Samson Flexor

Samson Flexor (Soroca, Bessarabia, Russia 1907 - São Paulo, SP 1971)

Samson Flexor was a painter, illustrator, muralist, and teacher, recognized for his contribution to abstract art in Brazil. Born in Moldova, he began his artistic training in 1922, when he traveled to Belgium and studied painting at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts, while also studying chemistry. Two years later, he moved to Paris, where he furthered his studies at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts under the guidance of Lucien Simon, in addition to attending art history at the Sorbonne.

Between 1926 and 1927, he attended the La Grande Chaumière and Ranson academies, taking classes with Roger Bissière, which profoundly influenced his formation in European modernism. His first solo exhibition was held in Paris in 1927. In 1929, he founded the Salon des Surindépendants, of which he was director until 1938. After his conversion to Catholicism in 1933, he began producing religious murals, a phase that intensified during World War II, when, serving in the French Resistance, he was forced to flee Paris. During this period, his works began to adopt somber tones, reflecting expressionist and cubist influences, with themes related to the Passion of the Christ.

In 1946, Flexor arrived in Brazil and held an exhibition at the Prestes Maia Gallery in São Paulo. Two years later, he settled permanently in the city, where he played a fundamental role in the renewal of Brazilian modern art. At the invitation of critic Léon Dégand, then director of the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art, he became involved in geometric abstractionism and, in 1951, founded the Atelier-Abstração (Abstraction Studio). The space became an important center for the dissemination of abstract art in Brazil, training students such as Wega Nery, Norberto Nicola, Jacques Douchez, among others.

In the 1960s, his work began to incorporate elements of lyrical abstraction and figuration, highlighting Flexor's constant search for new forms of artistic expression. With a trajectory marked by transitions and experimentation, he left a significant legacy in the history of modern Brazilian art, both for his work and for his role as a trainer of new talent.

Critical Commentary

When he settled in Brazil in 1948, Flexor was already a mature artist with a wealth of artistic experience. His training included a two-year stint at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels (1922-1924), studies at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts [National School of Fine Arts], and an art history course at the Sorbonne, both in Paris (starting in 1924). With a production reminiscent of the School of Paris, the artist gained critical acclaim in his first solo exhibition (1927). In 1929, he participated in the creation of the Salon des Surindépendants, of which he was director until 1938. He participated in the resistance against the Nazi occupation and was forced to leave the French capital in 1940. He experienced enormous difficulties during the war, returning to Paris only in 1945. The post-war problems, combined with the success of his trip to São Paulo to attend an exhibition by the Grupo dos Pintores Independentes and his solo show at the Galeria Prestes Maia (1946), led him to decide to immigrate with his family to Brazil in 1948.

Considered one of the pioneers of abstractionism in Brazil, Flexor was an artist with a varied and independent output. From Cubist figuration to geometric abstraction, and from there to lyrical abstraction, he returned late in life to a kind of organic and anthropomorphic figuration, without neglecting religious painting and portraits. It should be noted that, just as it played an important role in Brazilians' acceptance of abstract movements, contact with the country's environment in the late 1940s was fundamental to the full development of abstract tendencies outlined in his painting since the end of World War II (1939-1945). He found an artistic milieu in which the dispute between the proponents of abstraction and the defenders of nationalist figurative painting was raging. He participated in the historic inaugural exhibition of the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art (MAM/SP), From Figurativism to Abstractionism, in 1949, at the invitation of the Belgian critic and director of the newly founded museum, Leon Dégand (1907-1958), and was encouraged by him to venture down the path of pure geometric abstraction.

In turn, the feeling of crisis in humanism typical of the post-war period (Flexor declared in 1948: "Wars force man to rediscover the universe he thought he knew"), together with the contagious experience of the developmental boom that São Paulo was experiencing at the time, where, as the artist declared to Sérgio Milliet (1898-1966), "everything tends toward the future and proclaims its contempt for the colonial past," were decisive elements in the future paths taken by Flexor in Brazil.

Thus, his semi-abstract painting Neo-Cubist origins from the late 1940s, in which, as Mário Pedrosa (1900-1981) observed, "the superimposition of planes still has a figurative function"—see, for example, Cups (1945), Guitar (1948), and Christ on the Cross (1949)—gradually transform into purely abstract geometric compositions in which the planes become autonomous, integrated by an "orthogonic or diagonal approach." Flexor's abstract canvases seek dynamism through the combination of vertical, diagonal, and horizontal planes and lines, and rhythmic points through the placement of warm tones alongside subdued tones, with the intention of achieving harmony within asymmetry. This abstraction, more musical than mathematical, is constructed through the study and application of Renaissance methods of proportion and harmony, as Alice Brill (1920) observes. These rigorous studies will be taught by Flexor from 1951 onwards in the Atelier-Abstração (first phase 1951-1959), in which Alberto Teixeira (1925), Emílio Mallet, Izar do Amaral Berlinck, Jacques Douchez (1921), Leyla Perrone, Leopoldo Raimo (1912), Renée Malleville and Wega Nery (1912) participate.

