Covers by CasaRex for the Contemporary Art and Education" series promoted by AEP - Art Education Productions

As a winner in 2009 for the project developed for the Cool Readings book collection (Editora Biruta) and for the book “Our Movie” (Edições Jogo de Amarelinha) in 2010, this year Casa Rex has been acknowledged in the Miscellaneous Company Literature category, for the visual identity that was created for the circle of debates about Contemporary Art and Education promoted by AEP – Art Education Productions.

Casa Rex's "Contemporary Art and Education" brochure interior

In order to develop the illustrations for the programme, Casa Rex made use of seventeenth-century engravings of imaginary animals, created to play with the illusions that people often have about contemporary art: “Generally the subject of contemporary art is viewed as being almost as strange as a seven-headed animal. The concept of portraying fictional animals has been used as a way of making light of these perceptions.” says Gustavo Piqueira, head of the agency as well as the creative director on the project, together with Samia Jacintho.

Casa Rex's "Contemporary Art and Education" Poster

The project has been selected as one of the winning entries out of more than 4000 submissions and it will be featured in the September/ October 2011 issue of the Communication Arts Magazine Design Annual 52 Awards (http://www.commarts.com/annuals/2011-Design/winners).

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• REX Design Awarded by Communication Arts Magazine
• Brazilian packaging and editorial projects win HOW 2010 International Design Awards
• Brazil: The Cultural Contemporary at the Royal College of Art
• CLIO honors Marcello Serpa with “Lifetime Achievement” award
• “The Soccer Museum” wins Gold Medal from IDSA’s 2010 IDEA awards

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Gilvan Samico, "Criação - Homem e Mulher", 1993

Gilvan José Meira Lins Samico (Recife, Pernambuco, 1928- ). Engraver, painter, draughtsman, lecturer. In 1952, together with other artists, Gilvan Samico founded the Ateliê Coletivo [Collective Studio] of the Sociedade de Arte Moderna do Recife – SAMR [Recife Modern Art Society], conceived by Abelardo da Hora (1924).

Gilvan studied wood engraving with Lívio Abramo (1903 – 1992) in 1957 at the Escola de Artesanato [School of Crafts] of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo – MAM/SP [São Paulo Museum of Modern Art]. In the following year, he moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he studied engraving with Oswaldo Goeldi (1895 – 1961) at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes – Enba [National School of Fine Arts]. With a great technical mastery, he dedicated himself in his work to textures elaborated with linear rhythms.

In 1965, he settled in Olinda, lecturing in wood engraving at the Universidade Federal da Paraíba – UFPA [Federal University of Paraíba]. In 1968, with the foreign travel prize won at the 17th Salão Nacional de Arte Moderna [National Salon of Modern Art], he spent two years in Europe. In 1971, he was invited by Ariano Suassuna to join the Movimento Armorial [Armorial Movement], directed towards popular Northeastern culture and the literature of the Cordel.

Gilvan Samico

His output is marked by the recovery of the poetry of the Northeast through the Cordel literature and the creative use of wood engravings. His engravings are populated by biblical and other figures deriving from myths and local stories, as well as fantastic and mythical animals. With the presentation of new subject matter, he introduced a formal simplification into his work, reducing the use of colour and textures.

Samico has works in the MoMA in New York and participated twice in the Venice Biennale with an award in one of them.

via Samico, Gilvan (1928- ).

Read Also:

• Roots: Câmara, João (1944)
• Roots: Monteiro, Vicente do Rêgo (1899 – 1970)
• Movements: O Gráfico Amador
• Roots: J. Borges (1935)
• Roots: Magalhães, Aloísio (1927)

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"Aniki Bobo", by João Cabral de Melo Neto

Aloísio Magalhães, while still attending law school in Recife (the capital of Pernambuco), had already begun to show his fascination with graphic arts by skillfully illustrating a poetry book written by a colleague of his from the university, José Laurenio de Melo.

After graduating, he traveled to Paris to study painting and engraving at the Atelier 17, an important European center of engraving. Once back in Brazil, he met with Gastão de Holanda, a former classmate from the university, who had also been in Paris, studying literature.

