Abraham Palatnik (born 1928) is a Brazilian artist and inventor. He was born into a family of Russian Jews, who emigrated to Natal, a city with agrarian traditions, in 1919. Palatnik’s family had a significant influence on the development of the city and its suburbs, opening furniture factories and porcelain production plants, as well as teaching locals to run their own businesses. Palatnik didn’t just focus on his art, he also worked for the family business and applied himself to inventing practical machines, such as a device for opening coconuts and tools for producing dried fish powder. Over the course of his career as an artist, he also created works that activated the audience, such as his Ludic Objects, made up of a base that supported geometric forms controlled by viewers via a magnetized rod, determining the shape of the object. His later works reflected an interest in the aspect of layering. From the 1970s, Palatnik made paintings that he would then cut up and compile, creating multi-layered, geometric patterns in the process.
