Gretta Sarfaty Marchant

Gretta Sarfaty Marchant
Gretta Sarfaty Marchant, PerFormative, Sartorial Contemporary Art, 2011
Born	Alegre Sarfaty 1954 Athens
Nationality	British and Brazilian

Gretta Sarfaty Marchant (also known as Alegre Sarfaty, Gretta Sarfaty Grzywacz, Greta Sarfaty Marchant) is an artist and curator who lives and works in London, São Paulo and New York. Gretta has earned international acclaim as a feminist performance artist. Alongside her artistic practice she was the founder of the project-led space, Sartorial Contemporary Art (2005–2010) and since 2010 has been running a family trust the Alegre Sarfaty Collection.^[1]

Early life

Gretta Sarfaty was born in Athens and was named Alegre Sarfaty, from parents of Italian, Greek and Turkish origin. When she was seven years old, she moved to Brazil. At the age of 17 she married José Grzywacz; she has three children from this marriage: Victoria Sarfaty Grzywacz, Pedro Grzywacz and Rafaela Grzywacz Goodman. She started creating her first artworks when she was 25. She continued her art studies in Brazil, and later lived and worked in Paris, Milan and New York.

Artistic career

Throughout her career Gretta Sarfaty exhibited mainly in São Paulo, New York and London. In the 70's she participated in numerous solo shows in Brazil displaying her early paintings. Her world travels and mixed background has had an important influence on her more contemporary visual work – particularly her photography and collages which deal in themes of identity and culture, although her art is not restricted just to the canvas. Gretta's work embraces a wide range of media including installation, photography, video, paintings and performance.

Brazil and europe

At the beginning of the 70's she started creating the series of paintings, Metamorphosis and her work was noted by the Brazilian gallerist, Franco Terranova. In 1976 he showed her works in the Galeria de Arte Global, in São Paulo.^[2] In 1979 she had several shows in Germany (Karlsruhe) and in Italy (Galleria Diagramma, Milan; Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara) and also in Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, where she performed the Evocative Recollections. In 1983 she created a series of paintings with a book, dedicated to the Brazilian culture, Self-Portrait of Brazil.

Auto-Photos

This series of photos from 1976 is one of the first Gretta's artworks dedicated to female identity and its various demonstrations: the artist's face appears in sequences of beauty and ugliness, grace and madness.^[3] A frivolous play with recurrent images of herself is in fact an ironic dialogue with the constructed cultural image of a woman. Gretta expresses in this series the notion of gender performativity, a term created by Judith Butler in 1988.
Roberto Pontual wrote about this work: The work of Gretta has been originally more related to the language of photography, especially during her recent stay in Europe. Her main focus has always been the female body, including her own body "as a symbol of women's condition in our society.^[4]

Transformations

Here the topic of deconstructing the female image gains even more strength.^[5] Gretta's face is being manipulated and distorted: Rather than the manifestation of personal destructive tendencies, these images should be viewed as the externalisation of a revolt directed against the male cultural stereotype, mortifying as it does the feminine form into the authoritarian and distorting dimension of an abstract and aesthetic beauty, to which the artist opposes the angry vision of a reverse side, through a body that is deformed, disfigured and fragmented.^[6]

A Women's Diary

Another work from 1976 where the artist uses the medium of photography to create a diary of her own body, captured in almost abstract poses. The way that the body appears on the photos calls into question its materiality.

Evocative Recollections

In 1979 she performed Evocative Recollections (performance with catalogue) in Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, as well as in Pallazzo di Diamanti di Ferrara, Italy.^[7] This performance was then showed in different locations in Belgium (Internationaal Cultureel Centrum, Antewerp^[8] ), Brazil and Italy. Under the same title, Evocative Recollections, Gretta continued the topic of female body and, so-called, women's liberation in the series of photos (1980–1981). In an essay published on the occasion of Gretta's solo exhibition at the Centro Culturale La Filanda (Verano Italy) Gillo Dorfles wrote about this series:
Sure: such pictures will not be the same with another artist, with another option, however, even considered under a point of view of photographic document, Gretta's corporeal options reach an unusual efficacy. We are in front of a little common combination, between the creative activity of an artist who knows how to enjoy the expressive dynamic and plastic possibilities of her body and the realisation of a photographic documentation which remains autonomous as well as in its technical as in its aesthetic values.^[9]

