Lívio Abramo

Lívio Abramo (Araraquara, SP, 1903 - Asunción, Paraguay, 1992)

Lívio Abramo was an engraver, illustrator, and draftsman. He moved to São Paulo, where, in 1909, he studied drawing with Enrico Vio (1874-1960) at the Dante Alighieri School. In the early 1920s, he began illustrating for small newspapers and came into contact with the work of Oswaldo Goeldi (1895-1961) and the work of German expressionist engravers. He created his first prints in 1926. In the 1930s, he was influenced by the anthropophagic period of Tarsila do Amaral (1886-1973). During the Getúlio Vargas administration, he joined the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB), from which he was expelled in 1932, and was arrested twice for political reasons. Around this time, he stopped engraving to dedicate himself to trade unionism. In 1935, he returned to printmaking, incorporating social themes into his work.

In 1947, he illustrated the book "Pelo Sertão" (Through the Backlands), by Afonso Arinos de Mello Franco, published in 1949 by the Society of One Hundred Bibliophiles of Brazil. This series of illustrations was presented at the National Salon of Fine Arts (SNBA), where he received the travel award. In 1951, he traveled to Europe and, in Paris, attended Atelier 17, honing his metal engraving technique with Stanley William Hayter (1901-1988). Returning to Brazil in 1953, he was awarded the best national engraver at the 2nd São Paulo International Biennial. He taught woodcutting at the School of Crafts of the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art (MAM/SP), where his students included Maria Bonomi (1935) and Antonio Henrique Amaral (1935). In 1960, he founded the Engraving Studio with Maria Bonomi. In 1962, he was invited by the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to join the Brazil-Paraguay Cultural Mission, later called the Center for Brazilian Studies. He moved to Paraguay, where he directed the Visual and Plastic Arts Sector until 1992 and founded the Paraguayan Institute of Historical and Artistic Heritage.

Critical Commentary

Lívio Abramo began studying drawing with Enrico Vio in 1909. With the teacher's encouragement, he pursued an artistic career, creating his first illustrations for small newspapers in the 1920s. Self-taught in printmaking, he created his works in 1926, working rudimentarily with broken blades from pieces of wood, and shortly thereafter acquired his first chisels. In 1928 and 1929, he created linoleum engravings for the newspaper Lo Spaghetto, in which he portrayed working-class life in a simplified, Cubist style. At the end of the decade, he came into contact with the engravings of Oswaldo Goeldi and visited exhibitions of German Expressionists, which moved him with the strength and expressiveness of their art, full of color and feeling, expressing the desire for transformation that the artist sought to define in his work.

In the early 1930s, Lívio Abramo's work was heavily influenced by the Anthropophagy movement, featuring broad, rounded forms in the style of Tarsila do Amaral, with stylized landscape elements and deformed characters. During the Vargas era, he entered politics and joined the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB), from which he was expelled in 1932, accused of being a Trotskyist. He joined the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) the following year and became friends with art critic Mário Pedrosa (1900-1981). In 1931, he began working at Diário da Noite as an artist, but his cartoons, such as "Inundação no Canindé" (Flood in Canindé), ca. 1932, were considered overly critical. He was then appointed to the position of title editor for the international section, a position he held until 1962. At the same time, he dedicated himself to trade unionism. In the mid-1930s, he incorporated social themes into his work, also a result of his political engagement. Both in his works from the working-class period and in those themed around war, he followed an expressionist style, marked by the drama and monumentality of the scenes. Impressed by the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), he created the series "Spain, 1938," featuring powerful engravings that revealed his opposition to the conflict.

In the 1940s, he met the German Adolphe Köhler, a professor of engraving, who helped him refine his work technically, both in the treatment of the wood used in the boards and in the use of more sophisticated, grooved burins, which in a single stroke cut the wood into several parallel cuts, producing distinct and varied hues. In 1947, he illustrated the book Pelo Sertão (Through the Backlands), by Afonso Arinos de Mello Franco, published by the Society of One Hundred Bibliophiles of Brazil, with woodcuts on rice paper. For this work, he traveled to the caatinga region of Minas Gerais and Bahia and read Mário de Andrade (1893-1945) and Euclides da Cunha (1866-1909). He moved away from the expressionist aesthetic and sought a new, more stripped-down and synthetic formal solution. The use of wood allows for more delicate cuts, which, combined with new instruments, serve to better express his concept of light, color, and form in the Brazilian landscape.