In the late 1950s, a series of factors, including a trip to the United States (1957) and the closure of the Atelier, influenced Flexor's shift toward a lyrical abstraction of organic forms. "At the same time as he immersed himself in an inner search, Flexor investigated matter, the rhythm of forms and light," as Denise Mattar points out. In 1967, the artist surprised by creating large "figurative-abstract" paintings for the 9th São Paulo International Biennial entitled Bipeds. Regarding the coexistence of abstraction and figuration in Flexor's work, Tadeu Chiarelli shows that even in some so-called "pure abstract" works, illusionistic schemes are present, in an unquestionable commitment to traditional painting. In this sense, his work presents itself as a "privileged object of study on the problematic aspects involved in the absorption of non-figurative poetics in the field of Brazilian art."

Note
1 In 1812, with the signing of the Peace Treaty between the Russian and Turkish empires, the eastern part of Moldova, located between the Prut and Nistru rivers, called Bessarabia, and where the city of Soroca is located, was annexed to the Russian Empire, becoming a province of Russia until 1918. In that year, the Bessarabians decided to unite with Romania. This union lasted until 1940, the year in which the country was annexed by the Soviet Union as a consequence of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact of 1939. Moldova functioned as a territorial entity within the former Soviet Union until 1991, when it declared its independence.

Criticism

"(...) Like every painter in whom creative intelligence does not distance itself from or succumb to instinctive force, drawing has always been of decisive importance. It can be said that Flexor was, from his beginnings as a painter, a direct descendant of Synthetic Cubism. His large figurative compositions or compositions of sacred themes owe their complex structures to the Cubist experience of the second Parisian wave, in the predominance of planes over everything else. When he entered the geometric phase, these planes became autonomous of any representational idea, becoming intertwined either through an orthogonic or a diagonal approach. The structural complexity of the composition absorbed the artist to such an extent that color was, in general, merely a supplement of pink or green or any other semitone to white."
Mário Pedrosa
PEDROSA, Mário. Flexor, artist and painter. In: FLEXOR. São Paulo: MAM, 1961.

"In 1963, Jacques Lassaigne referred to his art as a 'balanced synthesis between construction and lyricism,' and René Deroudille, in 1965, commented on his evolution: '(...) his first Brazilian works, dedicated to tropical abstractions, convey a formal and colorful lyricism, followed by a moment of serenity in which, guided by religious beliefs, Samson Flexor achieves an expressive synthesis (...) Next comes a period of cold and creative abstraction, close to constructivism and the optical and ambiguous concerns of op art. Finally, it is the rise of the flight toward very contemporary research, where the eye 'listens' to the pulsations of the elements and causes strange craters, poisonous flowers, untamed waves to erupt across the canvas—signs of a plastic and poetic tonality to which Samson Flexor aspires.' Referring to his last works, Clarival Valadares said in 1968: 'In the example of Flexor, after reaching an unsurpassed level of virtuosity in the technique of superposition and tonal diaphanization, under rigid ordering of formal units (...) we see him transpose himself to the configuration of something of the human condition (...)' ".
Roberto Pontual
PONTUAL, Roberto. Flexor. In:______. Dictionary of the plastic arts in Brazil. Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira, 1969. p. 218.

"Flexor asserts that his decisive orientation toward abstraction stems not only from an intellectual process but also from the daily contemplation of the spectacle offered by the frenetic development of São Paulo, 'where everything tends toward the future and proclaims its contempt for the colonial past.' Thus, in his view, there would be an intimate connection between the progressive forces of civilization and the achievements of painters. The latter, freed from the imitation of nature, emancipated from conventions and traditions, would be the natural expression of atomic civilization. (...)

In Flexor's case, whether or not his painting derives from his fixation in São Paulo, we will not judge it through that prism, especially since he never intended to interpret anything. We must view it simply as painting, verifying what new things it brings us, what solutions it presents, to what extent it escapes the conventionality of tricks. Its starting point and most immediate solution is geometric composition, a play of rectangles or circles, of lines diagonals, verticals, and horizontals in harmonious yet lively balance. And concomitantly, coloristic expression through hue, in more refined accords than the Neoplasticists demanded.

But Flexor does not want to lose the more lyrical solutions of abstractionist hedonism in his discipline, because he does not want to impoverish painting by rigidifying it, and here he is, giving the material special care.

