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Oswaldo Goeldi: Cena Urbana (Urban Scene)

Oswaldo Goeldi: Cena Urbana (Urban Scene)
Library Shelf Location 18.GOEL
Publication Date 2011
Description The Embassy of Brazil in London proudly presents Oswaldo Goeldi: Cena Urbana. The show, curated by Paulo Venancio Filho, will present a selection of 22 woodcut prints that reveal a subterranean vision of the city of Rio de Janeiro’s urban scenes and anonymous individuals by one of the greatest Brazilian modern artists. Oswaldo Goeldi was the son of the eminent Swiss naturalist Émil Goeldi (1859-1917), one of the many scientists that Emperor Dom Pedro II was involved with during his reign. While Goeldi was studying in Switzerland during the First World War, he was influenced by the group Der Blaue Reiter and became acquainted with the works of Alfred Kubin (1877-1859), with whom he would correspond to the end of his life. Although still not acclaimed internationally, Goeldi’s oeuvre awakens immediate interest in those that come in contact with his drawings and engravings as they reveal a singular vision of Brazil, captured through an expressionistic sensitivity, rather infrequent in Brazilian art. Goeldi was a rare case, perhaps unique, of an expressionist in the tropics. The exhibition shows the Goeldian vision of a Brazilian reality that is quite distant from the commonplace postcard image of a mythical tropical nation. This sombre world, which Goeldi expresses through the black and white contrast of xylography, fulfils the power of a plastic idiom that matches his work to that of German Expressionists. Brazilian modern art has recently been gaining rightful international acclaim, in particular the great constructive period in Brazilian art as illustrated by Neoconcretism and its artists. This fact is now well established and it is time to advance further and focus upon other artists that, despite pursuing differing poetics, have the same stature and importance, such as Oswaldo Goeldi. By revealing various aspects of Brazilian Modernism, which is both sufficiently original and complex, this exhibition corroborates the fact that it cannot be exhausted in a single version. Very aptly, the show follows the special nucleus dedicated to Goeldi’s work at the 29th São Paulo Biennial (2010) and celebrates the artist in the year of the fiftieth anniversary of his death.
Quantity 1
Pages 36
Author Paulo Venancio Filho
Format Exhibition Catalogue
Publisher Gallery 32, London
Related Artist Oswaldo Goeldi
Category Printmaking
Artist's Nationality Brazilian
Language English

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