In the following years, he began the drawings, gouaches, and watercolors of the Macumba series, in which his interest in capturing rhythm and dance is evident. He later created woodcuts on this theme, which achieved greater intensity, with the enhancement of the sensuality of the lines in the alternation of areas of light and dense shadow.

He traveled to Europe in 1951, having won the overseas travel prize from the National Salon of Fine Arts. He frequented the studio of Stanley William Hayter and perfected his metal engraving skills. Returning from Europe, he created the series of prints "Rio" (ca. 1953), "Festa" (ca. 1954), and "Mandala" (ca. 1955), with an abstract tendency, in which he best crystallized his graphic language, enhanced by the diversity of tones and textures that articulate figures and planes. With the "Rio" series, he won the award for best national printmaker at the 2nd São Paulo International Biennial.

He taught woodcutting at the School of Crafts of the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art (MAM/SP), and in 1960, he founded the Engraving Studio with Maria Bonomi. In 1962, he moved to Paraguay and worked at the Brazil-Paraguay Cultural Mission, later the Center for Brazilian Studies. In the prints from his Paraguayan period, he recreated the country's landscape, working with dotted lines and patterns reminiscent of the local lacework, nhanduti, which is very delicate. The simplification of form intensifies, with horizontal and vertical elements predominating, lending an intense, lyrical, and sometimes dramatic rhythm to almost abstract compositions. The artist maintains his visual reference point, seeking to convey the geometry of the facades of houses and villages.

Lívio Abramo's work lies between figuration and abstraction. His commitment to the modernist program is gradually altered by his openness to non-figurative movements that began to arrive in Brazil after World War II (1939-1945). The artist manages to reconcile these two opposing concepts in a unique way and, with technical refinement, presents in his work formal solutions of great aesthetic interest.

Criticism

"His art is characterized precisely by this profound identification between it and the artist. Hence, its main hallmark is the impetus of the line, which only bends, only curves, either when exhaling in its initial impulse or when encountering another, greater force. The impetus of the line and also the breadth of its spatial sense betray the artist's Italian ancestry. The breath of his inspiration, however, comes entirely from the warmth and sensuality of tropical nature and the nostalgic drama and monumental harshness of the urban landscape of São Paulo and Rio.

For a long time, Abramo was a truly, authentically social artist, for the immediate landscape in which his own life unfolded marked him indelibly with the drama of human misery and the everyday heroism, somber, impersonal, without romanticism or rapture, of proletarian labor. modern.
(...)

After the stylistic effort of the Pelo Sertão engravings, Lívio devoted himself to the direct interpretation of the surrounding urban nature and primary, global themes, such as macumba. In contrast to the preceding engravings, we now have a magnificent series of truly 'freehand' drawings. The artist gained greater freedom within a discipline no longer so directly dictated by functional fatality, whether from the gouge or burin or the material in which he works. Human and animal themes no longer bewitch the artist with their anecdotal or merely sentimental side. The pencil, ink, and watercolor drawings he gave us more recently are distinguished above all by the more synthetic power of their lines, a greater economy of planes, and a more refined and expressive construction in which the dramatic and rigorously structured character of the whole stands out. His art achieves a higher visual balance, and at the same time, it is more sober and richer. His macumba figures take on a gothic verticality, a visual vigor they never had in Brazilian art. Lívio Abramo's macumba is stripped of any anecdotal detail and any exotic primitivism, leaving only a ritual of such a hieratic, plastic order that it rises to the level of a noble religious ceremony of high antiquity."
Mário Pedrosa
PEDROSA, Mário. Farewell to Lívio Abramo. In: ______. Academics and Moderns: Selected Texts III. Edited by Otília Beatriz Fiori Arantes. São Paulo: Edusp, 1998. p. 225-226

"Against, but sometimes concomitant with, this anthropophagic trend that was beginning to emerge in Lívio Abramo's then-newly initiated career, would clash with his need to translate into his graphic production a political discourse explicitly focused on denouncing the struggles, ills, and demands of the socially subordinate classes, in Brazil and abroad.
For this social commitment to gain strength and gradually displace—at least temporarily—the need Abramo always felt to produce a modern and, at the same time, 'Brazilian' iconography, his visits to three exhibitions of German art held in São Paulo were fundamental. (...)