Neither concretist nor hedonist, but personal and lyrical, although disciplined in his abstractionism, Flexor shows how free and complex a tendency that so many already accuse of being academic can be, having barely begun to produce some tasty fruits. One quality, in any case, is authenticity, and it is indisputable, because what characterizes authenticity in art, painting, music, or architecture, is the work's intimate connection to its time.
Sérgio Milliet
MILLIET, Sérgio. Critical Diary: 1955/1956. 2nd ed. v. 10, p. 53; 55-56.

"Samson Flexor was one of these independent artists, seeking a path without compromise. Considered the most important introducer of abstractionism in Brazil, he works here as a teacher, lecturer, and visual artist. For Flexor, life and art always go hand in hand; in his own words: 'I will try to translate, as I feel, the relationship that exists in this triangle: artist, life, work, a triangle whose base is given by the points artist and life, with the work being the culminating point...' It is significant that he expresses his ideas in geometric terms. Flexor then elaborates a synthesis of the entire history of art, reminiscent of the manifestos of the avant-garde, now historical, and their basic positions. In painting and art in general, 'what is most moving is and remains... this Promethean tendency to wander along the edge of abysses, surpassing the limits of the possible.' Works of art are 'a crystallization of humanity's thought and aspirations in the process of realization... a testimony to our dignity and man's imperishable desire to retain universal life, which escapes him at every moment, in the attempt to define it forever.' Finally, the history of art arrives in our day 'at this autonomy... which we call ABSTRACT ART - abstract to everything that is not itself...' Flexor cites Kandinsky, Delaunay, Mondrian, Paul Valery, and many other artists and intellectuals who broke with all tradition in search of an innovation capable of giving legitimate expression to new situations. Significantly, Flexor, who began teaching upon his definitive arrival in São Paulo in 1948, officially opened his Atelier Abstração in the year of the establishment of the São Paulo Biennials, in 1951. Undoubtedly, he played a pioneering role among the Brazilian abstractionists who promoted this trend, considering that abstract ideas in art only began to be introduced here with the 1st and 2nd São Paulo International Biennials.
Alice Brill
BRILL, Alice. Reflections on Abstract Art. In: ______. Samson Flexor: from figuration to abstractionism. São Paulo, Knorr Brake Industries/MWM Diesel Engines/EDUSP, 1990, p. 79.

"It should be noted, however, that Flexor's art never achieved, as a pictorial expression, the radicalism manifested in his ideas. While it is true that he was a pioneer of the abstract movement in Brazil, he worked as a painter within certain limits, which the Concrete Artists and particularly the Neo-Concrete Artists largely surpassed. This is explained, among other factors, by the previous path taken by Flexor's painting, which differed from the geometric tendencies that gave rise to Concrete Art: Flexor's abstractionism has its origins in Neo-Cubism and the School of Paris, while Brazilian Concretism drew on Max Bill and the theses of the Ulm School. The difference is visible in the stages Flexor took to reach abstraction, which range from the stylization of figures to the gradual elimination of figurative allusions, while Concrete painting already starts with pure geometric forms, free of any reference to the outside world."
Ferreira Gullar
GULLAR, Ferreira. Flexor's Painting: cosa mentale. In: FLEXOR. Modulations. São Paulo: Instituto Moreira Salles, 2003. p. 32.

"Perhaps one of the highest points of Flexor's work was precisely that series of works produced in the late 1940s. There, the artist, undoubtedly impacted by the formulations proposed by lyrical abstraction—then spreading fiercely across Europe and the United States—equally experiments with certain solutions achieved by the surrealist Picasso and with certain 'freedoms' arising from the practice of psychic automatism. His heads, his créoles, his landscapes, and still lifes demonstrate how the artist moves freely between the geometric structure of the pictorial plane and the sensuality of the gesture, sometimes affirmative and masculine, sometimes ornamental, full of sincere eroticism. The excellent painter—holder of a mastery of pictorial technique until then rarely found in Brazil—thus freely navigates an abstract poetics, whose conciliatory character between figuration and abstraction does not represent a weakness, but rather a way of resolve, through the strategy of gestural fusion, what, for many, would be impossible."
Tadeu Chiarelli
CHIARELLI, Tadeu. The Reconciliation of Opposites. In: FLEXOR. Modulations. São Paulo: Instituto Moreira Salles, 2003. p. 29.

