Page 23 - Studio International - October 1965

The VIII Bienal of Sao Paulo

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Dzamonja of Yugoslavia works in nails and metal melted
to congeal as a helmet skin. In ovals, torsos and
armoured wood figures, his conceptions have the pro­
tective reticence of a hedgehog.
Gold medal for a foreign sculptor went to Marta
Colvin of Chile for reasons impossible to divine without
a tape recording of the jury's deliberations. Scale they
had to be sure-massive ledged and stepped abstrac­
tions that at least bulked impressively.
Prints and drawings were a fascinating if smaller scale
feature of many national pavilions especially Japan's
where Masuo I kada's sophisticated women had
humour and pathos. Janez Bernik of Yugoslavia was
the winner of the prize for the best foreign engraver.
As host country, Brazil occupied the ground floor and
here in the paintings and prints one renewed acquaint­
ance with most of the artists who exhibited in the
Brazilian exhibition at the Royal College of Art in
London earlier this year. Danilo di Prete whose cosmic
landscapes were a feature in London won the gold
medal as the best Brazilian painter. His is the informal
abstract painting without a peculiarly personal style.
Tomie Ohtake, Japanese born, creates the eye-filling
impression from large areas of black and primary
colours. Informal too but with textures of tactile interest,
Yolanda Mohalyi, painting prize winner of the last

1 Bienal, showed abstractions in which her linear and
Sergio de Camargo, Brazil paint motives move in equilibrium. Manabu Mabe and
Relief No. 24/55 1964
Wood painted white Frans Krajcberg, both outstanding in London, were
equally impressive in their home territory. Absent were
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Yolanda Mohalyi, Brazil Antonio Bandeira who did not submit and Noemia
Painting 1965
Guerra, another Paris exile, whose excellent paintings
were unaccepted. Hercules Barsotti, whose painting is
reproduced on the cover, presents an optical derivation
that is fixed rather than vibrating.
Sergio di Camargo, who also works part of the time in
Paris, was the Brazilian sculpture gold medal winner
with several subtly faceted white-painted wood reliefs
such as were seen at his one-man exhibition at Signals,
London. Other sculptors of some quality were Liuba,
who in simple forms in bronze, models birds in massive
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