φφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφφ
° Sugar Loaf and Bay of Botafogo sketched by Le Corbusier, Rio de Janeiro, 1929
°
________________________________________ Renaissance
in
the
Tropics:
Brazilian Culture from the Semana de Arte Moderna to the
Inauguration of Brasília, 1922-1960
Return to Homepage ¤ Updated: February, 2006 ¤ Questions or Comments to Prof. Edward A. "Ted" Riedinger
CONTENTS
Connect to:
Painting Printmaking
Sculpture
Building
Architecture
Design
and Interior Architecture Landscape
Design Novel
Poetry
Belles
Lettres Scholarship
Theater
Classical
Music Performance, and Ballet Popular
Music and Dance Radio
and Sound Recording Cinema
Photography
Folk
Art Public
Patrons and Servants Private
Patrons
°
What has not hitherto been widely noted or cohesively defined is the extraordinary cultural activity in Brazil during the twentieth century. This activity was at its most intense and impressive in the period from just after the First World War until well into the middle of the twentieth century. There was a "renaissance in the tropics" from the Semana de Arte Moderna, in 1922, to the inauguration of Brasília, in 1960. This renaissance was marked by Brazilian figures and movements of world renown across the spectrum of cultural activity. The phenomenon was unique in its breadth and projection not only for Brazilian history but also for Latin American.
This was the age, in painting, of Cândido Portinari and Emiliano DiCavalcanti; in sculpture, of Victor Brecheret; in classical music, of Heitor Villa-Lobos; in popular music, of Pixinguinha and Noël Rosa, and later "bossa nova;" in literature, of João Guimarães Rosa and Carlos Drummond de Andrade; in theater, of the playwright Nélson Rodrigues and renowned actors such as Cacilda Becker and Sérgio Cardoso; in landscape architecture, of Roberto Burle-Marx; in building architecture and urban planning, of Oscar Niemeyer, Lúcio Costa, and the new capital of Brasília; and in scholarship, of Gilberto Freire. It saw new arts begun, such as cinema and photography, and older ones revitalized, such as printmaking, tapestry, and folk arts. It was a period with great public and private patrons of the arts: Getúlio Vargas, Juscelino Kubitschek, Francisco de Assis Chateaubriand, and Raimundo Castro Maia. The above citations, of course, reflect only major figures and phenomena. Around and beyond each of these, there were numerous other figures, circles, movements, and schools.
Only during the last years of the nineteenth century did Brazil abolish slavery (1888), ending three centuries of the largest and longest-lived slave plantation society in history. The following year it ended the nearly century-old empire, the only hereditary monarchy ever to have existed in the Western Hemisphere. The cultural forces of reaction to these dominant socio-economic and political elements produced a movement of high modernism that was among the most significant in twentieth century history.
Nationalism and
modernism were the key forces in the dynamic of this renaissance.
Nationalism determined content in terms of a native focus. Modernism
established the style based on innovative form. High modernism was further
advanced as it accompanied and reinforced the momentum of national development,
industrialization, and urbanization. A further vein in the renaissance was
the nostalgic reaction to such socio-economic development in strains of lyric
bittersweet nostalgia. Below is a partial, even sparse,
description of some of these artists and phenomena across the spectrum of the
arts.
°
√ = Entry being completed
Precursors to modernist painting in late nineteenth and turn-of-the-century artistic nationalism were: Vitor Meireles (1832-1903) 1 2 José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior (1850-1899) 1 2 Eliseu Visconti (1866-1944) 1 2
√ Ernesto de Fiori (1884-1945).
Tarsila do Amaral (1886-1973). Vanguard modernist in twenties but cultural traditionalist in following decade. Images: 1 2 3 4 Paintings: Early and Later Styles
√ Flávio de Carvalho (1899-1973)
Paulo Cláudio Rossi Osir (1890-1959). Most noted modern Brazilian artisan of "azulejo" (blue-and-white ceramic tile) production, who operated the Osiarte (1940-1945) studio in São Paulo, collaborating with the leading architects, painters, and sculptors of the Renaissance in the Tropics. Most notably, he designed the Ceramic Facades of the Ministry of Education (MEC).