Testimony

It may seem artificial to explain a posteriori the successive phases of an artist by connecting them with a common thread that ensures a continuity satisfying to the spirit. How could Flexor, the painter of broad, mathematically constructed geometric compositions within the refined chromaticism of the 1950s, conceive the Bipeds of the 1960s, equally heavy and evanescent reflections of some unknown subhumanity glimpsed on the threshold of nightmare? Or rather, how could the serene Flexor of those 1950s simultaneously create this admirable and tragic Passion of the Christ series that plunges us into a universe of pain and cruelty? Gathered in the same room of an imaginary museum, these different aspects of the artist's genius certainly disorient anyone who, beneath such diverse artistic achievements, seeks to discover the secret thread that unites them, the profound personality of Flexor the man. This problem would not exist for his friends and family, to whom he explained the motivation behind his works with admirable lucidity. For Flexor, there were none of these contradictions, common to certain artists who, unable to ensure the unity of their being, feverishly move from one style to another, today denying the aesthetic creed of which they were once champions. The same Flexor was always there, coherent, lucid, true. However, his personality and culture were so rich that, as a musician, he could adjust his sounds to suit his intellectual concerns, his state of mind, and, in the final phase of his life, his health.

The painter Flexor, who, after the sufferings of war, came to Brazil in 1948 to try a new life, was strongly influenced by his French intellectual and artistic training. Just like his great Brazilian friend Sérgio Milliet, an avid reader of Montaigne, he was above all a humanist, eager to know everything about humanity. Nothing escaped his thirst for knowledge: mathematics, philosophy, music, and, of course, the visual arts. Like the great masters of the Renaissance, he believed that beauty in a painting could only be achieved by subjecting the composition to privileged mathematical relationships, such as the golden ratio, for example.

His temperament An ardent, intellectually restless spirit, he led him to take his pictorial experiments to their ultimate consequences. It wasn't Malevich's "white square on a white ground," but something similar, perhaps more rigorous. An excellent pianist, he marveled at the rational organization of a Bach sonata and wanted his paintings to be similarly composed. He spoke, at heart, a language close to that of Piero della Francesca: however, in him, only the "abstracted" structures of reality remained. This intellectual rigor dominated the outbursts of a sensitivity, sometimes revealed by the lyricism of certain preparatory pencil sketches. A religious theme could, however, free him from the Apollonian hedonism acquired in Paris. We then have the remarkable series of the Passion of the Christ, a poignant cry that blends the pain of the Christian facing the death of the Son of Man, that of the Jew, who experienced totalitarian oppression, and that of the human being crushed by his condition. It is, however, very Flexor. The expressionist, baroque composition even (Jesus between the two thieves), is wise, and the chromaticism obeys the rules of liturgy and traditional psychological symbolism.

But nothing human is indifferent to him. A great cultural rupture is brewing in these postwar years. Paris and its demands for rational balance fade before the new American generation, intoxicated with unbridled ardor. It is 1957, Flexor discovers New York, the exaggerations of action painting, and the intricacies of oriental calligraphy. What image of Man and art will he give him? Flexor is excessively restrained in surrendering himself to the freedom of line and brushstroke. He masters his technique too well to forget it for even a moment. It is in his sketches or watercolors that he can most sincerely move toward spontaneity and gestural expression. In the large, more elaborate oil compositions, the emotion of the graphic or the stain yields somewhat to the hardness and perfection of crystal. The end is approaching. The artist is only 64, but the ardent apostle of geometric abstraction, the leader, is tired. Tired of what he believed to be a lack of understanding of artistic means, tired of the illness from which he would die, for the first time, Flexor surrenders—would he know?—to his inner demons. His painting seeks to rediscover the broad compositions of the great era, but they are not the vigorous, geometric forms with the luminous colors of yesteryear; they are vast, livid areas, bordered by strands of putty, worked with a palette knife. Mathematical coherence has given way to a different logic: the large stains organize themselves into figurative obsessions, crushed giants, heavy, spineless beings, emerging from the weary brush, a brush that refuses to give up. The master of old, who would move enthusiastically from piano to easel, is now the weakened man who, sometimes, with tears in his eyes, returns to his canvas where these Bipeds are born, images at once powerful and miserable of a life that abandons him. Here and there, still a vibrant note: a small, geometric rectangle, vigorously colored, sometimes black [...]
Flexor Book
Jacques Douchez - January 1990

