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GERCHMAN, O ARTISTA QUE TESTEMUNHA E SE FAZ PRESENTE
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Rubens Gerchman
GAM asks me a testimonial, and it could start like this: my name is Rubens Gerchman; I am 25 years old, 1.73m
tall and my identity card, of Félix Pacheco, has the record: 1566-166. And I am a painter.
I always prefer to say what I do – my work –, is my
daily testimony
. Autobiographical, like saying, that I do not
invent anything at all. The things are there. Only, is the need to see, learn to see. I am constantly involved by
events. I wrote the other day, apropos of the things dictatorship, the following:
Give, realistically, urban images
Multiple, stoned, simultaneous
Photo mural to be read
Adding new images indefinitely
Surrounded by events
The artist testifies
And makes himself present.
Some facts were important to me. The first exhibition in Galeria Vila Rica, in 64, for example, was when I
discovered my inner world. After that in the exhibition in Relevo in 65, where I got the crowd aware for the
first time, I locate myself in the world. At that time, I painted a sable multitude, of 1.20 x 1.90 m, which grew
endlessly to the edge of the frame. They rounded the corner and persisted black, against the wall.
Now, I worked in a room of 2 x 2 m. I wanted to make a tremendous crowd, who jumped the wall and involve
the viewer. When I removed the work, placing it in another context – the halls of the museum, for instance, it
was reduced to its true proportions. I disappointed myself. It was small, yet. But I already had set in the world.
In that same exhibition, I had another work, very important to me. I have constructed a paint, “A Cidade”, L-
-shaped, which divided into three parts: the city itself, in the upper L; the bus at the bottom, and a road sign,
with a P of PROHIBITED. However, there was a gap in the wall, which really intrigued me. I found simply that
the wall appeared there, and visually I connected the three parties (the city, the bus and the road sign) throu-
gh a street’s track (zebra), black and yellow. The track interrupted itself and appeared again on the road sign.
Another important fact for me was the exhibition “Opinião-65”, now a classic exhibition for most young pe-
ople. In it, I exposed for the second time in MAM; the first was in the Salão Esso, a crowd. In “Opinião-65”, I
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GERCHMAN, Rubens.
The artist who witnesses and makes himself present
. In: Revista Galeria de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro,
June, 1967. (N.O.).
O rei do mau gosto:
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