Brazzil

Odetto Guersoni's works grace a large number of galleries and museums. He is often approached to illustrate magazine and newspaper stories. But he is still the soft-spoken, gentle, mild-mannered, helpful, generous, caring man who arrived in São Paulo more than 50 years ago.
By Wilson Velloso

A small boy in Jaboticabal, state of São Paulo, had a dream. His name was Odetto Guersoni, and he was a second generation Brazilian of Italian descent. He loved the town of his birth, and neighboring Monte Alto where he had grown up. But he had greater plans for life. He kept reading voraciously and learning. Then he hankered for seeing more, for traveling, and for visiting places, other countries, the world.

Being skilled with his hands, he taught himself to draw and design leaves, flowers, fruits, animals, shapes. And people. Yet he felt he needed much more learning than he was getting. He had to discover the hows, the whys, and the wherefores of everything. .

So it happened that on a certain day, after finishing his basic studies, the tall, skinny, gangly 17-year Odetto boarded a wood-burning, smoky, narrow gauge train to São Paulo, the capital of the eponymous State. There he found a powerful magnet, the Lyceum of Arts and Crafts, where he enrolled.

After the turmoil and the shock waves eddying out from the U. S. Great Depression, São Paulo was beginning to shake off its idyllic provincial looks, with its cobblestones and gas lamps. After playing second-fiddle to glitzy Rio de Janeiro for many years, Sampa-city launched on the sly a momentous economic, financial, and social revolution of its own.

The former King Coffee had just been dethroned and there had been hard times all over Latin America. The Black Gold of yore, source of so much wealth, had made many millionaires, the so-called coffee barons. New industry was expanding astronomically and the nouveaux riches got even richer. The art market expanded as the Paulistas traveled to Europe and America and acquired more refined appetites and tastes. At the same time, foreign corporations were getting onto the loop. The call for workers, craftsmen, and artists of all kinds, gifted with skills and talents grew and got more demanding. Guersoni had no way of knowing it at the time, but he was part and parcel of a new urban civilization that was blossoming all around him. He was a full-time protagonist being born.

For sure, black slaves from Africa had planted and nurtured untold millions of coffee trees. When, at long last, they were freed, they were replaced by immigrants. Little by little, the pride in King Coffee faded. No longer there was any point in boasting that if São Paulo State coffee trees were placed on line, that imaginary line would extend all the way to the moon. At least to the moon. The funeral of King Coffee was how another fetish of the Brazilian hubris bit the dust.

Guersoni had chosen the Lyceum for its reputation of a hallmark school in São Paulo and its excellent, devoted and progressive faculty. Attending it was no picnic. It was four long years of hard work, hands on work, much lecturing, much reading, much search and research. When he graduated in 1945, with a diploma in Painting and Decorative Arts, he had a profession that made him capable of earning a living.

Even before graduating, he worked part-time in a big downtown store, dressing windows, designing advertisements and overseeing the cutting of stencils for direct mail advertising. On weekends and whenever he had some leisure, he worked on his art, always searching and experimenting.

For more than two years Guersoni struggled to produce art that would sell. But the market was still too restricted, provincial and tightfisted, and the few artists who managed to live on art were "classical," or "academic," as they were called in Brazil. Yet they welcomed the new arrival in their studios and even gave him a few pointers for the paintings he insisted on doing on weekends, in the gardens and parks of the city.

Then, in 1947, out of the blue he had a stroke of unbelievable luck. He entered a contest for the selection of an artist able and willing to teach drawing at the National Industrial Apprenticeship Service (SENAI). He sweated the competition out and won the position and he joined SENAI, which would be his working home for 25 years.

Thus he planted his feet on solid professional ground. No more anguish about paying the rent and putting food on the table. And he was doing what he loved! Indeed, he did so well that in 1948, one year later, the French government gave him a scholarship to study in Paris and in Europe. He worked as a student in the ateliers of some of the topnotch artists then residing in Paris. He also studied at the Grande Chaumière Academy and had works of his accepted by the Salon Officiel des Beaux Arts. Then he toured most European museums.

At 24, Guersoni had arrived as an artist. He got recognition for his work at SENAI helping many young people to develop their skills and talents and find better paid jobs in industry and business in the ever growing Paulista economy.

SENAI reciprocated its staffer's good services. When approached by the International Labor Organization (ILO) of Geneva, to nominate a Brazilian for a study grant it offered, SENAI selected Guersoni for his performance, merits, and abilities. It was his chance to inhale international art even more deeply and learn with the masters. He interned in several graphic arts schools and in the Collège d'Art Graphique Estienne.

In Paris he also began his apprenticeship as a printmaker in the famous Atelier 17, under the English grand master Stanley W. Hayter. It was learning that would bloom and yield fruit in Guersoni's career. He showed so much promise that in 1955, ILO called him back to Geneva to put together a Program of Drawing Applied to Graphic Arts, marrying arts, crafts, and industry. The program proved so successful that Guersoni took it to São Paulo SENAI. Several Latin American countries and Portugal adopted it too.

