Judith Lauand

Judith Lauand (Pontal, 1922 – São Paulo, 2022)

Judith Lauand was a Brazilian painter, printmaker, and visual artist, recognized for her concrete, pop, and experimental work. In 1950, she graduated from the Araraquara School of Fine Arts, São Paulo, where she studied painting with Mario Ybarra de Almeida and Domenico Lazzarini. In the 1940s, still in Araraquara, she dedicated herself to expressionist painting, depicting figures and still lifes. Two years later, she moved to São Paulo and studied printmaking with Lívio Abramo. She worked as a monitor at the 2nd São Paulo International Biennial in 1954 and came into contact with the concrete painting of Alexandre Wollner and Geraldo de Barros. That same year, she held her first solo exhibition at Galeria Ambiente in São Paulo.

In 1955, Judith Lauand was invited by Waldemar Cordeiro to join the Ruptura Group, becoming the only female participant until the movement's demise. She participated in the National Exhibition of Concrete Art, held in 1956 at the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art (MAM/SP) and, in 1957, at the Rio de Janeiro Museum of Modern Art (MAM/RJ). In 1960, she participated in the Konkrete Kunst exhibition in Zurich. In the 1960s, she began incorporating unusual materials such as thumbtacks, pins, paper clips, and hinges into her works, creating optical effects and rhythms. In 1963, she exhibited at the inauguration of Galeria NT – Novas Tendências in São Paulo, which she co-founded alongside Hermelindo Fiaminghi and Luiz Sacilotto. He received the Leirner Prize for Contemporary Art in 1958. In 1996, the Sylvio Nery da Fonseca Art Office in São Paulo dedicated a retrospective exhibition to him, highlighting especially his work from the 1950s.

Criticism

"(...) initially figurative, she moved through freely abstract forms in 1953, driven by Geraldo de Barros and Alexandre Wollner. Her mathematical intentions predisposed her to the direction in which she would affirm her own research into language characterized by the dynamic structure of space. Her investigations led her to different situations that, since the 1960s, have intertextualized formal image and word. At the beginning of this decade, Judith Lauand demonstrated a growing interest in color and its optical pulsations, an evident and central phenomenon in many other concrete artists in the country. One of the expressive formulas of this approach to pure visuality was the space divided into a checkerboard pattern. She researched it through the articulation of tones in contrast or in harmonious coexistence, always motivated by the idea of ​​conferring maximum vibratory potential. Her unique problem is the rigorous study of this structure of color in its infinite laws of alterability. From her ascetic system, thinking and performing with the coherence and tenacity of radical perfectionist quest, this exhibition offers a perspective spanning several years, in our view, one of the most convincing."
Walter Zanini
LOUZADA, Júlio. Visual arts: their market, their auctions. from São Paulo: J. Louzada, 1984-.

"Judith Lauand was a prominent figure in the founding of the São Paulo concrete art movement, collaborating with Waldemar Cordeiro, the group's founder. This interaction with Cordeiro established strong connections of thought and artistic creation, perceptible in the works of both. Cordeiro's conceptions of teamwork were exceptionally advanced for their time, and it seems essential to me to preserve for future generations his working methods, which had such a decisive influence on the future of Brazilian avant-garde art. Judith Lauand remains faithful to her concrete art stance and trajectory. Her recent work reveals the density of composition, the refinement of chromaticism, and the balance of graphics, achieved through constant research. Judith now embarks on new paths, creating works that could be called asymmetrical, where the geometry of chromatic decomposition destroys the 'equilateral partition' present throughout her work, creating a new symmetry".
Mario Schenberg
LAUAND, Judith. Judith Lauand: paintings. Sao Paulo: Choice Art Gallery, 1986. p. 3.

"In Judith Lauand's work, the frequent presence of the line treated as a bar should be noted, reminding us of Malevich. This method balances the graphic character of the lines by allowing their more active pictorial treatment. (...) In Concretism, the serialization of form evokes industrial production. The triangles are distributed over the surface of the work, where they are applied in the style of openwork tiles, or rather, of a cabogó. The critic Mário Pedrosa observed that in Concretism one could speak of a 'deliberately elementary chromatic vocabulary.' Speaking about the abolition of color by the artists of this movement, Judith Lauand clarifies that 'we worked with few colors. It was more black and white or complementary. Few forms too. We used the black surface to achieve austerity. They were complementary, black and white. Very little color. It was part of the demands of the time. To abolish a little the quantity of forms, color. Everything that was too much. Make a synthesis. Invert. The black background is active because it is space.' Lauand also recognizes in some cases that color has no function; the drawing is what matters. At other times, we find in his work almost achromatic paintings, as a production of a neutrality where a differentiation between line and plane could still occur through color. (...) Lauand confronts positive/negative, excess and absence of light and its nuances in a game in which the concrete surface captures the eye in a phenomenal traffic. (...) An indelible presence in concretism, Judith Lauand sought some mathematical reason, but above all also many poetic licenses. Hence, we can say that Judith Lauand produced an art of small concretist delicacies."
Paulo Herkenhoff
LAUAND, Judith. Judith Lauand: works from 1954-1960. Sao Paulo: Sylvio Nery da Fonseca Art Office, 1996. p. 6-7.