Solo Exhibitions

1927 - Paris (France) - First solo exhibition, Galerie Campagne Première
1928 - Paris (France) - Solo exhibition, Galerie Jeune Peinture
1929 - Brussels (Belgium) - Solo exhibition, Galerie Le Cadre
1929 - Paris (France) - Solo exhibition, Galerie Jeune Peinture
1930 - Paris (France) - Solo exhibition, Galeria George Dupuis
1933 - Paris (France) - Solo exhibition, Galerie Jeune Peinture
1935 - Paris (France) - Solo exhibition, Galerie A. Barreiro
1937 - Paris (France) - Solo exhibition, Galerie La Fenêtre Ouverte
1939 - Paris (France) - Solo exhibition, Galerie Carmine
1946 - Paris (France) - Solo exhibition, Galerie Carmine
1946 - São Paulo, SP (Brazil) - Solo exhibition, Galeria Prestes Maia - Salão Almeida Júnior
1948 - Paris (France) - Flexor: peintures et dessins, Galerie Roux-Hentschel
1948 - São Paulo, SP (Brazil) - Solo exhibition, Galeria Domus
1950 - São Paulo, SP (Brazil) - Solo exhibition, Galeria Domus
1950 - São Paulo, SP (Brazil) - Solo exhibition, MAM/SP
1952 - Salvador, BA (Brazil) - Solo exhibition, Galeria Oxumaré
1952 - São Paulo, SP (Brazil) - Solo exhibition, Livraria Francesa - Sociedade Inter-Franco-Brasil
1952 - São Paulo, SP (Brazil) - Um Vitral de Flexor, MAM/SP
1953 - Santos, SP (Brazil) - Solo exhibition, Associação Franco-Brasileira
1954 - São Paulo, SP (Brazil) - Solo exhibition, MAM/SP
1955 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil) - Solo exhibition, MAM/RJ
1956 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil) - Solo exhibition, Galeria Montmartre-Jorge
1957 - New York (United States) - Solo exhibition, Roland de Aenlle Gallery
1958 - São Paulo, SP (Brazil) - Solo exhibition, Galeria de Arte das Folhas
1960 - Belo Horizonte, MG (Brazil) - Solo exhibition, MAP
1960 - São Paulo, SP (Brazil) - Solo exhibition, Galeria São Luís
1961 - Campinas, SP (Brazil) - Solo exhibition, Galeria Aremar
1961 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil) - Solo exhibition, MAM/RJ
1961 - São Paulo, SP (Brazil) - Solo exhibition, MAM/SP
1961 - São Paulo, SP (Brazil) - Solo exhibition, Casa do Artista Plástico
1961 - São Paulo, SP (Brazil) - Solo exhibition, MAM/SP
1962 - Montevideo (Uruguay) - Solo exhibition, Ministerio de Instrucción Pública y Previsión Social
1962 - São Paulo, SP (Brazil) - Solo exhibition, Galeria Astréia
1963 - Düsseldorf (Germany) - Solo exhibition, Galerie Gunar
1963 - Kassel (Germany) - Solo exhibition, Kasseler Kunstverein
1963 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Solo exhibition, Embassy of Brazil
1963 - Paris (France) - Samson Flexor: peinture et aquarelles récentes, Galerie George Bongers
1963 - Stuttgart (Germany) - Solo exhibition, Galerie Hans Maercklin
1964 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Solo exhibition, Brazilian Chamber of Commerce in Portugal
1964 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil) - Solo exhibition, Galeria Bonino
1964 - São Paulo, SP (Brazil) - Obras Recentes de Flexor, Galeria São Luís
1965 - Geneva (Switzerland) - Solo exhibition, Musée Rath
1966 - Santos, SP (Brazil) - Solo exhibition, Clube de Arte
1966 - São Paulo, SP (Brazil) - Solo exhibition, Chelsea Art Gallery
1966 - São Paulo, SP (Brazil) - Solo exhibition, Galeria 4 Planetas
1967 - São Paulo, SP (Brazil) - Flexor 1947-1967, Banco de Minas Gerais
1968 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil) - Flexor: 30 anos de pintura, MAM/RJ
1969 - São Paulo, SP (Brazil) - Solo exhibition, Documenta Galeria de Arte
1970 - Campinas, SP (Brazil) - Solo exhibition, Galeria Girassol
1970 - São Paulo, SP (Brazil) - Solo exhibition, Chelsea Art Gallery

