Zara Arshad, Alessandro Rolandi & Bruno Porto_ photo by Caue Ferraz

At the opening of the poster exhibition “Discover the Brazilian Cinema” presented at the 2nd Brazil Film Festival in Beijing, its co-curator Bruno Porto was joined by British designer Zara Arshad and Italian multimedia artist Alessandro Rolandi in an panel to address the relation between moving and still images: movies and its posters. The trio discussed aspects of contemporary marketing and promoting techniques – in which target audiences may only see a poster when they reach the theater, long after they’ve watched the trailer and read about it online – that subvert the original role of the poster, changes in technology that liberate the poster from paper, as well as its collectible aspects, and some of the “style formulas” specific genres use.

The debate and the exhibition were some of the parallel events of the 2nd Brazilian Film Fest in China, that took place at the Broadway Cinematheque MOMA in Beijing from November 17-22. It also featured a concert by musician, actor and soundtrack composer André Abujamra and a Q&A session with André Klotzel, director of Reflections of a Blender, the movie that won the festival Judge’s Choice Award. The international jury was composed by directors Xie Fei, Liu Jiayin, Sam Voutas and Vicky Mohieddeen & movie critic Raymond Zhou.

Descubra o Cinema Brasileiro poster exhibition_

Curated by graphic designers Billy Bacon and Bruno Porto, “Discover the Brazilian Cinema” features works by 30 graphic artists from diverse backgrounds, generations and parts of Brazil that encourage – through curiosity, beauty and witty visual solutions – the Chinese audience to enjoy Brazilian films. The show had been presented before at the 10th Shanghai International Film Festival in 2007 and the Pernambuco Design Salon in 2008. It was also selected for the 9th Brazilian Graphic Design Biennial, that traveled to Mexico and China in 2009.

Broadway Cinematheque MOMA_ Beijing

Posters by André Stolarski, Batman Zavareze, Billy Bacon, Bruno Porto, Claudio Reston ‘Haroldinho’, Daniel Bueno, Eduardo Denne, Felipe Muanis, Manifesto (Guto Lins / Adriana Lins / Fernando Arruda), Itamar Medeiros, Kako, José Bessa ‘Elesbão’, Leonardo Buggy, Leonardo Eyer, Lilian Granado, Marcello Rosauro, Marcelo Martinez, Marck Al, Mariana Ochs, Orlando Pedroso, Rafael Ferreira, Rafo Castro, Renato Faccini, Ricardo Cunha Lima, Ruth Klotzel, Walter Vasconcelos, Yomar Augusto and Ziraldo.

Broadway Cinematheque MOMA_

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• Brazilian illustration festival in China
• Brazilian posters win 1st prize in Bolivia
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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- ).

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

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J. Borges and his "Folhetos de Cordel", by LOST.ART

Artist and poet José Francisco Borges (J. Borges) was born in 1935 in the village of Bezerros, Pernambuco state, in Northeastern Brazil. Today Borges is Brazil’s best-known folk artist working in the woodcut medium, and his work has been exhibited all over the world. But he comes out of a long tradition of folk poet/artists who publish their own work in the form of small (generally about 6″ by 9″) cheap chap-books or pamphlets written in verse, known as folhetos. They are also known as literatura de cordel after the way vendors sell them in the marketplace, hanging over a string. This tradition (including the work of Borges) is described in detail by Candace Slater in her book Stories on a String: The Brazilian ‘Literatura de Cordel’.

Marion Oettinger, director of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Latin American Art at the San Antonio Museum of Art, describes these folhetos in his book The Folk Art of Latin America: Visiones del Pueblo: “Brazilian chap books deal with popular poetry, accounts of local catastrophes, popular legends, famous crimes, and infamous love affairs. The Man who Married a Donkey, The Son Who Murdered His Parents in Order to Get His Hands on Their Retirement Benefit, The Football Game in Hell, and The Overturned Bus Disaster are examples of the alluring titles found in a typical marketplace. The front of these pamplets usually contain wood-block illustrations of the book’s contents, and they, in themselves, form a special type of folk expression…. Frequently, chap book vendors sing the songs in their books or read aloud the contents of their books to market crowds, many of whom are illiterate, and their voices usually draw enormous gatherings.”

José Francisco Borges began writing verse for folhetos in his 20s, and soon also began to operate a printing press to produce woodcut prints for their covers. “When I was a kid, the only leisure activity we had was to read cordel literature,” recalled Borges. “The way people watch telenovelas today, we read cordel booklets.”

