With a solid academic background in Belgium and France, he stood out as one of the pioneers of abstractionism in Brazil. He began his career with figurative paintings in a Cubist style, in which decomposed forms and delimited fields of color structure dramatic compositions, as in his series on the Passion of the Christ. Based in São Paulo from 1948 onwards, he transitioned to geometric abstraction, marked by constructive rigor, dynamic planes, and chromatic tensions, and later to the lyrical abstraction of organic forms, in which color, rhythm, and gesture predominate. In São Paulo, in 1951, he founded the Atelier-Abstração, an independent space dedicated to the research and teaching of geometric abstract art, which trained a generation of artists. He had a long relationship with the MAM São Paulo, where he participated in the inaugural exhibition. From Figurativism to Abstractionism (1949) and several collective and individual exhibitions, culminating in the major retrospective Samson Flexor: beyond modern (2022)
O Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo gets the exposure Samson Flexor: beyond modern, starting on January 22, 2022. Known as one of the pioneers of abstraction in Brazil, Flexor actively participated in this important movement for the renewal of visual arts in the country in the 1950s. His contribution to geometric abstraction, both in his performance as an artist and as a master of a new generation in her Ateliê Absição in the 1950s, she is widely recognized by critics. However, his later developments, characterized by lyrical or informal abstraction and a return to figuration in the last five years of his life, remain little known to the public.
According to the curator Kiki Mazzucchelli, “is the first exhibition that focuses on the development of Flexor’s work from 1957 onwards, when he began to reject static forms in paintings where gesture, opacity and transparency gradually predominate.” The exhibition aims to bring to light the late work of Samson Flexor, which marks his transition from modern to contemporary by confronting ethical and aesthetic issues of his time.
It is made up of almost a hundred works dated between the years 1922 and 1970. It includes paintings known in the artist's career as Baroque Abstraction n.2 (1949), which combines the geometrization of the figure and the Brazilian theme; At the foot of the cross (1948), painting originally exhibited at the MAM Sao Paulo, in 1950, and which approaches total abstraction; It is Back and forth diagonally in three squares (1954), a painting from the pure abstraction phase in which he explores crossed diagonals and creates a movement accentuated by chromatic contrasts.
Kiki Mazzucchelli
curator
Samson Flexor
View of the exhibition "Samson Flexor: beyond the modern", in the Milú Vilela room at MAM São Paulo. Photo: Karina Bacci
View of the exhibition "Samson Flexor: beyond the modern", in the Milú Vilela room at MAM São Paulo. Photo: Karina Bacci
View of the exhibition "Samson Flexor: beyond the modern", in the Milú Vilela room at MAM São Paulo. Photo: Karina Bacci
View of the exhibition "Samson Flexor: beyond the modern", in the Milú Vilela room at MAM São Paulo. Photo: Karina Bacci
View of the exhibition "Samson Flexor: beyond the modern", in the Milú Vilela room at MAM São Paulo. Photo: Karina Bacci
View of the exhibition "Samson Flexor: beyond the modern", in the Milú Vilela room at MAM São Paulo. Photo: Karina Bacci
Samson Flexor: beyond modern
| Curatorship: | Kiki Mazzucchelli |
| Exhibition period: | January 22nd until June 26th, 2022 |
| Location: | Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo |
| Address: | Ibirapuera Park (Av. Pedro Álvares Cabral, s/nº - Gates 1 and 3) |
| Opening Hours | Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 18pm (last entry at 17:30pm) |
| Phone: | (11) 5085-1300 |
| Entrance: | R$25,00 in full. Free on Sundays. Advance booking required. |
Half price for students, with identification; low-income young people and the elderly (+60). Free for children under 10 years old; people with disabilities and companions; teachers and directors from the state and municipal public schools of SP, with identification; MAM members and students; employees of partner companies and museums; members of ICOM, AICA and ABCA, with identification; employees of SPTuris and employees of the Municipal Department of Culture.