It was through these direct encounters with impressive examples of engraving committed to unmasking the injustices of capitalist society, as a first step toward a definitive move toward socialism, that Abramo acquired sufficient encouragement to embark, more decisively, on the translation of his concerns. ideological shifts in printmaking. This approach would gradually lead to the Matissian treatment of the medium, as well as the initial mythical theme, gradually giving way to an iconography in which one perceives the need to conceive a more analogical figuration. Some prints from the Spain series (especially the most emblematic, from 1937) retain a dramatically engaged tone, very much in keeping with the verist proselytism that Expressionist Realism assumed in the work of some artists.

Little by little, exhausting the explicit commitment to denouncing the ills of capitalism and the suffering caused by wars, a significant conflict, already mentioned, can be noted in Lívio Abramo's career: on the one hand, a desire to reclaim the need to create an iconography that was both contemporary and typically Brazilian; on the other, to open up to or oppose the challenge that international non-figurative movements posed to local artists.

The need to maintain the program of early modernism and, at the same time, the need to open up to the non-figurative expressions that were arriving in force in Brazil in the immediate post-war period would become a major dilemma for a significant number of local artists, tied to the commitments of modernism in the first half of the 20th century.

Faced with these two theoretically mutually exclusive options, Brazilian artists would adopt diverse positions. While some sought to remain faithful to their original figurative nationalism, becoming caustic opponents of non-figuration, others would initially embrace the new wave unconditionally, while still others would seek to find intermediate artistic positions that were, in some ways, problematically conciliatory from a formal standpoint, resulting in works of strong artistic and aesthetic interest. Lívio Abramo would clearly fall into this third category.

As the 1940s transitioned into the following decade, his concern with the technical and formal refinement of his prints gained greater relevance, while the need to return to his earlier concern for creating a genuinely Brazilian work clashed with the challenges posed by non-figuration.

In his work from the early 1950s, where the landscape of Rio de Janeiro served as a stimulus for creating a new iconography, a strong abstractionist character is evident. Neither figurative nor abstract, but bringing to the field of the work - through the contiguity of stylistic procedures from these conflicting origins - the debate that was becoming increasingly intense in Brazil, these engravings by Abramo are already the first important indices of this problematic conciliation of opposites, present in Brazilian art of the immediate post-war period."
Tadeu Chiarelli
MATRICES of expressionism in Brazil: Abramo, Goeldi and Segall. São Paulo: MAM, 2000 p.16.

Testimonials

"For a long time, O Jornal, in Rio de Janeiro, published every Saturday—or Sunday—I don't remember exactly, in a Literary Supplement, an engraving by Oswaldo Goeldi, who had arrived from Europe in 1919. Goeldi came from that group of expressionist engravers that formed during the First European War, and which included great artists, from Kokoschka to Kubin. (...) I saw his work and liked it very much. Around the same time, in 1927 or 1928, I once happened to walk into the German Commercial Office on Rua José Bonifácio. In a huge hall, I saw an exhibition of fabulous German engravers, and of the Bauhaus in its first phase. There was a magnificent collection of original engravings by all the German expressionist engravers—Heckel, Schmidt-Rottluff, Barlach, Lyonel Feininger, Käthe Kollwitz—only by Käthe. Kollwitz had more than ten fabulous prints. All the German Expressionists were there, and each print was better than the last. Well, after that exhibition, I decided, 'This is what I want to do!' It was Goeldi's and the German engravings that sparked my desire to print. After leaving that exhibition, I went home, grabbed a razor blade and a piece of wood, and made my first engraving; then I got a chisel, then two, and that's how I began engraving.

I returned to drawing in 1947, 1948, when the Society of One Hundred Bibliophiles of Brazil commissioned me to illustrate the book *Pelo Sertão*, by Afonso Arinos. Then I began studying the life and landscape of Brazil in northern Minas Gerais, southern Bahia, the caatinga region, the sertão itself, so I could illustrate this book. It deals with stories from the sertão, and it was the first Brazilian book to deal with these typically Brazilian stories in novel form. I made 37 woodcuts on top wood and more than 20 or 30 linoleum vignettes. In this work, I I changed my style, I tried to change my language.

I only started lithography in 1979, in an exhibition at Graphus [art gallery], with eleven lithographs. I'm now working on a series of six lithographs in Elcio Motta's studio.