Testimonials

"(...) Planes decentralize in all directions. Shapes - signs of great lightness of color, directed vertically. Successive chaining of six-, five-, four-, and three-sided shapes against a dynamic background. Hexagons divided into triangles of different shape and color, with a disorder that alters the quadrilateral system articulated with two triangles, determine the visualization of triangular space. Segments - signs in various directions in the space of the painting. Grids in pinks, blues, and yellows. It is structured in such a way as to optically distort the space. Bands of blue and green colors advance to quadrangular areas of opposing colors. Shapes - planes juxtaposed in a progressive play of color saturation. But no commentary replaces direct viewing of the works."
Judith Lauand
LAUAND, Judith. Judith Lauand: paintings. Sao Paulo: Choice Art Gallery, 1986. p. 2.

Judith Lauand: The 50s

The collection of works displayed in the exhibition "Judith Lauand: The 1950s" represents not only the creative genesis of the concrete artist but also her rigorous modus operandi, evidenced by the careful process of production, cataloging, and preservation of her work, which has allowed these works to remain unpublished and united as a whole for over 50 years.

The works on display are autonomous creations: gouaches, drawings, and collages on paper carefully identified by the letters C (abbreviation for Concrete) and A (abbreviation for Collection) and numbers that allow for their chronological observation, a practice that Judith Lauand also incorporated into her pictorial production. Also on display are gouaches, preparatory drawings, and studies of form development, which gave rise to her paintings.

These works are all produced in the 1950s, a pivotal decade in the artist's production that resonates in her work to this day. They showcase all the artist's rigor and delicacy in constructing her poetics. The earliest works date from 1954, a pivotal year in the artist's career, which was undergoing a period of intense and radical transformation. "In 1954, I encountered concrete art."

That year, Judith Lauand was a monitor at the 2nd São Paulo Biennial (the "Guernica" Biennial, inaugurated in December of the previous year), participated in and won an award at the 3rd São Paulo Salon of Modern Art (Grand Bronze Medal), held her first solo exhibition at Galeria Prestes Maia, and at Galeria Ambiente (223 Martins Fontes Street) had her first contact with the work of Grupo Ruptura, at the invitation of Waldemar Cordeiro. Judith Lauand was associated with Ruptura until its dissolution and was the only woman to actively participate in the group.

The Ruptura Group never held any other exclusive exhibitions of its artists, but remained active until 1959, as a discussion group and organizer of group exhibitions, such as the historic 1st National Exhibition of Concrete Art.

The exhibition was organized in partnership with concrete poets Haroldo de Campos (1929-2003), Augusto de Campos, and Décio Pignatari and marked the official emergence of concrete poetry in Brazil. Interestingly, the last works of the group presented here date from the last year of the Ruptura Group's existence.

It was from 1954 onward that concretism became the leitmotif of the artist's pictorial production. His works abandoned any sign of representation or subjectivity present in previous figurative works and began to be governed by a strong rational component, with great mathematical rigor, which is even more evident in this series of works on paper. "I base myself on elements inherent to painting itself: form, space, color, and movement. I try to objectify the plastic problem as much as possible. I love synthesis, precision, and precise thought."

But Lauand knew how to make aesthetic concessions and, as a result, produced concrete works with great freedom and their own characteristics. Concretism did not imprison her. Its mathematical rigor was broken down into dynamic compositions that conveyed movement, rhythm, and tension, creating a precarious balance between lines, shapes, and colors. "Judith Lauand sought some mathematical reason, but above all, a great deal of poetic license," summarized Paulo Herkenhoff.

An example of this is the artist's recurring use, particularly in 1959, of lines and geometric elements that multiply in convergent, divergent, or random directions, group together or disperse, overlap or create points of intersection between them, thus seeking new possibilities for occupying pictorial space and giving it great dynamism. This is the case with the painting "Four Groups of Elements" and some works on paper from that same year, 1959, also featured in the exhibition.

