The Iberê Camargo Foundation, based in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, is a cultural entity whose objectives are the preservation, study and dissemination of the work of the painter from Rio Grande do Sul, Iberê Camargo.

Iberê Camargo (Restinga Seca, 1914 – Porto Alegre, 1994) is one of the great names of Brazilian art of the 20th century. Artist of an extensive work, which includes paintings, drawings, gouaches and engravings, Iberê never lined up with currents or movements, but exerted strong leadership in the Brazilian artistic and intellectual environment. Among the different facets of his vast production, the artist developed the well-known series Reels, Cyclists and The Idiots, which marked his career. Much of his production, estimated at over seven thousand works, form now the collection of the Iberê Camargo Foundation.

Starting from a desire of the artist himself and his wife, Maria Coussirat Camargo, with the support of friends and with the leadership of the entrepreneur Jorge Gerdau Johannpeter, the Iberê Camargo Foundation, a private nonprofit institution, was created in 1995.

Its mission is to preserve the collection, promote the study and the dissemination of the work of Iberê Camargo while encouraging interaction of its audience with art, culture and education through interdisciplinary programs.

The headquarters of the institution was designed by Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza, one of the most important contemporary architects of the world. The project received the Golden Lion at the Venice Architecture Biennale (2002) and special merit at the Triennale Design of Milan.

Being an architectural reference in the city of Porto Alegre, the building has exhibition rooms, atrium, technical reserve, research and documentation center, printmaking studio, the studio of educational activities, auditorium, shop, coffee shop, parking and environmental park designed by the Gaia Foundation.

The collection consists of a documental nucleus, composed of documents and images related to the life and work of the artist, and a nucleus with the Maria Coussirat Camargo collection, which includes paintings, engravings, gouaches, drawings and studies by Iberê Camargo, which the couple accumulated throughout their life.

Modern and contemporary art are at the center of the exhibition program, which is divided into three types: exhibitions of works by Iberê Camargo, temporary exhibitions and itinerant shows.

The art shows dedicated to Iberê Camargo exhibit distinct curatorial take on the artist’s production. The temporary exhibitions feature works by established names from the present art scene in Brazil and abroad. In addition, the exhibition program also enables itinerant exhibitions of works from the Foundation Collection at partner institutions.

Iberê Camargo began his studies in Rio Grande do Sul, at the School of Arts and Crafts of the Cooperativa de Viação Férrea de Santa Maria. In Porto Alegre, he studied painting in a self-taught way, with a brief orientation by João Fahrion. In 1942 he arrived in Rio de Janeiro, where he joined the National School of Fine Arts. Frustrated with the current academism, he left the School and, on the recommendation of Candido Portinari, he began attending the free course of Alberto da Veiga Guignard. In 1953 he founded the Metal Engraving Course at the Municipal Institute of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro, teaching this technique later in more or less lengthy periods in Porto Alegre and other cities, including abroad. In Porto Alegre, he was one of the great promoters for the creation of Atelier Livre. In 1948 Iberê and Maria Coussirat traveled to Europe, where they remained for two and a half years. In Rome, Iberê studied painting with Giorgio de Chirico, engraving with Carlo Alberto Petrucci and materials with Leoni Augusto Rosa. In Paris, he attended the André Lhote Academy, attracted both by reading the Landscape Treaty and by the fame of a great teacher he possessed.

Although Iberê has studied with figures representing a variety of aesthetic currents, it can not be said that he has joined any of them. His works were present, and always represented, in major exhibitions all over the world, such as the Biennial of São Paulo and the Venice Biennale. Iberê Camargo was a great reference for gaucho and Brazilian art in general.

Iberê had only one daughter, Gerci, the fruit of a passing novel in the 1930s. Gerci Camargo gave him two grandchildren, Carlos Iberê and Doralice, and three great-grandchildren.

In 1995, the year following his death, the Iberê Camargo Foundation was established, based in the artist’s former residence, in the Nonoai neighborhood, whose objectives are preservation, study and dissemination of the artist’s work. In 2008, the headquarters moved to the Cristal neighborhood, in a building designed by the renowned Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza. The project won the Golden Lion at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2002 and the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize in 2014.