Coincidentally, a famous cousin of Magalhães, the renowned Brazilian poet João Cabral de Melo Neto, moved to Recife at that time. This cousin strongly encouraged the two young artists to open their own private print shop, similar to the one he himself had had in Barcelona. It was in that print shop that Cabral de Melo Neto had produced his own books through craftsmanship, while he was in the town occupying the post of consul.

Magalhães and José Laurenio became excited about the idea of setting up a print shop and they sought other former friends from the university who were also involved in literature and graphic arts. Among the main names of those who founded O Gráfico Amador in 1954, it is worth mentioning Ariano Suassuna, José Laurenio, and Orlando da Costa Ferreira.

Brought together by their passion for books and their quests in philosophical and aesthetic issues – which were connected to Modernism, a Brazilian art movement – these individuals produced grand experimental works that combined poetry, illustration, a bold typographical style, an alternative and informal use of paper and elements in relief printing. All these ingredients greatly contributed towards creating a more pleasing relationship between text and image.

O Gráfico Amador was being closely followed by Le Courrier Graphique, from Paris, as well as by the Curwen Press, from London. Additionally, several intellectuals and artists from Pernambuco and people from the artistic milieu also contributed to the magazine.

This undertaking was a key factor in Aloísio Magalhães’ career, for he later became a pioneering figure in the history of Brazilian graphic design. Let us not forget that benchmarks were scarce at that time, especially outside of the region linking Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo. Moreover, Magalhães became a leading pioneer in the history of Brazilian typography, as he was acutely aware of the profound relationships between artistic and industrial production.

O Gráfico Amador revealed itself as being a reference in the scenario of Brazilian culture and it was displayed in an exhibition at the Brazilian National Library, in Rio de Janeiro, in 1959.

The magazine closed its doors in 1961. It had issued altogether 20 publications, including the first edition of the poem Ciclo, by Carlos Drummond de Andrade – a renowned Brazilian poet. Its patrimony was donated to Escola de Belas Artes do Recife (Recife’s Fine Arts College).

via :: REDE DESIGN BRASIL ::.

Read Also:

• Roots: Magalhães, Aloísio (1927)
• Roots: Monteiro, Vicente do Rêgo (1899 – 1970)
• Roots: Câmara, João (1944)
• Roots: J. Borges (1935)
• Roots: Fernandes, Millôr (1923)

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"Aloísio Magalhães", by Mônica Fuchshuber

Aloísio Magalhães took his first steps in the field of graphic design took place while he was still attending law school in Recife. In 1950, during his last year as a student, he made illustrations for a book of poetry, Palhano, written by a friend of his the university, José Laurenio de Melo. Having finished his course, Aloisio headed for Paris, where he intended to study painting and engraving with Stanley Hayter at the Atelier 17 studio, an important European center of engraving.

In 1954, influenced by the renowned Brazilian poet (and his cousin) João Cabral de Melo Neto – he set up, together with some friends, a modest print shop called O Gráfico Amador that, during the eight subsequent years that it was operating, published 27 books, 3 sets of fliers, 2 bulletins and a theater program.

In 1960 Magalhães founded a design office whose name was originally Aloísio Magalhães. In 1976, PVDI became its official name (this original office is still functioning, carrying out projects in the area of visual identity systems and product design).

It is only in 1970 that his office develops its first large design project in Brazil for Petrobras, the giant state-owned Brazilian oil company. The scope of the project ranged from the design of a symbol that would be stamped on oil packaging to the entire system of visual identity that would be displayed both at distribution points and on gas pumps at all of the gas stations run by the company.

In 1976, Brazil’s Central Bank commissioned him once again to render services to the institution (in fact his office had already carried out a few jobs for it in 1967 and 1972). This assignment comprised redesigning Brazil’s units of currency. Thus the project encompassed the task of defining a complex system of creation, including aspects such as selecting the most appropriate graphic motives to be used as well as key decisions regarding the technology to be adopted – amongst the types of technology available at that time. The project, as a whole, aimed to make Brazil self-sufficient in the production of its paper bills and coins.