The set of works displayed in the exhibition "Judith Lauand: The 1950s" thus presents not only the genesis of her concrete work but also the various paths she pursued within this language in the 1950s, a fundamental decade in the artist's work that reverberates in her work to this day, characterized by the pursuit of rigor and delicacy in the construction of her poetics.

NOTES
1 Statement by the artist in an interview with critic and curator Paulo Herkenhoff, in 1996, published in the text "Judith Lauand, Arte de Delicadezas Concretistas" (Art of Concrete Delicacies), catalog of the exhibition "Judith Lauand - Works from 1954-1960", Sylvio Nery da Fonseca Escritório de Arte, São Paulo, 1996).
2 The Ruptura Group was responsible for introducing concretism to Brazil when it opened the exhibition Ruptura on December 9, 1952, at the Museum of Modern Art in São Paulo, accompanied by a manifesto of the same name. The group was formed by the artists Waldemar Cordeiro (1925-1973), Leopoldo Haar (1910-1954), Geraldo de Barros (1923-1998), Kazmer Féjer (1923-1989), Luiz Sacilotto (1924-2003), Lothar Charoux (1912-1987) and Anatol Wladyslaw (1913-2004). Later, Judith Lauand, Hermelindo Fiaminghi (1920-2004) and Maurício Nogueira Lima (1930-1999) joined. All declared themselves followers of the Swiss artist Max Bill (1908-1994), the main theoretical and practical reference of Concretism in the world, particularly in Brazil, where he had a solo exhibition at MASP in 1950 and whose sculpture "Tripartite Unity," 1948/1949, now in the collection of MAC-USP, had won an award at the 1st São Paulo Biennial in 1951. The Swiss artist's relationship with Brazil remained intense throughout the decade and resulted in the selection of several Brazilian artists, including Judith Lauand, for the exhibition Konkrete Kunst, organized by him in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1960. 3 The exhibition took place at MAM-SP in 1956, then directed by Mário Pedrosa, and then moved to MAM-RJ in 1957, at the time still housed among the pilotis of the Ministry of Education and Culture and directed by Niomar Moniz. Sodré).
4 Statement by the artist on the occasion of the Bandeiras exhibition, in honor of USP's 60th anniversary, at the SESi Art Gallery, in 1996).
5 Excerpt from the text "Judith Lauand, Art of Concrete Delicacies", catalog Judith Lauand - Works from 1954-1960, Sylvio Nery da Fonseca Art Office, São Paulo, 1996).

Judith Lauand: the boldness and delicacy of a concretist

At 85, the artist opens an exhibition that offers an overview of her career.
Camila Molina, from Estadão

"I found abstraction much more interesting, a never-ending pursuit, much more diverse," says Judith Lauand, giving a quick recap of her more than 60-year career in painting. She was born in Pontal, São Paulo State, in May 1922, and it was in Araraquara, at the School of Fine Arts, in the 1940s, that she began to dedicate herself to painting. Painting, she says, was a natural path. Initially, "in the style of the expressionist school," she painted still lifes and figures. But accidentally, one day she was surprised to see that one of her still lifes had transformed into an abstract painting made of cubes and a circle in place of what would have been a plate... And shortly thereafter, in the 1950s, now in São Paulo, Judith Lauand became the only woman to join the closed Grupo Ruptura within the Brazilian Concretist movement. Judith Lauand's Concretist phase is the high point of her career, but now is also the time to see more of her career, made up of several phases of experimentation that she is so proud of. "I like them all, with their qualities and pitfalls," says the artist at Galeria Berenice Arvani, where she opens this Thursday, the 2nd, an exhibition featuring 56 of her works created between 1952 and 2007. At 85, Judith reads every morning, "80 pages a week," and paints almost every day, always in the afternoon and always in the field of abstraction, which she considers the most interesting.

In the exhibition, curated by Celso Fioravante, there is a complete journey through Judith's paths: figuration, informal abstraction, geometric abstraction, the pop phase of the 1960s, the works in which she placed objects on canvas, such as nails and thumbtacks, the canvases on which she painted words, the paintings with variations on the same square theme. "She's not an orthodox concretist; she has a much richer trajectory than people often imagine," says the curator, who also points out that it's the market's hand that's falling on a niche of such brilliant and nearly forgotten concretists. Art dealer Berenice Arvani says Judith's works are now for sale for prices ranging from R$20,000 to R$160,000. The most valuable canvases are those from the 1950s, Judith's concretist period. "From 1954 to 1962, I was rigidly concrete; I became more geometric," he explains.