In 1931, when I started working in newspapers, I was still influenced by the anthropophagy movement, more intellectually than formally, but in 1933 I was influenced by the tropical, plump, rounded forms of Tarsila do Amaral's style (...). Later, in my working-class years, and still in my work on the Spanish Civil War and the bombings of the war, I followed the expressionist style because it's a passionate, forceful, and very powerful way of expressing things, and I think that for these situations where passion and feeling enter, expressionism was the most appropriate language. With the defeat of Spain, Poland, and France, we all felt defeated, and we thought we would all end up lost. There was a sense of emptiness that dashed all the dreams of a generation. So I stopped recording; I spent years and years doing nothing. When I later received the proposal to illustrate Afonso Arinos' book, I was already a different person. So I dedicated myself to studying photographs; (...) I saw that Brazil presented me with other formal solutions that did not fit the expressionist style. (...) In that book by Afonso Arinos there was a lot of realism, very little romanticism, so I looked for a more stripped-down form, increasingly synthetic, stylizing the figures a lot."
Lívio Abramo to Vera D'Horta Beccari
BECCARI, Vera D'Horta. The search for a new formal language for engraving. In: ABRAMO, Lívio. Woodcuts. São Paulo: Centro Cultural São Paulo, 1983. p. 13-25.

Solo Exhibitions

1944 - São Paulo - Solo, at the Studio of Clóvis Graciano
1948 - Rome (Italy) - Solo, at Studio D'Arte Palma
1950 - São Paulo SP - Lívio Abramo: retrospective, at MAM/SP
1951 - São Paulo SP - Lívio Abramo: drawings and watercolors, at the Domus Gallery
1955 - Montevideo (Uruguay) - Lívio Abramo, at the Montevideo Municipal Salon
1955 - São Paulo SP - Lívio Abramo: drawings and engravings, at MAM/SP
1956 - Asunción (Paraguay) - Individual exhibition, at the Brazil-Paraguay Cultural Institute
1956 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Lívio Abramo, engravings and drawings, at the Bonino Gallery
1956 - Montevideo (Uruguay) - Individual exhibition, at the Montevideo Municipal Salon
1957 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Lívio Abramo: engravings, drawings, and gouache, at MAM/RJ
1960 - São Paulo SP - Lívio Abramo: drawings and engravings, at the Cultural Center Brazil-Israel
1967 - Asunción (Paraguay) - Lívio Abramo: retrospective of drawings and prints, at the Brazilian Cultural Mission Gallery
1970 - São Paulo, SP - Lívio Abramo: retrospective, at the Ars Mobile Gallery
1972 - São Paulo, SP - Lívio Abramo: retrospective, at the MAM/SP
1974 - Asunción (Paraguay) - Lívio Abramo: prints and drawings, at the Brazilian Cultural Mission Gallery
1974 - Brussels (Belgium) - Lívio Abramo: prints, at the Palais Royal
1974 - Washington (United States) - Solo exhibition, at the Center for Brazilian Studies
1976 - São Paulo, SP - Lívio Abramo: retrospective, at the Biennial Foundation
1977 - Asunción (Paraguay) - Lívio Abramo: engravings and drawings, at the Sanos Gallery
1977 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Lívio Abramo: retrospective, at MAM/RJ
1979 - Asunción (Paraguay) - Drawings by Lívio Abramo, at the Graphus Gallery
1982 - Asunción (Paraguay) - Drawings by Lívio Abramo, at the Brazilian Cultural Mission Gallery
1983 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at the Mário de Andrade Municipal Library
1983 - São Paulo SP - Lívio Abramo: woodcuts, at CCSP
1984 - São Paulo SP - Lívio Abramo: records of a journey, at MAM/SP
1986 - Asunción (Paraguay) - Lívio Abramo: watercolors, at the Center for Brazilian Studies
1987 - Asunción (Paraguay) - Lívio Abramo: lithograph, engravings and watercolors, at the Center for Brazilian Studies
1989 - Mexico City (Mexico) - The Parthenon Friezes, at the Museum of Modern Art
1990 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Lívio Abramo: woodcuts, at the MNBA
1990 - San José (Costa Rica) - Lívio Abramo: engravings, at the Brazilian Embassy.
1990 - São Paulo, SP - Lívio Abramo: woodcuts, at the Lasar Segall Museum
1991 - Porto Alegre, RS - Lívio Abramo: woodcuts, at the BFB Cultural Space

