One of the great names of Brazilian art of the 20th century and artist of an extensive work which includes paintings, drawings, gouaches and engravings, Iberê Camargo never lined up with currents or movements, but exerted strong leadership in the Brazilian artistic and intellectual environment.
1914
Iberê Bassani de Camargo was born on 18 November in Restinga Seca in the state of Rio Grande do SuI, the son of Adelino Alves de Camargo, railway employee and Doralice Bassani de Camargo, telegraphist. He spent his childhood in small towns in Rio Grande do SuI: Erechim, Canela, Boca do Monte, Santa Maria, Cacequi and Jaguari.
Untitled (1927) by Iberê CamargoIberê Camargo Foundation
1920
The Camargo family was transferred to Jaguari railway station.
1922
Camargo was sent to boarding school in Cacequi, then later to Santa Maria.
1927
He began his painting studies at the School of Arts and Crafts in Santa Maria, where he lived with his grandmother.
1928
Camargo was highly productive and was awarded prize money of 50 thousand réis in the school's end-of-year exhibition.
In the Village of Boca do Monte, RS, Adelino Alves de Camargo and Doralice Bassani de Camargo, railwaymen, with the son Iberê (c.1928)Iberê Camargo Foundation
1929
He left the School of Arts and Crafts and went to Santa Maria Junior High School, thus interrupting his artistic studies. He soon had to abandon high school too, and went to live with his parents in Boca do Monte, a sparsely populated area, whose main activities revolved around the railway station.
1932
The family returned to Jaguari. Camargo was then 18 years old and got his first job as an apprentice in the engineering department of the 1st Railway Battalion. He was quickly promoted to the position of technical draftsman, designing drains, ramps, reinforcements and embankments.
Gerci (c.1940) by Iberê CamargoIberê Camargo Foundation
1934
Camargo's daughter Gerci was born after a brief romantic involvement and was taken under the wing of his mother, Doralice.
1936
Camargo moved to Porto Alegre. He worked as a draftsman for the Public Works Department and resumed his studies at night at architectural course at the Institute of Fine Arts.
Iberê and Maria Coussirat at the artist's first studio on Lima e Silva Street (1942)Iberê Camargo Foundation
1939
Camargo met Maria Coussirat, a graduate from the Institute of Fine Arts and primary school drawing teacher, whom he married on 8 November 1939.
1940
He meets an old companion, Vasco Prado, who is also a civil servant, and starts drawing with him. He draws people in the street and domestic staff in a wooden shed that Prado had built near his house.
Dentro do mato (Inside the Bush) (1941/1942) by Iberê CamargoIberê Camargo Foundation
1940
Camargo starts painting and drawing regularly. He painted many landscapes along the margins of a brook running through the lower part of Porto Alegre.
1941
Camargo received a scholarship from the state government, left the public service and began to paint full time. He worked alone without a teacher or guidance.
This begins the story of a painter: the "Revista O Globo" reveals to Brazil the young artist Iberê Camargo (12 de setembro de 1942)Iberê Camargo Foundation
1942
During this period he receives guidance from João Fahrion, teacher at the Institute of Fine Arts. Camargo held his first solo exhibition at the government palace in Porto Alegre. He received a scholarship to study in Rio de Janeiro, where he arrived on 31 August. He was introduced to Portinari on this same night by Augusto Meyer and his wife. Maria arrived in Rio in September. They met Santa Rosa and Goeldi and became regulars at Café Vermelhinho, where they were on intimate terms with Adonias Filho, Flávio de Aquino, Milton Dacosta, Djanira and Maria Leontina.
Portrait of Maria Coussirat Camargo (1943) by Iberê CamargoIberê Camargo Foundation
1942
The couple first lived in a boarding house on Botafogo Beach, and later in another on Esteves Junior Street, where Guignard gave Camargo private classes using Maria as a model. Maria worked as an architectural draftsperson for the Construtora Pederneiras.
1943
Camargo entered the National School of Fine Arts, which he soon abandoned. He then began to attend Guignard's course at the National Students Union building in the Rio suburb of Flamengo.
Guignard with his students. The master in the center and Iberê in the background (1942)Iberê Camargo Foundation
1943
Together with Geza Heller and Elisa Byinton he founded the Guignard Group, which held an exhibition of drawings at the academic directorate of the National School of Fine Arts at the end of the year, receiving a hostile reception from the students of the school. The exhibition was dismantled by force and reassembled at the Brazilian Press Association, where it received much critical acclaim. In the same year Camargo exhibited three drawings in the National Fine Arts Exhibition and was included in the Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Painting, organised in support of the Royal Air Force, in London. He and his wife moved to the Rio de Janeiro suburb of Laranjeiras.
Sketch for the invitation of the first exhibition of the Guignard Group (1943) by Iberê CamargoIberê Camargo Foundation