In this text, Olívio Tavares de Araújo presents the retrospective exhibition of Luiz Paulo Baravelli. While the basis for Baravelli’s proposal is coherent and free, Tavares de Araújo acknowledges the importance of intuition in its formulation. Baravelli is first and foremost a painter. While he does not question the work of art as such, he is at the forefront of a strain of resistance that perceives the imminent decline of the avant-garde (and of avant-gardism). Baravelli’s works address daily life; they are based on drawings made from direct observation. Tavares de Araújo argues that Baravelli embraces the complex intention behind humor. The range of elements that the artist processes and appropriates, some of them pertinent to the representation of reality, is striking. Tavares de Araújo argues that Baravelli’s work could well have been included in the exhibition Imagens de segunda geração [Second Generation Images] organized by Tadeu Chiarelli. In this text, Tavares de Araújo analyzes how Baravelli breaks the rectangular pictorial support and eschews representation for the sake of the autonomy of painting. It is evident that a whole system, project of self-expression or the invention of language lies at the basis of each work.

In this text, Olívio Tavares de Araújo discusses the virtues of the work of Luiz Paulo Baravelli, who unlike other disciples of Wesley Duke Lee, provided a point of reference for a new generation of artists, yet he was largely written off as a commercial artist. Tavares de Araújo specifically addresses the exhibition Partes do Todo, which took place at the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo in 1987, while the exhibition Partes de Agora, organized by Tavares de Araújo, was simultaneously held at the Galeria de Arte São Paulo.

A draftsman, painter, and printmaker, Luiz Paulo Baravelli (b. 1942), along with Carlos Fajardo and Rosé Resende who were fellow students of Wesley Duke Lee, created the Escola Brasil, an institute for instruction in art, in the early seventies. He was also the editor of the magazine Arte em São Paulo.

Olívio Tavares de Araújo is a journalist, art critic, and a filmmaker who has produced over thirty short films. In the seventies, he was the editor of visual arts and classical music for the magazine Veja which was distributed widely throughout Brazil. He is currently an art critic for the magazine Isto É.The various exhibitions he has curated focus on Italian-born artist Alfredo Volpi (1896–1988) and his books include Volpi: a construção da catedral (São Paulo: Museu de Arte Moderna, 1981) and Dois estudos sobre Volpi (Rio de Janeiro: FUNARTE, 1986).

For a related text, see Olívio Tavares de Araújo’s “Novos pintores à paulista” [doc. no. 1111350].