Geraldo De Barros (1923-1998)

At the forefront of experimental photography in the early 1950s, de Barros reinvented his practice over a remarkable five decades, which saw him move between painting, photography, and graphic and industrial design.  A member of the Grupo XV studio, founded in 1948 in São Paulo, de Barros worked briefly in an expressionist mode of painting before turning decisively to photography. Concrete Art remained a point of reference over the ensuing years, even as de Barros moved into new arenas: furniture design, through the worker-owned cooperative Unilabor and, later, the privately-owned Hobjeto factory and chain of stores; Rex Gallery, opened with artists Nelson Leirner and Wesley Duke Lee; and Pop Art, derived from street posters and billboards.  The rediscovery of his earlier photographic prints by his daughter, Fabiana, in 1975 revived his interest in geometry and stimulated a new series of work, which was exhibited to acclaim at the São Paulo Bienal in 1979.  Estudos belongs to this later iteration of his Concrete work, its planes of color—collaged black, white, and orange triangles—animating a visual rhythm across the lined geometry of the paper.