Franz Weissmann

Franz Josef Weissmann (September 15, 1911 — July 18, 2005) was a Brazilian sculptor born in Austria, emigrating to Brazil while he was eleven years old. Geometric shapes, like cubes and squares, are strongly featured in his works. He was one of the founders of the Neo-Concrete Movement.

Born in Knittelfeld, Austria, Franz Josef Weissmann came to Brasil in 1921. In Rio de Janeiro, between 1939 and 1941, he attended architecture, painting, drawing and sculpture classes at the National School of Fine Arts. From 1942 to 1944, he studied drawing, sculpture, modeling and foundry with August Zamoyski. In 1945, he moved to Belo Horizonte where he taught drawing and sculpture in private classes. Three years later, Alberto da Veiga Guignard invited him to teach at the "Escola do Parque", later renamed Escola Guignard.

Starting from 1950 onwards, he gradually developed a constructivist style, favoring geometric shapes, cutting and folding sheets of iron, steel wires and aluminum. He joined Grupo Frente, in 1955. The next year, he returned to Rio de Janeiro and participated in the National Exposition of Concrete Art in 1957. In 1959 Weissmann traveled to Europe and East Asia, returning to Brazil in 1965.

In the 1960s, Weissmann exhibits the series of sculptures Amassados (Dented), which he created in Europe with hammered zinc and aluminum sheets, aligning himself briefly to informalism. Later on he returned to the constructivist works. In 1970 he won the award for best sculptor by the Brazilian Association of Art Critics and participated in the International Outdoor Sculpture Biennial, in Antwerp, Belgium, and at the Venice Biennale.

Weissmann made several public art sculptures for Brazilian cities, like at Praça da Sé, in São Paulo and at Parque da Catacumba, in Rio de Janeiro. He kept studios in Belo Horizonte (1950); Madrid, (1962) and Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro (1956 and 1965).

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