Page 104 - ARTE!Brasileiros #58

ENGLISH VERSION DEMOCRACY AND REPARATION

conceptions, rough, summary executions. A serious family sought to survive financial bankruptcy. Where scene, not only for his weekly show , but above all
art must banish any technique that is not faithful is the peace and tranquility to complement your work for being responsible for the scholarship that the
to the real value of the conception. exemplarily? There was no peace and serenity towards state of São Paulo granted to young plastic artists
the end of Oswald’s life. and musicians.
Art consists of conception before anything else. *** [3] Flávia Rejane Prando, in her thesis on the guitar circuit
Friends in the early 1920s, Anita and Tarsila also grew in the first half of the 20th century in São Paulo, makes
Technique is just a tool, subordinated to the service apart over time, although in the last years of their lives they reference to Mario Amaral Souza, as an important
of conception. experienced similar situations. Both, little by little, left the guitarist in the city who would have died young,
vitality of their initial productions to enter a process of between 1925 and 1928. The author cites a work by
PUrISMo fears the bizarre and the “original”. collapse that would not allow them to constitute their art. Mario Amaral – “Céu Azul” – which, in turn, will be
He seeks the pure element in the sense of This process began earlier with Anita, who – a mentioned in the chronicle of Helios. PrANdo, Flavia
reconstructing organized paintings that must departure from German and North American Rejane. The world of the guitar in S. Paulo: processes
themselves be facts of nature. experimentalism – embarked on an anachronistic painting, of consolidation of the instrument circuit in the city
without any commitment to a “national art” [12] . This (1890-1932) . São Paulo: Doctoral Thesis. PPG Music,
The method must be correct enough not to obstruct non-engagement of the artist to the nationalism of the ECA USP, 2021, p. 186.
the conception. themes of her paintings will make the acceptance of her [4] HElIoS (Menotti del Picchia). “Hearts in Ecstasy...”.
works by the other modernists increasingly attenuate, Correio Paulistano , September 1, 1922 p.5
PUrISMo does not believe that returning to nature leading her, as a painter, to a situation of virtual erasure [5] The same thing.
means copying nature. within the São Paulo scene. The recognition of her role [6] ANdrAdE, Mario. “A very interesting preface”. Pauliceia
as a “pioneer” of São Paulo’s modernism, which began Desvairada , 1922. In ANdrAdE, Mario. Complete poetry.
He admits that all deformation is justified by the with some shyness after the end of the Second World Ed. review of Dileia Z. Mafio. Belo Horizonte: Itatiaia;
search for the invariable. War, found an artist already empty, with nothing else to São Paulo: EdUSP, 1987. Page. 60.
contribute to the local art environment. [7] Amédée Ozenfant, Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, After
All freedoms are accepted in art except those that Even more dramatic was what happened to Tarsila, a Cubism , 1918. Citato em: BAll, Susan L. Ozenfant
are unclear [7]. leading name in modern painting during the 1920s, after and Purism. The Evolution of a Style 1915-1930) . Yale
the middle of the following decade her career went into University, 1978, p.36.
In 1920, the two painters launched one of the most frank decline, further aggravated by Tarsila’s attempt, [8] Apud: CHIArEllI, Tadeu. Painting is not just beauty.
influential magazines of the French and European Return practically at the end of her life, to want to revive the Florianópolis: Contemporary Letters, 2007, p. 41 et seq.
to Order: L’Esprit Noveau , published until 1925. Mário de potency of her painting at the beginning of her career. [9] On how Mário de Andrade receives the production
Andrade collected it and seems to have had publication Anita and Tarsila, each in their own time, pioneers in of Lasar Segall, see: “Realistic Segall: some
as a parameter. To get an idea of how L’Esprit Noveau renewing the country’s visuals; Anita and Tarsila, each considerations on the artist’s painting”. IN CHIArEllI,
impregnated his thought in the “Very Interesting Preface”, in their own way, at the melancholy end of their lives, Thaddeus. A modernism that came later . São Paulo:
just look at how he, in that text, is impregnated with icons of the precariousness of the Brazilian art scene. Alameda, 2012. Page 87 et seq.
classicism. Like the magazine: *** [10] On how Mario de Andrade receives the production
Mário de Andrade, the author of the main work of of Candido Portinari, see: CHIArEllI, Tadeu. Painting
This “classic” character of purism is evident in the anthropophagic movement – Macunaima – and is not just beauty . Op. cit. page 41 et seq.
the first edition of L’Esprit Nouveau, when its of studies and critical essays that are valuable for the [11] ANdrAdE, Oswald. Confessional diary (org. by Manoel
editors publish a page with six photos of works country’s culture, died without his friends in 1922, sick da Costa Pinto). São Paulo: Companhia das Letras,
placed vertically, in two columns containing three and bitter. As he himself stated, already in the last years 2022.
reproductions. Next to the two reproductions that of his life, he said he was suspicious of his past and the [12] The concern with the production of a “national” art
top the columns (a reproduction of a painting by direction he had given his work [13] . was like a prerequisite for the painters to be accepted
Monet and a sculpture by Rodin) the word bad is He had not spoken with Oswald for years and distanced in the modernist universe of São Paulo. Anita, when
written . Next to the reproductions of paintings by himself from Tarsila, Menotti and even from Anita, with she left the German and American experiences, paid
Juan Gris and Georges Seurat and the reproductions whom he maintained a close relationship for a longer time. little attention to this problem, which ended up leaving
of an African sculpture and an archaic Greek *** her on the sidelines of the whole process.
sculpture, the word good is written [8]. Menotti Del Picchia, Helios, outlived all the friends [13] ANdrAdE, Mário de. “The Modernist Movement”.
depicted in Anita’s drawing [14] . Until the end of his life, In Aspects of Brazilian Literature. 5th. Sao Paulo,
