Rubens Gerchman
(1942 - 2008)
Rubens Gerchman was one of the artists who took part in the historic exhibition, “Opinião 65” (Opinion 65), at Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, along with Hélio Oiticica (1937–1980), Carlos Vergara (1941), Antonio Dias (1944), and others. Two years later, in 1967, he won an overseas trip as a prize for his participation at the 16th National Modern Art Salon, which took him to New York, where he lived from 1968 to 1972. It was there that he became a founding member of Museu Imaginário Latino-Americano. Upon his return to Brazil, he wrote the screenplay, designed the set, and directed the feature film Triunfo Hermético and two shorts, ValCarnal and Behind the Broken Glass. In 1974 he co-founded and became director of a magazine, Revista Malasartes, alongside artists Luiz Paulo Baravelli (1942), José Resende (1945), Carlos Vergara, Carlos Zilio (1944), Ronaldo Brito (1949), Waltercio Caldas (1946), and Cildo Meireles (1948), as well as poets Bernardo Vilhena (1949), Chacal (1951), and Ronaldo Bastos (1948). In 1975 he became the director of Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage, where he remained until 1979. Rubens Gerchman was an artist of importance to the history of Brazilian art, and a member of the group of experimental artists who emerged in the 1960s.