The Graphic Arts and Design

The Adolpho Leirner Collection includes original exhibition posters, invitations, and preparatory drawings dating from 1951 to 1967, all designed by artists who embraced the principles of Concretismo as well as the theoretical principles elaborated by the Dutch artist Theo van Doesburg (1883–1931) in 1930 and the Swiss artist Max Bill (1908–1994). The formal rigor, and the focus on geometry as a means to achieve clarity in design, shaped the work of these artists, who were also active graphic, landscape, and industrial designers. Among them are Geraldo de Barros (1923–1998) and Alexandre Wollner (b. 1928), both former students of the celebrated Hochschule für Gestaltung (School of Design), in Ulm, Germany. The work of the São Paulo-based Grupo ruptura—whose members included Waldemar Cordeiro (1925–1973), Lothar Charoux (1912–1987), Luis Sacilotto (1924–2003), and Anatol Wladislaw (1913–2004)—also straddled design. Other artists who made important contributions to the field of design include Antônio Maluf (1926–2005), Norberto Nicola (1930–2007), Willys de Castro (1926–1998), and Goebel Weyne (b. 1933). The Collection’s holdings include Maluf’s Cartaz da I Bienal de São Paulo [Poster for the First São Paulo Biennial], 1951 (and a study for this poster); the seminal manifesto of Grupo ruptura (1952); Nicola’s Convite de exposição do Atelier-Abstração no MAM-SP [Invitation for the Exhibition of Atelier Abstração], 1956, at the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo; and the poster for the Primeira Exposição Nacional de Arte Concreta [First National Exhibition of Concrete Art], 1956; among other works.