Mário de Andrade’s aesthetic conceptions will be adhering to the political and cultural power of the state Martins, 1974.
largely shaped by the French publication. As early as and the country, the intellectual has a vast poetic and [14] Del Picchia died in 1988; Mario de Andrade, in 1945;
1922, it is possible to notice how, in his art criticism, the literary production, and a journalistic production – articles Oswaldo de Andrade, in 1954; Anita, in 1964 and
author takes as a parameter these values transmitted by and chronicles – which, despite having already had a part Tarsila, in 1973.
L Ésprit Noveau , paying attention to artists who had not compiled and studied [15] , still awaiting further studies. [15] I refer to dEl PICCHIA, Menotti. The Gideon of
caught his attention until then, such as Gastão Worms, During his career, after having his image registered Modernism (org. Yoshie Sakiyana Barreirinhas). Rio
Navarro da Costa, Tulio Mugnaini and Hugo Adami – all in Anita’s drawing, Del Picchia increased his aesthetic/ de Janeiro: Brazilian Civilization, 1983.
very far from avant-garde experimentalism, and stuck to ideological differences with Mário de Andrade and with review rAIo-QUE-o-PArtA [PAGES 70 to 73]
the “eternal values” of art. This attachment of the critic Oswald, without, it seems, definitively breaking with the
to the “classical realism” of Retorno à Ordem will gain latter. In fact, the conflicting, but almost always good-
full legitimacy within the modernism of São Paulo, when humored relationship that was established between EXUBERANT VISUALS
Mário encounters the work of Lasar Segall [9] – “finally a the two intellectuals during the 1920s, as seen in their
realist painter! – and, subsequently, Candido Portinari [10] . articles published in the Correio Paulistano , in which Del IN A CRITICAL TONE
*** Picchia commented and/or glossed the texts , deserves
Candidately lying on the rug with Menotti, Oswald a more careful study. of Oswald. “Raio-que-o-parta: fictions of the modern
de Andrade would become, from that year on, one of in Brazil”, at Sesc 24 de Maio, presents
the most controversial figures in the country’s culture. The aulic spirit that characterized Del Picchia’s almost 650 works by 200 artists and places
The only child of a wealthy couple, who owned a personality, combined with his political career – always
significant part of the west side of São Paulo, Oswald was connected to power, regardless of where it emanated –, Semana de 22 in the decolonial debate
perhaps the first of the five friends of 1922 to break with the explain how his literary ability was wasted. His poetic and
modernists’ uncritical subservience to the culture coming literary production, which never lost its old-fashioned By fABIo CyPrIANo
from Europe, which did not mean assuming any kind of accent, could have been, who knows, better explored,
blind nationalism. On the contrary: from the “export” had the intellectual dedicated himself more to it and not one of the merits surrounDing the
poetry of the first half of the 1920s, until the explosion of dispersed himself in pleasing those in power.
the anthropophagic movement, Oswald fought for the *** Celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the Week
critical devouring of the European legacy, returning an Grupo dos Cinco, a work that belonged to Mário de of Modern Art is that the event has gained a critical tone
autochthonous culture, but never xenophobic. Andrade, is now part of the collection of the Institute of around the event. After all, after so much debate already
*** Brazilian Studies at USP – one of the most significant accumulated on the role of São Paulo over these hundred
As we know, that scene represented by Malfatti research centers for the process of institutionalizing years, it would be strange not to take the opportunity to
expresses the union of purposes and expectations modernism in São Paulo. review the meanings of the Week and of the Brazilian
present in the relationships between those people in In addition to Anita’s drawings, the Institute modern project itself. At a time of reviewing hegemonic
the months immediately after the Week. Soon, however, also preserves works that were fundamental for the narratives, it was undoubtedly the Week’s turn.
this situation would begin to change. understanding of art in Brazil in the first decades of Raio-que-o-parta: fictions of the modern in Brazil, on
If after the production of that drawing Tarsila and the last century. It is now necessary that more scholars display at Sesc 24 de Maio, is part of this perspective
Oswald began a romance that would result in a brief pay attention to the importance of all of them, for a less and one of its central marks is the inclusion of 200 artists
marriage that changed the physiognomy of art in Brazil, idealized understanding of the modernist movement from all over the country in about 650 works, with a cut
the break between them meant the beginning of great and its possible consequences. that values productions not so recognized. In this sense,
transformations in their lives. At first, Oswald and Tarsila, the show is less an exhibition of masterpieces and more
separated, lean ideologically to the left. A brief experience [1] The Return to Order was an international phenomenon an immense kaleidoscope of national production. It is
for her; for Oswald the beginning of a path with many that took place in the period between the two world also a form of reparation, as it brings to the debate of
obstacles that will make him return to anthropophagy wars, in which artists and critics overcame total or the Week many hitherto invisible artists, especially those
as a philosophical project. partial adherence to the currents of historical avant- outside the Rio-SP axis.
The recent publication of his Confessional Diary [11] gardes, perceiving them as other items of the past. The title itself points to the deconstruction of the Week
presents an intellectual at the end of his life, suffering [2] The senator signed his poems as Jacques D’Avray. itself, sending it to the “ray that breaks it”, the name given
from illnesses both real and imagined, as he and his Freitas Valle was an important figure in the São Paulo in Belém do Pará to the decoration of the facades of
104

25/03/2022 11:00
Book_ARTE_58.indb 104 25/03/2022 11:00
Book_ARTE_58.indb 104