Group Exhibitions

1935 - São Paulo SP - 2nd São Paulo Fine Arts Salon
1935 - São Paulo SP - 3rd São Paulo Fine Arts Salon
1937 - São Paulo SP - 1st May Salon, Esplanada Hotel
1938 - São Paulo SP - 2nd May Salon, Esplanada Hotel
1939 - São Paulo SP - 3rd May Salon, Galeria Itá
1939 - São Paulo SP - 5th Salon of the Union of Visual Artists, Galeria Prestes Maia
1941 - São Paulo SP - 1st Art Salon of the National Industrial Fair
1944 - Belo Horizonte MG - Modern Art Exhibition, Edifício Mariana
1944 - London, UK - Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, Royal Academy of Arts
1944 - Norwich, UK - Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, Norwich Castle and Museum
1944 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian-North American Modern Painting Exhibition, Galeria Prestes Maia
1945 - Bath, UK - Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, Victory Art Gallery
1945 - Bristol, UK - Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery
1945 - Edinburgh, Scotland - Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, National Gallery
1945 - Glasgow, Scotland - Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, Kelvingrove Art Gallery
1945 - Manchester, UK - Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, Manchester Art Gallery
1945 - São Paulo SP - Galeria Domus: inaugural show, Galeria Domus
1948 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 54th National Fine Arts Salon - Modern Division, MNBA - Silver Medal
1949 - Salvador BA - 1st Bahia Fine Arts Salon, Hotel Bahia
1950 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 56th National Fine Arts Salon - Modern Division, MNBA - Travel Award
1950 - Venice, Italy - 25th Venice Biennale
1951 - São Paulo SP - 1st São Paulo International Biennial, Trianon Pavilion - Special Room
1952 - Feira de Santana BA - 1st Modern Art Exhibition of Feira de Santana, Banco Econômico
1952 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Exhibition of Brazilian Artists, MAM/RJ
1952 - Tokyo, Japan - International Art Exhibition, Mainich Newspapers
1952 - Venice, Italy - 26th Venice Biennale
1953 - São Paulo SP - 2nd São Paulo International Biennial, States Pavilion - Best National Printmaker Award
1954 - Geneva, Switzerland - Brazilian Printmakers, Musée Rath
1954 - Salvador BA - 4th Bahia Fine Arts Salon, Hotel Bahia
1954 - São Paulo SP - Contemporary Art: exhibition from the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art collection, MAM/SP
1954 - Venice, Italy - 27th Venice Biennale
1955 - Lugano, Italy - Incisioni e Disegni Brasiliani, Villa Cianni
1955 - Salvador BA - 5th Bahia Fine Arts Salon, Belvedere da Sé
1955 - São Paulo SP - 3rd São Paulo International Biennial, MAM/SP
1955 - São Paulo SP - 4th São Paulo Modern Art Salon, Galeria Prestes Maia
1956 - Rome, Italy - Disegni di Aldemir Martins, Xilografie di Livio Abramo
1956 - São Paulo SP - 50 Years of Brazilian Landscape, MAM/SP
1957 - São Paulo SP - 4th São Paulo International Biennial, MAM/SP
1958 - Venice, Italy - 29th Venice Biennale
1959 - Leverkusen, Germany - First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1959 - Munich, Germany - Brazilian Modern Art in Europe, Kunsthaus
1959 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 30 Years of Brazilian Art, Galeria Macunaíma / Student Union of the National School of Fine Arts
1959 - Vienna, Austria - First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Hamburg (Germany) - First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Jerusalem (Israel) - 12 Brazilian Artists, at Bezalel Museum Jerusalem
1960 - Madrid (Spain) - First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Paris (France) - First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - São Paulo SP - 12 Brazilian Artists, at Bezalel Museum Jerusalem
1960 - São Paulo SP - Leirner Collection, at Galeria de Arte da Folha
1960 - Utrecht (Netherlands) - First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1961 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Face and the Work, at Galeria Ibeu Copacabana
1961 - São Paulo SP - 6th São Paulo International Biennial, at Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion - special room
1961 - São Paulo SP - Abramo Bonomi Studio
1962 - São Paulo SP - Selection of Brazilian Artworks from the Ernesto Wolf Collection, at MAM/SP
1963 - São Paulo SP - 7th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal - prize for best Brazilian printmaker
1965 - São Paulo SP - 8th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1966 - Ribeirão Preto SP - 40 National and International Prints from the MAC Collection, at School of Fine Arts of Ribeirão Preto
1966 - São Paulo SP - 40 National and International Prints from the MAC Collection, at MAC/USP
1967 - Goiânia GO - Printmaking Educational Exhibition, at Museu Estadual Zoroastro Artiaga
1968 - Piracicaba SP - 40 National and International Prints from the MAC Collection, at Esalq/USP
1970 - Olinda PE - 40 National and International Prints from the MAC Collection, at MAC/PE
1970 - Penápolis SP - 40 National and International Prints from the MAC Collection
1970 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Printmaking, at Paço das Artes