Self Portrait of Brazil

During the late 1970s Gretta began to shuttle between Europe and Brazil, showing in group and one woman exhibitions in most of the important European art capitals. The work was intended to be an objective and representative image of the country without any political connotations. She quickly came to the realisation that few people knew anything about her country. This discovery combined with her belief that Brazilians do not value their own culture highly enough, lead her on a single-minded effort to capture the spirit of Brazil in a series of portraits depicting the 50 most prominent and legendary people of Brazil, at that time. Self Portrait of Brazil (1981–1983) was exhibited in 1983, in Museu de Arte de São Paulo, Brazil and published as a book accompanying the exhibition,^[10] including also some essays about the works:

Mirror and photographs steal a man's soul. This primitive way of perceiving acquires a civilised antithesis in Gretta's work. She doesn't steal. She reveals, unveils, surprises and shows people's souls. She doesn't steal but conquers. Her work, like every true artist's work, goes beyond the reality of faces, gestures, skin, nerves, wrinkles, smiles and veins. She transforms the mass-produced image of man into something unique, typical and essential.
Yes, Gretta is a "paparazzi" without a flash. Her characters have come out strongly toned, with all the shades and secrets. Those who have been taken unaware by Gretta cannot expect a faded photograph or a lost negative. They will be history. Showing, in the future, the face of a country as it was in the eighties.^[11]

New york

In 1983 she moved to New York and after a traumatic event, the fire in the Hotel Chelsea,^[12] she decided to begin a collaboration with American video and performance artists (InterComm group). During that time she also started to discover the Kabbalah esoteric thought: she became friends with Simon Jacobson and Kenny Vance and she decided to picture the Kabbalah community in her paintings (Kabbalah, 1984–1985). It was then, when she also created a performance, Goya Time (1985) and a video, My Single Life in New York (1987).
By the time she was represented by the New York based gallery, Foster Goldstrom Fine Arts. She was involved in the artistic and cultural life of the city and she got to know Arthur Penn, with whom she collaborated in 1993 on his film The Portrait, starring Lauren Bacall and Gregory Peck.

Body Works

In the late 80' and early 90' she created a photographic series of Body Works, where naked bodies constitute a denunciation of the hedonistic and alienating practices to which the female form is submitted, a denunciation of the repression and mystification to which women's education exposes them from every direction. And they are an affirmation of the real sensuality of women, which respectability nonetheless still attempts to hide or to repress (the curtain or the mosquito net). And so, like gallery owner Romana Loda, we can quote Hugo Von Hofmannsthal when he said: "The profound should be hidden. Where? On the surface".^[13]

Gretta & Becheroni: Change and Appropriation of an Autonomous Identity

Video made in 1980 in collaboration with Elvio Becheroni. The artist perform in a cube made of paper ribbons, making herself a passage through the space. It is a metaphoric way to the new identity.^[14]

Goya Time

Inter-disciplinary multimedia event with 100 artists, curated by Gretta Sarfaty, Sandro Dernini and Butch Morris. Gretta wrote a script and directed this art opera inspired by Francisco de Goya's artworks. The performance took place in 1985, in "Quando", church and a car park at the Lower East Side, New York.^[15]

Virtual Body Works 1988/2013

During the Spring of 1987 Gretta was invited to participate in an interactive telecommunications event, Who Killed Heinrich Hertz?,^[16] created by InterComm (Timothy Binkley, George M. Chaikin, Ira Schneider and Willoughby Sharp). She became involved in collaborative work with each of the above video artist. In 1988 Ira Schneider created a video dedicated to Gretta.^[17]

Myth

Video produced by Denny Daniel, in 2003. It is a compilation of snapshots of the artist, manipulated with a kaleidoscopic effect and juxtaposed with scenes from Gretta's everyday life. The structure of the movie remains the style of music videos from the late 80's.^[18]

London

In 1995 she moved to London and married Richard Marchant, one of the greatest Chinese porcelain connoisseurs. She continued creating photography related to questions of femininity and identity.

