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Biography

GERALDO DE BARROS
[1923 - 1998, Brazil]

Geraldo de Barros began his investigations into photography in the mid-1940s in São Paulo. Invited by a friend to photograph soccer teams, de Barros’s first camera was built from a kit. Intrigued by the medium, he soon lost interest in pursuing commercial photography. He built a small photo studio, bought a 1939 Rolleiflex, and, in 1949, joined the Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante, which was one of the few forums for the city’s photography enthusiasts. Members of the group were interested in pictorial photography, and de Barros’s explorations of abstraction were met with little interest; his photographs were rarely included in the club’s exhibitions. That same year, de Barros was invited to create a photo laboratory in the new Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP), an important gesture towards including photography in contemporary art spaces.

De Barros’s work from this period is characterized by scraped negatives, multiple exposures, and an interest in chance occurrences. In 1950, the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP) invited de Barros to exhibit his photographs and he showed a selection from his Fotoformas series. The exhibition led to a fellowship opportunity to study abroad in Europe. Ironically, his studies in Europe would redirect his artistic work away from photography. While traveling, he studied painting and printmaking and met important artists and theorists including Max Bill, Giorgio Morandi, and Francois Morellet.

In 1952, de Barros returned to Brazil, and he became a central figure in São Paulo’s Concrete art movement (also known as "Concretism"). Interested in industrial design and modernization processes, he founded a collectivist furniture factory, Unilabor, in 1954.

Although internationally known for his innovations in photography, de Barros actively worked with the medium only during two periods of his life: 1945-1951 and 1996-1998.

De Barros made montages, superimposing images from the urban landscape of São Paulo over geometric forms. In failing health in the late 1990s, he returned to photography, creating a series of work called Sobras, in which he used family photographs as his foundation for collage, montage, and new geometric explorations. De Barros died in 1998.

De Barros's works have been shown in a number of selected exhibitions, including FORMA BRAZIL, Americas Society (AS), New York City, New York, USA (2002); Geometry of Hope, Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Texas, USA (2007); Fotonoviembre 2007, IX Bienal International de Fotografía, Centro de Fotografía Isla de Tenerife, Spain (2007); Geometric Abstraction: Latin American Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection, Fogg Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (2001);

Geraldo de Barros: Fotoformas e Sobras, Fundação Arpad Szenes – Vieira da Silva, Lisbon, Portugal (2017); Making Art Concrete, Getty Center, Los Angeles, California, USA (2017); Konkrete Kunst, 50 Years of Development,Helmhaus Zürich, Switzerland (1960); Geraldo de Barros, Itaú Cultural, São Paulo, Brazil (2021); The Revolution is Dead. Long Live the Revolution!, Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland and Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland (2017); Brazilian Photography, Labirinto e Identidades, 1946-1998, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany (1999); Geraldo de Barros, painter and photographer, Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland (1993); Fotoformas: Retrospective, Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland (2000); Cuasi-corpus, arte concreto y neoconcreto de Brasil, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey (MARCO), Mexico, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico, and Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (MAM), Brazil (2003); First show of contemporary Latin American photography, Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, Mexico (1978); Modern Art in Brazil, Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires (MAMBA), Argentina (1957); Heteropías. Medio Siglo Sin Lugar (1918-1968), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS), Madrid, Spain (2000); Misselbeck, Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal (2002); First National Exposition of Concrete Art, Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (MASP), Brazil (1956); Brasiliana MASP: Moderna contemporânea, Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP), Brazil (2006); Misselbeck, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany (1999); Constructed Dialogues: Selections from the Latin American Collection in the inaugural installation of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), Texas, USA (2020); Sobras e Fotoformas, Retrospective, Museum Ulm, Ulm, Germany (2001); and Constructive project in Brazilian Art, Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, Brazil (1977).

De Barros’s works are included in numerous important collections, such as Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO), Miami, Florida, USA; Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC), Caracas, Venezuela and New York City, New York, USA; Fonds d’art contemporain de la Ville de Genève (FMAC), Geneva, Switzerland; Max Bill Foundation, Zurich, Switzerland; Musée d’Art Contemporain de Grenoble, France; Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland; Museu da Imagem e do Som (MIS), São Paulo, Brazil; Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo (MAC-USP), Brazil; Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP), Brazil; Museu Oscar Niemeyer, Curitiba, Brazil; Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), Texas, USA; Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City, New York, USA; and Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, Brazil, among others.

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Selected Solo Exhibitions

2022
Geraldo de Barros: OBJETOS–FORMA, Luciana Brito Galeria, São Paulo, Brazil
Geraldo de Barros: Form–Objects, Galleria Michela Negrini, Lugano, Switzerland
Geraldo de Barros, Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain (MAMCO), Geneva, Switzerland

2019
Geraldo de Barros: Unilabor, Kunst-und Kulturstiftung Openvillen Rüsselsheim, Germany
Geraldo de Barros and Unilabor by DPot, Arcadia, Geneva, Switzerland
Geraldo de Barros – Fotoformas, Document Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA
Geraldo de Barros – That’s It, Dip Contemporary, Lugano, Switzerland

2021
Geraldo de Barros, Itaú Cultural, São Paulo, Brazil

2017
Geraldo de Barros: Sobras, Document Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA
Geraldo de Barros: Fotoformas e Sobras, Fundação Arpad-Szenes/Vieira da Silva, Lisbon, Portugal

