Gretta Sarfaty

Audio commentary

Gretta Sarfarty was born in Greece but moved to São Paulo as a young girl.  Her work has recently been rediscovered, along with many other women artists of the 1970s. Her photos and performances often focus on the expressive possibilities of the human figure.  In this work we see a sequence of corporeal gestures whose meaning remains ambiguous and poetic.

Central Galeria

Trabalhos do corpo II

Academic

collector

Curator

gallerist

Miguel Rio Branco

We start with one of several images of legs, this one by the veteran Miguel Rio Branco.  Rio Branco's work explores the underbelly of society, the sectors that many refuse to look at, and presents us with a sensual beauty, often fused with melancholy and drama.

Silvia Cintra + Box 4

Meias listradas

Christian Cravo

I really love the relaxed dynamism of this work by Christian Cravo.  To me it has almost a bossa nova vibe in the syncopated rhythms of the legs and the shadows.  We don't see the faces, but we can imagine the smiles.

Galeria Paulo Darzé

Sem título, from the series "Bahia - Salvador"

Alair Gomes

Remaining on the beach theme, we have this powerful image by Alair Gomes, an artist who expressed his homoerotic desires by photographing male bodies working out on the beach, from a distance with a telephoto lens. 

Galeria Mapa

Pierre Verger

Pierre Verger was a photographer and anthropologist who famously documented the African diaspora, especially in Salvador, Brazil.  His deep immersion in the cultures and religions of the North East led to a remarkable body of work, of which this is an excellent example, being both intimate and public.

Almeida e Dale

African Girl

Milton Montenegro

The title of this series "Depois daquele beijo" (After That Kiss) is the Brazilian title of Michelangelo Antonioni's classic 1966 movie "Blow Up".  In that movie the evidence for a murder is discovered by blowing up a photo still and finding evidence in the film grain.  I love how this 'blown up' image is full of mystery and tension.

Carcara Photo Art

Blow up from the series "Blow Up"

Mitsy Queiroz

This gesture, which means different things in different cultures, is decontextualized by the overexposure on the right side.  It is part of a series in which Queiroz explores materials and gestures, in an attempt to create a more poetic and evocative vocabulary of gestures.

Nacional Trovoa

Bolsas das aguas

Bob Wolfenson

This iconic portrait of the actress Fernanda Torres by Bob Wolfenson shows extensive water damage as a result of a devastating flood in his studio this year.  I admire how he chose to accept and absorb the effects of this accident into his work, and it creates an interesting contrast between the beauty and perfection of the model, and the fragility of the material and the world it lives in.  A contemporary vanitas perhaps.

Galeria Millan

Sub/emerso (Sub/emerged), Fernanda Torres

Claudia Andujar

Claudia Andujar's portraits of the Yanomami are justly recognised for their political and cultural importance.  I was drawn to the intimacy of these scene, and the tight contact of the bodies against the dark background.  The faces are invisible, so all the emotion is communicated through the hug and the gesture.

Clube de fotografia MAM-SP

Yanomami from the series "A casa"

Gertrudes Altschul

Gertrudes Altschul was born in Germany but moved to Brazil as an exile, as did many other artists and creative people.  She was associated with the Cine Clube Bandeirantes, one of the most important modern art associations, and the subject of a forthcoming exhibition at MoMA.  I was drawn to the contrast between the industrial forms and the intimate, domestic, objects

Isabel Amado Fotografia

Composição

In my selection for SP Arte, I found myself drawn to works that reflect intimacy and mystery in equal measure.  Many of the works here present fragments that invite us to complete a partial narrative, using our imaginations as an active element.	

SP-Foto | The Intimacy of Form

SP-Foto | The Intimacy of Form