Oswaldo Goeldi is one of Brazil’s leading printmakers and a fundamental artist of the first modernist generation. His work has been the subject of renewed interest thanks to the originality of his expressionist vocabulary, which represents a counterpoint to the hegemonic modernism in Brazil. Over the course of his more than 40-year long career, the artist produced woodcuts, lithographs, drawings and illustrations, developing a fertile relationship with the publishing market by illustrating literary works by authors such as Dostoyevsky and Raul Bopp, as well as working for numerous magazines and newspapers. 

Oswaldo Goeldi’s work stands out for the breadth of its interests and the depth of the issues presented. The artist was skillful at incorporating the signs of urban life into woodcuts in such a way as to create a unique language. The dense atmosphere that derives from his landscapes results above all from the relationship between space and the human figure. Goeldi depicts characters on the margins of society, such as fishermen, prostitutes, city workers and other wandering figures. Goeldi was also a pioneer of chromatic experiments in the field of printmaking. Works from his early career, made in 1932, already tested the expressive use of color printing in yellow and red. Color is a special element through which he gives the work a new meaning, between the fantastic and the symbolic. 

Recognition of the pioneering nature of his language in printmaking was consolidated in 1950, when he exhibited at the 25th Venice Biennale, a group show in which he took part also in 1952 and 1956. In 1951, he was awarded the grand prize for engraving at the 1st Bienal de São Paulo. The artist also took part in numerous other editions of the Bienal de São Paulo (1953, 1955, 1961, 1969, 1971, 1979, 1985, 1987, 1988 and 2010). Recent solo exhibitions include retrospective shows at Caixa Cultural Recife, Brazil (2013); and at Galeria Millan, São Paulo, Brazil (2014).  

Oswaldo Goeldi’s works are now part of the collections of the main Brazilian institutions and important international collections, including: Pinacoteca de São Paulo, Brazil; MAM São Paulo, Brazil; Museu de Arte Contemporânea da USP – MAC USP, Brazil; MASP, Brazil; MAM Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Brazil; Fundação Edson Queiroz, Brazil; Landesmuseum, Austria; Essex Collection of Art from Latin America – ESCALA, UK; among others.