The mythological, folkloric and fabled animals painted by Chico da Silva (1910?-1985) make up the new exhibition on display at Pinacoteca de São Paulo, in the center of São Paulo. Entitled Chico da Silva and the Ateliê de Pirambu, the exhibition is the first major panoramic exhibition dedicated to the artist by the Pinacoteca, and will show visitors the various dragons, mermaids, beasts, fish, snakes and birds that are part of this fantastic and unique universe. created by him. The exhibition is on display until the 28th of May in the main gallery of Pina Luz. Panoramic exhibition of Chico da Silva and the Pirambu studio, curated by Thierry de Freitas, at Pinacoteca de São Paulo. Rovena Rosa/Agência Brasil This is the largest solo exhibition ever dedicated to the artist of indigenous origin and brings together public and private collections that covers the production made between the years 1943 to 1984. Among the highlights of the exhibition is the set of works Caboclo Peruano, a group of drawings made by the artist between 1943 and 1944. Curated by Thierry de Freitas. “Historiography has agreed to date his birth as 1910, but it is likely that this data is wrong and that he was born between 1922 and 1923. So, in a way, this exhibition is also a tribute to the artist’s centenary”, said the curator , in an interview with Agência Brasil. Thierry de Freitas, curator of the Pinacoteca de São Paulo – Rovena Rosa/Agência Brasil “Chico was born in the Amazon. His mother would have gone to Acre to work on a rubber plantation. In 1922 he was born in the Amazon, in the region of the Tagus River, son of a Peruvian native, probably from the Campa ethnic group, and a woman from Ceará. in latex extraction. Chico also said that his father was a boatman and that he used to go up and down the rivers with his father. It is clear that these experiences constituted a bit of that imaginary with which he would later work”, explained Freitas. The exhibition presents 124 works by Chico da Silva and other artists who were part of Ateliê do Pirambu. The exhibition covers the legacy of one of the first Brazilian artists of indigenous origin to achieve prominence on the national and international scene. a phenom The incredible name of Ceará, and I find it almost impossible to tell a history of Brazilian art that is plural and diverse without telling the story of Chico”, said the curator. Exhibition features 124 works by Chico da Silva and other artists who were part of Ateliê do Pirambu.- Rovena Rosa/Agência Brasil Exhibition Each room in the exhibition gallery was dedicated to a period in the artist’s life. The first room shows the beginning of its production. In this room is a photo that shows Chico da Silva drawing on the wall of a house in Praia Formosa, in Fortaleza, shortly before being discovered by the Swiss painter Jean Pierre Chabloz, who led him to experiment with gouache painting. “Chico started producing in the 1940s, ‘discovered’ by a Swiss artist and critic called Jean Pierre Chabloz, who was in Ceará,” said the exhibition’s curator. Each room in the exhibition gallery was dedicated to a period in the artist’s life. – Rovena Rosa/Agência Brasil “He had a hobby of painting birds on the walls of houses. This was not well seen by the owners of the houses, but Chabloz saw these drawings, was enchanted and went after the author”, said Thierry de Freitas. It was then that Chico da Silva started painting to order. And one of the first canvases he painted, still in the 1940s, is a landscape with a mountain, a lake, two airships and some fish, already anticipating techniques and forms that he would use more frequently in his next works. “[Na primeira sala] these are the first paintings that already show a bit of Chico’s vocabulary with birds on tree trunks, filled in by pointillism and with background and figure merging or with very similar fillings”, explained the curator. The second room is dedicated to the panels, which are the artist’s rarest works. “The panels represent a kind of pinnacle of Ateliê [do Pirambu]. They are the best in Chico’s production, because, due to the size and primacy of execution, they manage to show all the school’s contribution”, explains Thierry de Freitas. The third room brings together a special set of works made at the Art Museum of the Federal University of Ceará (Mauc), where Chico worked in the 60s. The fourth room is dedicated to Ateliê de Pirambu, created by the artist when he left Mauc, around 1963. It is in this decade that the artist’s production reached great technical quality. It is also at this time that he began to produce in large quantities. The fourth room is dedicated to Ateliê de Pirambu, created by the artist when he left Mauc, around 1963. – Rovena Rosa/Agência Brasil “Pirambu is a neighborhood in the center of Fortaleza very close to Praia Formosa, in a low-income community . In Chico’s time, it was a favela and he lived there. When he left Mauc’s job, in 1963, he went home to paint on his own. Several children, young people and teenagers became interested in the painting he was doing and he began to invite these people to paint with him”, explained the curator. From 1969, Chico began to face problems with alcoholism and ended up moving away from the studio. “At the same time, there are a series of reports in the press saying that Chico’s paintings were not made by him, but by people from the studio. This is a very complicated phase for him. In fact, in the 1970s he painted very little and stopped managing the studio’s production. He even went through hospitalizations to deal with this problem [com o alcoolismo]”, said Freitas. His production only resumed in 1977, when he began to adopt new strategies for selling his works. It is these works that are presented in the next room. “When Chico returns to painting, he surrounds himself with other strategies. Here he is painting practically alone. He tries to insert other strategies to authenticate the works, authenticating them in notaries. Most of these canvases have a paper on the back written: ‘I Chico da Silva certify that this work was painted by me’. And he also starts to photograph himself next to the works, with brushes”, described the curator. At that time, he also began to sign his canvases with his finger. “When this news started to appear that the works were done by other people, he started to put his finger to authenticate the work”, said Freitas. From 1969, Chico began to face problems with alcoholism and ended up moving away from the studio.- Rovena Rosa/Agência Brasil In addition to Chico’s production, the exhibition also shows the production of other artists who participated in the Ateliê de Pirambu, such as Babá (Sebastião Lima da Silva); Chica da Silva (Francisca Silva, daughter of the artist); Claudionor (José Claudio Nogueira); Garcia (José dos Santos Gomes) and Ivan (Ivan José de Assis). “These artists were fundamental to the studio and gradually transformed Chico’s work. The studio made the work evolve a lot in terms of technical quality”, said Freitas. These works are presented in the last room of the exhibition. It is in this room that there is also a video performance and a sequence of photos of a collective painting by the studio’s artists. “This performance is a kind of landmark, because it was the first time that Chico appeared together with the studio’s artists”, said the curator. The Pinacoteca de São Paulo is in front of Estação da Luz. On Saturdays, admission is free. Other information about the exhibition can be obtained on the Pinacoteca website.
Agência Brasil
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