Hermelindo Fiaminghi

Hermelindo Fiaminghi (São Paulo, SP, 1920 - idem, 2004)

Hermelindo Fiaminghi was a painter, draftsman, graphic artist, lithographer, advertiser, teacher, and critic. Between 1936 and 1941, he attended the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios de São Paulo, where he studied with Lothar Charoux (1912–1987) and Waldemar da Costa (1904–1982). He dedicated himself to lithography, working in São Paulo's main printing companies. In 1946, he founded his first company, Graphstudio, operating in the graphic production sector. In the early 1950s, he began developing abstract works, revealing the influence of Constructivist art. He also collaborated with concrete poets on the graphic design of his poems.

Between 1959 and 1966, he attended the studio of Alfredo Volpi (1896–1988). He was part of the Ruptura Group, led by Waldemar Cordeiro (1925–1973), and participated in the creation of the Brás collective studio, where he developed the Virtuais series, also working with enamel on polyethylene terephthalate. In the early 1960s, he began working with tempera and began experimenting with color. In this context, he adopted the term Corluz to describe his works, developing research with offset screens.

He co-founded the Visual Arts Association and the Novas Tendências Gallery, both established in São Paulo in 1963. In 1969, he founded the Free Studio of Visual Arts in São José dos Campos, São Paulo, where he served as director and professor.

Critical Commentary

Hermelindo Fiaminghi attended the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios de São Paulo between 1936 and 1941, where he studied painting with Waldemar da Costa (1904-1982). He also studied graphic arts, a field he would pursue throughout his career. He dedicated himself to lithography, working in São Paulo's main printing companies. From 1946 onward, he worked in advertising. Fiaminghi joined the Concrete Movement in 1955. He contributed to the graphic production of the poster-poems of São Paulo's Concrete writers, such as Haroldo de Campos (1929-2003) and Décio Pignatari (1927). In 1959, Fiaminghi broke with Waldemar Cordeiro (1925-1973) and the São Paulo group of concrete artists.

Early in his career, he dedicated himself to geometric abstraction. His works are notable for the visual rhythm of the compositions, as in Long Play (1955), in which he works with the suggestion of displacement of geometric figures. He frequently uses a reduced range of colors. Beginning in 1958, he produced the Virtuais series, in enamel on particleboard. He uses few figures, defined by planes of color, which present a certain ambiguity, as they are constituted on the flat surface of the painting and, at the same time, inserted into the cubic space, constructed by orthogonal planes, as occurs in Virtual XIV (1958).

Between 1959 and 1966, he frequented the studio of Alfredo Volpi (1896-1988), with whom he learned tempera painting. He exchanged wood for linen canvas. In his paintings, he began to increasingly utilize the transparency of colors. With the series of works entitled Color-Light, he began research into the fusion and diffusion of color through the incidence of light. He painted canvases inspired by the gridded surfaces that make up the graphic grid. He also experiments with slides, which are later printed using offset printing, seeking optical precision.

Later, his brushwork tends to become more gestural, subverting the grid pattern that structures his canvases. In the 1980s, he created a series of "de-portraits," such as that of Haroldo de Campos, from 1985, and "de-landscapes," with free brushstrokes that reveal color as a floating surface. At this time, enchanted by the paintings of Claude Monet (1840-1926), Fiaminghi reviews his works and states: "Everything I've been thinking about is there," and, almost like an early Impressionist painter, he says: "I pursue light, but light is fleeting."

Fiaminghi reveals great freedom in his use of color in his work. Throughout his career, he combined the dual activities of visual artist and graphic arts professional, and is considered by some critics to be a pioneer in the use of offset as a language of artistic creation.

Reviews

"In his extensive series of Virtuals, Fiaminghi develops artistic exercises of rare inventiveness, composing with Luís Sacilotto works with intriguing spatial solutions through an immense economy of means. This series, with its 'color-light' experiments, which he would later develop in offset, would be his great contribution to the Concrete movement. With reduced elements—two triangles and two parallelograms—he works the surface of the painting (always in enamel-painted eucatex), arranging them in a multiple interplay that proposes new spaces or geometries, enclosing the apparent spaces. Here, one senses the artist manipulating the figure-ground ambiguity, although not starting from excessively rigorous dogmas, since, despite constituting a series, the Virtuals had varied dimensions. According to Fiaminghi, it was the composition of the elements that determined the space the image would occupy; that is, invention determined the physical limits of the painting".
Aracy Amaral
FIAMINGHI, Hermelindo. Fiaminghi: decades 50-60-70. São Paulo: MAM, 1980.

