Page 90 - ARTE!Brasileiros #42

ICONOGRAPHY & INSUBORDINATION ENGLISH VERSION

EXHIBITION BAHIA | PAGES 44 TO 46 the Almeida e Dale Gallery in the whole process, helping with the
ALFREDO VOLPI FOR mediation between the museum and the collectors.
The participation of Alfredo Volpi Institute, chaired by Pedro
EVERYONE TO SEE Mastrubuono, was also crucial for the execution of the show. “Volpi
is a success in the USA and Europe, but we never forget the Brazilian
public”, highlights Mastrobuono in a social network. According to Zivé,
ARTIST CAUSES EUROPEAN PUBLIC GREAT ADMIRATION WITH AN partnerships with these names become important as Brazilian art
EXHIBITION IN MONACO, BUT IT DOES NOT FAIL TO DELIGHT ONE institutions have suffered from the economic crisis: “Culture always
OF THE MOST BRAZILIANS PUBLIC, THE ONE FROM BAHIA, WITH A suffers from this, more than the other subsectors of the society.”
PRESENTATION IN MAM-BA
STATE OF MIND
BY JAMYLE RKAIN In the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia, the exhibition of Afredo Volpi
is part of a project that was called the Estado Bienal. The measure is a
AT THE SAME TIME that fascinated - and continues to fascinate - way found by the management team of the institution to accomplish,
Europeans in exhibitions and fairs on the continent, Alfredo Volpi is in some way, the function that the Biennial of Bahia used to fulfill.
not forgotten by the Brazilian art spaces. This time, the Italo-Brazilian After the closing of the II Biennial in 1968, by the military dictatorship
artist has 33 works exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia based on the decree AI-5, the event only happened again 46 years
(MAM-BA). The show, which runs until July 1, is one of the results later, in 2014. Without the resources to continue it, there is no idea
of the great effort that the museum management team has made when the fourth edition will happen. Therefore, MAM-BA decided to
with partners to overcome a budget crisis. integrate all the projects of the museum in the label Estado Bienal.
The exhibition was only possible, according to Zivé Giudice, director “We decided that everything that was produced by the museum or
of the museum, with the help of collaborators and collectors who requested from the museum was done within the perspective of this
came together to help in a task force that collected and transported place of gestation of ideas and content,” Zivé points out.
the works to Bahia. “There has been a flirtation between Volpi, Bahia For the coming months, MAM-BA wants to hold a show that will bring
and this museum since the 1940s,” says Zivé, sustaining his argument together what Zivé calls the “Generation 70 of the art from Bahia”.
in the subsequent donation of Casas, in the following decade, to the For him, it is a spontaneous generation that “begins to build a place
collection of the institution. This was an initiative by art critic Theon for the contemporary art” in the state. Names such as Bel Borba
Spanudis. For Ladi Biezus, who signs critical text of the exhibition, and Vauluizo Bezerra are being listed for this project.
the current show also plays the role of commemorating more than
fifty years of this donation. EXHIBITION ARTICLE | PAGES 48 TO 52
Treating the exhibition as a retrospective, Zivé is pleased to host
something he think is worthy of the artist: “It’s a retrospective that TUPY OR NOT TUPY
begins in the 40’s, goes through the incursion of figurative and then
begins the emergence of geometric poetics”, he says. For him, the THAT IS THE QUESTION
work of the curator Sylvio Nery brings together “beautiful examples
of paintings that represent every era of Volpi very well.” BY GUSTAVO VON HA
The repertoire of the artist born in Italy, but based in Cambuci,
São Paulo, from the facades to the famous flags has been the line Scripts. Scripts. Scripts
of several exhibitions of his works around the globe. At the end of Scripts. Scripts. Scripts.
2017, he had his first solo in a US gallery. This year his paintings have Scripts.
already been exhibited in Monaco and in the traditional Sotheby’s Oswald de Andrade, Anthropophagic Manifest, 1928
gallery in London. “The world begins to discover Volpi,” says Zivé.
Volpi’s first painting activity dates back to his adolescence. Despite AS AN ARTIST I’ve always been interested in things that are outside
this, the artistic work began to be part of his daily life only in the the hegemonic narratives, as well as by the more hidden aspects
1930s, based on his observations of landscapes and buildings in the of mythical characters throughout history. Tarsila do Amaral was
neighborhood where he lived. At the end of this decade, he began to one of these characters in which I’ve stopped and investigated to
paint what, historically, would make his mark on art. Even as part of a develop the work Projeto Tarsila, which I’ve started in 2009 (the
generation that developed in a modernist moment, Volpi dissociated abstract expressionism packed by MoMA was also subject of another
himself from the labels of artistic movements imposed by art critics. investigation that I’ve made for an exhibition in the MAC USP in 2016).
In this way, his work is object of many collectors’ wishes, having Tarsila do Amaral: inventando a arte moderna no Brasil (Tarsila do
been much disputed in current auctions in Europ. In Brazil, his Amaral: Inventing Modern Art in Brazil), the first exhibition dedicated
works spread throughout collections around the country. In order to the artist in the United States, happens now at MoMA, in New York,
for the exhibition in the MAM-BA to be realized, the contribution but rather been trough the Art Institute of Chicago.
of these collectors was really necessary. Marcelo Xavier, Roberto The MoMA exhibits, not coincidentally, a cutout of her work enshrined
Oliva, Marcos Amaro and Leonardo Telles are some of those names by critics and sedimented by brazilian art history. The exhibition
that were willing to collaborate. In addition to them, it is necessary focuses on the 20’s, focusing on the early years of the artist’s
to highlight the dedication of the gallery owner Paulo Darzé and production, when she transitioned in the art world of São Paulo and

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