Union
1951 - São Paulo SP - 1st São Paulo International Biennial, at Pavilhão do Trianon
1952 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st National Salon of Modern Art
1952 - São Paulo SP - 2nd São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia - large silver medal
1953 - Japan - 2nd International Art Exhibition
1953 - São Paulo SP - 2nd São Paulo International Biennial, at Pavilhão dos Estados
1954 - Salvador BA - 4th Bahia Salon of Fine Arts, at Hotel Bahia
1954 - São Paulo SP - 3rd São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia - small gold medal
1955 - São Paulo SP - 3rd São Paulo International Biennial, at Pavilhão das Nações
1955 - São Paulo SP - 4th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1956 - Salvador BA - Bahia Salon of Fine Arts - bronze medal
1957 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 2nd National Salon of Modern Art
1957 - São Paulo SP - 6th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia - acquisition prize
1958 - São Paulo SP - 7th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1961 - São Paulo SP - 6th São Paulo International Biennial, at Pavilhão Ciccillo Matarazzo Sobrinho
1963 - São Paulo SP - 12th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia - acquisition prize
1965 - São Paulo SP - 14th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia - 1st State Government Prize
1965 - São Paulo SP - 8th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1966 - São Paulo SP - Três Premissas [Three Premises], at MAB-FAAP
1967 - São Paulo SP - 12 Surrealist Artists, at Auditório Itália
1969 - São Paulo SP - 10th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1969 - São Paulo SP - 1st Panorama of Contemporary Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1970 - São Paulo SP - 2nd Panorama of Contemporary Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1970 - São Paulo SP - Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo 1970
1972 - São Paulo SP - Arte/Brasil/Hoje: 50 Anos Depois [Art/Brazil/Today: 50 Years Later], at Galeria da Collectio
1973 - São Paulo SP - 5th Panorama of Contemporary Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1973 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Galeria Documenta
1974 - São Paulo SP - Retrospective - 35 Years of Painting in Brazil, at Masp
1975 - Penápolis SP - 1st Northwest Visual Arts Salon, at Fundação Educacional de Penápolis. Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Penápolis
1975 - São Paulo SP - 13th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1976 - Penápolis SP - 2nd Northwest Visual Arts Salon, at Fundação Educacional de Penápolis. Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Penápolis
1976 - São Paulo SP - 8th Panorama of Contemporary Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1976 - São Paulo SP - The Salons: of the Família Artística Paulista, of May and of the São Paulo Visual Artists' Union, at Museu Lasar Segall
1977 - São Paulo SP - 9th Panorama of Contemporary Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1978 - Penápolis SP - 3rd Northwest Visual Arts Salon, at Fundação Educacional de Penápolis. Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Penápolis
1978 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 18th Art and Ecological Thought Exhibition, at Biblioteca Euclides da Cunha
1978 - São Paulo SP - 16th Art and Ecological Thought, at Cetesb
1980 - Penápolis SP - 4th Northwest Visual Arts Salon, at Fundação Educacional de Penápolis. Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Penápolis
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 - From Modernism to the Biennial, at MAM/SP
1985 - Penápolis SP - 6th Northwest Visual Arts Salon, at Fundação Educacional de Penápolis. Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Penápolis
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 8th National Salon of Visual Arts, at MAM/RJ
1985 - São Paulo SP - The Art of the Imaginary, at Galeria Encontro das Artes
1990 - São Paulo SP - Surrealismo Tropical [Tropical Surrealism], at CCBB
1994 - Poços de Caldas MG - Unibanco Collection: Exhibition Celebrating Unibanco's 70th Anniversary, at Casa da Cultura
1995 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Unibanco Collection: Exhibition Celebrating Unibanco's 70th Anniversary, at MAM/RJ
Posthumous Exhibitions
1995 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Unibanco Collection: Exhibition Celebrating Unibanco's 70th Anniversary, at MAM/RJ
1996 - Osasco SP - 4th Art Exhibition, at Centro Universitário Fieo
1996 - São Paulo SP - The World of Mario Schenberg, at Casa das Rosas
1998 - São Paulo SP - Impressions: The Art of Brazilian Printmaking, at Espaço Cultural Banespa-Paulista
2000 - Brasília DF - Brazil Europe Exhibition: Encounters in the 20th Century, at Conjunto Cultural da Caixa
2002 - São Paulo SP - Modernism: From the Week of '22 to Sérgio Milliet's Art Section, at CCSP
2003 - São Paulo SP - The Art Behind Art: Where Artworks Are Kept and How They Travel, at MAM/SP
2004 - São Paulo SP - New Acquisitions: 1995 - 2003, at MAB/Faap
Source: Itaú Cultural