Having begun as a painter practicing what he called "diluted expressionism," Guersoni now felt he should have a go at sculpture. He tried metal and color laminates and had satisfactory results. The final execution of the project pieces was done under his supervision, with the molds he cut himself, in a metalwork shop.

But there is no doubt that the turning point was his invaluable experience of engraving and printmaking under Hayter. It seemed to inspire him. From that point on, the brunt of his activity was engraving. He found it satisfying and rewarding to create new designs, abstract and otherwise, and see shapes blossoming under his fingers and his tools. He experimented endlessly and, as he progressed, he tried even more daringly. It was a fabulous wonder to see how different colors, sizes, inks, different kinds of wood, metal, lino, and papers responded together and contributed to the final results.

Gradually he surveyed his path of creation and on it he grew surer and surer. He found that his most productive approach was to draft lightly and swiftly images generated in his subconscious. Alternatively he would choose the awareness of existing shapes, forms, symbols, old and new, sometimes found carved, inscribed, recorded on stone in prehistoric times, or freshly sprouted vegetable forms. However, since his purpose and intent were never the production of historical, pictorial, or legal records, he streamlined them, deconventionalized them. Thus he arrived at almost unexpected, unrecognizable results. What they lost in identity they gained in rich imagery, in the tenderness and voluptuousness of forms, in the struggle of contrasting elements.

As the finished plates are printed, another step of research begins. Once an "organized structure"—squares, rectangles, triangles, circles and disks, ovals, ellipses—is selected, Guersoni repeats the module, sometimes in geometrical multiplications, until he considers he obtained a composition. In other words, his modus operandi is a process of juxtaposition of forms.

In his own words, "the conception of the whole takes off from an idea…As the work advances, many changes crop up, either by hazard or by analysis. Then the procedure turns into a game…The most exciting and exhausting part of the work is the seemingly endless series of printing proofs. Only they tell me what possibilities there are. Analysis? Selection? Each little detail matters…"

As technology offers new media, tools, equipment, canvas, and printing papers to artists in general, and printmakers in particular, results blossom in many directions. Like when flat surfaces are sought. Once upon a time, Odetto worked experimentally with lithography but abandoned it, as lithographic printing is costly and increasingly hard to come by.

In the past, Guersoni has worked on metals—copper, brass, zinc—used either as the engraving surface or as bases for the wooden surface to be engraved. Nowadays he concentrates most specifically on woods, including several whose texture, grains and streaks have to be taken in consideration for the overall effect. He also works on plywood and tightly pressed wood layer boards such as Duratex.

A visit to Guersoni atelier in São Paulo (in a building within walking distance from his home) may take many hours, so wide is the variety of proofs of old wood blocks, works in progress, presses, and all the paraphernalia of the trade, including an impressive array of burins, chisels, gravers, carving knives, Japanese knives, knives (with oddly shaped blades such as pen, punch, B-clip, long clip, Turkish clip, spear, saber, Great Western, long spey, budding, sheepfoot, Wharncliffe, spoon, J chisel, fishtail, backaroni, edge, parting tools, etc), gouges, awls, punches, bodikins, wood hammers and mallets, jigsaws. A lay person cannot even begin to dream of all that he/she is going to find in an printmaker's studio!

As an old friend to Guersoni and his wife Haydée Gomes, the author was treated to a step by step demonstration of printmaker's art: 1. He chose a 30-cm piece of wood board with its surface ready to be worked on and carved on it a few lines with chisel and hammer. 2. Now he shifted to show how printing was done. 3. From scores of finished wood boards he picked one looking like a disk from which a 50-degree wedge had been cut off. 3. He cleaned it and placed it on a paper topped worktable. 4. He repeated the action with 3 other pieces of board somewhat similar in their shapes. 5. Using a printer's roll, he carefully and evenly spread a blob of printing ink on the shapes. For time's sake, he used only one color and simplified the process. He could have chosen to combine colors and hues at will but that would have taken more exertion. 6. The four pieces were placed on the flat bed of a manual press and arranged together harmoniously. 7. A big art size (20 x 30 inches = 56 x 77 cm) sheet of paper was gently and accurately put on the inked shapes and covered with a sort of soft padding, 8. A hand-cranked wheel over the press bed pulled the bed and made it pass surely and evenly under the upper cushioned roll of the press, which forced the paper against the shapes and produced a print.

No job for amateurs. Even seasoned printers like Guersoni occasionally get prints that are not up to standard. Then, the sheet can only be saved as scrap paper or scrapped outright. As an established artist, Guersoni often uses an electric press, which has a higher output but requires more setup work. And, of course, after a few prints are ready, the shapes have to be re-inked, depending on the number of prints desired.

In case of woodcuts, domestic made printing paper may be used without a problem. In case of deep-etched metal plates, expensive German-made ("Hahnemühle") or French-made ("Rives" and "Arches") paper has to be used. For extra fancy work, Guersoni utilizes the "Lunar" Japanese paper, whose special texture adds beautiful effects to the prints.

