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amelia toledo: 1958–2007
curated by luis pérez-oramas
nara roesler new york
february 25 – april 17, 2021 -
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Amelia Toledo (1926–2017) is a leading figure of Brazilian art in the twentieth century, with a career spanning over five decades, marked by distinctive engagements with constructive sculptural experimentations, that subsequently unfolded into iconic entwinements between art and nature. Toledo was first introduced to the field of visual arts at the end of the 1930s as she began frequenting the studio of Brazilian modernist landmark artist Anita Malfatti (1889–1964), after which she studied under the guidance of Yoshiya Takaoka (1909–1978) and Waldemar da Costa (1904–1982).
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Throughout her career, Toledo made use of several media and techniques, including painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, installations, and metalsmith/jewelry design, always focusing on the use of materials and faktura. Her work was initially aligned with constructivist research, echoing notions of Neoconcretism and the characteristic preoccupations of the 1960s, with an interest for public participation, as well as for the entwinement of art and life. She developed her multifaceted oeuvre in permanent and mutually enriching interlocution with other artists of her generation including Mira Schendel, Tomie Ohtake, Helio Oiticica and Lygia Pape.
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From Campo de cor series, 2000's
acrylic paint on linen
200 x 690,7 x 3,7 cm | 78.7 x 271.9 x 1.5 in
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Plane-Volume I, 1959/1999
cut and bent copper sheet
30 x 22 x 12 cm | 11.8 x 8.7 x 4.7 in
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Singing dragon, 2007
perforated sound stone on concrete column
140 x 30 x 36 cm | 55.1 x 11.8 x 14.2 in
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Also from her early works, the exhibition presents some of the collages that Amelia Toledo started in 1958, while she was living in London. An experiment with the transparency of silk and rice paper, some of these collages are impregnated with beeswax granting the pieces a special thickness, making them almost sculptural.
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Collage, 1958
dyed rice paper and silk paper impregnated with beeswax
45,5 x 42,5 cm | 17.9 x 16.7 in
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Paths of color, 1999–2020
38 pieces of painted jute
261 x 450 x 450 cm | 102.8 x 177.2 x 177.2 in
The striking and colorful Penetrable highlights Toledo’s ‘natural’ approach to painting, using raw canvases and rough organic pigments on jute, creating a physically penetrable mass of color, revealing the malleable nature of the support, as well as a repertoire of transparency.
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In 1975, the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (MAM Rio) held Emergências (1975), a solo exhibition showcasing Toledo’s recent works. The artist presented a series of sculptures molded from the human body, displaying hands, mouths, ears, and feet, both in groups, and individually.
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The walls have ears, 1973
molding in polyester resin with pigmentØ 6,9 x 2,8 cm | Ø 2.7 x 1.1 in
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Emergencies, 1975
stamp paint on newspaper
58,5 x 38 cm | 23 x 15 in
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Ultimately, Toledo’s signature achievements are driven by her focus on nature, implying her investigations on the concept of landscape, engaging with stones and shells, among other natural elements, which she collected compulsively and included in her work. Challenged by these materials, Amelia Toledo pursued her career as both an artist and an engineer, envisaging the possibility of an ecological concretism.
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Periscópio, 1976
mold of shell in polyester resin, exposed to the action of the sea with the formation of barnacles and bryozoa; on concrete column, covered with acrylic dome
11,5 x 13,3 x 1,8 cm | 4.5 x 5.2 x 0.7 in
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Path of colors from the dark, 2001
green fuchsite
18 pieces of variable dimensions
In works like Path of Colors from the Dark (2001), the artist uses stones to investigate color, brightness, transparency, and the various shapes of the Earth’s ‘flesh’. She was able to create compositions in which pieces collected from the dark depths of natural settings are placed in various arrangements, including dialogues with ‘modern’ materials, such as stainless steel. The rocks were not subject to any treatment that would change their original form, but were merely polished to reveal their internal designs, the delicate veins, revealing their temporality.
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Wisp, undated
linen and cotton pulp paper
60 x 23 cm | 23.6 x 9.1 in
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Yo-Yo, 1968/2017
polyester resin and partially embedded steel spring
Ø 13 x 80 in | Ø 5.1 x 31.5 in
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amelia toledo
b. são paulo, brazil, 1926
d. cotia, brazil, 2017Amelia Toledo began studying visual arts at the end of the 1930s, as she began to frequent Anita Malfatti’s studio. During the following decade, she continued her studies with Yoshiya Takaoka and Waldemar da Costa.
