LAUAND Judith

Judith LAUAND

Pintura II, 1963

Tempera on fabric
23 7/16 x 23 7/16 in. (59.5 x 59.5 cm.)

Judith Lauand studied painting at the Escola de Belas Artes de Araraquara (1950), and moved, in 1952, to So Paulo. Her first works were expressionist figurative paintings, but, in 1953, she became interested in abstraction and made her first abstract works. The following year she presented her first solo exhibition (Galera Ambiente, So Paulo). The austerity of her colors and forms and the mathematical rigor of her painting brought her close to the Grupo Ruptura, between 1955 and 1959. In the works of this period, the color in her often monochromatic paintings was subservient to design. She participated at the Exposio Nacional de Arte Concreta (Museu de Arte Moderna, So Paulo, 1956, and Ministerio da Educao e Cultura, Rio de Janeiro, 1957) and at the international exhibition Konkrete Kunst: 50 Jahre Entwicklung, organized by Max Bill (Helmhaus, Zrich, 1960). In 1960, she received the Prmio Leirnerde Arte Contempornea.

In 1963, Lauand co-founded the Galera Novas Tendancias (So Paulo), participating in its inaugural group exhibition and having a solo show in in 1965. Her interest in the vibration effects of color grew so that colors were structured in contrasting but simultaneously harmonious planes, resulting in a very personal optical-kinetic language. During the second half of the decade, she abandoned her initial chromatic asceticism and took up using non-conventional materials and surfaces.

Lauand has tended to move from concrete art towards conceptual and pop art. However, she has never departed from the rational composition that characterizes her work, which today continues to focus on color and the study of equilibrium and symmetry. In 1996, she presented the exhibition Obras de 1954-1960 (Escritorio de Arte Sylvio Nery da Fonseca, So Paulo). In 2007 and 2008, the Galera Berenice Arvani (So Paulo) showed retrospective exhibitions.