Arthur Luiz Piza

We are sad to inform that Brazilian artist Arthur Luiz Piza has died at the age of 89. Galeria Raquel Arnaud, the gallery that represented the artist since 1973, confirmed Piza's passing in social networks. Arthur Luiz Piza died on May 26 as result of a hematologic disease after being hospitalized for 20 days in Paris, where he lived since 1951. Arthur Luiz Piza participated in several editions of the São Paulo Biennial, from the very first one in 1951 to the 1963 edition. He also presented his work at the Paris Biennial (1961 and 1963), Venice Biennial (1966), Krakow Biennial (1964 and 1974), Print Biennial in Norway (1972 and 1980), Havana Biennial (1984 and 1986), San Juan Biennial (1970 and 2001), the Fifth Biennial of Contemporary Print in France (1991), and Documenta in Kassel (1959), among others. His works are part of several private and institutional collections, including those of: the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, in New York; the Art Institute of Chicago, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the Centre Georges Pompidou, and the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. In the 1960s he studied painting and fresco under Antonio Gomide. After relocating to France, he created his first copper matrices in 1952. In 1953, he began his studies at the Gotthard Johnny Freidlaender Parisian study (1912–1992), where he honed his printing techniques. One among the many awards he received was the 1959 National Engraving Prize. He also worked with watercolor painting and collage. In France, from 1957 onwards, Piza abandoned the organic forms that brought him closer to Miró and instead focused on radical experiments to confer volume to his prints. To do so, he carved the plaques instead of simply etching them. Like Van Gogh, Piza wanted to produce "tactile" prints, perhaps in an effort to turn his prints in his first pictorial passion. In 2015, on the occasion of the anthological exhibition by Piza at the Galeria Raquel Arnaud in São Paulo to mark the 40th anniversary of their partnership, he told the Diario O Estado de São Paulo periodical "It was Van Gogh who inspired me to paint." His last exhibition in Brazil was shown at Gustavo Rebello Arte in September of 2016. This gallery in Rio de Janeiro offered a panoramic view of works by Piza that ranged from his collages on wood and cardboard created during the 1960s to his famous Elements, geometrically shaped plaques painted with strong and uniform colors. In addition to developing an artistic career, Piza (and his wife) also helped political refugees forced to leave Brazil because of the military dictatorship that ruled the Latin American country from 1964 to 1985. According to journalist Rosa Freire d'Aguiar, the couple helped people in exile to find jobs.