The Universe of Oswaldo Goeldi

The oeuvre of Oswaldo Goeldi impresses by the amplitude and deepness of the questions it presents. Men that roam through the dark surfaces of the urban scene, fishermen that work in extreme conditions, the sea as a frequent scenery, unknown characters that deep down can’t hide a feeling of mystery and solitude.

The gallery Bergamin & Gomide presents the exhibition “O Universo de Oswaldo Goeldi”. There will be shown 35 works by the artist that became an international reference in the field of printmaking. Instead of displaying his art in a chronological, thematic or formalist way, the pieces in the exhibition follow a sequential association that happen in a fluid and subjective form. Amongst the selected pieces (woodcuts, drawings and watercolors) are those related to the most pronounced themes of his work: solitude, ordinary lives of fishermen and urban men.

Printmaker, illustrator and professor, Goeldi (Rio de Janeiro, 1895 – 1961) exhibited his work at the 25th Venice Biennia in 1950 and was awarded the Prize of Printmaking at the first São Paulo International Biennial, in 1951. His pieces have participated in more than a hundred post-mortem exhibitions in Brazil, Argentina, France, Portugal, Switzerland and Spain. Today, Goeldi is worshiped in the art world and his works are a reference in the field of printmaking around the world.

It was in 1923 that he started experimenting with woodcutting with the ambition of “imposing a discipline to the drawings that made him digress”. As a statement to the critic and poet Ferreira Gullar (1930), he says he felt “the need to control these deviations”.