Reflections of a Woman

Woman as a central artistic subject appears not only in her auto-portraits but also in the series of paintings dedicated to an issue of female identity and body, Reflections of a Woman (1997). It was exhibited in the Wolseley Fine Arts, London, in 1997.^[19]

In this series of paintings Gretta is talking not only about herself, but also about other women. She has found a way to represent women's nature. It is not her body any more, but every woman's body. They can still be self-portraits, but they also are portraits of the women of today, full of confidence about their own identity and conscious of their power.^[20]

Myth of Womanhood

Gretta created those photographic collages in 2003–2005. The title itself is a provocative statement by the artist in relation to the Female versus Feminism issue, and how the use and abuse of that subject has now become a cliché. The series comprises one photographic image which is duplicated several times to form form a stimulating kaleidoscopic final picture. The Myth of Womanhood marks Gretta's return to performance art, however in this instance the performance is only for the camera. Dressed in dramatic outfits with a vivid colour combinations (including a leopard-skin print and a black jacket with red fake fur trim on the collar and cuffs), the artist strikes poses in front of her dressing room mirrors which are positioned to reflect her image in a multitude of angles. Other works shows her occupied with more mundane daily chores: cleaning teeth, combing hair, putting on make-up.^[21]

Recent activity

In 2005 she opened her own gallery, Sartorial Contemporary Art. In October 2008 Sartorial Contemporary Art moved to a larger space in Kings Cross. Gretta has curated several shows at Sartorial Contemporary Art including Notting Heaven (2008), Mothers (2008), Remember My Name (2008), Burning Candy (2008), Obsession (2006) and Water (2006). Along with Jasper Joffe and Harry Pye she has been a co-editor of The Rebel magazine.

More recently she has exhibited in the show Bad Girls (2010), together with Marina Abramović, Annette Messager, Orlan and Gina Pane. The concept of the exhibition was to compare four generation of female artists since the 70's. In 2011 her works were featured at a major exhibition at the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo Arte como registro, registro como arte,^[22] documenting the history of art performance in Brazil. The show highlights Gretta as one of the few Brazilian artists to ever exhibited at the Centre Georges Pompidou. One year later she participated in Foto/Gráfica – A New History of Latin American(where she exhibited her Autho-Photos), at Le Bal,^[23] Paris and Libriste – Dalla collezione di libri d'artista di Marco Carminati: Gretta Sarfaty & Elvio Becheroni . Modificazione e appropriamento di una identita autonoma at the Instituzione Biblioteca Classense in Ravenna, Italy.

Familia Memorabilis and Wedding Pictures

In her latest work Gretta has directed her own Fellini's 8 ½ finale, offering us a glance into the future experiencing the past. Familia Memorabilis presents several snap-shots that preserve specific moments of the artist's personal life. Revealing the instability of photographic reality works reveal a paradigm shift between past and present. Aesthetically poignant, they investigate the mind as archive, simultaneously unsettling the viewer whilst giving them glimpses of moments that otherwise remain private.

Wedding Pictures capture the flow of 'real time', reviewing the photo album of Gretta's first wedding. Each page is transformed into digital format, assembled into pairs so as to create a single image. The artist didn't feel the need to incorporate the concrete act of painting; it was enough to include herself in the form of the subject. Commissioning a painter found on the internet, Marc Orriss, to produce five oil paintings that are replicas of her photographic works.

Exhibitions

Selected solo exhibitions

2013 - Familia Memorabilis, Wedding Pictures and SARTORIAL GIVEAWAY OF A LIFETIME! (Paintings, photos, video and installation). Gretta’s project led-space, Kings Cross, London, UK
2011 - Arte Como Registro, Registro Como Arte(performance with film)^[24] – Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, Brazil
2010 - Through a Glass Darkly (photos, performance).^[25] Film by Gordon Beswick, Sartorial Contemporary Art, London
2009 - Gretta's Permutations (installation and video). The show features "Gretta's Progress" by Gordon Beswick,^[26] a half-hour documentary about Gretta's life since the 80s, London
2008 - Gretta's Progress (photos, performance with catalogue) at Leeds College of Art & Design. Curated by Harry Pye and Olly Beck, Leeds, UK
2006 - X-RAY at the Perseverance, London
2003 - Life Works (solo exhibition) – 473 Broadway Gallery, New York, US
2002 - Myth of Womanhood & Youth versus Gravity (with catalogue) Sartorial Contemporary Art. Curated by Julia Weiner, Head of Education at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London
1997 - Reflections of a Woman(with catalogue), Wolseley Fine Arts, London
1993 - Body Works (performance and photos with catalogue) – exhibited in Foster Goldstrom Gallery, New York and also in Jansen-Perez Gallery, Los Angeles and San Antonio, Texas
1988 - Europa, França e Bahia – Museu da Imagem e do Som and Museu Paco das Artes. Gretta's retrospective of 15 years of works (with catalogue) comprising paintings, videos, performances, lectures and works in collaboration with Timothy Binkley, George Chaikin, Ira Schneider, Willoughby Sharp and others. Sponsored by the Brazilian Government. Curated by Gretta Sarfaty and Willoughby Sharp, São Paulo^[27]
1983 - Self portrait of Brazil (with book) – Museu de Arte de São Paulo, Brazil
1979 - Evocative Recollections (performance with catalogue), Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France^[28]