1971 - São Paulo SP - 11th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1972 - São Paulo SP - 2nd International Printmaking Exhibition, at MAM/USP
1973 - São Paulo SP - 12th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1974 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Printmaking Exhibition, at Fundação Bienal
1976 - São Paulo SP - The Salons: Paulista Artistic Family, May Salon, and São Paulo Artists Union, at Museu Lasar Segall
1978 - São Paulo SP - Art and its Processes: paper as a medium, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1979 - São Paulo SP - 15th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1980 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Tribute to Mário Pedrosa, at Galeria Jean Boghici
1981 - Belo Horizonte MG - Hilton Print Highlights, at Palácio das Artes
1981 - Brasília DF - Hilton Print Highlights, at ECT Galeria de Arte
1981 - Curitiba PR - Hilton Print Highlights, at Casa da Gravura Solar do Barão
1981 - Florianópolis SC - Hilton Print Highlights, at Museu de Arte de Santa Catarina
1981 - Porto Alegre RS - Hilton Print Highlights, at MARGS
1981 - Recife PE - Hilton Print Highlights, at MAM/PE
1981 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Hilton Print Highlights, at MAM/RJ
1981 - Salvador BA - Hilton Print Highlights, at Teatro Castro Alves
1981 - São Paulo SP - Hilton Print Highlights, at MAM/SP
1982 - Penápolis SP - 5th Noroeste Fine Arts Salon, at Fundação Educacional de Penápolis. Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Penápolis
1982 - São Paulo SP - From Modernism to the Biennial, at MAM/SP
1982 - São Paulo SP - Six Brazilian Expressionist Printmakers: Segall, Goeldi, Abramo, Renina, Poty, Grassmann, at Museu Lasar Segall
1983 - Olinda PE - 2nd Abelardo Rodrigues Collection of Fine Arts, at MAC/PE
1983 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 6th National Fine Arts Salon, at MAM/RJ
1984 - Curitiba PR - 6th Woodcut in the History of Brazilian Art, at Casa Romário Martins
1984 - Curitiba PR - 6th Prints from the Eastern Republic of Paraguay, at Centro Cultural São Lourenço
1984 - Curitiba PR - 6th Curitiba Printmaking Exhibition, at Fundação Cultural de Curitiba
1984 - Ourinhos SP - Tribute to Printmaking in Brazil, at Itaugaleria
1984 - Porto Alegre RS - Printmaking: a trajectory through time, at Centro de Arte Cambona
1984 - Ribeirão Preto SP - Brazilian Printmakers of the 50s/60s, at Galeria Campus - USP-Banespa
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Woodcut in the History of Brazilian Art, at Funarte. Galeria Sérgio Milliet
1984 - São Paulo SP - Tradition and Rupture: a synthesis of Brazilian art and culture, at Fundação Bienal
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 8th National Fine Arts Salon, at MAM/RJ
1985 - São Paulo SP - 100 Works Itaú, at MAM/SP
1985 - São Paulo SP - 18th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1985 - São Paulo SP - Highlights of Contemporary Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1986 - Curitiba PR - Collection of the National Printmaking Museum - Casa da Gravura, at Museu Guido Viaro
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Seven Decades of Italian Presence in Brazilian Art, at Paço Imperial
1987 - Brasília DF - 300 Years of Missions: the artist’s vision, at Teatro Nacional de Brasília
1987 - Paris (France) - Modernity: 20th Century Brazilian Art, at Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
1987 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Rio de Janeiro, February, March: from Modernism to the 80s Generation, at Galeria de Arte Banerj
1987 - São Paulo SP - The Biennials in the MAC Collection: 1951–1985, at MAC/USP
1988 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Pioneers and Disciples, at Centro de Arte Moderna José de Azeredo Perdigão
1988 - Porto Alegre RS - 300 Years of Missions: the artist’s vision, at Centro Cultural da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
1988 - Ribeirão Preto SP - Lívio Abramo, Iberê Camargo, and Amilcar de Castro, at Casa da Cultura de Ribeirão Preto
1988 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 300 Years of Missions: the artist’s vision, at EAV/Parque Lage
1988 - São Paulo SP - MAC 25 Years: recent acquisitions and donations, at MAC/USP
1988 - São Paulo SP - 300 Years of Missions: the artist’s vision, at MASP
1988 - São Paulo SP - Modernity: 20th Century Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Printmaking: 4 Themes, at EAV/Parque Lage
1990 - Goiânia GO - 20 Years of the Goiânia Art Museum, at Museu de Arte
1990 - São Paulo SP - The Municipal Art Collection of São Paulo, at MASP
1991 - Curitiba PR - Municipal Art Museum: collection, at Museu Municipal de Arte
1991 - São Paulo SP - 21st São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1991 - São Paulo SP - Records and Impressions: seminal artists, at Casa das Rosas
1992 - Curitiba PR - 10th Curitiba Printmaking Exhibition/America Exhibition, at Museu da Gravura
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Art Printmaking in Brazil: a mapping proposal, at CCBB
1992 - São Paulo SP - Sérgio’s View on Brazilian Art: drawings and paintings, at Biblioteca Mário de Andrade