Group Exhibitions

1927 - Paris (France) - 20th Salon d’Automne, at the Grand Palais
1929 - Paris (France) - 40th Salon des Indépendants, at the Société des Artistes Indépendants
1929 - Paris (France) - Salon d’Automne, at the Grand Palais
1929 - Paris (France) - Salon des Tuileries
1930 - Paris (France) - Exhibition, at Les Surindépendants
1930 - Paris (France) - Salon d’Automne, at the Grand Palais
1932 - Paris (France) - Salon des Échanges
1933 - Brussels (Belgium) - Dispensaire des Artistes
1934 - Paris (France) - Salon des Échanges, at Parc des Expositions, Porte de Versailles
1935 - Nevers (France) - Exhibition, at Galerie d'Art Jack
1935 - Paris (France) - Salon des Échanges, at Parc des Expositions, Porte de Versailles
1936 - Paris (France) - Salon des Tuileries
1937 - Paris (France) - Paul Guillaume Prize, at Galerie Bernheim Jeune
1937 - Paris (France) - Exposition Universelle de Paris, at Pavillon d'Art Français
1937 - Paris (France) - Salon des Échanges, at Parc des Expositions, Porte de Versailles
1938 - Nevers (France) - 26th Exposition du Groupe d'Emulation Artistique du Nivernais
1938 - Paris (France) - 8th Salon des Échanges, at Parc des Expositions, Porte de Versailles
1938 - Paris (France) - Exhibition, at Maison de La Culture
1938 - Paris (France) - Salon des Tuileries
1939 - Paris (France) - Paul Guillaume Prize, at Galerie Bernheim Jeune
1940 - Normandy (France) - Salon des Artistes Bas-Normands
1946 - Paris (France) - Artistes de la Résistence, at Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
1949 - São Paulo SP - 13th Salon of the Sindicato dos Artistas Plásticos
1949 - São Paulo SP - From Figurativism to Abstractionism, at MAM/SP
1950 - São Paulo SP - Compositions on the Themes of the Passion, at MAM/SP
1951 - Salvador BA - 3rd Salão Baiano de Artes Plásticas
1951 - São Paulo SP - 1st São Paulo International Biennial, at Pavilhão do Trianon
1951 - São Paulo SP - 1st Salão Paulista de Arte Moderna, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1951 - São Paulo SP - Exhibition, at Livraria Francesa
1952 - Havana (Cuba) - 2nd Hispano-American Biennial
1952 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st National Salon of Modern Art, at MAM/RJ
1952 - Santiago (Chile) - French Exhibition, at Universidad de Santiago de Chile
1953 - Caracas (Venezuela) - Pan-American Salon
1953 - São Paulo SP - 2nd São Paulo International Biennial, at Pavilhão dos Estados
1953 - São Paulo SP - Atelier Abstração, at IAB/SP
1954 - São Paulo SP - Atelier Abstração, at MAM/SP
1954 - Venice (Italy) - 27th Venice Biennale
1955 - Montevideo (Uruguay) - Exhibition of Brazilian Art
1955 - Paris (France) - Exhibition of Brazilian Art, at Maison de l'Amérique Latine
1955 - São Paulo SP - 3rd São Paulo International Biennial, at Pavilhão das Nações
1955 - São Paulo SP - Atelier Abstração, at Instituto Mackenzie
1956 - São Paulo SP - 50 Years of Brazilian Landscape, at MAM/SP
1956 - São Paulo SP - Atelier Abstração, at MAM/SP
1957 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Modern Art in Brazil, at Museo de Arte Moderno
1957 - Lima (Peru) - Modern Art in Brazil, at Museo de Arte
1957 - Paris (France) - 50 Ans de Peinture Abstraite, at Galerie Creuze
1957 - Rosario (Argentina) - Modern Art in Brazil, at Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes Juan B. Castagnino
1957 - Santiago (Chile) - Modern Art in Brazil, at Museo de Arte Contemporáneo
1957 - São Paulo SP - 12 Artists of São Paulo, at Galeria de Arte das Folhas
1957 - São Paulo SP - 4th São Paulo International Biennial, at Pavilhão Ciccilo Matarazzo Sobrinho
