Bruno Giorgi

Bruno Giorgi (Mococa, SP, 1905 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 1993)

Bruno Giorgi was a Brazilian sculptor whose artistic training and career were marked by international experiences and political engagement. In 1913, while still young, he moved with his family to Italy, settling in Rome. In 1920, he began studying drawing and sculpture with Professor Loss. During his time in Italy, he became involved in anti-fascist movements, which resulted in his arrest in 1931 and a seven-year sentence. Through the intervention of the Brazilian ambassador, he was extradited back to Brazil in 1935.

Already in São Paulo, Bruno Giorgi became close to artists such as Joaquim Figueira and Alfredo Volpi. In 1937, he left for Paris, where he attended the La Grand Chaumière and Ranson academies, under the guidance of sculptor Aristide Maillol. He returned to Brazil in 1939 and began associating with important figures in Brazilian modernism, such as Mário de Andrade, Lasar Segall, Oswald de Andrade, and Sérgio Milliet. He became involved with the Santa Helena Group and the Paulista Artistic Family, beginning to practice life drawing and painting.

In 1943, he moved to Rio de Janeiro and, at the invitation of Minister Gustavo Capanema, set up his studio in the former Praia Vermelha Hospice, where he also mentored young artists such as Francisco Stockinger. His artistic output is marked by monumental works that are part of important Brazilian public spaces. Notable among these are the Monument to the Brazilian Youth, from 1947, in the gardens of the Gustavo Capanema Palace in Rio de Janeiro; Candangos, from 1960, in the Three Powers Square; Meteoro, from 1967, in the lake of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Brasília; and Integração, from 1989, in the Latin America Memorial, in São Paulo.

Critical Commentary

Inheriting the lessons of sculptor Aristide Maillol (1861-1944), from the 1940s onward, Bruno Giorgi revealed in his works a growing interest in Brazilian themes and types. His work gradually moved from a slight stylization of the human figure to greater deformation. In the roughness of the surfaces, the modeling reveals the sculptor's hand, as in Woman in the Moonlight, 1949.

From these works onward, he began to display a new plasticity. In Maternity, 1952, or Saint George, 1953, the figures' torsos and limbs elongate and deform in a continuous development in space. This abstract dynamic leads to a play of solids and voids. The progressive stylization and reduction of the figure to a few lines can be seen, for example, in Candangos (1960).

He then began to create abstract compositions, where an attempt to integrate his sculpture with modern architecture is noticeable, as in Meteoro (1967), one of his most notable works, or Condor (1978). In the 1970s, Bruno Giorgi resumed his exploration of the human figure, particularly the representation of female forms, a feature so frequent in his earlier work, resulting in a series of stone torsos.

About Bruno Giorgi

- He wasn't the least bit organized and didn't even bother to store or review works. When he didn't like them, he simply dismantled them," recalls Leontina. In a corner of the studio, he would curl up and spend hours smearing clay on his hands and polishing marble. The marble dust damaged his bronchial tubes, as he never wore a protective mask. Weakened, he died at the age of 88 from cardiac arrest in Rio de Janeiro on September 7th, 1993.
- Meteor, a 50-ton marble sphere, was brought from Italy to Brasília. A crane couldn't support the weight, and the sculpture stopped 20 cm from Giorgi's head. The shock was so great that the artist was bedridden with a fever for a week.