Alberto de Veiga Guignard (1896-1962). Originally from a city colonized by German Swiss in the interior of the state of Rio de Janeiro and trained in German Expressionism, he moved to Minas Gerais in 1944. He was invited by its then mayor, Juscelino Kubitschek, to administer an art training program that influenced several generations of artists. He was an effective portraitist but is most remembered for his lyrical, somewhat primitivist renderings of the landscape and quotidian, the spatial and temporal contours, of his adopted state. Images Paintings Casa Guignard Museum in Ouro Preto
Alfredo Volpi (1896-1988). Montage of Paintings
√ Emiliano Di Cavalcanti (1897-1976). One of the prime initiators of the Week of Modern Art, Di Cavalcanti portrayed a unique sense of Brazilian sensuality, framed within Cubist and muralist influences, supported by his exceptional skills in draftsmanship. Images: 1 2 3
Ismael Nery (1900-1934). Advanced modernism in Rio de Janeiro, outside its nucleus in São Paulo and the Semana de Arte Moderna. Paintings Drawings Images
Cândido Portinari (1903-1962). Portraitist and follower of Cubism and the Mexican muralists; noted murals in the lobby of United Nation headquarters, New York City, and in the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress, Washington, DC. Images: 1 1a 2 3 4
Tomás Santa Rosa (1909-1956), painter and innovative set designer. Paintings
√ The Salão Revolucionário de 1931 (Revolutionary Salon of 1931) () marked the beginning of the modernist art movement in Rio de Janeiro. As the seat of the Museu de Belas Artes - MBA (Museum of Fine Arts), it was the center of the artistic establishment, having resisted the modernist movement begun in Sao Paulo in 1922. With the Vargas revolution of 1930, a young, new director was installed at the MBA, Lúcio Costa, whose masterpiece would late be the designing of Brasília. Events, Participants, and Documents
Grupo Santa Helena. A group of immigrant artisan painters that met in the Palacete Santa Helena, a building on the Praça da Sé (Cathedral Square) of São Paulo, from the mid 1930s to 1940s, collaborating on technical refinements of their painting skills and producing a body of work portraying the daily life of the city and its environs. Some of its leading members were Bonadei, Alfredo Volpi, and Mário Zanini. It influenced the Família Artística Paulista - FAP (Paulista Artisitic Family) movement and was associated with second generation modernism.
√ Núcleo Bernardelli.
√ Família Artística Paulista - FAP (Paulista Artisitic Family).
√ Clube dos Artistas Modernos - CAM (Modern Artists Club)
√ Sociedade Pró-Arte Moderna - SPAM (Pro Modern Art Society) -- 20
Axl Leskoschek = Albert von Leskoschek (1889-1975). Austrian artist influenced by the Sezession movement, who lived in Rio de Janeiro during 1939-1949, influencing through his classes and atelier, a generation of Brazilian printmakers who included Fayga Ostrower, Renina Katz, Ivan Serpa, and Edith Behring. Images 1 2
Lasar Segall (1891-1957). Lithuanian-born German Expressionist who settled (1923) in Brazil, contributing to printmaking, painting, and sculpture. Images: 1 2 3 Prints, Paintings, and Drawings
Oswaldo Goeldi (1895-1961). Swiss-trained innovative revivalist of printmaking. Images: 1 2 Prints
Lívio Abramo 1 2 3 (1903-1992). Printmaker influenced by German Expressionism who executed works with acute social consciousness over a career developed in both Brazil and Paraguay. Prints Images
Ivan Serpa (1923-1973). Artist who organized (1954) the Grupo Frente (Front or Vanguard Group) focusing on abstract art. His prints, paintings, and educational work contributed to the third phase of the Renaissance in the Tropics, international modernism. Images -- 5
Victor Brecheret (1894-1955). Sculptor of heroic monumental style (Bandeirantes memorial in São Paulo) and intimate Art Deco. Images Brecheret Online Museum
Bruno Giorgi (1905-1993). Iinternational, lyrical modernist style, Guerreiros (also: Candangos) monument in Brasília; lyrical, pastoral style of The Flute-Player. Images Giorgi Exposition, Rio de Janeiro -- 2
Gregori Warchavchik (1896-1972). Designed first modernist houses in São Paulo, in late twenties, and worker housing with Lúcio Costa in Rio de Janeiro. Images: 1 2 3
Rino Levi (1901-1965). Pioneer builder of high rise buildings in São Paulo, the first being the Edifício Esther (1935) 1 2 Further Images
Lúcio Costa (1902-1998). Urban planner of Brasília, was a disciple of Le Corbusier and partner with Oscar Niemeyer, Roberto Burle-Marx, and Bruno Giorgi in various projects throughout Brazil. The earliest collaboration was the building, grounds, and plaza of the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC, now Palácio Gustavo Capanema) in Rio de Janeiro. As youthful director (1930) of the school of the Museu de Belas Artes (Museum of Fine Arts), he sponsored the formation of the first generations of young modernists in Rio, subsequent to the Semana de Arte Moderna in São Paulo in 1922.
