Exhibition “Brazilian Fauna and Flora” presents lithographs with Amazonian birds cataloged by Emílio Goeldi and woodcuts with flowers by Oswaldo Goeldi

The next day 5 June, World environment day, will be opened in Taubaté, no Via Vale Garden Shopping, the exhibition “Brazilian Fauna and Flora”.

The show has, at Fauna room, 48 methacrylate planks with the 337 species of Amazonian birds cataloged by the Swiss zoologist and scientist Emílio Goeldi during the period in which he directed the former Paraense Museum of Natural History and Ethnography, later named Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, in his honor.

In Flora room are 22 colored woodcuts with the theme of Brazilian flowers, works carried out by Oswaldo Goeldi (1895-1961), son of Emílio Goeldi, considered the most influential Brazilian recorder.

Complementarily, a video about Brazilian birds will be shown in one of the three rooms of the show, with audio accessibility and description in pounds. In addition, the public will be able to learn a little about the life and history of Emílio Goeldi, fearless Swiss naturalist who went to the Amazon with his wife and six children in order to pursue a dream: researching Brazilian species and the Amazon, region with one of the richest ornithological representations in the world.

Two of the works in the exhibition “Brazilian Fauna and Flora – Emílio Goeldi and Oswaldo Goeldi”.

To enrich the experience, visitors to the exhibition will be able to use Augmented Reality technology, making the works come to life - the birds, for example, can be seen in motion.

All visitors will receive a printed catalog and will also have access to a mobile application specially developed by Goeldi Project. The application can be accessed later, prolonging for the visitor the experience of the exhibition.

The exhibition is curated by Lani Goeldi, great-niece of Oswaldo Goeldi. The proposal, she says, is “join, in an unprecedented proposal, the work of father and son portraying our biodiversity in a unique way, highlighting the Brazilian fauna and flora and the theme of environmental preservation”.

For the first time - The Swiss-German naturalist and zoologist Emílio Augusto Goeldi (1859-1917), arrived in Brazil at 21 years. Came at the invitation of the Imperial Museum, being appointed deputy director of the Zoology Section. He stayed at the Museum for five years, publishing several research papers and articles on various topics, with emphasis on reptile studies, insects, arachnids, mammals and birds. In 1893, at the invitation of the governor of Pará, assumed the direction of the Paraense Museum of Natural History and Ethnography - which in 1900, in his honor, had its name changed to Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi -, with the mission of transforming it into a major research center on the Amazon region. He remained at the head of the Museum until 1907, doing fundamental work there. Much of the Amazon was visited by him, with intensive collections to form the first zoological collections, botanical, geological and ethnographic.

Goeldi hired the photographer for the Museum, german draftsman and lithographer Ernst Lohse. Deep knowledge of the Amazonian environment, was Lohse who illustrated the book “Album of Amazon Birds”, edited by Goeldi in 1900, with 48 sublime boards with drawings of 337 species of Amazonian birds cataloged by Emílio Goeldi. The originals, watercolored lithographs, are at the Bern Natural History Museum, in Switzerland.

Printed on methacrylate, in the format 65 cm x 45 cm, the 48 boards are now being presented publicly for the first time at the show “Brazilian Fauna and Flora”.

First modern prints - Recorder, designer, illustrator and teacher, Oswaldo Goeldi (1895-1961) was born in the city of Rio de Janeiro in 1895. Right after your birth, and up to the age of six, lived in Belém with his parents. Then he lived in Switzerland, where he did art studies and got to know the work of the Austrian Alfred Kubin, that would become his greatest artistic influence. In 1919, shortly after the father's death, He returned to Brazil, taking up residence in Rio de Janeiro. He performed work as an illustrator and in 1921 made his first Brazilian individual, at the High School of Arts and Crafts. Considered the author of the first modern prints in Brazil, from 1923 devoted himself intensively to woodcut. From the middle of the years 1930 began to experiment with the use of color in his woodcuts.

Did work for magazines, books and periodicals. Throughout his career he held numerous individual and collective exhibitions, followed by so many others that occurred after his death, in Brazil and abroad. He exhibited at the 25th Venice Biennale in 1950. He won the Print Prize at the 1st Venice Biennale in 1950. Won the Print Prize at the 1st São Paulo International Biennial, in 1951. Today, is revered in the artistic world and his works are a reference in the field of printmaking worldwide.

Woodcuts of Oswaldo Goeldi presented at the show “Brazilian Fauna and Flora” were carried out during the 1950 by order of Editora Agir, company where the artist worked as an illustrator. Never published, were preserved for decades in a private collection. For the creation of the works, the artist was inspired by the memories of the first years of his childhood., when he lived in Belém and lived with his father's daily life, the zoologist and naturalist Emilio Goeldi. Second Lani Goeldi, “in these colorful woodcuts the artist portrays nature in a unique way, with colors and lights printed in a way never seen before, revealing the conscious need to always be close to nature”.

The Goeldi Project – Headquartered in Taubate, SP, the Goeldi Project, constituted under the name Oswaldo Goeldi Cultural Artistic Association, It was created in 1978 with the aim of collecting, value and perpetuate the work of Oswaldo Goeldi.

Among his responsibilities are the gathering of the entire visual set recorded and produced by the artist, as well as the cataloging and organization of all documentary material, artistic, personal and intellectual. They are engravings, drawings and ink in more than 2.000 works, in addition to arrays, personal objects, books and documents.

The institution has been carrying out a series of exhibitions and cultural events inside and outside Brazil, contributing decisively to the formation of a public specialized in visual arts.

Directed by Lani Goeldi, great-niece of Oswaldo Goeldi, the project aims first “publicize the artist's work and bring the intimate side of this engraver so respected by intellectuals and so close to the poor and excluded from the community”. With this concept, the firm, “the Goeldi Project stars the rebirth of the artist's soul and his passion for printmaking”.