GTO (Geraldo Teles de Oliveira)

1913, Itapecerica | MG – 1990, Divinópolis | MG

Master of a universal language, Geraldo Teles de Oliveira – G.T.O. – uses only the human figure in a schematic and repeated form, jointly with circular and rectangular geometric symbols, to build the image of himself in the large metaphysical construction of his sculpture. His work is organized on the vertical or in the middle of a circle. The plurality of his figures eventually built well-balanced formally united images. In G.T.O.’s Rodas Vivas the center is normally suggested but almost never configured, similar to oriental mandalas. In Mitopoética de nove brasileiros (1975), I also noticed the emulation between abstract and figurative in the construction of his plastic language. The multiple figures result in a single mesh that dissolves them in a pattern of filled and empty spaces. In the blocks formed by the figures, the extremities – hands, feets, and heads – touch the human network to form endless links. The open hand, or touching another figure, is the main link between the bodies. Beards and hair are associated with this connotation of spirituality and irradiate energy. G.T.O. told me about on figure: “This is Jesus Christ, bringing the people in his beard”. The hat, besides being a sign of manhood, accentuates the importance of the head and, by extension, thought. His shoes, in addition to their phallic significance, also represent the point of human contact with the earth. They are on a level crossing, and are also connecting points between human modules. The head, also a symbol of manhood in medieval art with which G.T.O.’s art has a natural affinity is an emblem of the mind and spiritual life. The inverted human figure, also inhabiting Rodas Vivas, shows the ambivalence of the opposites, placed above and below a horizontal axis. The phenomenon world is then a process of perpetual inversion: war/peace, paradise/hell. G.T.O. said: “I put everything into my art, good and bad, bad and good, because it has everything”. The sun, the moon, the rod and arrow also appear in his work alongside the dominant human. Indians appear in a very favorable light to the artist’s caboclo view – grandson of Aimoré Indian woman. “I made an Indian because I’m also from the same race”. They are portrayed with feathers radiating from their head. They help destroy prehistoric monsters like the Tarantula, and are on the side of order: “Here the people are building a church and the Indian is helping”. The idea of solidarity in communal work is very common in G.T.O.’s sculpture when he links the figures together. An encounter, meeting, festival, collective celebration also, seen clearly in the names he gives to several of his works: Dança de reinado, Our Lady of the Rosary Festivals, Our Lady of Mercês, Our Lady of Aparecida, of Bom Jesus. Sometimes what he calls epiphany festivals reminds us of congado dances , from the description made by the artist of “bells” on the revelers’ legs. Clarival do Prado Valladares (1977) discovered in his work features that can be identified with African and especially Nigerian carved relief and took it to the 1977 Lagos Festival. His first work was the outcome of a dream he had in 1965, and since then he considers sculpture a divine legacy and mission. G.T.O. spent his childhood and youth in Divinópolis, in the state of Minas Gerais. When he was 28 years old, he moved as a molder, tinsmith and caster. On his return to Divinópolis, in 1951, he got a job as a night watchman in São José hospital where he was admitted for health care. At the request of the priest, he carved an image for the Church of Bom Jesus, near his home. G.T.O.’s work was revealed by an architect from Minas Gerais and soon sold by art galleries. His excellence was already a national unanimity by the end of the 1960s. He participated in various collective exhibitions in American and European countries, and was nominated for the 1969 and 1971 São Paulo Biennials. In 1973 he took part in a major exhibition about Brazil in Brussels and then in Paris. He is part of Entre Dois Séculos, by Roberto Pontual (1987), a summary of Brazilian 20^th century art in the Gilberto Chateaubriand collection. Works by him are found in the main popular art museums in Brazil. A family workshop was created around him, very common in the popular environment where an outstanding artist appears, and where his son Mário Teles and grandson Geraldo Fernandes de Oliveira make sculptures with different elements from those of their father and grandfather. 

