Paula Unger
(1954 - 2022)
Paula Fani Sneider Unger or Paula Unger (1954-2022), as she became known artistically, was born in São Paulo, on July 28, 1954. She studied Fine Arts at the Faculdade de Belas Artes de São Paulo, with a teaching degree for 1st and 2nd degrees. In 1979, he chose to work with ceramics.
He maintained a studio in São Paulo, at Espaço Integrado de Arte, where, in addition to ceramics, he gave space to other artistic modalities. There he exhibited and sold his pieces. In addition to teaching courses on high-temperature ceramics and sustainability applied to the work environment.
She did research on natural textures, such as rocks, tree bark, stones, such as those in the Grand Canyon, mountains in the Negev desert, Andes, Serra da Mantiqueira, among others.
She discovered a simple and sinuous universe, in which circles and spirals and checkered and hexagonal shapes play in a constant dialogue, leading to an always innovative, playful and creative path. She created and produced utilitarian and decorative ceramics and sculptures.
Her life philosophy was based on balance between family, friends, work and constant interaction with nature. Protector of animals and passionate about the trees and vegetation that inhabit planet Earth, she has been inspired countless times by these divine forms, and by the fractals created by nature.
In 2022, Paula left us but her work is still alive with us.
Work of art
Paula Unger's art path
Amid circles and spirals...
It is difficult to ignore the paradoxical game in the objects created by artist Paula Unger.of images that oscillate between persistence and change, the one and the multiple, pointing to a kind of circle that closes and opens to infinity. At first glance, the spirals mark his pieces, turned in clay fired at high temperatures, of different sizes, shapes and proportions. Such spirals are configured in low or high relief, outlined both by vibrant and neutral colors, as well as by the matte tone of the clay texture and the gloss of the glazes, responsible for contrasts that accentuate the continuous movement of “coming and going” of graphic lines, suggestive of something endless. Determining where each graphic begins or ends becomes the function of the viewer, invited to participate in the ceramist's work.
In this sense, another fact highlights the aforementioned duplicity: the purpose of each piece. As an example, hollow spheres, ready to be part of nature, welcoming birds, become a set of mobiles triggering the vision of the different faces of creation. From the opposite perspective, a set of five pieces, evocative of overlapping plates and designed with spiral lines, can insinuate a “unity”, a “totem” stylized by the determining trait of those who dialogue with other cultures. In general terms, Paula Unger's language, by focusing on spiral forms as one of its main constants, highlights the presence of circularity and infinity, stability and movement, awakening in the viewer sensations of something everyday that,
suddenly, it breaks to introduce differences, that is, a certain aesthetic effect of the pieces disarticulates what is known, without denying the tradition of clay inscriptions. On the contrary, he ends up inserting himself into it. It is enough to mention, among many, the relationships between the cosmogony of the “Dogon” tribe and the appearance of ceramics. In one of its versions, the creator god makes the sun out of clay, outlined by a copper spiral; that is, Paula rescues the “old” and the
it recomposes, triggering what everyone seeks: the pleasurable vision of the same thing reworked from another perspective.
Cleusa Rios P. Passos
Full Professor at FFLCH at the University of São Paulo
