Page 97 - ARTE!Brasileiros #54

I am referring to a series of photomontages in the archives of the Fundo Deops, released when pointing the left wing groups as enemies of
that Lima will make, based on the very strong for consultation since 1995 and revisited by her the Brazilian nation”, she writes, demonstrating
example of Max Ernst, and with Murilo Mendes on different occasions. Copies of these prints, how repression and anti-communist propaganda
as a partner. pamphlets, publications and other items that were the same coin. This becomes evident, for
Unfor tunately, copies of these belong to the universe of printed matter were example, with the realization that little or no
photomontages made in partnership by the kept in a drawer in her office, waiting for an inhibiting action has been launched against
poet and the poet / painter do not seem to have occasion for further study, a moment brought the movements of the extreme-right.
survived, which does not, however, invalidate by the epidemic and the obligatory domestic On the other hand, leading figures such as
their joint action to expand the production of recollection. It also contributed to the urgency Lasar Segall - described as a “Jewish artist,
surrealist works in the country. It is only known to revisit this vast collection, the feeling that producer of degenerate art” by the secret
that Jorge de Lima will continue to produce new we live in a moment in which several of the service of the Political Police - or Tarsila do
photomontages alone and that, in 1943, he will situations denounced by artists and artisans Amaral were constantly watched. There is a
publish the photomontages book A Pintura seem to be repeating and intensifying. “It is a tasty passage in the book that reproduces the
em pânico, with a preface by Mendes himself. provocation that I do. I invite the reader to be comments of an agent infiltrated in the Clube
outraged with what we are experiencing, I take dos Artistas Modernos (CAM) after attending
*** a stand, in these times of total abnormality, a lecture by the painter: “Undoubtedly, Ms.
against all forms of violence perpetrated by Tarsila do Amaral is the greatest and boldest
A hundred years after the beginning of the such an insensitive government”, she explains. communist among all national communists.
fruitful friendship between Nery and Mendes, After all, resistance, criticism, and the She is the greatest because she impresses
we can see that there is still a lot to study and desire for change seem to be the common and almost converts everyone who hears her.
write about, not only about the particular point between a production as diverse as the She is also the boldest, as her partners always
relationship that united them, but, above printed works studied by Tucci Carneiro. If we look for outskirts and hidden places to preach
all, due to the bias - or breach! - that both restrict ourselves to analyze only publications communism, while she uses noble halls where,
opened up for the particular development of that involve images - which constitute a large, straight out, she teaches theoretically and
surrealism in Brazil, with clear resonances in but not exclusive, part of the body of study, practically red doctrine”.
the productions of Guignard and Jorge de Lima. which also presents a textual production, of
That fact alone would be a reason to easier circulation and dissemination -, the BooKS | ModERn ARt [PAgES 78 to 80]
commemorate such an important meeting historian’s research is subdivided into two
that took place in 1921 and is now one hundred major groups of authors: on the one hand, there VAN GOGH AND
years old. are those who had artistic training, belonged to
the bourgeois class, transit through intellectual SALVATION
[1] nAvA, Pedro. O Círio perfeito. 3. ed. Rio de circles or were recognized as important figures THROUGH PAINTING
Janeiro: Editora Nova Fronteira, 1983. in Brazilian arts and politics.
[2] viRAvA, Thiago Gil de Oliveira. Uma brecha But perhaps the singular contribution of this In his new book, Rodrigo Naves
para o surrealismo. São Paulo: Alameda, 2014. study is the effort made to give place to a second researches the varied motivations that
[3] About Guignard and photomontage, read - group, the anonymous authors, coming from led the Dutch artist to a singular work,
ChiARElli, Tadeu (cur.). Apropriações/Coleções. the working classes, many of them workers, among them his bond with Calvinist
Porto Alegre: Santander Cultural, 2002 artisans, without artistic training or, in some thinking.
