Genaro de Carvalho
Bird And Sun Ii
tapestry1955
131 x 104 cm
signed lower left
Reprinted in Manchete Magazine (RJ), year 1956Edition 0241, on p. 32. He participated in the exhibition "Genaro - Dash, Brush and Trama", held at the Museum of Mercy in Salvador, from September 27 to November 24, 2019.
Bird
tapestry96 x 129 cm
signed bottom center
He participated in the exhibition "Genaro - Dash, Brush and Trama", held at the Museum of Mercy in Salvador, from September 27 to November 24, 2019.
Atelier Parque Campo Grande
tapestry93 x 130 cm
signed center
He participated in the exhibition "Genaro - Dash, Brush and Trama", held at the Museum of Mercy in Salvador, from September 27 to November 24, 2019.
Untitled
tapestry124 x 160 cm
Untitled
oil on wood114 x 714 cm
signed lower left
Work consisting of 14 parts of 57 x 102 (each). This piece was commissioned by the couple Rizziero Guerra for the family's residence. The correspondences between Luiz Contrucci and Genaro de Carvalho, dated from February and March 1960, document the process of production and negotiation of this mural. The texts reveal technical details of the work, such as dimensions, materials and structural division, as well as the financial and logistical procedures involved. In addition to its documentary value, the letters testify to the collaboration between artists and engineers in the context of Brazilian modern art. It is, therefore, an expressive example of the integration between art and architecture, a striking feature of modernist production in Brazil.
Genaro de Carvalho (Salvador, BA, 1926 - idem, 1971)
Genaro de Carvalho was a tapestry maker, painter, and draftsman. He began his painting studies with his father. In 1944, he moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he studied drawing with Henrique Cavalleiro at the Brazilian Society of Fine Arts. He is considered one of the leading activists for the renewal of art in Bahia, alongside Carlos Bastos, Caribé, and Mario Cravo Jr.
With a scholarship from the French government, Genaro traveled to Paris in 1949, where he studied with André Lhote and Fernand Léger at the École Nationale de Beaux-Arts. In 1950, he participated in the Autumn, May, and Independent Salons. That same year, he began his career in tapestry, creating his first work, titled "Tropical Plants."
In 1955, he established the first tapestry studio in Brazil, in the city of Salvador, Bahia. His most notable work was the 200-square-meter mural for the interior hall of the Hotel da Bahia, titled "Bahian Regional Celebrations." In 1967, the U.S. State Department's Cultural Division released the documentary "Genaro and Brazilian Tapestry," recognizing his importance to this art form in the country.
Criticism
"Unlike most painters of our time, Genaro de Carvalho confesses to appreciating decorative art and even considering it a goal of his art. A painter of great resources, with critical and commercial success, after several brilliant experiments in both figurative and abstract art, he finally settled on the difficult art of tapestry (...)"
Sérgio Milliet
CAVALCANTI, Carlos; AYALA, Walmir, ed. Brazilian Dictionary of Visual Artists. Introduction by Maria Alice Barroso. Brasília: MEC/INL, 1973-1980. (Specialized Dictionaries, 5).
"(...) As for the paintings—nudes of mulatto women, foliage, flowers—they don't hold up to comparison with the tapestries: they are mannered, sweet, superficial, and decorative, even though Genaro himself explained the decorativeness of his painting in an interview with Luís Ernesto Machado Kawall: "I have decorativeness in my painting as a conscious element, as an objective, a purpose. I don't hide this. Even in the figure, I give an ornamental meaning. And I can't understand why there is so much prejudice surrounding decorativeness in art. All Chinese and Persian painting is, par excellence, decorative in purpose."
José Roberto Teixeira Leite
LEITE, José Roberto Teixeira. Critical Dictionary of Painting in Brazil. Rio de Janeiro: Artlivre, 1988.