In 1948, she started working as a project designer for the architecture studio Vilanova Artigas. Her contact with iconic figures of Brazilian Modern Art encouraged her to develop a multifaceted oeuvre, which entwines diverse artistic languages such as sculpture, painting and print making. According to curator Marcus Lontra, ‘the wealth of Amelia’s work comes close to that of silence: to understand her production, it is first necessary to understand that the half empty part of a glass is as important as its full counterpart.
We are only able to communicate because of the existence of emptiness, silence, the breath between two words, between two sentences. Amélia Toledo invests in and investigates that space, that moment, that passage.’Starting in the 1970s, the artist’s production abandoned its constructive grammar—characterized by geometric elements and curves—, turning instead to organic shapes. Toledo began to collect various materials, such as shells and stones, which served as sources of inspiration, and on which she also performed punctual interventions. Quickly, the landscape took on a fundamental role in her practice as she began to incorporate it in her works; notably, her steel sculptures play with the environment creating optical illusions through reflection. In parallel, Toledo’s paintings took on monochromatic characteristics, revealing her interest for investigating color and its behavior.
Amelia Toledo, photo: Henry Stahl
selected solo exhibitions
• Amelia Toledo – Lembrei que esqueci, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil
(CCBB-SP), São Paulo, Brazil (2017)
• Amelia Toledo, Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil (2009)
• Novo olhar, Museu Oscar Niemeyer, Curitiba, Brazil (2007)
• Entre, a obra está aberta, Museu de Arte de Santa Catarina (MASC),
Florianópolis, Brazil (2006)
• Viagem ao coração da matéria, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo,
Brazil (2004)selected group exhibitions
• Modos de ver o Brasil: Itaú Cultural 30 anos, Oca, São Paulo, Brazil (2017)
• 10th Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2015)
• 30x Bienal: Transformações na arte brasileira da 1ª à 30ª edição, Fundação
Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil (2013)
• Um ponto de ironia, Fundação Vera Chaves Barcellos, Viamão, Brazil (2011)
• Brasiliana MASP: Moderna contemporânea, Museu de Arte de São Paulo
(MASP), São Paulo, Brazil (2006)
selected collections
• Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal
• Instituto Itaú Cultural, São Paulo, Brazil
• Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (MAM-SP), São Paulo, Brazil
• Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP), São Paulo, Brazil
• Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
![Emergences/Emergencies [Emergências], 1975 | Museological Object [Objeto Museológico] (molding in fiberglass and dust, 15 x 100 x 200 cm) and Counterbody [Contracorpo] at the Rio de Janeiro Museum of Modern Art (MAM-RJ) | photo: Mo Toledo](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_2400,h_2400,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto/ws-artlogicwebsite0088/usr/library/images/main/feature_panels/1064/at_molde-01.jpg)
![Emergences/Emergencies [Emergências], 1975 Museological Object [Objeto Museológico] (molding in fiberglass and dust, 15 x 100 x 200 cm) and Counterbody [Contracorpo] (molding in pressed newsprint, 200 x 100 x 50 cm) at the Rio de Janeiro Museum of Modern Art (MAM-RJ); Artist’s collection | photo: Mo Toledo](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_2400,h_2400,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto/ws-artlogicwebsite0088/usr/library/images/main/feature_panels/1064/216e04-01.jpg)
![Crossroads [Encruzilhada], 1975 Floor panel in concrete | 20 x 300 x 300 cm Collection Rio de Janeiro Museum of Modern Art (MAM-RJ) | photo: Mo Toledo](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_2400,h_2400,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto/ws-artlogicwebsite0088/usr/library/images/main/feature_panels/1064/whatsapp-image-2021-03-04-at-13.14.56.jpeg)
![Emergences/Emergencies [Emergências], 1975 Alair Gomes looks at the panel Reunion [Reunião] Rio de Janeiro Museum of Modern Art (MAM-RJ) | photo: Mo Toledo](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_2400,h_2400,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto/ws-artlogicwebsite0088/usr/library/images/main/feature_panels/1064/amelia-1975.jpg)
![Emergences/Emergencies [Emergências], 1975 Mo Toledo with molding of the mouth of Paulo Herkenhoff | photo: Henry Stahl](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_2400,h_2400,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto/ws-artlogicwebsite0088/usr/library/images/main/feature_panels/1064/mo_boca-01.jpg)
![The experimentation with the medium’s materiality would lead the artist to create the Fiapos [Wisps] series in the 1980s, in...](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_620,h_620,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto/ws-artlogicwebsite0088/usr/images/artworks/main_image/items/38/3822622d4ceb4a3d9ff569423994020d/45493_at_erikamayumi_high-1.jpg)