cases, having a formal base acquired in the
BooKS | PolitiCAl ARt [PAgES 74 to 77] Liceus de Arte e Ofícios do Rio e de São Paulo. By gABRiEl SAn MARtin*
They are those that Mário de Andrade called
MAPPING THE ROLES “proletarian artists”, of humble origin, children last February, the writer and art critic
OF SUBVERSION of immigrants. “They remained on the margins Rodrigo Naves published his new book, Van
of the main cultural and artistic movements
Gogh: Salvation through Painting (Publishing
in the history of modern art, without having a House Todavia). Although the Dutch painter has
Deops activity between the 1920s and studio and without visiting the circuits of the been much discussed for more than a century,
1950s is brought together by historian protest avant-garde”, explains Tucci Carneiro. Naves seeks to present another view of the
Maria Luiza Tucci Carneiro to analyze the Despite the clandestinity, essential for those artist’s work.
direction of the graphic arts of resistance who did not have any kind of protection, and If the quality of the paintings by Vincent Van
in Brazil. the great dispersion of this material (of course, Gogh (1853-1890) was repeatedly attributed to
the vast majority of protest forms produced the difficulties and psychic problems of the artist,
By MARiA hiRSZMAn in Brazil were forgotten or lost), the historian Naves is convinced of a different interpretation.
managed to gather some traces capable of For the critic, more than representing the
in a Curious paraDox, the police files identifying some authors of this militancy. sufferings of his life or victimizing himself, the
gathered by the State Department of the There are, for example, Moyses Kalinas, a painter’s motive was to create compositions
Political and Social Order of São Paulo Romanian, painter and employee of the Klabin linked to an attempt of salvation through
(Deops) with the intention of repressing and paper mill, who even had an expulsion order work. The Dutchman has always been closely
persecuting any person, movement or party published, but who remained in the country linked to the Calvinist religion - a doctrine that
that opposed the dominant ideology ended until 1948. Other names, such as Angelo de arose from the Protestant Reformation in the
up becoming a rich source of information for a las Heras, J. B. Pelayo, J. Matheus, Otávio 16th century - and that is why, according to
hearty study of exactly the criticisms it wanted Falcão and Novac were identified. Despite Naves, the “destiny of his life rests on endless
to silence. It was based on data gathered the rarefied information, its recognition is a work, a condemnation, therefore, that for
over decades by the forces of espionage and way - as Tucci Carneiro says - “to give them a someone trained in Calvinist morality would
repression that the historian Maria Luiza Tucci place, a space of memory”. be simultaneously hope of salvation”.
Carneiro structured her research Impressos Defining himself as a “historian of political In this sense, the excerpts selected here from
Subversivos: Arte, Cultura e Política no Brasil ideas”, Tucci Carneiro sought to overlap different the interview with Naves aim to discuss some
1924-1964, which seeks to map the careful, layers of interpretation in the book. It proposes interesting points of his new book. Read below:
dedicated and many anonymous times by reflections on the highly repressive character of
dozens of artists, artisans, and activists, who a dictatorship such as that of Getúlio Vargas, Gabriel San Martin - It seems to me that the
used graphic arts to denounce misdeeds which appropriates avant-garde aesthetics, but central thesis of the book is to establish a
and inequalities, demonstrating a tenacious adopts a systematic strategy of persecution direct bound between the admiration that
resistance and desire for political and social against communists, anarchists, socialists, Calvinists have for the work and Van Gogh’s
transformation. “In addition to archiving the foreigners, and Jews. But articulates them with work, so that he sought to create a possibility
subversive forms, they also preserved, through an attentive look at the artistic and political of salvation through painting. So, I would like
irony of fate, the memory of intolerance”, strategies adopted in the period, in an attempt you, in your words, to give a brief explanation
summarizes the author. to transform art and society, using expressionist of this thesis presented in the book.
In the book, released this year by the references and focusing on human dramas as a I think this: this question is very central and,
publisher Intermeios, the researcher analyzes preferred theme. “The discourse of the ordering say, I can see work on the surface of Van
a wide collection of documents, which she has state assumed, through propaganda and police Gogh’s canvases. Because, generally, if I
been panning over several surveys carried out repression, an accusatory tone (Manichean) take a bottle of Coca-Cola, for example, the
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