CÂNDIDO PORTINARI
a) HIS BIOGRAPHY:
Candido Portinari (December 29,
1903 - February 6, 1962) was one of the most important Brazilian painters and
also a prominent and influential practitioner of the neo-realism
style in painting. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candido_Portinari).
“Candido Portinari, Brazil's master painter
November
12th 2009 14:07
MASP,
or Museu de Arte de Sao Paolo, on Avenida Paolista, was one of the highlights
of my visit to Sao Paolo. And the highlight of my visit to MASP was a small
exhibition in its echoing subterranean gallery. It was showing a selection of
works by Candido Portinari, one of Brazil’s most important and
prolific painters.
Most of the works in the exhibition were
narratives of old bible stories – The Justice of Solomon, The trumpets of Jericho, Jeremiah’s
Lament, Job and The Massacre of the Innocents - classic scenes with universal
themes. But the raw and blatant emotions of relief, triumph, suffering,
despair, resignation and terror, vividly drawn in the lines of the figures and
the faces brought something quite new and even shocking to them. Other works
showed Portinari’s own country, life and times. In North Eastern Migrants, Dead
Child and Burial in a Hammock nothing was spared of the bleak lives and
dreadful deaths suffered by refugees from the drought and famine in the
North-East of Brazil
in the 1930s.
The son of Italian immigrants, Portinari was born on December 29, 1903 and raised on a coffee plantation at Brodowski, near Sao Paolo. He studied at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes in Rio de Janeiro, where, in 1928, he won a gold medal and a scholarship to study in Paris.
The son of Italian immigrants, Portinari was born on December 29, 1903 and raised on a coffee plantation at Brodowski, near Sao Paolo. He studied at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes in Rio de Janeiro, where, in 1928, he won a gold medal and a scholarship to study in Paris.
Returning
to Brazil in 1930, Portinari
set about producing the huge and wide-reaching body of work which can be seen
in galleries, both in Brazil
and around the world. His murals range from the family chapel in his childhood
home in Brodowski to his panels Guerra e Paz (War and Peace) in the United
Nations building in New York.
His paintings cover and enormous range of subjects; his childhood, labourers in
the city and countryside, refugees from Brazil's north-east, colonial
history, portraits of family and leading Brazilians, book illustrations and decorations
for tiles.
In 1947, Portinari stood as a senator for the Brazilian Communist party but fled to Uruguay during the persecution of Communists that followed shortly after. He returned to Brazil in 1951. After a decade of ill health he died of lead poisoning from his paints in 1961.
Candido Portinari lived and worked in one of the most artistically fertile periods in Brazil’s history. His contemporaries included the architect Oscar Niemeyer, with whom he collaborated, as well as the great master of Brazilian gardens Burle Marx.”
In 1947, Portinari stood as a senator for the Brazilian Communist party but fled to Uruguay during the persecution of Communists that followed shortly after. He returned to Brazil in 1951. After a decade of ill health he died of lead poisoning from his paints in 1961.
Candido Portinari lived and worked in one of the most artistically fertile periods in Brazil’s history. His contemporaries included the architect Oscar Niemeyer, with whom he collaborated, as well as the great master of Brazilian gardens Burle Marx.”
b) HIS WORKS:
c) WORLD RENOUNED ARTISTS PAY HOMAGE TO CÂNDIDO
PORTINARY:
|
Un Son Para Portinari
(Nicolás Guillén
- Horacio Salinas)
Para
Candido Portinari,
La miel y el ron Y una guitarra de azucar Y una cancion Y un corazon Para candido portinari Buenos aires y un bandoneon. Ay, esta noche se puede, Se puede, Ay, esta noche se puede, Se puede. Se puede cantar un son. Sueña y fulgura. Un hombre de mano dura, Hecho de sangre y pintura, Grita en la tela. Sueña y fulgura Su sangre de mano dura; Sueña y fulgura, Como tallado en candela; Sueña y fulgura, Como una estrella en la altura; Sueña y fulgura, Como una chispa que vuela, Sueña y fulgura. Asi, con su mano dura, Hecho de sangre y pintura Sobre la tela, Sueña y fulgura Un hombre de mano dura. Portinari lo desvela Y el roto pecho le cura. |
A Song for Portinari
(Nicolás Guillén - Horacio Salinas) For Candido Portinari, Honey and rum And a sugar guitar And a song And a heart For Candido Portinari Buenos Aires and a bandoneon. Oh, tonight you can, You can Oh, tonight you can, You can. You can sing a tune. Dreams and flashes. A tough man, Made of blood and paint, Screams on the fabric. Dreams and flashes His blood-handed; Dreams and glows, As candle carving; Dream and glows, Like a star in height; Dream and glows, Like a spark that flies Dreams and flashes. So, with his iron fist, Made of blood and paint On the canvas, Dreams and flashes A tough man. It reveals Portinari And heals the broken chest. |
d) WAR AND
PEACE MURALS AT THE GRAND HALL OF THE UNITED NATIONS
BUILDING IN NEW YORK CITY:
The art of
Portinari – an inspiration to the artists of dancing both in New
York and São Paulo:
President
Lula and the War and Peace murals of Portinari
War and Peace, by Portinari - President Lula opening speech at the UN
General-Assembly in 2007.
In 1957 Brazil gave to the United Nations the two
monumental (14 meters
high each) paintings "War" and "Peace", by the famous
Brazilian artist Candido Portinari (1903-1962). Since then, they stand at the
entrance of the main Hall at the General-Assembly building, in New York. The late UN
Secretary-General and Peace Nobel Prize Dag Hammarskjold inaugurated
"War" and "Peace" with the words: the greatest monumental
work ever given to the United Nations. In September 2007, the General-Assembly
opening speech by President Lula celebrated their 50th-Anniversary, and this
video shows Brazil's President eloquent testimony on Portinari's
"War" and "Peace".