The Works of Bruno Giorgi

Interestingly, "Candango" was the name Africans used to refer to their Portuguese colonizers, a pejorative term for an ordinary, low-life individual. However, in Brazil, the word changed its connotation, now referring positively to the people who worked on the construction of the capital. In other words, Juscelino Kubitschek was a true "candangão." Hence the change. Previously known as "Os Guerreiros," the monument is now known as "Os Candangos." In 1959, the word gained a new status, synonymous with trailblazer, a man who trusts in progress, an ordinary Brazilian, a worker in Brasília. Regarding this, Giorgi himself revealed: "I made the warriors that were cast here in Rio de Janeiro. And I had made a one-and-a-half-meter model, and they approved it, the committee approved it, and even Oscar Niemeyer approved it. So then I expanded it here, making it 9 meters high. Then there's a small pedestal, then there are two elements that embrace, which they call a warrior, but my dream was to pay homage to the candango. So much so that later they came to name it candango. This here is a monument to the candangos." Also in Brasília, in addition to the aforementioned work, we have the "Meteor" (1967), in the lake of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building, located in the reflecting pool in front of the Itamaraty Palace. One of his bronze works, "Herma de Tiradentes" (1986), is located to the left of the access ramp to the Tancredo Neves Pantheon of the Fatherland, a fitting tribute to Tiradentes. One of his last works was the monument "Integration" (1989), at the Memorial da América Latina, in São Paulo. Bruno died in 1993. Among the city's residents, there is enormous pride in the sculptor's name, making it difficult to find someone unfamiliar with him. Replicas of his works, such as "The Sphinx" (1960) and "The Candangos" can be seen in the city square. In fact, there is a somewhat tragic story about this, shared by the townspeople. In the square, amidst some gardens, a woman approached and placed her child in the arms of the sphinx to take pictures. The problem was that the statue was already somewhat loose, and before the mother could react, it fell on the child, killing him. As a result, the statue was removed from the square for a few years, but it is now back in a different location. Book - Bruno Giorgi (1905-1993) The book, a tribute to the centennial celebrations of The book, which presents previously unseen sculptures by this passionate sculptor, offers a panorama of his life and work through a photochronology and an impressive selection of excerpts from reviews and texts published throughout his career. With a foreword by Ferreira Gullar, the book also includes a list of works, a bibliography, and an English translation.

Bruno Giorgi's Style

It was subdivided into three phases that encompassed his production in the decades from 1940 to 1950.
- The first phase had a strong academic influence, with numerous portraits, busts, and female bodies, sometimes plump and opulent, sometimes elongated and lyrical. This phase is known as figurative.
- In the second phase, called vegetative, Bruno Giorgi maintained the use of stemmed figures and focused on the dynamism of his works.
- In the third, better-known phase, called tectonic, the sculptures took on a more abstract meaning and architectural character.

Critiques

"(...) the healthy, Mediterranean monumentality, inherited from Maillol, became one of the poles of Bruno Giorgi's sculptural progress. Indeed, even in the early 1940s, the Brazilian sculptor's language was very close to that of his French master, although the freedom with which he would always move amidst the prolific universe of forms was already evident. His interest in Brazilian themes, in the native type, is also evident, leading him to audacious combinations of the classical or the archaic with the modern. It was a period of groping and searching for his own path, which would reveal itself, over the years, to be a non-linear process of distancing himself from the natural human form and liberation from the old European tradition."
Ferreira Gullar
GULLAR, Ferreira. Bruno Giorgi or the Fascicle of Forms. In: BRUNO Giorgi. São Paulo: Art Ed. ; Rio de Janeiro: Record, 1980. p. 14.

"The German thinker Max Bense identified three phases in Giorgi's work. The figurative phase, in which he works with the idealized and hieratic human form. Another, vegetative, in which he maintains the figure, uses stems for its construction, and is concerned with the dynamism of the whole. And a tectonic phase, in which he reaches abstraction and gives the work an architectural character.
In truth, these phases are openings to new possibilities, which do not prevent the return to previous aspects. The way he approached the human figure at various times betrays Maillol's influence: the cylindrical volumes, the hieratic pose, and the archaic idealization, at times establishing a timeless adolescence. The smooth surface of Maillol's sculpture sometimes contrasts with the roughness of Giorgi's bronze. Maillol's classicizing idealization contrasts with the miscegenation of Giorgi's figures—Indian eyes and rounded contours— mulato.
His use of both slender and opulent forms in the 1950s led to a growing move toward abstraction, without abandoning the monumental character. The changes he began to impose on form and the appropriation of voids brought greater movement to his sculpture and brought his solutions closer to those achieved by Henry Moore. However, they did not prevent the simultaneous emergence of pieces characterized by greater conventionalism and static nature. The investigation of abstract forms that he added to his work in the 1960s did not prevent the emergence of female torsos in stone and bronze workers in the 1980s.
Maria Isabel Branco Ribeiro
RIBEIRO, Maria Isabel Branco. The Sculpture of Bruno Giorgi. Guia das Artes, São Paulo, v. 26, p. 62-66, Aug. / Sep. 1991.