Source: Little Dictionary of the Brazilian People’s Art – 20th Century, by anthropologist and poet Lélia Coelho Frota

Individual Exhibition:

1995 Five Years Without New G.T.O Dreams, Galeria Paulo Campos Guimarães, Belo Horizonte, MG

1987 GTO: twenty years of dreams, Museu Histórico, Rio de Janeiro, RJ

1987 GTO: twenty years of dreams, Museu Histórico, Divinópolis, MG

1968 Galeria do Copacabana Palace, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

1967 Galeria Guignard, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil

Collective Exhibition:

2021 They Were Already Here, Galeria Base, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2020-2021 Highlight, Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

2016 Between looks: poetics of the Brazilian soul, Museu Afro-Brasil, São Paulo

2012 – 2013 Janete Costa “The Look”, Museu Janete Costa, Niterói, RJ

2012 Minas Gerais Scultors, Câmara Municipal - Espaço Cultural Eduardo Gomes – Itapeva, SP

2011 Minas Gerais Scultors, Museu Paulo Setubal, Tatuí, SP

2011 Minas Gerais Scultors, Taisa Palhares, Galeria Estação, São Paulo, SP

2010 Pure Blends, Pavilhão de Culturas Brasileiras - Portão 10 - Pq. Ibirapuera

2007 The size of Brazil - Mostra de Arte Popular, SESC Paulista, Curador Janete Costa

2007 Encounter between the seas - Bienal de São Paulo- Valencia, Convento del Carmo, Valencia, Spain

2006 – 2007 Live the cultura live the Brazilian people, Museu AfroBrasil, São Paulo, SP

2006 WE ARE – the Brazilian’s folks creations, Centro Cultural Santander - Porto Alegre, RS

2005 Brazilian, brazilians, Museu Afro Brasil, São Paulo, SP

2004 Brazil: 100 years of modern art, MNBA – Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Rio de Janeiro, RJ

2004-2005 Forms, Colour and Expression, Galeria Estação, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2002 Pop Brazil: brazilian outsider art, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (CCBB), São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2001 Primitives and Naifs: homage to ZIzi Sapateiro, Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte

2001 Popular Expression, Centro Cultural Light, São Paulo, SP

2001 Brazil: body and soul, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Nova York, Estados Unidos

2000 Brazil + 500 Rediscovrey Exibition, Pavilhão da Bienal, São Paulo, SP, Brasil

1995 The Night Heirs: fragments of the black’s imaginary, Centro de Cultura de Belo Horizonte, Belo Horizonte, MG

1993 Brazil: 100 years of modern art, MNBA – Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Rio de Janeiro, RJ

1993 People of the Earth, Galeria Jacques Ardires, São Paulo, SP, Brasil

1990 Exhibition sponsored by Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, Rio de Janeiro, RJ

1988 2º Wood in the “Mineira” style, Galeria Trem de Minas, Belo Horizonte, MG

1987 1º Wood in the “Mineira” style, Galeria Trem de Minas, Belo Horizonte, MG

1986 Art in wood, Museu do Folclore, Rio de Janeiro, RJ

1985 Art Brut, hall do Cine Metrópole Gaumont, São Paulo, SP

1984 1º Visual Arts Salon of the Clóvis Salgado Foundation, Fundação Clóvis Salgado: Palácio das Artes, Belo Horizonte, MG

1982 A century of sculpture in brazil, MASP, São Paulo, SP

1981 8º Global Winter Salon, MAM/SP, São Paulo, SP

1981 16º International Biennial of São Paulo, Fundação Bienal, São Paulo, SP

1981 8º Global Winter Salon, MAM/SP, Rio de Janeiro, RJ

1981 8º Global Winter Salon, Fundação Palácio das Artes, Belo Horizonte, MG

1979 Latin American Biennial Myths and Magic, São Paulo, SP

1979 6º Global Winter Salon, Fundação Clóvis Salgado: Companhia de Dança de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG

1978 42ª Biennial of Venice, Venice, Italy

1978 1º Salon of Arts of the State Council of Culture, Palácio das Artes, Belo Horizonte | MG 1977 5º Salão Global de Inverno, MASP, São Paulo, SP

1977 5º Global Winter Salon, MNBA – Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Rio de Janeiro, RJ

1977 2º World and African Festival of Black Art and Culture, Lagos, Nigeria

1977 5º Global Winter Salon, Fundação Cultural do Distrito Federal, Brasília, DF

1977 5º Global Winter Salon, Fundação Palácio das Artes, Belo Horizonte, MG

1975 13ª International Biennial of São Paulo, Fundação Bienal, São Paulo, SP

1974 Galeria Montparnasse, Paris, France

1974 Galeria Iemanjá, Paris, France

1974 Biennial Human Forms, Museu Rodin, Paris, France

1973 Brasil Export 73, Bruxelas, Belgium

1972 Art/Brazil/Today: 50 years after, Galeria da Collectio, São Paulo, SP

1970 Pre-Biennial of São Paulo, Fundação Bienal, São Paulo, SP

1970 The Evolutionary Process of Art in Minas, Palácio das Artes, Belo Horizonte, MG

1970 2º Contemporary Art Salon - prêmio aquisição, Belo Horizonte, MG

1969 10ª International Biennial of São Paulo, Fundação Bienal, São Paulo, SP

1969 1º Contemporary Art Salon, Museu de arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, MG

1968 Naïve Art, Belo Horizonte, MG

Public Collections:

Museu da Casa do Pontal, Rio de Janeiro, RJ

MAM Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

Museu AfroBrasil, São Paulo, Brazil

Selected Publications:

2012 – 2013 Janete Costa “Um Olhar”, Museu Janete Costa, Niterói, RJ

2011 Minas Gerais Scultors, Taisa Palhares, Galeria Estação, São Paulo, SP

2007 Encounter between the seas - Bienal de São Paulo- Valencia, Convento del Carmo, Valencia, Spain

2006 Viva Cultura Viva do Povo Brasileiro, Catálogo, Museu AfroBrasil, São Paulo, SP

2005 Espaço Brasil, Catálogo, Carreau Du Temple, Paris, France

2005 Brasileiro, Brasileiros, Ipsis Gráfica e Editora, São Paulo, SP

2002 Pop Brasil: arte popular e o popular na arte, Jean Boghici, Ladi Biezus, Aline Figueiredo, Roberto Rugiero, Paulo Pardal, CCBB, São Paulo,SP

2002 O Mundo da Arte Popular Brasileira, Museu da Casa do Pontal, Ed. Mauad, Rio de Janeiro, RJ

2000 Brazil + 500 Rediscovrey Exibition. Nelson Aguiar, Bienal Fundation of São Paulo and Associação 500 Anos

Artes Visuais

1995 Cinco anos sem novos sonhos de G. T. O., Galeria Paulo Campos Guimarães: Biblioteca Pública Estadual Professor Luiz de Bessa, Belo Horizonte, MG

1995 Os Herdeiros da Noite: fragmentos do imaginário negro: 300 anos de Zumbi, Ministério da Cultura, Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, SP, Brasil 

1994 Arte Popular Brasileira: peças da coleção Casa do Pontal, Museu Casa do Pontal, Brasiliana de Frankfurt, Rio de Janeiro, RJ

1987 Entre dois séculos: arte brasileira do século XX na coleção Gilberto Chateaubriand, Rio de Janeiro, RJ

1986 Artistas da escultura brasileira, Wolkswagen do Brasil, São Paulo, SP

1982 Um século de escultura no Brasil, Pietro Maria Bardi, MASP, São Paulo, SP

1978 Mitopoética de 9 artistas brasileiros: vida, verdade e obra, Lélia Coelho Frota, Funarte, Rio de Janeiro, RJ

1973 Arte/Brasil/hoje: 50 anos depois, Roberto Pontual, São Paulo, SP