"(...) Rational and objective art that aims to be achieved through means that are not only purely artisanal, but almost entirely pragmatic, is to take the reliance on what I have already had occasion to call 'sensitive control' too far... Electronic control not only excludes, but demands sensitive control. An artist like Fiaminghi, who has a deep background in graphic arts and is perfectly up-to-date with their most modern techniques, knows this. His latest works on canvas form a series of approaches to the problem of color-light, which necessarily point to a more rigorous control of its manipulation. The graphic arts have various resources for this type of control - and its path is a natural one for Hermelindo Fiaminghi, considering the development of his art. This art-direction of Fiaminghi's must be followed with all attention, because it will allow us to reconsider problems that have been wrongly forgotten or not even formulated, such as those proposed by industrial design. the graphic arts, photography, cinema and television, providing truly new solutions."
Décio Pignatari
FIAMINGHI, Hermelindo. Fiaminghi: decades 50-60-70. São Paulo: MAM, 1980.

"Hermelindo Fiaminghi's first rational paintings date from 1953. But it was only in 1955 that he became acquainted with the concrete artists and poets, especially Décio Pignatari. The dynamic articulation of geometric elements and the use of reduced color scales between black and white in his early days (cf. Elevação Vertical com Movimento Horizontal, 1955) would gain momentum in 1956-57 (cf. Círculos Concêtricos e Alternados, from the latter year). From 1958 dates the well-crafted Virtuais series, whose conception is Gestaltian. He later created paintings he calls Corluz. This investigation, into the limits of the immateriality of light, would also be done in litho-offset, responding to the need for greater optical precision in the work. Fiaminghi combines the dual role of visual artist and graphic arts professional. Despite his skilled use of technological resources in art, he would remain faithful to painting. and traditional techniques (such as tempera), demonstrating in its concretism a freedom of evolution attached preferably to the expression of color".
Walter Zanini
ZANINI, Walter (org.). General history of art in Brazil. São Paulo: Instituto Walther Moreira Salles, Fundação Djalma Guimarães, 1983.

"My testimony is that of a painter participating in the concrete movement. I have no critical or theoretical training; I believe there are professionals with more appropriate language, taking into account the literary technique of artistic discourse.

I arrived at concretism, incredibly enough, without any theoretical training, no information about its postulates, or even its existence.

My knowledge of art history, at the time, extended as far as Cubism; everything else was abstract. My idols were Cézanne and Van Gogh.

It was at the third biennial that critics denounced me as a concrete artist; I was caught red-handed.

My curiosity led me to the jaguar's den to find out what this animal was, and I stumbled upon the São Paulo concrete artists.

Then, intuitive sensitivity is over, I assumed the responsibility of responsible art and all its local implications.

Thanks..."
Hermelindo Fiaminghi
BOUSSO, Vitória Daniela. Fiaminghi or Sensory Concretion. 1992. 200 p. Dissertation (Master's) - School of Communications and Arts, University of São Paulo - ECA/USP, São Paulo, 1992. p. 164.

"The construction of color is complex. Fiaminghi does not work with pure basic colors; his matrices are, in general, the result of quite complicated mixtures. He is guided by the perception that color produces in our vision and in its overlap with other colors. He is forced to mix a lot. By following his work, it was possible to identify some of his chromatic mixtures. However, not all of them are identifiable, as they lack a clear composition procedure (...). Color also has a temporal aspect; it performs a movement of depth as it dries; some colors jump off the canvas, light up when dry, this can take a day, this can take ten days."
Isabella Cabral and Marco Antonio Amaral Rezende
CABRAL, Isabella; REZENDE, Marco Antonio Amaral. Hermelindo Fiaminghi. São Paulo: Rio, 1998. (Brazilian Artists, 11). p. 24-25.