In a 1996 text, critic Paulo Herkenhoff stated that Judith "produced an art of small, concretist delicacies." But the fact that she was the only female member of the Ruptura Group (between 1953 and 1959), formed by artists such as Waldemar Cordeiro, Sacilotto, Charoux, Fiaminghi, and Maurício Nogueira Lima, does not necessarily mean that the geometry in her compositions was more sensitive. "This depends on the sensitivity of each artist; each one solves the problems of the work in their own way. I think everyone in the group practiced a sensitive concretism; there was no difference between us. Fiaminghi had a very sensitive exploration of forms and, especially, color," says Judith. The artist thinks almost mathematically about her compositions—but this is not meant to signal the reductionism of reason to the detriment of the sensitive nature. "Each form has and demands its own color. I like colors that are on the same plane, that match, but my painting has nothing to do with perspective."

In Araraquara, when she studied at the School of Fine Arts, her expressionist and figurative works were quickly completed, according to the artist. "Not with abstraction," she says. To reach abstraction, she says she was influenced by the books and magazines she read at the time. "I read an Argentinean, Jorge Romero Brest (a critic), who spoke at the time about the contemporary relevance of painting. Then I realized I was behind, that the work could be much more modern," says the artist, who still maintains that same spirit intact.

Awards

1964 - 13th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art - Acquisition Prize
1959 - 8th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art - Acquisition Prize
1958 - 7th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art - Acquisition Prize
1955 - 4th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art - Small Silver Medal
1954 - 3rd São Paulo Salon of Modern Art - Large Bronze Medal
1953 - 16th Araraquara Salon of Fine Arts - Araraquara City Prize
1952 - 15th Salon of Fine Arts Arts of Araraquara - First Place
1945 - 9th Araraquara Fine Arts Salon - Drawing Incentive Award

Public Collections

Book for the Blind Foundation in Brazil
Museum of Contemporary Art of Niterói
Museum of Contemporary Art of São Paulo
Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo
Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro
Museum of Modern Art of Grenoble (France)
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (USA)
Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo

Solo Exhibitions

1954 - São Paulo, SP - First solo exhibition at Galeria Ambiente
1962 - Campinas, SP - Solo exhibition at Galeria Aremar
1965 - São Paulo, SP - Solo exhibition at Galeria Novas Tendências
1971 - São Paulo, SP - Solo exhibition at Galeria da Aliança French
1977 - São Paulo SP - Solo exhibition, at MAC/USP
1984 - São Paulo SP - Geometry 84, at Paulo Figueiredo Art Gallery
1986 - São Paulo SP - Solo exhibition, at Choice Art Gallery
1992 - São Paulo SP - Ephemerides, at MAC/USP
1994 - Pontal SP - Solo exhibition, at Manoel de Vasconcelos Martins Cultural Center
1996 - São Paulo SP - Judith Lauand: works from 1954-1960, at Sylvio Nery da Fonseca Art Office