2016
Geraldo de Barros: Off Center, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA
Geraldo de Barros: Industrial, Galeria Luciana Brito, São Paulo, Brazil

2015
Geraldo de Barros and Photography, SESC Belezinho, São Paulo, Brazil

2014
Geraldo de Barros and Photography, Instituto Moreira Salles, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Tierney Gardarin Gallery, New York, NY, USA

2013
Geraldo de Barros, Jogos de Dados + Sobras (1980-1990), SESC Vila Mariana, São Paulo, Brazil
Geraldo de Barros: What remains? The Photographer’s Gallery, London, UK

2010
Entre Tantos: Geraldo de Barros, Caixa Cultural, São Paulo, Brazil

2009
Geraldo de Barros, Modulação de mundos, SESC Pinheiros, São Paulo, Brazil

2008
Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA

2007
Sobras + Fotoformas, Galeria Brito Cimino, São Paulo, Brazil
Fotonoviembre 2007, IX Bienal International de Fotografía, Centro de Fotografía Isla de Tenerife, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
Desenho Constructivista Brasiliero, Museu de Arte Moderna Rio de Janiero, Brazil
Fragmentos: Modernismo na fotografia brasiliera, Galeria Bergamin, São Paulo, Brazil

2006
Brasiliana MASP, Moderna contemporanea, Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (MASP), São Paulo, Brazil
MAM [NA] OCA, Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo, Brazil
Concreta 56. A raiz da forma, Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo, Brazil
Pincelada, Pintura e M´todo, Institute Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, Brazil
Sem título, 2006, Comodato Eduardo Branddão e Jan Field, Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo, Brazil

2005
Geraldo de Barros, Galerie Guy Bärtschi, Genève, Switzerland.
A(s)simetrias, Galeria Brito Cimino, São Paulo, Brazil

2004
Inverted Utopias, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), TX, USA

2002
Fotoformas, 1923- 1998, retrospectiva, Fundacao Gulbenkian, Lisboa
Forma Brazil, The Americas/Society, New York, NY, USA

2001
Sobras e Fotoformas, Retrospective, Ulmer Museum, Ulm, Germany

2000
Heterotopias, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
Fotoformas: Retrospective, Musée de L’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland
Sobras e Fotoformas, Instituto Itaú Cultural, Campinas, Brazil

1999
Fotoformas, 1923-1998, retrospectiva, curadoria Reinhold Misselbeck, Museum Ludwig, Colonia
Sobras, curadoria, Rienhold Misselbeck, Sesc Pompeia, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Geraldo de Barros, Galeria Brito Cimino, São Paulo, Brazil
Geraldo de Barros, no Acervo do, Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Galeria Brito Cimino, Sao Paulo, Brazil

1998
Traces on the Glass, FotoFest 1998, Sicardi-Sanders Gallery, Houston, TX, USA

1996
Geraldo de Barros, pioneer, Cultural Center of the Bank of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Geraldo de Barros Fotoformas, Cultural Foundation of Curitiba, Brazil
Geraldo de Barros, photographs, Alexandre Mottier Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland

1995
Fotoformas, Camargo Villaça Gallery, São Paulo, Brazil

1994
Geraldo de Barros, photographer, Museum of Image and Sound, São Paulo, Brazil

1993
Casa de Rosas, São Paulo, Brazil
Geraldo de Barros, painter and photographer, Musée de L’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland

1991
Dice games, Mercato Del Sale Gallery, Milan, Italy
The artist’s universe when young, Paço das Artes, São Paulo, Brazil
21st São Paulo Biennial, Brazil. Awarded second prize

1990
Dice games, Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo, Brazil

1989
Dice games, Contemporary Art Museum of Campinas (MACC), São Paulo, Brazil

1987
Tschudi Gallery, Glarus, Switzerland

1986
Thomas Cohn Gallery, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Fernando Milan Gallery, São Paulo, Brazil
42nd Venice Biennial, Italy

1979
15th São Paulo Biennial, Brazil

1977
12 Years of Painting, Museum of Modern Art, São Paulo, Brazil

1967
9th São Paulo Biennial, Brazil. Awarded acquisition prize

1965
Atrium Gallery, São Paulo, Brazil
Museum of Modern Art, Buenos Aires, Argentina

1954
Museum of Modern Art, São Paulo, Brazil

1953
Second São Paulo Biennial, Brazil. Awarded the acquisition prize

1951
First São Paulo Biennial, Brazil. Awarded the acquisition prize

1950
Fotoforma, São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand Museum of Art, Brazil

1947
Municipal Theater of São Paulo, Brazil

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Selected Public Collections

Archivio Della Nuova Scrittura, Milan, Italy

Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami, FL, USA

Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, New York, NY, USA

Contemporary Art Museum, Grenoble, France

Curitiba Museum, Parana, Brazil

Elysée Museum, Lausanne, Switzerland

Fonds d’Art Contemporain de la Ville de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland

Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil

Itamaraty Museum, Brasilia, Brazil

Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo, MAC-USP, Brazil

Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany

Max Bill Collection, Zürich, Switzerland

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), TX, USA

Museu da Imagem e do Som de São Paulo (SIM), Brazil

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, NY, USA

Numerous private collections

Pinacoteca de São Paulo, Brazil

Museu de arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, Brazil

Swiss Bank Union Collection, Geneva, Switzerland

Tschudi Gallery, Glarus, Switzerland

Venice Biennial Collection, Italy