1958 - New York (United States) - Atelier Abstração of São Paulo, at Roland de Aenlle Gallery
1959 - Leverkusen (Germany) - First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1959 - Munich (Germany) - First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe, at Kunsthaus
1959 - Vienna (Austria) - First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Concórdia SC - Salon of Fine Arts, Clube Concórdia
1960 - Hamburg (Germany) - First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Kassel (Germany) - Brazilian Art of the Present
1960 - Lisbon (Portugal) - First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
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 - Leirner Collection, at Galeria de Arte das Folhas
1960 - Teresópolis RJ - Contemporary Art Exhibition, at Prefeitura Municipal de Teresópolis
1960 - Utrecht (Netherlands) - First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1961 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 10th National Salon of Modern Art
1961 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Group Exhibition, at MAM/RJ
1961 - São Paulo SP - 10th Salão Paulista de Arte Moderna, at Galeria Prestes Maia – Gold Medal
1961 - São Paulo SP - 6th São Paulo International Biennial, at Pavilhão Ciccilo Matarazzo Sobrinho
1962 - Curitiba PR - Paraná Salon, at Biblioteca Pública do Paraná
1962 - Kassel (Germany) - Brasilianische Künstler der Gegenwart, at Kasseler Kunstverein
1962 - São Paulo SP - 11th Salão Paulista de Arte Moderna, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1962 - São Paulo SP - Selection of Brazilian Artworks from the Ernesto Wolf Collection, at MAM/SP
1963 - Berlin (Germany) - Südamerikanische Malerei der Gegenwart, at Akademie der Künste
1963 - Campinas SP - Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, at Museu Carlos Gomes
1964 - Paris (France) - Salon Comparaisons, at Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
1965 - Osaka and Sakata (Japan) - Group Exhibition, at Galeria Nunu and Honma Art Museum
1966 - Osaka (Japan) - International Society of Plastic and Audiovisual Arts
1966 - Paris (France) - Artistes Brésiliens de Paris, at Galeria Debret
1966 - São Paulo, SP (Brazil) - Group Exhibition, at MAC/USP
1966 - São Paulo, SP (Brazil) - Manchas, at Galeria 4 Planetas
1966 - São Paulo, SP (Brazil) - Três Premissas, at MAB/Faap
1967 - Montevideo (Uruguay) - Exposição de Arte Brasileira
1967 - São Paulo, SP (Brazil) - 9th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1968 - Rijeka (Yugoslavia, now Croatia) - Exposition Internationale des Dessins Originaux, at Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art
1968 - São Paulo, SP (Brazil) - 17th Salão Paulista de Arte Moderna
1969 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil) - 7th Resumo de Arte JB, at MAM/RJ
1969 - São Paulo, SP (Brazil) - 1st Panorama de Arte Atual Brasileira, at MAM/SP
1969 - São Paulo, SP (Brazil) - Os 5 Grandes, at Banco Nacional, organized by Chelsea Art Gallery
1970 - Montevideo (Uruguay) - 1st Bienal do Uruguai – Pan-American Grand Prize for Painting
1970 - Sakata (Japan) - International Society of Plastic and Audiovisual Arts
1970 - São Paulo, SP (Brazil) - 2nd Panorama de Arte Atual Brasileira, at MAM/SP
1970 - São Paulo, SP (Brazil) - Group Exhibition, at Galeria Azulão
1971 - São Paulo, SP (Brazil) - 11th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1971 - São Paulo, SP (Brazil) - Obras de Artistas Brasileiros Doadas ao Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Skopje, at Paço das Artes

