Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Artist of the day, July 24: Franz Weissmann, a Brazilian sculptor (#753)

Franz Josef Weissmann (1911 – 2005) was a Brazilian sculptor born in Austria, emigrating to Brazil while he was eleven years old. Geometric shapes, like cubes and squares, are strongly featured in his works. He was one of the founders of the Neo-Concrete Movement.

 In Rio de Janeiro, between 1939 and 1941, he attended architecture, painting, drawing and sculpture classes at the National School of Fine Arts. From 1942 to 1944, he studied drawing, sculpture, modeling and foundry with August Zamoyski. In 1945, he moved to Belo Horizonte where he taught drawing and sculpture in private classes. Three years later, Alberto da Veiga Guignard invited him to teach at the "Escola do Parque", later renamed Escola Guignard.

Starting from 1950 onwards, he gradually developed a constructivist style, favoring geometric shapes, cutting and folding sheets of iron, steel wires and aluminum. He joined Grupo Frente, in 1955. The next year, he returned to Rio de Janeiro and participated in the National Exposition of Concrete Art in 1957. In 1959 Weissmann traveled to Europe and East Asia, returning to Brazil in 1965.

In the 1960s, Weissmann exhibits the series of sculptures Amassados (Dented), which he created in Europe with hammered zinc and aluminum sheets, aligning himself briefly to informalism. Later on he returned to the constructivist works. In 1970 he won the award for best sculptor by the Brazilian Association of Art Critics and participated in the International Outdoor Sculpture Biennial, in Antwerp, Belgium, and at the Venice Biennale.

Weissmann made several public art sculptures for Brazilian cities, like at Praça da Sé, in São Paulo and at Parque da Catacumba, in Rio de Janeiro. He kept studios in Belo Horizonte (1950); Madrid, (1962) and Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro (1956 and 1965).

© 2019. All images are copyrighted © by Franz Weissmann or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only.



Mr Franz Weissmann

1951, Cubo em cantoneiras

1953, Composition with Semicircles

1954, Two virtual linear cubes

1957, Coluna neoconcreta

1958, Ponte

1958, Terra

1958-78, Espaço circular em cubo virtual

1969, Estructura

1970, Entitled

1975, Cantoneiras

1975, Cantoneiras

1975, Sem título

1977, Coluna média em cantoneiras diagonais

1978, Estrutura em diagonal

1979, Diálogo

1979, Diálogo

1980, Lâmina larga em torção no espaço

1984, Terra

1985, Encontro

1985, Grande quadrado preto com fita

1985, Quadrado em torção no espaço

1986, Escultura

1986, Escultura

1986, Flor de Aço

1986, Flor de Aço, and Portal

1986, Untitled

1986, Untitled

1989, Grande Flor Tropical

1992, no espaço

1994,  Mondriama

1996, Leaked Rectangle

2008, Manoel Macedo Galeria de Arte

2008, Sem Título

Blue Cube

Vista traseira do monumento Grande Flor Tropical








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