Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Tate American Fund
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/geraldo-de-barros-14311" aria-label="More by Geraldo de Barros" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Geraldo de Barros</a>
São Paulo Composition II
Presented by the American Fund for the Tate Gallery, courtesy of the Latin American Acquisitions Committee and Susana and Ricardo Steinbruch 2016
abstraction
architecture
blur
chair
cities, towns, villages (non-UK)
countries and continents
distortion
emotions, concepts and ideas
formal qualities
from recognisable sources
furnishings
man-made
Mexico
modernist
natural phenomena
objects
periods and styles
photographic
places
Sao Paulo
shadow
texture
<p><span>Untitled (São Paulo) Composition II</span> 1949 is a black and white vintage print by the Brazilian artist Geraldo de Barros. It was taken in São Paulo at a time when de Barros was creating abstract compositions out of photographs of architectural features. In this work he photographed an elaborate iron chair through a pane of textured glass. The glass distorts the image of the chair and its raking shadow, and casts a veil of horizontal lines across the composition. A related work from the same year is <span>Abstraction (São Paulo)</span> (Tate P14600), in which the textured glass and iron framework of a window provides the basis for the composition. This second work is from the series <span>Fotoformas</span> (‘photoforms’). <span>Untitled (São Paulo) Composition II</span> shows de Barros’s experimentation with both the formal and technical aspects of photography. Its subject brings together domestic architecture and abstraction.</p>
paper print photograph gelatin silver
5 May 2012 – 28 July 2013
2013-07-28
5 May 2012 – 28 July 2013
2013-07-28
2012-05-05
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2012-05-05
Modernist Photography
Collection based display
14 October 2014 – 10 May 2015
2015-05-10
14 October 2014 – 10 May 2015
2015-05-10
2014-10-14
Tate St Ives (St Ives, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/stives/
2014-10-14
The Modern Lens: International Photography and the Tate Collection
Exhibition
2 May 2018 – 14 October 2018
2018-10-14
2 May 2018 – 14 October 2018
2018-10-14
2018-05-02
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2018-05-02
Shape of Light: 100 Years of Photography and Abstract Art
Exhibition
14 February 2022
14 February 2022
2022-02-14
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2022-02-14
Decentring the Bauhaus
Collection based display
28 January 2025 – 21 April 2025
2025-04-21
28 January 2025 – 21 April 2025
2025-04-21
2025-01-28
Royal Academy of Arts (London, UK)
http://www.royalacademy.org.uk
2025-01-28
The Birth of Modernism in Brazil
Loan-out
Untitled (São Paulo) Composition II
image: 276 × 382 mm
Presented by the <a href="/search?gid=999999976" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">American Fund for the Tate Gallery</a>, courtesy of the Latin American Acquisitions Committee and Susana and Ricardo Steinbruch 2016
<div class="text">
<p>
<i>Untitled (São Paulo) Composition II</i> 1949 is a black and white vintage print by the Brazilian artist Geraldo de Barros. It was taken in São Paulo at a time when de Barros was creating abstract compositions out of photographs of architectural features. In this work he photographed an elaborate iron chair through a pane of textured glass. The glass distorts the image of the chair and its raking shadow, and casts a veil of horizontal lines across the composition. A related work from the same year is <i>Abstraction (São Paulo)</i> (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/barros-abstraction-sao-paulo-p14600" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P14600</span></a>), in which the textured glass and iron framework of a window provides the basis for the composition. This second work is from the series <i>Fotoformas</i> (‘photoforms’). <i>Untitled (São Paulo) Composition II</i> shows de Barros’s experimentation with both the formal and technical aspects of photography. Its subject brings together domestic architecture and abstraction.</p>
<p>The <i>Fotoformas</i> series is widely viewed as having been instrumental in introducing a new era in photography in Brazil. Made between 1949 and 1952, the <i>Fotoformas</i> are dominated by de Barros’s manipulation of the photograph through techniques such as cropping, montage and superimposition, and the varying intensity of light used, as well as its direction. The results are near-abstract compositions in which light, shade and volume are explored. The <i>Fotoformas</i> reflect the influence of Brazilian concrete art and are also closely related to the principles of abstract painting. In the brochure produced for de Barros’s exhibition ‘Fotoforma’ at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP) in 1950, curator Pietro Maria Bardi gave an account of the artist’s work:</p>
<p class="cttext">
</p><blockquote>Composition for Geraldo is a necessity, he orders it by choosing from the millions of linear segments he sees, by superimposing negative on negative, modulating the tones of his only colours: black and white, intensifying the ink … he achieves a pure language.<br/>(Bardi, trans. in <i>Geraldo de Barros: Sobras + Fotoformas</i> 2006, p.3.)</blockquote>
<p>In his ‘Fotoforma’ exhibition, de Barros experimented with combining the different registers of his photographic work, mixing more abstract <i>Fotoformas</i> with more straightforwardly architectural and urban images. He displayed them unframed, attached to poles that ran from floor to ceiling, sometimes in montages of a number of images mounted on panels, giving them a spatial presence closer to architecture or sculpture. Many of de Barros’s photographs were taken in Brazil, and for the most part in São Paulo. They capture the geometry of the modern city’s architecture and its technological and industrial forms. Such subjects embodied the optimistic post-war era in Brazil, when modernist developments were a source of fascination and pride and were having a transformative effect on Brazilian society, particularly its urban centres.</p>
<p>From 1947 de Barros frequented São Paulo’s Photo Cine Bandeirantes Club (Photo Cine Pioneers Club), one of the most prominent of the amateur photographic clubs which were largely responsible for the emergence of experimental modernist photography in Brazil. In 1947 he founded Group 15, a circle of experimental photographers. At this time he also became familiar with the photographic experiments of European and American artists such as Man Ray (1890–1976) and László Moholy Nagy (1895–1946). In 1949, he was given responsibility for the organization of the laboratory of photography of the Museu de Arte de São Paulo. It was in this environment that he began his own experimentations in the <i>Fotoformas</i>.</p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>
<i>Geraldo de Barros: Sobras + Fotoformas</i>, 2 vols., São Paulo 2006.</p>
<p>Tanya Barson<br/>November 2010</p>
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Summary
2018-03-13T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
abstraction architecture blur chair cities, towns, villages (non-UK) countries and continents distortion emotions, concepts and ideas formal qualities from recognisable sources furnishings man-made Mexico modernist natural phenomena objects periods and styles photographic places Sao Paulo shadow texture