São Paulo, Brasil
11/12/2018 - 08/02/2019

as the italian painters of the quattrocento, the artist josé de souza oliveira filho took the name of his birthplace, a city called macaparana, as his own. despite the fact that this musical name was given him by his friend, the artist antonio maluf, and the art historian pietro maria bardi, director and founder of the masp (art museum of são paulo), macaparana has remained faithful to his origins, as a tailor’s son. the strong sense of space and mental construction that permeates his work, as firm as the plans of a garment pattern, has at its starting point materials such as paper and cardboard, his favorite supports, and makes reference, yet again, to his origins: the artist’s grandfather was a cardboard suitcase manufacturer.

over the years, macaparana developed a work that frees itself from the second dimension in order to become a metal sculpture, or develops itself into large painted wooden panels that are cut, grooved and perforated, occupying museum and gallery walls.

when i launched the challenge to macaparana of working on a series of large format drawings paying homage to artists who have accompanied him throughout his life, something he had never done before, he replied without any hesitation: “fantastic!”.

i followed: “and we could accompany this new series of drawings with some representative pieces of your personal collection. artists such as josef albers, jean arp, almir mavignier, max bill, willys de castro, as well as pre-columbian ceramics from moche and chimu cultures, that interact with your work in terms of their formal qualities. the project is on its way”.

by gathering a series of never before exhibited drawings, which focuses on forty years of his practice on paper, and confronting it to works by artists who inspired the work of macaparana, this exhibition proposes a break in the career of the artist: a particular moment when we are invited to question certain transmissions. not only what an artist transmits to another artist, but also what the artist transmits to the world.

franck-james marlot

curator

paris, april 2018