The Metamorphoses - Transvestites and Cross-dressers in 1970s São Paulo

Madalena Schwartz (Budapest, 1921-São Paulo, 1993) was a prominent Brazilian photographer of Hungarian descent. A protagonist in São Paulo photography, she stands out for the way she worked the portrait in her work. Active at Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante, and a resident of the Copan building at the epicenter of São Paulo's cultural life in the 1970s, Schwartz dedicated her first full-length essay to the characters she met in the city's nightlife: cross-dressing artists, androgynous men and women, and transvestites, in a group that encompasses from luminaries of the time, such as the singer Ney Matogrosso and the Dzi Croquettes dance troupe, to many figures that today are almost forgotten. The exhibition, which was on show at the IMS Paulista in 2021 and was later presented in Buenos Aires, revisits this part of Schwartz's work, both to recover the characters portrayed by her and to investigate the photographer's profile.

Curators
Gonzalo Aguilar and Samuel Titan Jr.
Beatriz Matuck and Tiê Higashi (assistants)

São Paulo, Brasil
Madalena Schwartz: As metamorfoses - Travestis e transformistas na SP dos anos 70
IMS Paulista
February 9 to September 26, 2021

Buenos Aires, Argentina
Las Metamorfosis - Madalena Schwartz
Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires
November 5, 2021 to March 14, 2022

La Paz, Bolívia
Las Metamorfosis - Madalena Schwartz
Museo Nacional de Arte
June 15 to July 15, 2023

Poços de Caldas, Brasil
Madalena Schwartz: As metamorfoses - Travestis e transformistas na SP dos anos 70
IMS Poços
January 13 to June 9, 2024