Geraldo de Barros (February 27, 1923 – April 17, 1998) was a Brazilian painter and photographer who also worked in engraving, graphic arts, and industrial design.
[1][2] He was a leader of the concrete art movement in Brazil, co-founding Grupo Ruptura and was known for his trailblazing work in experimental abstract photography and modernism.
"[1] De Barros is best known for his Fotoformas (1946–1952), a series of photographs that used multiple exposures, rotated images, and abstracted forms to capture a phenomenological experience of Brazil's exponential urbanization in the mid-twentieth century.
[7] In 1949, he started a photography lab with his friend Athaíde de Barros and Thomaz Farkas, and, with the intention of deepening his knowledge, he joined the Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante in São Paulo, a group of artists who focused on pictorialism.
During this time, De Barros studied photographic experimental practices from Europe and United States in the work of Moholy-Nagy and Man Ray.
[1] In 1951, received a scholarship from the French government, and taking a one-year leave from his job at Banco do Brasil, he went to Paris to study lithography at the National Superior School of Fine Arts and engraving at Stanley William Hayter's atelier.
[1] In 1952, De Barros co-founded Grupo Ruptura with Judith Lauand, Luiz Sacilotto, Lothar Charoux, Waldemar Cordeiro, among others.
[6] In 1954, De Barros founded with Frei João Batista a cooperative furniture design company called Unilabor, which was successful and allowed him to leave his job at Banco do Brasil.
[12] In the 1960s, De Barros worked with Nelson Leirner, putting on pop art events, often including outdoor advertisements that had been removed, re-worked, and replaced in the street.