Gerda Brentani
Defining art:
" What is art? Difficult question. It is so much.
Art shows that paradise was not lost.
Art is the absolute asylum for those who run away from sorrows,
the uglinesses, the uncertainties, the horrors, the boredom,
from the emptiness of this world.
Art points out, accuses falsehood.
Decants, exalts, unravels the truth.
It is prophetic in the exasperated sensitivity of some,
ethereal in the purity of others.
It is to the spirit what oxygen is to the body.
I can't say it better."
Gerda Brentani
WORKS
Trieste
1952, India ink
and watercolor on paper,
54.5 x 37 cm
Breaking conventions
Candomble,
50's, ink on paper,
63.2 x 48.3 cm
1973, strong water, red water and dry tip,
74.3 x 52.7 cm
Beasts
Geometric Snake,
1961, ink on paper,
49.9 x 34.7 cm
1967, ink on paper,
35 x 69.5 cm
Machines and Beasts
Cobra,
1976, colored ink on paper,
62 x 47 cm
60's, engraving on metal,
17.5 x 15.5 cm
Miths and Heroes
Saint George,
1972, ink and gouache on paper,
47 x 32.5 cm
1980, ink and gouache on paper,
69 x 79 cm
Caos and Restart
Ocher chaos,
1994, ink and gouache on paper,
70 x 50 cm
Gerda, generous of genres, gestures and graces
The future, as well as artistic creation, is the result of life, the daily lives of people and societies. From what they experience, they desire, they create in response to that desire.
The creation both reflects and transforms the time in which it happens, creating a cycle where it is at the same time the daughter and mother of the time in which it is inserted, as Kandinsky says.
The Grace of a Serious Century connects the life of a great creator, Gerda Brentani (that genius, dear and multiple person whom I have the privilege to call grandmother, nonette) to the century in which she lived. It is clear that Gerdinha is the daughter of the creative soup where she grew up, in the effervescence of Viena and Trieste of the intense 20s and 30s. It is clear that she is the mother (one of...) of the creative soup that would result in the creation of key elements for the development of our arts and our cultural life between the 40s and 60s.
Life and work of this fabulous grandmother were the translation of words that remain as a legacy of the 20th century but were not yet used in her time: diversity, transdisciplinarity, inclusion, ecology, multimedia. All this was already present in her work, which includes: texts and books for children; caricatures that make a scathing criticism of our daily lives; drawings and engravings of Brazilian animals; fantastic beings and machines that reflect both their own mythology and the various myths that make up our imagination; registration of houses doomed to disappear to make way for buildings; collages that play with concepts as well as materials, etc, etc.
His work is generous both in the variety of genres and in the loving way of seeing life and its characters, and also for that reason it has a holographic character: from it we can have a vision of the concerns and themes of the 20th century, so intense and transforming .
Realizing that it is the line between life, work and history that draws the world, it is clear how much it is up to us to continue to create "creative soups" that allow the future to be increasingly beautiful, diverse, abundant and fun like Gerda's work . Like Gerda herself.
Nothing can express the gratitude, joy and privilege of having been raised in this generous nutritious soup that was the company and creativity of our grandmother, dear nonette, Gerdinha. But we hope that this exhibition shares its flavors, reflects a little of our enormous love for her and her for the world and its people.
Lala Deheinzelin