Posthumous Exhibitions

1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st On the Way to Niterói: João Sattamini Collection, Paço Imperial
1992 - Santo André SP - Lithography: Methods and Concepts, Paço Municipal
1993 - Curitiba PR - Lívio Abramo: Woodcuts, Museu da Cidade de Curitiba
1993 - João Pessoa PB - Woodcut: from Cordel to Gallery, Funesc
1993 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazil, 100 Years of Modern Art, MNBA
1993 - São Paulo SP - Works for the Literary Supplement: 1956-1967, MAM/SP
1993 - São Paulo SP - Representation: Decisive Presences, Paço das Artes
1994 - Poços de Caldas MG - Unibanco Collection: Commemorative Exhibition for Unibanco’s 70th Anniversary, Casa da Cultura de Poços de Caldas
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Trenches: Art and Politics in Brazil, MAM/RJ
1994 - São Paulo SP - 20th Century Brazil Biennial, Fundação Bienal
1994 - São Paulo SP - Brazil-Paraguay, Galeria do Memorial da América Latina
1994 - São Paulo SP - Prints: Subtleties and Mysteries, Printing Techniques, Pinacoteca do Estado
1994 - São Paulo SP - Poetics of Resistance: Aspects of Brazilian Printmaking, Galeria de Arte do Sesi
1994 - São Paulo SP - Woodcut: from Cordel to Gallery, Metrô
1995 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Unibanco Collection: Commemorative Exhibition for Unibanco’s 70th Anniversary, MAM/RJ
1995 - São Paulo SP - Unibanco Collection: Commemorative Exhibition for Unibanco’s 70th Anniversary, Instituto Moreira Salles
1996 - São Paulo SP - Ex Libris/Home Page, Paço das Artes
1997 - Barra Mansa RJ - Contemporary Traces: Tribute to Brazilian Printmaking, Centro Universitário de Barra Mansa
1998 - São Paulo SP - Impressions: The Art of Brazilian Printmaking, Espaço Cultural Banespa Paulista
1998 - São Paulo SP - The Collector, MAM/SP
1998 - São Paulo SP - Modern and Contemporary Brazilian Art: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection - MAM/RJ, Masp
1998 - São Paulo SP - The Collectors - Guita and José Mindlin: Plates and Prints, Galeria de Arte do Sesi
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Rio Print Exhibition. Armando Sampaio Collection: Brazilian Printmaking, Centro de Artes Calouste Gulbenkian
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Rio Print Exhibition. Modern Brazilian Printmaking: MNBA Collection, MNBA
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Rio Print Exhibition. Lívio Abramo, Espaço Cultural dos Correios
1999 - São Paulo SP - Everyday/Art. Consumption - Metamorphosis of Consumption, Itaú Cultural
1999 - São Paulo SP - Lithography: Fidelity and Memory, Espaço de Artes Unicid
1999 - São Paulo SP - On Paper, Graphite and Ink, Banco Cidade
2000 - Florianópolis SC - Lívio Abramo: Drawings, Prints, and Watercolors, Museu Victor Meirelles
2000 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Brasil-brasis: Remarkable and Astonishing Things. Modernist Perspectives, Museu do Chiado
2000 - Lisbon (Portugal) - 20th Century: Brazilian Art, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian
2000 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Expressionism Matrices in Brazil: Abramo, Goeldi, and Segall, Paço Imperial
