Tapestry artist Genaro de Carvalho, 1965/Courtesy Passado Composto Gallery, São Paulo
Brazil’s greatest mid-century modern tapestry artist is on view at “Genaro e a Luz da Bahia” (Genaro and the Light of Bahia) at Galeria Passado Composto Século XX in São Paulo. This rare exhibition displays a selection dated from 1950 to 1971 of fourteen museum-quality wool tapestries, fifteen paintings and seven drawings by Genaro de Carvalho (1926-1971), the artist known simply as Genaro, admired for his vividly exuberant, graphic-inspired iconography.
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- Genaro de Carvalho, “The White Moth,” about 1968, Woolen tapestry woven on high warp handloom by Nair de Carvalho, 141 x 184 h cm./Courtesy Passado Composto Gallery, São Paulo
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- Genaro de Carvalho, “Summer Inside Out,” about 1966, Woolen tapestry woven on high warp handloom with loose threads on the reverse side, 128 x 156 cm./Courtesy Passado Composto Gallery, São Paulo
After two-decades of skyrocketing success, Genaro’s joyful artwork fell out of favor in the early 1970s, replaced by a Brazilian version of Pop Art and works rooted in Italy’s Arte Povera with strong political overtones (see “AI-5 50 Years: It still isn’t over yet” at Instituto Tomie Ohtake in 2018). The onset of his revival began in two museum retrospectives in his native town of Salvador, Bahia: in 1991 at the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia (MAM-BA), and in 2010 at the Bahia Museum of Art (MAB). This 2010 show was organized by the artist’s widow and estate’s administrator, Nair de Carvalho, under the curatorship of Mexican Alejandra Munõz. Two years later, Munõz curated the exhibition “Artists of Modern Tapestry,” the first midcentury tapestry art show at Passado Composto gallery.
Genaro de Carvalho, “Veranda Flower Beds,” about 1966, 152 x 172 cm. On view in three cities in the United States in 2023
Three works by Genaro, on loan by the gallery, are currently displayed in the United States at “Black Orpheus: Jacob…
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