Posthumous Exhibitions

1972 - Campinas, SP - Solo show, Galeria Girassol
1972 - São Paulo, SP - Solo show, Chelsea Galeria de Arte
1972 - Thailand - International Society of Plastic and Audiovisual Arts
1973 - Santos, SP - 2nd Bienal de Artes Plásticas
1973 - São Paulo, SP - Solo show, Igreja Nossa Senhora do Perpétuo Socorro. Salão Nobre
1974 - Campinas, SP - Samson Flexor, Lothar Charoux, Raul Porto, Paulo Roberto Leal, Banco Lar Brasileiro
1975 - Campinas, SP - Solo show, Banco Lar Brasileiro
1975 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Solo show, Galeria Montmartre-Jorge
1975 - São Paulo, SP - 13th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, Fundação Bienal
1975 - São Paulo, SP - Solo show, MAM/SP
1975 - São Paulo, SP - Solo show, Masp
1976 - São Paulo, SP - Imigrantes nas Artes Plásticas de São Paulo, Masp
1977 - São Bernardo do Campo, SP - Solo show, Paço Municipal
1977 - São Paulo, SP - Destaque do Mês, Pinacoteca do Estado
1978 - Recife, PE - Gouaches e Aquarelas de Samson Flexor, Casa de Cultura de Pernambuco
1978 - Salvador, BA - Gouaches e Aquarelas de Samson Flexor, MAM/BA
1978 - São Paulo, SP - Gouaches e Aquarelas de Samson Flexor, Galeria Arte Global
1978 - São Paulo, SP - A Arte e Seus Processos: o papel como suporte, Pinacoteca do Estado
1978 - São Paulo, SP - As Bienais e a Abstração: a década de 50, Museu Lasar Segall
1980 - Londrina, PR - Solo show, UEL
1980 - Marília, SP - Solo show, Galeria Flexor
1980 - São Paulo, SP - Projeto Pinacoteca, Galeria Sesc Paulista
1981 - São Paulo, SP - Solo show, Jockey Club de São Paulo
1982 - São Paulo, SP - Samson Flexor: abstração lírica e geométrica, Galeria de Arte São Paulo
1983 - São Paulo, SP - Solo show, Galeria de Arte São Paulo
1983 - São Paulo, SP - Uma Seleção do Acervo na Cidade Universitária, MAC/USP
1983 - São Paulo, SP - Uma Seleção do Acervo: do cubismo ao abstracionismo, MAC/USP
1984 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Solo show, Galeria Saramenha
1984 - São Paulo, SP - Coleção Gilberto Chateaubriand: retrato e auto-retrato da arte brasileira, MAM/SP
1984 - São Paulo, SP - Tradição e Ruptura: síntese da arte e cultura brasileiras, Fundação Bienal
1985 - São Paulo, SP - 18th Exposição de Arte Contemporânea, Chapel Art Show
1987 - Paris (France) - Modernidade: arte brasileira do século XX, Musée d'Art de la Ville de Paris
1987 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Abstracionismo Geométrico e Informal: aspectos da vanguarda brasileira dos anos 50, Funarte
1987 - São Paulo, SP - O Ofício da Arte: pintura, Sesc
1988 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - 2ª Abstração Geométrica, Funarte. Centro de Artes
1988 - São Paulo, SP - MAC 25 anos: destaques da coleção inicial, MAC/USP
1988 - São Paulo, SP - Modernidade: arte brasileira do século XX, MAM/SP
1988 - São Paulo, SP - Samson Flexor: obras 1921-1971, Espaço Cultural José Duarte Aguiar e Ricardo Camargo
1989 - São Paulo, SP - 20th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, Fundação Bienal
1990 - São Paulo, SP - Flexor e o Abstracionismo no Brasil, MAC/USP
1991 - São Paulo, SP - Abstracionismo Geométrico e Informal: aspectos da vanguarda brasileira dos anos 50, Pinacoteca do Estado
1992 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - 1º A Caminho de Niterói: Coleção João Sattamini, Paço Imperial
1993 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Brasil 100 Anos de Arte Moderna, MNBA
1994 - São Paulo, SP - Bienal Brasil Século XX, Fundação Bienal
1996 - Niterói, RJ - Arte Contemporânea Brasileira na Coleção João Sattamini, MAC/Niterói
1996 - São Paulo, SP - Arte Brasileira: 50 anos de história no acervo MAC/USP: 1920-1970, MAC/USP
1998 - Niterói, RJ - Espelho da Bienal, MAC/Niterói
1998 - São Paulo, SP - Arte Construtiva no Brasil: Coleção Adolpho Leirner, MAM/SP
1998 - São Paulo, SP - Coleção MAM Bahia: pinturas, MAM/SP
1998 - São Paulo, SP - O Colecionador, MAM/SP
1998 - São Paulo, SP - Traços e Formas, Jo Slaviero Galeria de Arte
1999 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Arte Construtiva no Brasil: Coleção Adolpho Leirner, MAM/RJ
1999 - São Paulo, SP - A Figura Feminina no Acervo do MAB, MAB/Faap
1999 - São Paulo, SP - Década de 50 e seus Envolvimentos, Jo Slaviero Galeria de Arte
2000 - São Paulo, SP - A Figura Feminina no Acervo do MAB, MAB/Faap
2000 - São Paulo, SP - A Figura Humana na Coleção Itaú, Itaú Cultural
2000 - São Paulo, SP - Brasil + 500 Mostra do Redescobrimento, Fundação Bienal
2000 - São Paulo, SP - O Papel da Arte, Galeria de Arte do Sesi
2001 - São Paulo, SP - Museu de Arte Brasileira: 40 anos, MAB/Faap
2002 - Niterói, RJ - Diálogo, Antagonismo e Replicação na Coleção Sattamini, MAC-Niterói
2002 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Arte Brasileira na Coleção Fadel: da inquietação do moderno à autonomia da linguagem, CCBB
2002 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Caminhos do Contemporâneo 1952-2002, Paço Imperial
2002 - São Paulo, SP - Arte Brasileira na Coleção Fadel: da inquietação do moderno à autonomia da linguagem, CCBB
2002 - São Paulo, SP - Mapa do Agora: 50 anos da arte brasileira Coleção Sattamini, Instituto Tomie Ohtake
2002 - São Paulo, SP - Modernismo: da Semana de 22 à seção de arte de Sérgio Milliet, CCSP
2003 - Brasília, DF - Arte Brasileira na Coleção Fadel: da inquietação do moderno à autonomia da linguagem, CCBB
2003 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Ordem x Liberdade, MAM/RJ
2003 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Samson Flexor : modulações, Instituto Moreira Salles
2003 - São Paulo, SP - Samson Flexor: modulações, Galeria de Arte do Sesi
2004 - Niterói, RJ - Modernidade Transitiva, MAC/Niterói
2004 - São Paulo, SP - Gabinete de Papel, CCSP
2004 - São Paulo, SP - Gesto e Expressão: o abstracionismo informal nas coleções JP Morgan Chase e MAM, MAM/SP
2004 - São Paulo, SP - O Preço da Sedução: do espartilho ao silicone, Itaú Cultural
2004 - São Paulo, SP - Sala do Acervo, Ricardo Camargo Galeria
2004 - São Paulo, SP - Tudo é Desenho, CCSP