Solo Exhibitions

1961 - Campinas, SP - First solo exhibition, at the Aremar Gallery
1964 - São Paulo, SP - Solo exhibition, at the Visual Arts Association, New Trends Gallery
1975 - São José dos Campos, SP - Solo exhibition, at the Galeria do Sol
1977 - São Paulo, SP - Solo exhibition, at the A Ponte Art Gallery
1980 - São Paulo, SP - Fiaminghi: 50s, 60s, and 70s, at MAM/SP
1986 - São Paulo, SP - Solo exhibition, at the São Paulo Art Gallery
1988 - São José dos Campos, SP - Solo exhibition, at the Galeria do Sol
1988 - São Paulo, SP - Hermelindo Fiaminghi: painting, at the Montesanti Roesler Gallery
1990 - São Paulo, SP - Fiaminghi CorLuz, at the Montesanti Gallery Roesler
1995 - São Paulo SP - Solo show, at the São Paulo Art Office
1998 - São Paulo SP - CorLuz, at the Nara Roesler Gallery
2001 - São Paulo SP - Anthological Exhibition of Hermelindo Fiaminghi, at MAM/SP
2003 - Niterói RJ - Hermelindo Fiaminghi in the Sattamini Collection, at MAC/Niterói

Group Exhibitions

1955 – São Paulo, Brazil – 3rd São Paulo International Biennial, Pavilhão das Nações
1955 – São Paulo, Brazil – 4th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, Galeria Prestes Maia – Silver Medal
1956 – São Paulo, Brazil – 1st National Exhibition of Concrete Art, MAM/SP
1957 – Buenos Aires, Argentina – Arte Moderna do Brasil, Museo de Arte Moderno
1957 – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 1st National Exhibition of Concrete Art, MAM/RJ
1957 – São Paulo, Brazil – 4th São Paulo International Biennial, Pavilhão Ciccillo Matarazzo Sobrinho
1958 – São Paulo, Brazil – 6 Artistas Concretos (1958: São Paulo, SP), Galeria de Arte das Folhas (São Paulo, SP)
1959 – Leverkusen, Germany – First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1959 – Munich, Germany – First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe, Kunsthaus
1959 – Lisbon, Portugal – Brazilian Contemporary Art, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian
1959 – São Paulo, Brazil – 5th São Paulo International Biennial, Pavilhão Ciccillo Matarazzo Sobrinho
1959 – São Paulo, Brazil – Prêmio Leirner de Arte Contemporânea, Galeria de Arte das Folhas
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, Brazil – 9th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, Galeria Prestes Maia
1960 – Utrecht, Netherlands – First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 – Zurich, Switzerland – Konkrete Kunst, Helmhaus
1961 – São Paulo, Brazil – 6th São Paulo International Biennial, Pavilhão Ciccillo Matarazzo Sobrinho
1963 – São Paulo, Brazil – Galeria Novas Tendências: Inaugural Group Show, Associação de Artes Visuais Novas Tendências
1966 – Asunción, Paraguay – Arte Hoy en el Brasil, Galeria da Missão Cultural Brasileira
1966 – Campinas, Brazil – Seis Pesquisadores da Arte Visual, MACC
1966 – São Paulo, Brazil – 15th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, Galeria Prestes Maia – Gold Medal
1966 – São Paulo, Brazil – Seis Pesquisadores da Arte Visual, MAC/USP
1966 – Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, and Belo Horizonte, Brazil – Pesquisadores de Artes Visuais, organized by MAC/USP
1967 – São Caetano do Sul, Brazil – 1st Contemporary Art Salon of São Caetano do Sul – Acquisition Award
1968 – São José dos Campos, Brazil – Seis Pesquisadores da Arte Visual
1969 – Santo André, Brazil – 2nd Contemporary Art Salon of Santo André, Paço Municipal – Cidade de Santo André Award
1970 – São Paulo, Brazil – 2nd Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, MAM/SP
1971 – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 1st Eletrobrás Art Salon, MAM/RJ – Acquisition Award
1971 – São Paulo, Brazil – 3rd São Paulo Salon of Contemporary Art, Galeria Prestes Maia
1972 – São Paulo, Brazil – 4th São Paulo Salon of Contemporary Art, Masp
1972 – São Paulo, Brazil – Waldemar da Costa Retrospective: Homage to the Master, MAM/SP
1973 – São Paulo, Brazil – 12th São Paulo International Biennial, Fundação Bienal
1973 – São Paulo, Brazil – 5th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, MAM/SP
1973 – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Luz e Movimento Art Salon of Eletrobrás, MAM/RJ – Acquisition Award
1974 – São Paulo, Brazil – Prospectiva '74, MAC/USP
1975 – São Paulo, Brazil – 13th São Paulo International Biennial, Fundação Bienal
1975 – São Paulo, Brazil – 6th São Paulo Salon of Contemporary Art, Fundação Bienal
1976 – Bloomington, United States – Graphic Art 76, Matrix Gallery
1976 – São Paulo, Brazil – 8th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, MAM/SP
1977 – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Projeto Construtivo Brasileiro na Arte: 1950–1962, MAM/RJ
1977 – São Paulo, Brazil – Projeto Construtivo Brasileiro na Arte: 1950–1962, Pinacoteca do Estado
1978 – São Paulo, Brazil – The Biennials and Abstraction: The 1950s, Museu Lasar Segall
1979 – São Paulo, Brazil – 11th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, MAM/SP
1980 – São Paulo, Brazil – Arte Brasil–Itália, Masp
1984 – Campinas, Brazil – Geraldo de Barros and Hermelindo Fiaminghi, Galeria de Arte da Unicamp
1984 – São Paulo, Brazil – Tradition and Rupture: A Synthesis of Brazilian Art and Culture, Fundação Bienal
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Christian Dior Contemporary Art Exhibition: painting, at Paço Imperial
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Seven Decades of Italian Presence in Brazilian Art, at Paço Imperial
1986 - São Paulo SP - 17th Panorama of Contemporary Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1986 - São Paulo SP - Exhibition of the Collection of the São Paulo Museum of Art, at Masp
1986 - São Paulo SP - Volpi Permanence and Matrix: 7 Artists from São Paulo, at Galeria Montesanti Roesler
1987 - Brasília DF - Paulistas in Brasília, at MAB/DF
1987 - Canada - 13th Art Exhibition Embraer
1987 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Geometric Abstraction: Concretism and Neoconcretism, at Funarte. Centro de Artes
1987 - São Paulo SP - 1st Geometric Abstraction: Concretism and Neoconcretism, at MAB/Faap
1987 - São Paulo SP - The Fabric of Taste: Another Look at the Everyday, at Fundação Bienal
1988 - São Paulo SP - Italian Artists and Descendants in Brazil, at Banco Sudameris
1990 - Atami (Japan) - 9th Brazil-Japan Contemporary Art Exhibition
1990 - Brasília DF - 9th Brazil-Japan Contemporary Art Exhibition
1990 - Brasília DF - Brasília Prize for Visual Arts, at MAB/DF
1990 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 9th Brazil-Japan Contemporary Art Exhibition
1990 - São Paulo SP - 9th Brazil-Japan Contemporary Art Exhibition, at Fundação Brasil-Japão
1990 - Sapporo (Japan) - 9th Brazil-Japan Contemporary Art Exhibition
1990 - Tokyo (Japan) - 9th Brazil-Japan Contemporary Art Exhibition
1991 - São Paulo SP - Citizenship: 200 Years of the Declaration of Human Rights, at Sesc Pompéia
1991 - São Paulo SP - Constructivism: Poster Art 40/50/60, at MAC/USP
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st On the Way to Niterói: João Sattamini Collection, at Paço Imperial
1992 - São Paulo SP - Polarities/Perspectives, at Paço das Artes
1992 - São Paulo SP - The Genesis of Painting, at Masp
1993 - São José dos Campos SP - Ateliê Livre: 23 Years Later
1993 - São Paulo SP - 23rd Panorama of Contemporary Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP - awarded
1993 - São Paulo SP - Ateliê Livre: 23 Years Later, at MAM/SP
1993 - São Paulo SP - Polarities and Perspective, at MIS/SP
1994 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Brasil Século XX, at Fundação Bienal
1995 - São Paulo SP - Projeto Contato, at Galeria Sesc Paulista
1996 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Constructive Tendencies in the MAC/USP Collection: Construction, Measure and Proportion, at CCBB
1996 - São Paulo SP - 1st Off Bienal, at MuBE
1996 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Art: 50 Years of History in the MAC/USP Collection: 1920-1970, at MAC/USP
1996 - São Paulo SP - Desexp(l)os(ign)ition, at Casa das Rosas
1996 - São Paulo SP - The World of Mario Schenberg, at Casa das Rosas
1997 - Niterói RJ - Visions and (Sub) Versions, at MAC/Niterói
1998 - São Paulo SP - Constructive Art in Brazil: Adolpho Leirner Collection, at MAM/SP
1998 - São Paulo SP - Impressions: The Art of Brazilian Printmaking, at Espaço Cultural Banespa-Paulista
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Constructive Art in Brazil: Adolpho Leirner Collection, at MAM/RJ
1999 - São Paulo SP - Everyday Life/Art. Consumption, at Itaú Cultural
1999 - São Paulo SP - The 1950s and Its Engagements, at Jo Slaviero Art Gallery
2000 - Lisbon (Portugal) - 20th Century: Brazilian Art, at José de Azeredo Perdigão Modern Art Center
2000 - São Paulo SP - Brazil + 500: Exhibition of Rediscovery: Modern Art, at Bienal Foundation
2001 - São Paulo SP - Trajectory of Light in Brazilian Art, at Itaú Cultural
2002 - Niterói RJ - Sattamini Collection: Modern and Contemporary Works, at MAC/Niterói
2002 - Niterói RJ - Dialogue, Antagonism, and Replication in the Sattamini Collection, at MAC/Niterói
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Art in the Fadel Collection: From the Restlessness of Modernity to the Autonomy of Language, at CCBB
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Paths of the Contemporary 1952-2002, at Paço Imperial
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Parallels: Brazilian Art of the Second Half of the 20th Century in Context, Cisneros Collection, at MAM/RJ
2002 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Art in the Fadel Collection: From the Restlessness of Modernity to the Autonomy of Language, at CCBB
2002 - São Paulo SP - Map of the Now: Recent Brazilian Art in the João Sattamini Collection of the Niterói Museum of Contemporary Art, at Tomie Ohtake Institute
2002 - São Paulo SP - Parallels: Brazilian Art of the Second Half of the 20th Century in Context, Cisneros Collection, at MAM/SP
2002 - São Paulo SP - Gate 2, at Nara Roesler Gallery
2003 - Belo Horizonte MG - Geometrics, at Léo-Bahia Contemporary Art
2003 - Brasília DF - Brazilian Art in the Fadel Collection: From the Restlessness of Modernity to the Autonomy of Language, at CCBB
2003 - Mexico City (Mexico) - Cuasi Corpus: Concrete and Neo-Concrete Art from Brazil: A Selection from the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art and Adolpho Leirner Collection, at Rufino Tamayo Museum
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Order x Freedom, at MAM/RJ
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilianart Project, at Almacén Art Gallery