Group Exhibitions

1952 - São Paulo SP - 2nd São Paulo Modern Art Salon
1952 - São Paulo SP - Young Painters from the School of Fine Arts of Araraquara, at MAM/SP
1954 - São Paulo SP - 3rd São Paulo Modern Art Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia - bronze medal
1955 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 4th National Modern Art Salon
1955 - São Paulo SP - 3rd São Paulo International Biennial, at the Pavilhão das Nações
1955 - São Paulo SP - 4th São Paulo Modern Art Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia - small silver medal
1956 - São Paulo SP - 1st National Exhibition of Concrete Art, at MAM/SP
1956 - São Paulo SP - 5th São Paulo Modern Art Salon
1956 - São Paulo SP - Group Exhibition, at MAC/USP
1957 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st National Exhibition of Concrete Art, at MAM/RJ
1957 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 7th National Modern Art Salon
1958 - São Paulo SP - 7th São Paulo Modern Art Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia - acquisition prize
1959 - Leverkusen (Germany) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1959 - Munich (Germany) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe, at Kunsthaus
1959 - The Hague (Netherlands) - Contemporary Brazilian Art, organized by Itamaraty
1959 - São Paulo SP - 8th São Paulo Modern Art Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia - acquisition prize
1959 - São Paulo SP - Six Concretists, at Folha Art Gallery
1959 - Vienna (Austria) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Hamburg (Germany) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Lisbon (Portugal) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Madrid (Spain) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Paris (France) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Concrete Art Exhibition, at MAM/RJ
1960 - São Paulo SP - 9th São Paulo Modern Art Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1960 - São Paulo SP - Women's Contribution to the Visual Arts in Brazil, at MAM/SP
1960 - São Paulo SP - Leirner Contemporary Art Prize, at Folha Art Gallery
1960 - Utrecht (Netherlands) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Zurich (Switzerland) - Konkrete Kunst, at Helmhaus
1961 - São Paulo SP - 10th São Paulo Modern Art Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1962 - São Paulo SP - 11th São Paulo Modern Art Salon
1963 - São Paulo SP - 12th São Paulo Modern Art Salon
1963 - São Paulo SP - 7th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1963 - São Paulo SP - Galeria Novas Tendências: inaugural group exhibition, at Associação de Artes Visuais Novas Tendências
1964 - São Paulo SP - 13th São Paulo Modern Art Salon - acquisition prize
1965 - São Paulo SP - 14th São Paulo Modern Art Salon
1965 - São Paulo SP - 8th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1965 - São Paulo SP - Proposta 65, at FAAP
1966 - São Paulo SP - 15th São Paulo Modern Art Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1966 - São Paulo SP - Three Premises, at MAB/FAAP
1967 - Brasília DF - 4th Modern Art Salon of the Federal District, at Teatro Nacional Cláudio Santoro
1967 - Campinas SP - 3rd Contemporary Art Salon of Campinas, at MACC
1967 - São Paulo SP - 16th São Paulo Modern Art Salon
1967 - São Paulo SP - 9th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1968 - São Paulo SP - 17th São Paulo Modern Art Salon
1968 - São Paulo SP - The Concretists, at MAM/SP
1969 - São Paulo SP - 10th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1969 - São Paulo SP - 1st Panorama of Contemporary Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1972 - São Paulo SP - 2nd International Print Exhibition, at MAM/SP
1972 - São Paulo SP - International Print Exhibition, at MASP
1977 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Constructive Project in Art: 1950-1962, at MAM/RJ
1977 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Constructive Project in Art: 1950-1962, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1978 - São Paulo SP - Biennials and Abstraction: the 1950s, at Museu Lasar Segall
1978 - São Paulo SP - The Object in Art: Brazil in the 1960s, at MAB/FAAP
1985 - Belo Horizonte MG - Geometry Today, at MAP
1987 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Geometric Abstraction: Concretism and Neo-Concretism, at Funarte
1987 - São Paulo SP - 1st Geometric Abstraction: Concretism and Neo-Concretism, at MAB/FAAP
1987 - São Paulo SP - The Fabric of Taste: a different look at everyday life, at Fundação Bienal
1987 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Art Project – 1950s, at FAAP
1994 - São Paulo SP - Flags: 60 Artists Celebrate 60 Years of USP, at MAC/USP
1994 - São Paulo SP - 20th Century Brazilian Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1996 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Constructive Trends in the MAC/USP Collection: Construction, Measure, and Proportion, at CCBB
1996 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Art – 50 Years of History in the MAC/USP Collection: 1920-1970, at MAC/USP
1996 - São Paulo SP - Flags, at Sesi Art Gallery
1996 - São Paulo SP - Desexp(l)os(ign)ition, at Casa das Rosas
1997 - Porto Alegre RS - 1st Mercosur Visual Arts Biennial, at Aplub; Casa de Cultura Mário Quintana; DC Navegantes; Edel; Usina do Gasômetro; Instituto de Artes da UFRGS; Fundação Bienal de Artes Visuais do Mercosul; Margs; Espaço Ulbra; Museu de Comunicação Social; Reitoria da UFRGS; Theatro São Pedro
1997 - Porto Alegre RS - Constructive Trend and Design, at Espaço Cultural Ulbra
1998 - Belo Horizonte MG - The Support of the Word, at Itaú Cultural
1998 - São Paulo SP - Constructive Art in Brazil: Adolpho Leirner Collection, at MAM/SP
1998 - São Paulo SP - The Support of the Word, at MAM/SP
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 Jo Slaviero Art Gallery
2000 - Mouans-Sartoux (France) - L'Espace de l'Art Concret, at Château de Mouans-Sartoux
2001 - São Paulo SP - Trajectory of Light in Brazilian Art, at Itaú Cultural
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 - Parallels: Brazilian Art of the Second Half of the 20th Century in Context, Cisneros Collection, at MAM/SP
2003 - Mexico City (Mexico) - Cuasi Corpus: Concrete and Neo-Concrete Art from Brazil: a Selection from the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art and the Adolpho Leirner Collection, at Museo Rufino Tamayo
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Order x Freedom, at MAM/RJ
2004 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Version, at Galeria Brito Cimino