Judith Lauand Brazilian, 1922-2022

Judith Lauand (1922-2022) is renowned in Brazil as the ‘Dama do Concretismo’ or ‘First Lady of Concretism,’ being the sole female member of Grupo Ruptura, the artist group who defined in their manifesto a rational and cerebral approach to geometric abstraction that would set in motion a distinctly Brazilian course of avant-garde art. Born in Pontal, São Paulo, Lauand graduated from the Escola de Belas Artes de Araraquara in 1950, and moved to the city of São Paulo as the influence of European Concrete artists such as Max Bill and Josef Albers was taking hold. It was while working as a gallery monitor at the 2nd São Paulo Biennial (1953-54) that she came into direct contact with this art. She returned to the 3rd Biennial in 1955 as an exhibiting artist, now working alongside other pioneering figures such as Waldemar Cordeiro and Luiz Sacilotto, as a member of Grupo Ruptura.

'Untitled (Acervo 8, Concreto)' was made in 1954, at this significant turning point in Lauand’s practice. Its composition is recorded in one of Lauand’s notebooks from the same year, which document her artistic production as it rapidly evolved from the figuration of her academic training to geometric abstraction. Lauand’s work is often uniquely characterised by a sensibility towards contradiction and poetic deviation. This is evident here, where a strict grid-based structure is animated by decisive ruptures to the pattern.

In her meticulous documentation through this period, we can discern a nuanced relationship to the structural rigour and mathematical precision extolled in the Grupo Ruptura manifesto, softened by her individual explorations with gouache and tapestry and an emphasis on tactility and material textures. While her early concrete paintings reflect an earthy colour palette and visible brushstrokes, allowing them to retain a human touch, it is this tapestry that most clearly bridges Lauand’s simultaneous embrace of the new artistic currents taking hold in Brazil, and her attentiveness to the legacy of women’s art and craft traditions.

The importance of this particular work is highlighted in the publication 'Purity is a Myth' published by the Getty Research Institute and Getty Conservation Institution in Los Angeles in 2021, which featured the tapestry on its cover. Aliza Edelman writes: ‘Taking full advantage of a technical process disposed toward manual repetition and manipulation, Lauand’s tightly threaded structure foregrounds the durability of its underlying gridded framework ... By its facture, the rigorous weave of the surface’s warp and weft, Lauand’s textiles underscore the mechanical and depersonalized tendencies of concretism, and likewise expose the innovative resourcefulness in her application of constructivism’s formal logic through skills historically associated with women’s traditional spheres of craftsmanship, embroidery and the decorative arts.’

A development on earlier, figurative tapestries produced during her student years, 'Untitled (Acervo 8, Concreto)' also foreshadows an extended series of assemblages produced a decade later, in which Lauand incorporated domestic and traditionally feminine materials to her work, puncturing the surface with clothespins or thumbtacks and applying textured fabrics, in a reaction against the highly polished canvases achieved at the peak of the Concrete movement. Her simultaneous adherence the vanguard tendencies of São Paulo’s 1950s-60s art scene, and her openness to new possibilities offered by craft traditions and textile materials, encapsulate Lauand’s unique and significant contribution to Brazilian modern art.

'Untitled (Acervo 8, Concreto)' was given as a gift by Judith Lauand to the present owner. It has been included in three important retrospectives of her work, including the major exhibition at Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (MASP), São Paulo, curated by Adriano Pedrosa, which marked Lauand’s 100th birthday in 2022.