Selected group exhibitions

2012 - Libriste. Dalla collezione di libri d'artista di Marco Caminati;^[29] Gretta & Becheroni: modificazione e appropriamento di un’identita’ autonoma. Istituzione Biblioteca Classense, Ravenna, Italy
2012 - A New History of Latin America, Fóto/Gráfica Gretta Auto-Photos – Le Bal, Paris^[30]
2011 - Performative, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Nicola Ruben Montini and Gretta Sarfaty, Sartorial Contemporary Art, London
2010 - Bad Girls: Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere, along with Marina Abramović, Annette Messager, Orlan and Gina Pane, which were compared four generation of female artists, Italy
2008 - Again and Again, Gretta & Mister Solo, East London College of Art, London

Black History Month, Lewisham Library. Curated by Harry Pye, London

2006 - Half Life, Fieldgate Gallery, London

People Like Us (with publication), Nomoregrey Gallery, London

Bodynobody, curated by Luciano Inga Pin and Giuseppe Savoca, Milan

2005 - The Oh House & The Night on Earth, The Oxford House, Curated by Harry Pye, London

Art in Mind, La Viande Gallery, London

1987 - Summer Solstice '87, Art Performance 'The Marriage' Gretta Sarfaty & Willoughby Sharp in WNYC-TV special by Charlie Morrow with: John Cage, Melissa Fenley, Philip Glass, Butch Morris, NY
1985 - Purgatorio Show ’85 New York, at C.U.A.N.D.O., organised by Willoughby Sharp Studio, Plexus & Sandro Dernini, New York
1981 - INTERNATIONAL TRIENNAL OF DRAWINGS, Warsaw, Poland
1980 - Espaces Libres, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France

Curating art

Gretta Sarfaty Marchant curated almost all exhibitions organised in the Sartorial Contemporary Art, gallery which she run for eight years (2005–2013).^[31]

Among other shows curated by Gretta there are several worth mentioning:

• Fortless Sartorial, an Interactive Performance Installation by Jeni Snell and Group exhibition with Panick’s workshops, Corams Fields Youth Resource Centre and South Camden Youth Access Point. Sponsored by the Arts Council, O2 and Camden Council, London, 2009
• Burning Candy (with catalogue and film) – Leeds College of Art and Design, Leeds, 2008
• It Takes Two: James Jessop versus Harry Pye (with publication), Fish Market at South Market, London, 2007
• Europa Franca & Bahia in Museu da Imagem e do Som and Museu Paco des Artes (with catalogue) Gretta's 15 years of work, exhibition sponsored by the Brazilian Government, in 1988
• La Maja in Goya Time, Art Opera Multi-Media Event (100 creators interacting together at 'Quando', Church and Courtyard), New York, 1985

In 2009 she was also a judge for the competition, Presenting the Top 100, organised in partnership with PRS for Music and Jealous Gallery, London.

Bibliography

• Burning Candy (catalogue), Leeds College of Art and Design, Leeds, 2008.
• Marco Carminati, Dino Silvestroni, Marta Zocchi, Libriste dalla Collezione di Libri d’Artista di Marco Carminati, introduction by: Ada de Pirro, Instituzione Biblioteca Classense, Ravenna, March 2012.
• Matthew Collings, Modern Painters, London, 2006, pp. 34–35.
• Gillio Dorfles, Ultime Tendenze nell’Arte d’Oggi, Dall'informale al neo-oggettuale, Milano, 2004.
• "FÓTO/GRAFICA" A New History of the Latin-American Photobook, Lens Culture, 31 January 2012.
• Alessandra Gagliano Candela, Bad Girls: good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere, in: Art Key. Magazine d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, 2010.
• Mike Higgins, Gretta: Reflections of a Woman, in: Independent Newspaper London, December 1997.
• Gilberto Kassab, Cronología de Artes Plásticas. Referencias 1975 – 1995, Centro Cultural São Paulo, IDART, 2010.
• Gretta Marchant: "Life Works", in: New York Arts Magazine, Vol. 8, February 2003.
• Gretta & Becheroni: Modificazione e Appropriamento di una identità autonoma (catalogue), Prearo Editore, 1980.

References

External links

• Gretta Sarfaty Marchant – Official Artist's Website
• Sartorial Contemporary Art
• Alegre Sarfaty Collection