2000 - São Paulo SP - Brazil + 500: Rediscovery Exhibition. Modern Art, Fundação Bienal
2000 - São Paulo SP - Video Launch: Gravura e Gravadores, documentary directed by Olívio Tavares de Araújo and produced by Itaú Cultural, featuring the artist and other printmakers
2000 - São Paulo SP - Investigations. Brazilian Printmaking, Itaú Cultural
2000 - São Paulo SP - Expressionism Matrices in Brazil: Abramo, Goeldi, and Segall, MAM/SP
2000 - São Paulo SP - The Role of Art, Galeria de Arte do Sesi
2000 - São Paulo SP - São Paulo: From Village to Metropolis, Galeria Masp Prestes Maia
2000 - Valencia (Spain) - From Anthropophagy to Brasília: Brazil 1920-1950, IVAM. Centre Julio González
2001 - Brasília DF - Investigations. Brazilian Printmaking, Itaú Cultural
2001 - Penápolis SP - Investigations. Brazilian Printmaking, Itaú Cultural
2001 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Blind Mirror: Selections from a Contemporary Collection, Paço Imperial
2001 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Spirit of Our Time, MAM/RJ
2001 - Santo André SP - 1st Santo André Printmaking Biennial
2001 - São Paulo SP - Blind Mirror: Selections from a Contemporary Collection, MAM/SP
2001 - São Paulo SP - Museum of Brazilian Art: 40 Years, MAB/Faap
2001 - São Paulo SP - The Spirit of Our Time, MAM/SP
2002 - Niterói RJ - Paper Collection, MAC/Niterói
2002 - Niterói RJ - Sattamini Collection: Modern and Contemporary Works, MAC/Niterói
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Art in the Fadel Collection: From Modern Restlessness to the Autonomy of Language, CCBB
2002 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Art in the Fadel Collection: From Modern Restlessness to the Autonomy of Language, CCBB
2002 - São Paulo SP - Art and Politics, MAM/Higienópolis
2002 - São Paulo SP - From Anthropophagy to Brasília: Brazil 1920-1950, MAB/Faap
2002 - São Paulo SP - Wild Mirror: Modern Art in Brazil from the First Half of the 20th Century, Nemirovsky Collection, MAM/SP
2002 - São Paulo SP - Modernism: From the Week of 22 to Sérgio Milliet’s Art Section, CCSP
2003 - Brasília DF - Brazilian Art in the Fadel Collection: From Modern Restlessness to the Autonomy of Language, CCBB
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Art: From the 1930 Revolution to the Postwar, MAM/RJ
2003 - São Paulo SP - Printmaking Is Doing Well, Thank You: Historical and Contemporary Brazilian Printmaking, Espaço Virgílio
2003 - São Paulo SP - Art and Society: A Controversial Relationship, Itaú Cultural
2003 - São Paulo SP - Lívio Abramo: 100 Years, MAM/SP
2003 - São Paulo SP - Lívio Abramo: Art for Architecture, Fundação Maria Luisa e Oscar Americano
2004 - Belo Horizonte MG - Pampulha, Collected Works: 1943-2003, MAP
2004 - Niterói RJ - Transitive Modernity, MAC/Niterói
2004 - São Paulo SP - Paper Cabinet, CCBB
2004 - São Paulo SP - New Acquisitions: 1995-2003, MAB/Faap

Collections

Banco Itaú S.A. Collection (São Paulo, SP)
Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo/Brazil Collection
Visual Arts Collection, Institute of Brazilian Studies - USP (São Paulo, SP)
Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo Collection - SP
Castro Maya Museums - IPHAN/MinC (Rio de Janeiro, RJ)