While working as a salesman, Borges decided to try his hand at writing a story. He showed it to a veteran “cordelista,” who encouraged him to publish. It took eight years for Borges to save up the cash to self-publish his first edition. With nothing left over to pay an illustrator for the cover, which needed a requisite black-ink woodblock print, he had to produce his own artwork.

Now he has authored over 200 chapbooks and says that he’s lost count of how many he’s illustrated for less graphically-inclined storyteller-poets. His press Borges also prints booklets. “I get lots of orders of cordel booklets,” he said – including some that serve as company training manuals or that teach the basics of things like how to take out a bank loan. “Country hicks don’t like to read magazines, but if you give him a cordel booklet he’ll read it – and enjoy it,” Borges said.

"The Arrival of the Prostitute in Heaven", WoodCut, J. Borges

Working with just a knife and a chunk of wood, Mr. Borges proves that ”low-level technology often yields very powerful, moving and sophisticated results,” said Marion Oettinger, ”Thanks to Borges and others like him, the popular graphics tradition is alive and well in Brazil in a way that you don’t see in other countries.”

In the 1960s his woodcuts came to be recognized in their own right. According to Ariano Suassuna, writer, poet and a leading figure of the Armorial Movement, the Brazilian Cordel could be divided in the following cycles: the heroic, the wonderful, the religious or moral, the satiric and historic. J. Borges says that Ariano once told him “I was the best in the Northeast. Now he says I’m the best in the world,” noted Borges with a smile.

Borges followed the advice of some admirers to produce folio-sized stand-alone prints. Often in color, they depict the same fantastic and folkloric rural characters as the booklets: The Hangover Bar, The Cowboy Mass, The Girl Who Turned into a Snake, and The Macumba Ceremony. These have attracted the attention of museums and collectors. But even in larger formats, his prints reflect the same popular themes, such as The Honeymoon of Matuto (an archetypal back-country bumpkin), The Monster of the Backlands, The Woman who Put the Devil in a Bottle, The Arrival of the Prostitute in Heaven and many tales of the legendary bandit Lampião.

Borges’ work has now been exhibited all over Brazil as well as in Paris, Zurich, Buenos Aires and in Germany and the United States. The Louvre, the Smithsonian and the International Folk Art Market in Santa Fe have exhibited Borges’ work. UNESCO has honored Mr. Borges with awards for his contributions to world culture. They also commissioned him to illustrate the cover of the United Nations 2002 calendar. The United States Library of Congress has preserved a body of Mr. Borges work in its’ permanent collection.

via Indigo Arts Gallery | Brazilian Folk Art | Jose Francisco Borges.

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• Roots: Fernandes, Millôr (1923)

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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 ::.

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• Schools: Escola Superior de Design Industrial (ESDI)
• Roots: Gilvan Samico (1928 – )

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Vicente do Rego Monteiro, "As Religiosas", 1969

Vicente do Rego Monteiro (Recife, Pernambuco, 1899 – idem, 1970). Painter, sculptor, draughtsman, illustrator, graphic artist. Began his artistic studies in 1908, accompanying his sister, Fedora do Rego Monteiro (1889 – 1975) on courses at the National School of Fine Arts (Enba) in Rio de Janeiro.

In 1911, he travelled with his family to France, where he attended the Academies Colarossi, Julian and de La Grande Chaumière. In 1913, he took part in the Salon des Indépendants, of which he became a member. In Paris, he maintained contact with Amedeo Modigliani (1884 – 1920), Fernand Léger (1881 – 1955), Georges Braque (1882 – 1963), Joán Miró (1893 – 1983), Albert Gleizes (1881 – 1953), Jean Metzinger (1883 – 1956) and Louis Marcoussis (1883 – 1941).

At the start of the First World War (1914-1918), he left France with his family, settling in Rio de Janeiro in 1915. In 1918, he held his first individual exhibition at the Santa Isabel Theatre in Recife, showing his work for the first time two years later, in São Paulo, where he met Di Cavalcanti (1897 – 1976), Anita Malfatti (1889 – 1964), Pedro Alexandrino (1856 – 1942) and Victor Brecheret (1894 – 1955). In 1920, he studied the art of the Marajó culture in the collections of the National Museum of Quinta da Boa Vista. Moved by a passion for dance, in 1921 he staged the spectacle, Lendas, Crenças e Talismãs dos Índios do Amazonas [Legends, Beliefs and Talismans of the Amazonian Indians], at the Trianon Theatre in Rio de Janeiro, which was praised by the poet and critic, Ronald de Carvalho (1893 – 1935). He left for France, leaving behind eight oil paintings and watercolours for exhibition during Semana de Arte Moderna [Modern Art Week] of 1922, in São Paulo.