In 1979, Magalhães takes on the post of administrating the Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional – IPHAN (Brazil’s Institute of Historic and Artistic National Patrimony). His ideas regarding the management of this institution had a lot in common with the ones advocated by Mário de Andrade 50 years before. Hence, he proceeded to promote a revolution in the institute’s policies, when compared with the long-lasting, deeply ingrained policies that the IPHAN upheld at the time. His broad vision, which embodied the concept of what a cultural asset should be, and his philosophy that the custody of the shared patrimony should be transferred to the community that is primarily concerned with it, set new and unprecedented paradigms in the handling of the national memory. At that time, Magalhães — taking advantage of his talent as a designer – begins drafting a new layout for the institutional framework connected to the cultural issue in Brazil.

As the outcome of intense political maneuvers and persuasiveness, IPHAN finally becomes a Secretariat directly subordinated to MEC (Brazil’s Ministry of Education and Culture) in January 1980 and soon later the Fundação Nacional Pró-Memória (Pro-Memory National Foundation) is created. Consistent to his efforts to reorganize the infrastructure of state agencies with respect to their form of handling issues related to culture, he takes up the presidency of the Fundação Nacional de Arte (National Art Foundation) and is later invited to become Brazil’s Secretary of Culture.

He dies from a stroke in Padua, Italy, in 1982.

November 5 – Aloísio Magalhães’ date of birth – has become Brazil’s National Designers Day, a homage paid to the contributions he made in the profession.

via :: REDE DESIGN BRASIL ::.

Read Also:

• Movements: O Gráfico Amador
• Roots: Duarte, Rogério (1939)
• Roots: Wollner, Alexandre (1928)
• Schools: Escola Superior de Design Industrial (ESDI)
• Roots: Gilvan Samico (1928 – )

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João Câmara, "Homen Discursando", 1974 -1976

João Câmara (João Pessoa, Paraíba, 1944- ). Painter, engraver, draughtsman, graphic artist, professor and critic. Between 1960 and 1963, studied painting at the Free Course of the School of Fine Arts of the Federal University of Pernambuco, being elected Chairman of the Society of Modern Art of Recife (SAMR) in the latter year and studying wood engraving under the orientation of Henrique Oswald (1918-1965) and Emanoel Araújo (1940- ), at the School of Fine Arts of Salvador.

In 1964, together with Adão Pinheiro (1938- ), José Tavares and Guita Charifker (1936- ), João Câmara founded the Ateliê Coletivo da Ribeira [Collective Studio of Ribeira], and in 1965, the Ateliê + Dez [Studio +10], both in Olinda. From 1967 to 1970, he lectured in painting at the School of Fine Arts of the Federal University of Paraíba, in João Pessoa. In 1974, he established a lithography studio which subsequently became the Guaianases Engraving Workshop, incorporated in 1995 into the Visual Arts Laboratory of the Federal University of Pernambuco.

From the 1960s onwards, João Câmara’s output was characterised by its presentation of fragmented bodies next to human figures with structured bodies, conferring a character of strangeness on the works. During the 1970s, the artist began to execute the series Cenas da Vida Brasileira 1930/1954 [Scenes from Brazilian Life: 1930-54] (1974-1976) and Dez Casos de Amor e uma Pintura de Câmara [Ten Love Affairs and a Painting by Câmara] (1977-1983). In 1986, he executed the series O Olho de meu Pai sobre a Cidade [The Gaze of My Father over the City], in which he paid tribute to his father and the city of Recife. In 2001, he concluded the Duas Cidades [Two Cities] series, which took the cities of Recife and Olinda as its setting.

via Câmara, João (1944).

Read Also:

• Roots: Gilvan Samico (1928 – )
• Roots: Monteiro, Vicente do Rêgo (1899 – 1970)
• Movements: O Gráfico Amador
• Roots: Duarte, Rogério (1939)
• Roots: Magalhães, Aloísio (1927)

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