"Genaro Carvalho, working almost exclusively in the weaving art market in Brazil, combined his creativity with a practical sense of organization and a keen awareness of his pioneering mission, broadening his tropical vision to a formal aesthetic that competed with the best that was being done elsewhere in the world. This was especially true of Lurçat tapestries, which reached us with all their chromatic richness. I attended this exhibition of French art in the 1950s and can affirm that it was decisive in the formation of new artists in the difficult initiation of this art. At Galeria Estreia, in São Paulo (1960s), I attended one of Genaro's last solo exhibitions, where he added the human element to the exuberance of his color and the virtuosity of his technique: mulatto and Bahian women and the colonial houses of Bahia, in an interaction of theme and content of undeniable opportunity. (...) His work and his proposal in the field of arts The plastic arts were, however, definitive for the arts of Brazil, especially in the field of tapestry, where he revealed himself as a superior artist. Genaro Carvalho was a pioneer of Brazilian tapestry in Bahia. "
Dorian Gray Caldas
CALDAS, Dorian Gray. Art and History - Lurçat and Genaro. Tribuna do Norte. 08/03/98.
Solo Exhibitions
1945 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo exhibition, at Associação Brasileira de Imprensa
1946 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo exhibition, at MNBA
1948 - Salvador BA - Solo exhibition, at Galeria Anjo Azul
1953 - Salvador BA - Solo exhibition, at Galeria Oxumaré
1955 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo exhibition, at Petite Galerie
1957 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Tapestries Genaro, MAM/RJ
1957 - São Paulo SP - Solo exhibition, MAM/SP
1958 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo exhibition, at Museu de Arte da Pampulha
1959 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo exhibition, at MARGS
1960 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo exhibition, at Galeria Barcinski
1960 - São Paulo SP - Solo exhibition, at Galeria de Arte das Folhas
1960 - Zurich (Switzerland) - Solo exhibition, at Galerie Hans Wichers
1961 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Solo exhibition, at Galeria Rubbers
1961 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo exhibition, at Petite Galerie
1962 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo exhibition, at Petite Galerie
1964 - United States - Traveling solo exhibition, by invitation of the Smithsonian Institution
1965 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo exhibition, at Petite Galerie
1966 - Washington D.C. (United States) - Solo exhibition, at Brazilian-North American Cultural Institute
1966 - São Paulo SP - Solo exhibition, at Galeria Astréia
1967 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo exhibition, at Petite Galerie
1968 - Salvador BA - National Biennial of Visual Arts
1971 - London (England) - Solo exhibition, at Canning House
1971 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo exhibition, at Petite Galerie
1971 - Salvador BA - Solo exhibition, at MAM/BA
Group Exhibitions
1944 - Salvador BA - 1st Salon of American Art, at Associação Cultural Brasil-Estados Unidos
1950 - Paris (France) - Salon d’Automne, at Grand Palais
1950 - Paris (France) - Salon de Mai
1950 - Paris (France) - Salon des Artistes Étrangers, Boursies du Gouvernement Français
1950 - Paris (France) - Salon des Indépendants
1951 - São Paulo SP - 1st São Paulo International Biennial, at Pavilhão do Trianon
1955 - São Paulo SP - 3rd São Paulo International Biennial, at Pavilhão das Nações
1957 - São Paulo SP - Artists from Bahia, at MAM/SP
1964 - United States - Traveling exhibition, by the Smithsonian Institution
1964 - Philadelphia (United States) - Brazilian Exposition
1965 - Hamburg (Germany) - Bahian Artists, at Hans Wichers Gallerie
1965 - Lausanne (Switzerland) - 2nd International Tapestry Biennial, at Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts
1965 - Leningrad (Soviet Union) - Group exhibition, at Hermitage Museum
1965 - São Paulo SP - 14th Paulista Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia – Silver Medal
1966 - Salvador BA - 1st National Biennial of Visual Arts
1967 - Salvador BA - Christmas Group Exhibition, at Panorama Galeria de Arte
1967 - São Paulo SP - Bahian Artists, at A Galeria
1968 - Salvador BA - 2nd National Biennial of Visual Arts, at MAM/BA
1969 - São Paulo SP - 1st Panorama of Contemporary Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP