John Graz

John Graz (Geneva, Switzerland 1891 - São Paulo SP 1980)

John Graz was a Swiss painter, decorator, sculptor, and graphic artist who played a fundamental role in the development of modern art in Brazil. He began his studies in 1908 at the Geneva School of Fine Arts, where his teachers were Eugène Gilliard, Gabriel Vernet, and Daniel Baud-Bovy. He was also a disciple of Edouard Ravel, from whom he acquired a wide range of techniques and styles. Between 1911 and 1913, he studied decoration, design, and advertising at the Munich School of Fine Arts, under the guidance of Carl Moos. He returned to Geneva from 1913 to 1915, during which time he lived with his siblings Regina and Antonio Gomide, who would later become important figures in his career.

During a stay in Paris, he came into contact with European avant-garde movements, such as Cubism, Fauvism, and Futurism, and became familiar with the work of Paul Cézanne. He was twice awarded the Lissignol Scholarship, which allowed him to study in Spain. Back in Switzerland, he worked as an illustrator on various projects. In 1920, he moved to Brazil and married Regina Gomide in São Paulo. Through Oswald de Andrade, he quickly integrated into the São Paulo intellectual community.

He actively participated in the Modern Art Week of 1922, where he exhibited seven works, and had one of his works published in the magazine Klaxon, in the seventh issue of the same year. In 1923, he collaborated with architect Gregori Warchavchik on projects that integrated art and architecture. He worked as a decorator in São Paulo residences, developing everything from furniture and lighting to stained glass, frescoes, and gardens, always with a modern and functional approach.

John Graz was one of the founders of the Sociedade Pró-Arte Moderna (SPAM) in 1932 and, in the 1930s, produced numerous covers for the magazine Ilustração Artística do Brasil. He formed Group 7 with Regina Graz, Antonio Gomide, Elisabeth Nobiling, Rino Levi, Victor Brecheret, and Yolanda Mohalyi.

Critical Commentary

Between 1908 and 1911, John Graz attended architecture, decoration, and drawing courses at the École des Beaux-Arts in Geneva, where he studied with Eugène Gilliard (1861-1921) and Daniel Baud-Bovy (1870-1958). He then enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts in Munich and studied with graphic artist Carl Moos (1873-1959). On a trip to Paris, he met the sculptor Victor Brecheret (1894-1955). In 1913, he returned to Geneva, where he completed his studies at the École des Beaux-Arts. He twice received the Lissignol scholarship, which allowed him to travel to Spain. In that country, he painted large landscapes, which reveal his interest in the works of Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) and, especially, Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918).

In Geneva, he designed stained glass windows and illustrated advertising posters. He befriended the writer Sérgio Milliet (1898-1966) and met Regina Gomide (1897-1973) and her brother, Antonio Gomide (1895-1967), classmates at the School of Fine Arts. Engaged to Regina, he came to Brazil in 1920 and married. He joined the São Paulo modernist group, which included Anita Malfatti (1889-1964), Di Cavalcanti (1897-1976), Brecheret, and Mário de Andrade (1893-1945), among others. In 1922, he participated in the Modern Art Week with seven paintings. He illustrated Klaxon magazine, the first modernist periodical.

From 1923 onward, he executed residential decoration projects: he created numerous stained-glass windows and designed furniture and pieces such as doors, locks, light fixtures, rugs, and frescoes. He is considered, along with Regina and Antonio Gomide, one of the introducers of the Art Deco style in São Paulo. He worked with Gregori Warchavchik (1896-1972), a recent arrival in the country, decorating the houses designed by the Russian architect. In 1925, Graz presented tubular furniture in São Paulo, made of metal pipes and wood laminates, with geometric shapes. Possessing extensive technical and manufacturing knowledge, he personally oversaw the production of the pieces at the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios, where he collaborated with Federico Oppido (1877-1950). He was an innovator in interior design. When designing furniture, he considers its distribution in space and its relationship with panels, stained glass, and frescoes. The integration of elements is a hallmark of Graz's homes: the same approach extends from the painted panels to the furniture, objects, and lighting. The Cunha Bueno residence (Jardim América) is an example of his pioneering work: for the decoration, the artist even creates the geometric design for the garden flooring. Unfortunately, the infancy of Brazilian industry prevents the transformation of John Graz's prototypes into mass-produced fixtures.

Critiques

"Experiments in abstractionism, with some geometric constructions, or purely informal, with the search for rich, dense, worked material. Very soon, however, John Graz would become convinced that this genre of painting did not suit his personal nature, did not correspond to his most intimate and profound desires. It is the painter himself who tells us that he loves what is alive, what breathes and moves. His path, therefore, is that of figuration, or rather, narrative figuration. Here is where his palette expands and often shines. As in the excellent series of snapshots of the São Joaquim fair in Recife, with its bizarre merchants, the bird seller, the graceful girl from the basket stall, placed in the center of the canvas, in an elegant posture, somewhere between coquettish and arrogant; or even the girls' square, with the Colonial Church as a backdrop; as well as the festive square, with its deep colors and lively, breathing joy, with their gas balloons, so well integrated into the urban crowd. And many others, with a local accent, happily translating the ambiance, the tropical atmosphere."
Paulo Mendes de Almeida
JOHN Graz. São Paulo: Galeria Documenta, 1974.

"I must confess to being surprised by John Graz's last paintings. The artist devoted himself to a total diversification of themes, with a complete freedom of choice, which, it seems to me, he had never achieved before. We are indeed faced with a multiple repertoire that is what first makes an impact, as the artist gives his themes complete primacy, both in capturing space and visualizing it within the canvas, and in the extremely free placement, within these rectangles, of figures and objects. Not that painting means little, at this point in time, to Graz. He truly has his own palette, and this is his hallmark, through the expressed tonality, entirely made of low tones. Thus, when he depicts nature, landscape, fauna, lands, and objects, he conditions them in a light that makes no concessions to tropicalisms. On the contrary, with a vigilant restraint, natural to him, the painter limits himself to paying homage to the changing spectacle of the land, fauna, and flora, without yielding an inch. to color. Its green is its own, like its earth tones, its reds, its blues. (...)"
Geraldo Ferraz
JOHN Graz: selected works. Presentation by Geraldo Ferraz. São Paulo: R & R Camargo Arte, 1976.

"All of the paintings presented by John Graz in the Municipal exhibition had been created in Europe, in Geneva, two of which (Landscape in Spain) were created during his scholarship. A certain modern-day transfiguration shines through in his canvases *Portrait of Minister Gomide* and, more incisively, *Swiss Landscape*, where the compositional scheme based on parallel horizontal lines is quite evident. A strong structuring is present in the two Spanish landscapes, especially the one focusing on the Honda Bridge, where the tectonic concern combines with a sensitive chromatic shift, which gains in drama. Undoubtedly, alongside Anita Malfatti, qualitatively John Graz placed himself, in this exhibition, along with Vicente do Rego Monteiro, as one of the most interesting painters of the Modern Art Week."
Aracy Amaral
GALLAS, Alfredo G. (coord.). 100 works by Itaú. Foreword and introduction by Pietro Maria Bardi. São Paulo: Itaugaleria, 1985. 210 p. ill. color.

Solo Exhibitions

1920 - Lausanne (Switzerland) - Solo exhibition, at the Society of Architects, Painters, and Sculptors of Lausanne
1969 - São Paulo, SP - Solo exhibition, at the Opus Gallery
1970 - São Paulo, SP - Solo exhibition, at the Opus Gallery
1970 - São Paulo, SP - John Graz. Retrospective, at MAB/Faap
1971 - Santos SP - Solo show, at CCBEU
1974 - São Paulo SP - Solo show, at Documenta Art Gallery
1974 - São Paulo SP - John Graz: retrospective, at MASP
1975 - Santos SP - Solo show, at CCBEU
1976 - São Paulo SP - Solo show, at Azulão Gallery
1976 - São Paulo SP - John Graz: selected works, at Camargo Arte
1978 - São Paulo SP - Solo show, at Portal Art Gallery
1979 - Londrina PR - Solo show, at Via Duomo Gallery
1980 - São Paulo SP - Solo show, at Paulo Figueiredo Art Gallery

