Untitled

Over the course of more than six decades of production, nature was a steadfast presence in Frans Krajcberg’s art: He used organic materials and artisanal techniques and took photographs of landscapes that tirelessly repudiated the destruction of the planet at the hand of man. After moving to Brazil in 1948 to escape Nazi persecution, Krajcberg returned to Europe at the end of the nineteen-fifties, often to the Spanish island of Ibiza, where he would live in isolation in a cave. It was there that he began a series of paintings on Japanese paper that attempted to capture the texture of rocks. In his creative interventions on nature, he in no way pursued a rational project but rather attempted to engage in a dialogue with forms, textures, and colors developed without any human involvement. Sin título is an example of that procedure. It expresses the energy that springs from matter whether vigorous or disintegrating. This work was a milestone in Krajcberg’s international career: It was awarded the City of Venice prize at the XXXII Venice Biennale in 1964.