Obviously, the most important element in printmaking is the "matrix," the plate or block in which the design is made by the artist. But printing with loving care, by an expert printer who knows what his doing, is almost as important.

To obtain his fantastic, almost magical prints, he runs the same matrix, with the same colors on the same sheet of paper. Sometimes, the secret is to use a "transparent clear" mixed into the inks. When the paper goes again through the press, sheet after sheet, the resulting effect is of a kind of veiling which translates in unusual combinations of tints and tones. Guersoni says that this "transparent clear" is also called "colorless mass" and is used in industry to thicken inks and paints. He also teaches me that a framed print becomes a "module" that is ready for display.

In the present economic juncture, the Brazilian market for engravings is just so so, says Guersoni. It has been much better. For paintings and sculptures the market is fairly good and it grows by the day. The most sought for objects d'art are definitely the modern ones. That is also the rule in the case of prints. "I always succeed in selling my modern work," says Guersoni.

Becoming a bestseller print depends on a number of factors, among which the artist's ability of "taking the market's pulse" then choosing the themes, colors, papers. Customers seldom make personal requests. By and large the purchasers accept the artist's preferences.

"In the 70's, 80's and 90's I sold a lot of prints. Even then, it was never quite enough to cover all expenses. My salary as a SENAI teacher, and Haydée's salary as an advertising woman helped us to maintain a fairly high standard of living. We have no complaints. We have been smart enough (perhaps lucky enough), to invest our savings in banking and real estate operations. It really helped.

"Haydée collaborated a great deal. She nurtured my artistic career. She helped considerably with her practical business sense. She got to know very well the ins and outs of the art world, which is extremely complex.

"She is, and has always been, my ideal companion through thick and thin, and an excellent, organized, observant, and realistic travel mate in the dozens of trips we took together.

"Because she realized that under Brazilian law she couldn't take more leave than it allowed, she resorted to a fine trick. She would resign. Of course, she was also sure that she was such a good account executive that the agency would always rehire her on return."

Haydée and Odetto live in a beautifully furbished apartment in one of São Paulo main avenues, perhaps a little too busy for comfort. Security is stern with no dodges allowed. It does not rely on newfangled technology that keeps failing at the worst moments.

They lead a strenuous social life and they enjoy it. They go to many vernissages, openings of most art exhibits in town, are invited to art fairs, concerts, dances, civic events, family festivities. Until recently they kept a datcha in Yolanda's Garden, a suburban limited-access community where several other artists reside. It was a serene oasis on top of a hill near São Paulo with a comfortable brick built ranch house, a sculpture garden, a great variety of flowers and fruit trees, and a tantalizing view of the distant São Paulo skyline, sometimes wrapped up in fog.

Odetto and Haydée Guersoni are trustees and members of several art organizations, are time and time again invited to judge art competitions and are well-liked, indeed loved, by their many friends and associates. They are in tune with the world they live in, and he strives to be an interpreter of that world. Both are deeply interested in politics, new initiatives, new ideas, new business ventures. They have no complaint with how the media and the media critics press have dealt with Odetto over the years. Many media art critics have joined their circle of admirers.

Several Brazilian cultural organizations have inserted samples of Guersoni's art in their websites. He has accepted to participate personally on the sites, but so far the result is slim, he says. As a hick from way back, Odetto reacts to the Internet with Missouran suspicion: "Show me!"

He has shown what he can do and every day goes to his studio to work and experiment with new ideas, compositions, techniques, materials, devices and put them to the test. He is very much present in the cultural picture of the day. Recently, MMC Recordings launched a new album of contemporary erudite music by U.S. composer John Downey, played by the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra, illustrated by Guersoni. He has won many awards, some of which are listed in the box below. He has had a long series of one-man shows, and participated in as many collective exhibitions (sample below). His works grace a large number of galleries and museums, homes and offices all over. He is often approached to design and illustrate special magazine and newspaper stories. No part of that has gone to his head, filling it with vapors of self-importance. He is still the soft-spoken, gentle, mild-mannered, helpful, generous, caring man who arrived in São Paulo more than 50 years ago to conquer the city. And he did it—graciously!

Haydée's and Odetto's friends know where to go to find them and pour their love on them. And the Guersonis reciprocate that love by assisting them to find joy and fulfillment in that noisy, dynamic, and overpopulated (about 18 million!) city of São Paulo.

Wilson Velloso © 2001

(Assistance on technical terminology by Barbara J. Robb, art consultant)

Wilson Velloso, the author, is a veteran Jack of all trades who has practiced several of them in Brazil—where he was born of Spanish parentage—Argentina, the UK, and Canada. He is an American citizen by choice since 1955, was chief of press at the Organizaton of American States in Washington DC and has been writing on and off for Brazzil since 1995. He can be reached, sometimes, at vewilson@3oaks.com

SOME OF ODETTO GUERSONI'S AWARDS
& SHOW PARTICIPATIONS

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