In 1923, he made drawings of masks and costumes for the ballet, Legendes Indiennes de L’Amazonie [Indian Legends of Amazonia]. He joined the group of artists associated with the gallery and magazine, L’Effort Moderne, of Leonce Rosemberg. He also brought the exhibition A Escola de Paris [The School of Paris] to Brazil, with showings in Recife, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. In 1937, he decorated the Chapel of Brazil in the Vatican Pavilion of the International Exhibition of Paris.

In 1946, he founded the publisher, La Presse à Bras, dedicated to the publication of Brazilian and French poetry. From 1941 onwards, he published his first verses, Poemas de Bolso [Pocket Poems], organising and promoting various poetry salons and congresses in France and Brazil. Returning to Brazil, he gave lectures in painting at the School of Fine Arts of the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), in 1957 and 1966.

In 1960, he received the Guillaume Apollinaire Prize for his sonnets, collected in the book, Broussais – La Charité. From 1966 to 1968, he lectured at the Central Institute of the Arts of the University of Brasília (UnB).

via Monteiro, Vicente do Rego (1899 – 1970).

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• Roots: Duarte, Rogério (1939)

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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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_original logo (2009) designed with Brazilian typefaces Brasilêro (2001_ Crystian Cruz), Cantador (1997_ Daniel Morena), Folk (2009_ Marcelo Magalhães), UnB Pro (2008_ Gustavo Ferreira) + Samba Expert (2003_ Tony de Marco & Caio de Marco)

Authors

Bruno Porto is a graphic designer, educator and consultant from Rio de Janeiro. His work has frequently been awarded and exhibited in the Americas, Europe and Asia, where he had two solo shows of posters he’d designed. He is one the two Brazilian professionals listed in the Atlas of Contemporary Graphic Design by Harper Collins in 2008. He is a member of the Society of Illustrators of Brazil (SIB) – where he currently serves in its Board of Councilors – and the Brazilian Graphic Designers Association (ADG Brasil) – in which he has acted as a member of its National Board of Directors (2004-2006), Rio de Janeiro Board of Coordinators (2002-2004), Ethics Committee (2009-2011) and as its liaison with Icograda. He has also been deeply involved with the Brazilian Graphic Design Biennial, being President of the Jury of its 7th edition, member of the Curatorial Commission of its 8th edition, and coordinator of the 9th edition’s international tour in Beijing and Shanghai. He has curated a dozen graphic arts exhibitions – such as DINGBATS BRASIL, that has been presented in ten cities across South America and Asia. An author of books and articles on graphic design and illustration, he holds a column in www.DesignBrasil.org.br and has contributed articles to a number of design publications in Brazil and China such as abcDesign, Art & Design, Designe, Design 360º, Design Gráfico, ??? NewGraphic, Prodesign, Revista da ADG, Revista Webdesign and Wide. He was a faculty member at the Graphic Design School of Centro Universitário da Cidade (Rio de Janeiro, 1996-2006) and at the Visual Communication department of Raffles Design Institute (Shanghai, 2006-2010), and consistently organizes and takes part in design events, lectures and juries.

Itamar Medeiros currently lives in Shanghai (China), where he works as Senior User Experience Designer at the Architecture, Engineering & Construction Industry Group of Autodesk® — and helps promote Interaction Design as a local coordinator for the Interaction Design Association (IxDA). Working in the Information Technology industry since 1998, Itamar Medeiros has developed several websites and interactive media campaigns, both as art director and, later, as creative director for several new media agencies in Pernambuco, Brazil. As an Information Design specialist, served as board member of the Brazilian Society of Information Design, and held several lecturing positions, including Lecturer of Hypermedia at the Department of Design of Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE), Assistant Professor of Cognition and Information Technologies at the Information Systems program of Faculdade Santa Maria,  and Assistant Program Director of the Visual Communication Department of Raffles Design Institute at DongHua University, China. He has been awarded with an MA (with distinction) in Design Practice at Northumbria University (Newcastle, UK) for his thesis “Designing the User Experience: Creating Innovative Design Software Solutions within Collaborative/Distributed Design Environments”.

Read Also:

• Roots: Duarte, Rogério (1939)
• Discover the Brazilian Cinema
• 9th Brazilian Graphic Design Biennial in China
• 9th Brazilian Graphic Design Biennial goes to China
• New media & semiotics lecture in Shanghai

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