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Individual exhibit by Valdir
Sarubbi – Drawings, paintings and reliefs.
Curatorship: Alex Cerveny.
Opening: Tuesday, November 30, 7 P.M..
Continuing the cycle of lectures and discussions on
“Brazilian Cultural Identity" in that day there will be a
roundtable discussion with Sheila Mann and Renato Rezende, at 8 P.M..
Period: from November 30, 2010 to January 15,
2011 - Monday to Friday, from 10 A.M. to 7 P.M., and
Saturday from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M..
Valdir
Sarubbi – the power of an absence
It is no simple task to write about Valdir Sarubbi; for he and his work
(both celebrated in this exhibit that is homage to the tenth
anniversary of his death) are not meant for superficialities and
labels. Besides, he and his work are confused within me, within many of
us who were his pupils, his friends, his chosen ones and who loved and
were loved by him. Above all, Sarubbi had a deep capacity of loving; he
loved generously, with profound respect for the individuality of each
pupil or friend, allowing each relationship to blossom with the same
sensitivity and care that we notice in his plastic works. His premature
death (he would not agree with this expression, he would consider it
contradictory in its terms) inaugurated a fundamental absence in the
life of his most beloved and near ones – and likewise in
Brazilian art history.
I met Valdir Sarubbi in 1980, initially as a
pupil, afterwards as a friend, in his “Free
Studio”. Brazil was just starting to breathe the freer air of
the end of the military dictatorship. And, little by little, with the
onset of democracy, a cultural, intellectual and more articulate and
institutionally organized life was regaining space in this country. In
the visual arts, resistance strategies and conceptual experiences of
artists like Cildo Meireles, Antônio Manuel, Barrio and
others gave way to the euphoria and big gestures of the so-called
Generation of the 80s. As tends to occur in countries that are still
being formed, with no strong philosophical tradition and additionally
subject to totalitarian leftovers, the artistic tendencies of the 70s
and those of the 80s had something of a “movement”,
something dogmatic – an agenda extraneous to the plastic work
itself. This becomes evident, for instance, in Brígida
Baltar’s testimony on the beginning of his career:
“There (in Parque Lage) I found a pre-scenario –
How are you generation of the 80s? and the stimuli were for as much
gesture and color possible. I suffered a lot, trying to identify with
this path, ‘releasing’ forms, while still using
color pencils, but the drawings were of a misplaced subtlety. I strived
tirelessly to arrive to that kind of gesture, as if there were one and
only right direction to be followed. “
There is nothing more distant from Valdir
Sarubbi, both the person and his work, than such totalitarian, imposing
or militant movements (no matter if we agree or not with the principles
and values of such militancy). Extremely aware of what it is to be an
artist and how a sensitive artistic language is developed, Sarubbi
himself makes it extremely clear, on several occasions: “What
is important to me is not the artist’s commitment to specific
tendencies or movements, but the open vision of one who watches a work
of art in order to appreciate it in whatever it presents that is
sensitive, heedless of its form. What is important to me is that the
art made by the artist be a reflection of him, and not a dubbing of
some artistic tendency orchestrated by the media, or a simple
illustration of contemporary artistic theories. The creative process of
the artist is very important, and it follows the artist’s
growth as a human being. No burning steps, no hurry to reach success.
This growth is reflected in the maturity of his work.” (2)
A decade has gone by since his death, and we note that Brazil has not
yet been capable of deserving an artist of Valdir Sarubbi’s
stature. If his memory continues pulsating inside each one of us
– his friends – as acquired gestures, memories and
affections (for instance, there are numberless objects that I still
keep, from the times of Atelier Livre, and they lead me directly to the
presence of Valdir and his sound lessons), the absence of his name in
art guides and retrospectives that have been promoted these last years
in a Brazil already consistently democratic and economically thriving,
is an eloquent reminder of how much we still have to mature as a
nation.
We still have not been capable of
assimilating a work disengaged from the mainstream and meant to lead
plastic language to high levels of complexity and sophistication. Like
very few, Valdir Sarubbi’s work, though never drifting away
from the rigor of a refined and intuitive sensitivity, constitutes a
thought. There is an inquiring quality, almost obsessive, in series
such as Labyrinthic Meditation and Olden Owners of the Arrows, as if
there were a search, an intricate mapping of memories and affections
(that do not search to be resolved, but are content to be revealed,
discovered, elaborated) It is not by chance that the river, with its
depths, shadows and meanderings, appears as one of his strongest
metaphors. It is almost symptomatic that memory has been one of the
most recurrent themes of Valdir Sarubbi’s work. His latest
canvases, full of lightness and light, evidence his faith in human
spirit – a spirit he recognized and cultivated in himself and
in all those who had the privilege of sharing his life.
Notes:
1 Baltar, Brígida. Passagem Secreta (org. Márcio
Doctors). Rio de Janeiro: Funarte/Circuito, 2010.
2. Bittar, Rosana. Sarubbi. Belém: Estacon, 2002.
Renato Rezende
Translation: Marina Tschiptschin Francisco
For the
official site of Valdir Sarubbi: click here
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