"Max Bense divided Bruno Giorgi's sculpture into classical-figurative, baroque-vegetative, and archaic-tectonic, or more simply, static, dynamic, and tectonic. These phases correspond, respectively, to the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. In the first phase, still very much marked by academic learning, and in which busts and portraits abound, the female bodies sometimes become heavy and plump, a 'sculptural Renoirism,' as Mario Schenberg observed, sometimes elongated, almost lyrical. But the greatest work of the period remains his Monument to Youth. 'Note how youthful these figures are, how healthy, how happy, how joyful. And yet, they exude a sense of dignity, and they are grave and noble,' Mário de Andrade noted in a note he sent to Minister Gustavo Capanema, who had commissioned the work. In short, a figuration at once virile and sensual, but above all healthy and optimistic, like that of his colleagues at the National Library studio."
Frederico Morais
MORAIS, Frederico. The three-dimensional field: sculptures, reliefs, objects and installations. TRIDIMENSIONALITY: Brazilian art of the 20th century. 2nd ed. São Paulo: Itaú Cultural: Cosac & Naify, 1999. p. 228-229.

Solo Exhibitions

1950 - São Paulo, Brazil – Solo exhibition, MAM/SP
1960 - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Solo exhibition, Galeria Bonino
1961 - Santiago, Chile – Solo exhibition, Centro Hispano-Brasileiro de Cultura
1962 - Rome, Italy – Solo exhibition, Galleria d'Arte della Casa do Brasil
1962 - Stuttgart, Germany – Solo exhibition, Technical University of Stuttgart
1962 - Vienna, Austria – Solo exhibition, Casa da Áustria
1964 - Buenos Aires, Argentina – Solo exhibition, Galeria Lascaux
1965 - Milan, Italy – Solo exhibition, Galeria Il Giorno
1970 - São Paulo, Brazil – Solo exhibition, Galeria Cosme Velho
1971 - São Paulo, Brazil – Solo exhibition, Galeria Cosme Velho
1974 - São Paulo, Brazil – Bruno Giorgi: Esculturas, Galeria Arte Global
1978 - São Paulo, Brazil – Solo exhibition, Skultura Galeria de Arte
1979 - São Paulo, Brazil – Solo exhibition, Skultura Galeria de Arte
1980 - São Paulo, Brazil – Solo exhibition, Skultura Galeria de Arte
1985 - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Viva Bruno, Rio Design Center
1985 - São Paulo, Brazil – Bruno Giorgi: 80 anos, Skultura Galeria de Arte
1991 - Porto Alegre, Brazil – Bruno Giorgi: um mestre da escultura, Espaço Cultural BFB
1991 - São Paulo, Brazil – Bruno Giorgi: um mestre da escultura, Skultura Galeria de Arte

