Waldemar Cordeiro Brazilian, 1925-1973
24 x 17 1/2 inches
Further images
In 1968, Waldemar Cordeiro began exploring computer art at the University of São Paulo (USP), becoming the first artist in Latin America to do so. He developed a method for digitizing images at a time when scanners did not yet exist. Derivadas de uma Imagem: Transformação em Grau 0 [Derivatives of an Image: Transformation in Degree 0] is based on the digitalization of a young romantic couple taken from a Valentine’s Day poster. In a second stage, he processed this image using algorithms designed to trace its outlines, giving rise to new versions such as Grau 1 [Degree 1]. The entire process depended on the mathematical function known as the derivative.
Later, in A Mulher que Não É B.B. [The Woman Who Is Not B.B.], Cordeiro used the image of a Vietnamese woman – a victim of war – as a counterpoint to French actress Brigitte Bardot, then one of the most celebrated film stars in the world, thereby offering a critique of consumer society. Gente Grau 0 [People Degree 0] was likewise created by digitizing an image of a crowd.
Provenance
Waldemar Cordeiro Estate
Exhibitions
São Paulo, Brazil, Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado, Arteônica, 1971São Paulo, Brazil, Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado, Arte Novos Meios/Multimeios, 1985
São Paulo, Brazil, Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo MAC-USP, Waldemar Cordeiro: Uma aventura da razão, 1986
Recife, Brazil, Sibgrapi - VI Symposium on Computer Graphics and Image Processing, Arteônica, 1993
São Paulo, Brazil, Centro Universitário Maria Antônia, Waldemar Cordeiro e a fotografia, 2002
São Paulo, Brazil, Instituto Cervantes, Visualidades / Técnicas, 2005
São Paulo, Brazil, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, Anos 70: Arte Como Questão, 2009
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Paço Imperial, Waldemar Cordeiro –Fantasia Exata, travelling to São Paulo, Brazil, Itaú Cultural, 2014
London, The Mayor Gallery, Writing New Codes; Cordeiro/Mallary/Molnar, Jun 5 - Jul 26, 2018, ill in cat. p. 17
Stanford, USA, Cantor Arts Center, The Matter of Photography in the Americas, 2018
London, The Mayor Gallery, Waldemar Cordeiro: A Singular Constellation, 30 May - 26 July 2024, ill. in cat. p. 45
Long Beach, USA, Museum of Latin American Art - MOLAA, Arteônica: Art, Science and Technology in Latin America Today, 2024
Literature
Franke, H. W., Computergraphik Computerkunst, Bruckmann München, 1971
Benthall, Jonathan, Science and Technology in Art Today, Praeger, 1972
Costa, Helouise, Waldemar Cordeiro e a fotografia, Cosac & Naify, 2002
Medeiros, Givaldo, Artepaisagema partir de Waldemar Cordeiro, FAUSSP, 2004
Waldemar Cordeiro –Fantasia Exata, Exhibition catalogue, Itaú Cultural, São Paulo, Brazil, 2014
The Matter of Photography in the Americas, Stanford University Press, California, USA, 2018