Collective Exhibitions

1920 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - 27th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1920 - São Paulo, SP - Regina Gomide Graz and John Graz, at the Central Cinema Hall
1922 - São Paulo, SP - Modern Art Week, at the Municipal Theater
1931 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Exhibition at the First Modernist House of Rio de Janeiro, on Toneleros Street
1931 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Revolutionary Hall, at Enba
1933 - São Paulo, SP - 1st SPAM Modern Art Exhibition
1942 - São Paulo, SP - 7th Hall of the Visual Artists Union, at the Prestes Maia Gallery
1947 - São Paulo, SP - John Graz and Antonio Gomide, on Barão de Itapetininga
1971 - São Paulo SP - 11th São Paulo International Biennial, at the Bienal Foundation
1972 - São Paulo SP - The Week of 22: antecedents and consequences, at Masp
1972 - São Paulo SP - Art/Brazil/Today: 50 years later, at the Collectio Gallery
1974 - São Paulo SP - Time of the Modernists, at Masp
1975 - São Paulo SP - Modernism from 1917 to 1930, at the Lasar Segall Museum
1975 - São Paulo SP - The Third Cycle of Brazilian Painting, at the Lasar Segall Museum
1975 - São Paulo SP - SPAM and CAM, at the Lasar Segall Museum
1976 - São Paulo SP - The Graz-Gomide Family: Art Deco in Brazil, at the Lasar Museum Segall
1976 - São Paulo SP - National Biennial 76, at the Biennial Foundation
1976 - São Paulo SP - The Salons: of the Paulista Artistic Family, of Maio and of the Union of Visual Artists of São Paulo, at the Lasar Segall Museum
1977 - São Paulo SP - Brazil Art 1922/77, at the Portal Art Gallery

Posthumous Exhibitions

1980 - São Paulo SP - John Graz: Reminiscences of Modernism, at Paço das Artes
1981 - Maceió AL - Brazilian Artists of the First Half of the 20th Century, at the Historical and Geographical Institute
1981 - São Paulo SP - John Graz, Victor Brecheret, and Guilherme de Almeida, at the Metro
1982 - São Paulo SP - 60 Years of Modern Art Week, at the Sesc Country Center
1982 - São Paulo SP - From Modernism to the Biennial, at MAM/SP
1982 - São Paulo SP - John Graz, at the Institute for Energy and Nuclear Research
1984 - São Paulo SP - Tradition and Rupture: a Synthesis of Brazilian Art and Culture, at the Foundation Biennial
1985 - São Paulo SP - 100 Itaú Works, at Masp
1990 - São Paulo SP - Early Modernist Furniture, at the Pro Modernist Park Association
1991 - São Paulo SP - John Graz and Design, at the Pro Modernist Park Association
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Nature: Four Centuries of Art in Brazil, at the CCBB
1992 - São Paulo SP - Oils and Papers: 1920 to 1970, at the José Duarte Aguiar and Ricardo Camargo Art Space
1993 - São Paulo SP - Modern Drawing in Brazil: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, at the Sesi Art Gallery
1993 - São Paulo SP - Modernism at the Museum of Brazilian Art: Painting, at MAB/Faap
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Drawing Modern in Brazil: Gilberto Chateubriand Collection, at MAM/RJ
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Trenches: Art and Politics in Brazil, at MAM/RJ
1994 - São Paulo SP - 20th Century Brazil Biennial, at the Bienal Foundation
1996 - São Paulo SP - John Graz Retrospective, at Masp
1998 - São Paulo SP - Constructive Art in Brazil: Adolpho Leirner Collection, at MAM/SP
1998 - São Paulo SP - Impressions: The Art of Brazilian Engraving, at the Banespa-Paulista Cultural Space
1998 - São Paulo SP - The Collectors - Guita and José Mindlin: matrices and engravings, Sesi Art Gallery
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Constructive Art in Brazil: Adolpho Leirner Collection, at MAM/RJ
1999 - São Paulo SP - The 1950s and Their Involvements, at the Jo Slaviero Art Gallery
2000 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Brazil-brasis: remarkable and astonishing things. Modernist Perspectives, at the Chiado Museum
2000 - São Paulo SP - The Human Figure in the Itaú Collection, at Itaú Cultural
2000 - São Paulo SP - The Café, at Banco Real
2000 - São Paulo SP - A Certain Point of View: Pietro Maria Bardi 100 Years, at the State Art Gallery
2000 - Valencia (Spain) - Brazil 1920-1950. From Anthropophagy to Brasilia, at IVAM. Julio Gonzáles Center 2001 - São Paulo, SP - Museum of Brazilian Art: 40 years, at MAB/Faap 2002 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Brazilian Art in the Fadel Collection: from the restlessness of the modern to the autonomy of language, at CCBB 2002 - São Paulo, SP - Brazilian Art in the Fadel Collection: from the restlessness of the modern to the autonomy of language, at CCBB 2002 - São Paulo, SP - From Anthropophagy to Brasília: Brazil 1920-1950, at the Museum of Brazilian Art 2003 - Brasília, DF - Brazilian Art in the Fadel Collection: from the restlessness of the modern to the autonomy of language, at CCBB 2003 - São Paulo, SP - The Art Behind the Art: where works of art are and how they travel, at MAM/SP