Posthumous Exhibitions

2004 - São Paulo SP - Fifty 50, at Museum of Modern Art
2005 - São Paulo SP - Homo Ludens: From Make-Believe to Vertigo, at Itaú Cultural
2005 - Belo Horizonte MG - 40/80: An Exhibition of Brazilian Art, at Léo Bahia Contemporary Art
2006 - São Paulo SP - At the Same Time, Our Time, at Museum of Modern Art
2006 - São Paulo SP - Concreta '56: The Root of Form, at Museum of Modern Art
2006 - São Paulo SP - Concreta '56: The Root of Form, at Museum of Modern Art
2006 - São Paulo SP - Brushstroke – Painting and Method: Projections of the 1950s, at Tomie Ohtake Institute
2007 - Americana SP - ...Limits..., at Hermann Müller Cultural Center
2008 - São Paulo SP - MAM 60, at Oca
2008 - São Paulo SP - Panorama of Panoramas, at Museum of Modern Art
2008 - São Paulo SP - Rupture, Front and Resonances, at Berenice Arvani Gallery
2008 - Niterói RJ - Poets of Color, at Museum of Contemporary Art
2009 - São Paulo SP - 1950s – 50 Works, at Berenice Arvani Gallery
2009 - Madrid (Spain) - ARCO (28th edition: 2009, Madrid, Spain)
2009 - Niterói RJ - Brazilian Contemporary Art in the João Sattamini and Niterói MAC Collections, at Museum of Contemporary Art
2009 - São Paulo SP - Fiaminghi, at Dan Gallery
2010 - São Paulo SP - 41st Chapel Art Show, at Maria Imaculada School – Chapel School
2010 - São Paulo SP - Black on White: From Concrete to Contemporary, at Berenice Arvani Gallery
2010 - São Paulo SP - 6th SP-Arte, at Bienal Foundation
2011 - São Paulo SP - 7th SP-Arte, at Bienal Pavilion
2011 - Porto Alegre RS - Iberê Camargo and the Cultural Environment of the Post-War Era, at Iberê Camargo Foundation

Fonte: Itaú Cultural