Group Exhibitions

1938 - Paris (France) - 15th Salon des Tuileries
1938 - Paris (France) - Salon d'Automne, at the Grand Palais
1939 - Paris (France) - 16th Salon des Tuileries
1940 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 3rd Salão da Família Artística Paulista, at Palace Hotel
1940 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 46th Salão Nacional de Belas Artes, at MNBA
1941 - São Paulo SP - 1st Salão de Arte da Feira Nacional de Indústrias, at Parque da Água Branca
1942 - São Paulo SP - 7th Salão do Sindicato dos Artistas Plásticos, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1944 - São Paulo SP - 9th Salão do Sindicato dos Artistas Plásticos, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1944 - São Paulo SP - Mario Zanini, Bruno Giorgi e Hilde Weber, at Livraria Brasiliense
1945 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Artistas Plásticos do Partido Comunista, at Casa do Estudante
1945 - São Paulo SP - Galeria Domus: inaugural exhibition, at Galeria Domus
1948 - Rome (Italy) - Exposizione d'Arte Sacra, at the Vatican
1950 - Venice (Italy) - 25th Venice Biennale
1951 - São Paulo SP - 1st Salão Paulista de Arte Moderna, at Galeria Prestes Maia - 1st Prize, Governo do Estado
1951 - São Paulo SP - 1st São Paulo International Biennial, at Pavilhão do Trianon - Sul-América Insurance and Capitalization Group Prize
1952 - Paris (France) - 38th Salon de Mai
1952 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Exposição de Artistas Brasileiros, at MAM/RJ
1952 - São Paulo SP - 2nd Salão Paulista de Arte Moderna, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1952 - Venice (Italy) - 26th Venice Biennale
1953 - São Paulo SP - 2nd São Paulo International Biennial, at Pavilhão dos Estados - Award for Best National Sculptor
1954 - Goiânia GO - Exposição do Congresso Nacional de Intelectuais
1954 - São Paulo SP - Arte Contemporânea: exhibition from the collection of Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, at MAM/SP
1955 - São Paulo SP - 4th Salão Paulista de Arte Moderna, at Galeria Prestes Maia - Acquisition Prize
1957 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Exposição de Arte Brasileira Contemporânea, at MAM/RJ
1957 - São Paulo SP - 4th São Paulo International Biennial, at Pavilhão Ciccilo Matarazzo Sobrinho - Leirner Prize
1959 - Leverkusen (Germany) - First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1959 - Munich (Germany) - First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe, at Kunsthaus
1959 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 30 Anos de Arte Brasileira, at Galeria Macunaíma
1959 - Vienna (Austria) - First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Hamburg (Germany) - First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Lisbon (Portugal) - First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Madrid (Spain) - First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Paris (France) - First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - São Paulo SP - Prêmio Leirner de Arte Contemporânea - 1st Prize in Sculpture
1960 - Utrecht (Netherlands) - First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1961 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st O Rosto e a Obra, at Galeria Ibeu Copacabana
1962 - São Paulo SP - Seleção de Obras de Arte Brasileira da Coleção Ernesto Wolf, at MAM/SP
1962 - Seattle (United States) - Brazilian Pavilion, at the Seattle World's Fair
1963 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Resumo de Arte do JB, at Jornal do Brasil
1966 - Milan (Italy) - International Exhibition of Outdoor Sculpture - awarded
1967 - São Paulo SP - 9th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1972 - Carrara (Italy) - Bienal Internacional do Mármore
1972 - São Paulo SP - 4th Panorama de Arte Atual Brasileira, at MAM/SP
1976 - São Paulo SP - Os Salões: da Família Artística Paulista, de Maio e do Sindicato dos Artistas Plásticos de São Paulo, at Museu Lasar Segall
1978 - Penápolis SP - 3rd Salão de Artes Plásticas da Noroeste, at Fundação Educacional de Penápolis, Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Penápolis
1978 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Escultura Brasileira no Espaço Urbano: 50 anos, at Praça Nossa Senhora da Paz
1979 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Escultores Brasileiros, at Galeria Aktuel
1979 - São Paulo SP - 15th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1980 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Homenagem a Mário Pedrosa, at Galeria Jean Boghici
1980 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Milton Dacosta, Volpi, Bruno Giorgi, at Acervo Galeria de Arte
1980 - São Paulo SP - Panorama da Escultura Brasileira no Século XX, at Centro Campestre do Sesc
1981 - Guarujá SP - Escultura ao Ar Livre, at Hotel Jequitimar
1981 - São Paulo SP - 13th Panorama de Arte Atual Brasileira, at MAM/SP
1982 - São Paulo SP - Do Modernismo à Bienal, at MAM/SP
1982 - São Paulo SP - Um Século de Escultura no Brasil, at MASP
1984 - Curitiba PR - Simões de Assis Galeria de Arte: inaugural exhibition, at Simões de Assis Galeria de Arte
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Madeira, Matéria de Arte, at MAM/RJ
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 8th Salão Nacional de Artes Plásticas, at MAM/RJ
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Encontros, at Petite Galerie
1986 - Brasília DF - Brasília: trilha aberta, at MAB
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - JK e os Anos 50: uma visão da cultura e do cotidiano, at Galeria Investiarte
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Sete Décadas da Presença Italiana na Arte Brasileira, at Paço Imperial
1987 - Paris (France) - Modernidade: Arte Brasileira do Século XX, at Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
1987 - São Paulo SP - As Bienais no Acervo do MAC: 1951 a 1985, at MAC/USP
1988 - São Paulo SP - Modernidade: Arte Brasileira do Século XX, at MAM/SP
1988 - São Paulo SP - MAC 25 anos: destaques da coleção inicial, at MAC/USP
1989 - São Paulo SP - Integração, at Fundação Memorial da América Latina
1992 - Poços de Caldas MG - Arte Moderna Brasileira: collection of Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo, at Casa de Cultura
1992 - São Paulo SP - A Sedução dos Volumes: os tridimensionais do MAC, at MAC/USP
1992 - São Paulo SP - O Olhar de Sérgio sobre a Arte Brasileira: desenhos e pinturas, at Biblioteca Municipal Mário de Andrade

Posthumous Exhibitions

1994 - São Paulo, SP - Bienal Brasil Século XX, at Fundação Bienal
1995 - São Paulo, SP - Expressões do Corpo na Escultura de Rodin, Leopoldo e Silva, De Fiori, Brecheret, Bruno Giorgi, at Espaço Cultural Safra
1996 - São Paulo, SP - 1st Off Bienal, at MuBE
1996 - São Paulo, SP - Figura e Paisagem no Acervo do MAM: homenagem a Volpi, at MAM/SP
1997 - São Paulo, SP - Escultura Brasileira: perfil de uma identidade, at Banco Safra
1997 - São Paulo, SP - Mário de Andrade e o Grupo Modernista, at Centro Cultural e de Estudos Aúthos Paganos
1997 - São Paulo, SP - Tridimensionalidade na Arte Brasileira do Século XX, at Itaú Cultural
1997 - Washington, United States - Escultura Brasileira: perfil de uma identidade, at Centro Cultural do BID
1998 - Belo Horizonte, MG - Tridimensionalidade na Arte Brasileira do Século XX, at Itaú Cultural
1998 - Brasília, DF - Tridimensionalidade na Arte Brasileira do Século XX, at Galeria Itaú Cultural
1998 - Penápolis, SP - Tridimensionalidade na Arte Brasileira do Século XX, at Galeria Itaú Cultural
1998 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Imagens Negociadas: retratos da elite brasileira, at CCBB
1998 - Santos, SP - Expressões do Corpo na Escultura de Rodin, Leopoldo e Silva, De Fiori, Brecheret, Bruno Giorgi, at Sesc
1999 - São Paulo, SP - A Figura Feminina no Acervo do MAB, at MAB/Faap
1999 - São Paulo, SP - Os Ítalos e os Brasileiros na Arte do Entre Guerras, at Pinacoteca do Estado
2000 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Quando o Brasil era Moderno: artes plásticas no Rio de Janeiro de 1905 a 1960, at Paço Imperial
2000 - São Paulo, SP - A Figura Feminina no Acervo do MAB, at MAB/Faap
2000 - São Paulo, SP - A Figura Humana na Coleção Itaú, at Itaú Cultural
2000 - São Paulo, SP - Escultura Brasileira: da Pinacoteca ao Jardim da Luz, at Pinacoteca do Estado
2000 - São Paulo, SP - São Paulo: de vila a metrópole, at Galeria Masp Prestes Maia
2000 - Valencia, Spain - De la Antropofagia a Brasília: Brasil 1920-1950, at IVAM. Centre Julio Gonzáles
2001 - Porto Alegre, RS - Coleção Liba e Rubem Knijnik: arte brasileira contemporânea, at Margs
2001 - São Paulo, SP - 4 Décadas, at Nova André Galeria
2001 - São Paulo, SP - Individual, at MuBE
2001 - São Paulo, SP - Coleção Aldo Franco, at Pinacoteca do Estado
2002 - Brasília, DF - JK - Uma Aventura Estética, at Conjunto Cultural da Caixa
2002 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Arte Brasileira na Coleção Fadel: da inquietação do moderno à autonomia da linguagem, at CCBB
2002 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Bruno Giorgi: desenhos de um escultor, at Solar Grandjean de Montigny
2002 - São Paulo, SP - Arte Brasileira na Coleção Fadel: da inquietação do moderno à autonomia da linguagem
2002 - São Paulo, SP - Arte e Futebol, at MAM/SP
2002 - São Paulo, SP - Da Antropofagia a Brasília: Brasil 1920-1950, at MAB/Faap
2002 - São Paulo, SP - Espelho Selvagem: arte moderna no Brasil da primeira metade do século XX, Coleção Nemirovsky, at MAM/SP
2002 - São Paulo, SP - Modernismo: da Semana de 22 à seção de arte de Sérgio Milliet, at CCSP
2003 - Brasília, DF - Arte Brasileira na Coleção Fadel: da inquietação do moderno à autonomia da linguagem, at CCBB
2003 - São Paulo, SP - Arte e Sociedade: uma relação polêmica, at Itaú Cultural
2003 - São Paulo, SP - Escultores - Esculturas, at Pinakotheke
2004 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - O Século de um Brasileiro: Coleção Roberto Marinho, at Paço Imperial
2004 - São Paulo, SP - Abstração como Linguagem: perfil de um acervo, at Pinakotheke
2004 - São Paulo, SP - Gabinete de Papel, at CCSP
2005 - São Paulo, SP - O Século de um Brasileiro: Coleção Roberto Marinho, at MAM/SP