Afonso Eduardo Reidy (1909-1964). Designer of the Museum of Modern Art - MAM (Museum of Modern Art) in Rio de Janeiro, representing a post-World War II continuation in Rio of the tradition of the modernist trend of MEC (see also Lúcio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer this section).
Oscar Niemeyer (1909- ). Architect of, most notably in Brazil, of Brasília and the Pampulha district of Belo Horizonte. He was a disciple of Le Corbusier. This Franco-Swiss architect (Charles Edouard Jeanneret, 1887-1965) sketched in the early thirties the outline of the building that would come to symbolize the advancing dominance of modernism in Brazil, the (MEC) in Rio de Janeiro. Fundação Oscar Niemeyer Pritzker Prize, 1988
√ M M M Roberto Arquitetos. -- 6
° Design and Interior Architecture
Flávio de Resende Carvalho (1899-1973). Flamboyant and provocative architect, painter, and writer, especially remembered for his street experiências (experiments or happenings) in São Paulo. In 1956 he debuted tropical men's wear, parading on the streets in a blouse, skirt, and stockings, designed in the Brazilian national colors of green and yellow.
Joaquim Tenreiro (1906-1992). Innovative designer of furniture using Brazilian woods, working primarily in Rio de Janeiro (studio and store in Copacabana). Images: 1 2 3 Paintings and Designs
Lina Bo Bardi (1914- ). Italian-born architect, functional furniture designer (creator of the first folding chairs in Brazil), and pioneer in historical preservation architecture, she worked primarily in São Paulo. One of her most notable architectural works was the Art Museum of São Paulo (Museu de Arte de São Paulo - MASP, 1947), of which her husband was the first director, Pietro Maria Bardi. Another of her noted architectural achievements was the couple's residence, the Glass House
√ Sérgio Rodrigues ( - ) -- 4
Roberto Burle Marx (1909-1994). Creator of the international tropical garden and landscaping style, noted for its sinuous, organic integration of an effulgent Nature. Designer of noted garden complexes for Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro, and throughout the world. Images: 1 2 2a 3 4 -- 1
Gracialiano Ramos (1892-1953). Chronicles of bitter reality of Northeast. Texts
José Lins do Rego (1901-1957). Fazenda childhood. Texts
Érico Veríssimo (1905-1975). Narratives of Gaúcho realism. Texts
João Guimarães Rosa (1908-1967). Innovative prose stylists of terse socio-psychological insights. Texts
√ Rachel de Queiroz (1910-2003). Chronicles of the Northeast from the experience of Ceará. Texts
Jorge Amado (1912-2001). Regional (Bahia) romantic. Text -- 6
Manuel Bandeira (1886-1968). Intimate, ironic romantic. Poems
Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902-1987). Precise, lyrical expression; bittersweet realist. Text
√ Pedro Nava (1903-1984).
√ Mário Quintana (1906-1994). Tender skeptic. Texts: 1 2 3 -- 4
Mário de Andrade (1893-1945). Writer, musicologist, and art critic who was the outstanding cultural and intellectual critic of Brazilian modernism, a prolific, the renaissance man of the Renaissance in the Tropics. Most noted novel was Macunaíma: O Herói sem Nenhum Caráter (1928). See also: Photographs, Recordings of Music Compositions, and additional Texts
√ The Society of the One Hundred Bibliofiles of Brazil (A Sociedade dos Cem Bibliófilos do Brasil) was founded by Raimundo Castro Maya in Rio de Janeiro in 1943. Over the next 26 years it published 23 fine press works, beginning with the Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas, of Machado de Assis, with illustrations by Cândido Portinari (see Images) -- 2
Fernando de Azevedo (1894-1974). Educational innovator and cultural historian.
Luís da Câmara Cascudo (1898-1986). Founder of scholarly study of Brazilian folklore, producing extensive collection of critical analyses, anthologies, and dictionaries.
Anísio Teixeira (1900-1971). Student of John Dewey at Columbia University, he led the Escola Nova (New School) movement, re-orienting education from the primary to the tertiary level along a secular, pragmatist orientation.
Gilberto Freyre (1900-1987). Noted historian and sociologist, graduate of Baylor and Columbia Universities (studying with Franz Boas at the latter), who pioneered innovative insights into the interracial, Luso tropical nature of Brazil. Seminal work was Casa-Grande e Senzala (1933).
Founding of the University of São Paulo (Universidade de São Paulo - USP), 1934. -- 5
Pascoal Carlos Magno (1906-1980). Drama teacher and playwright, formative influence on generation of leading actors of latter half of twentieth century, founding (1938) the Teatro do Estudante do Brasil (Student Theater of Brazil). Images: 1 History of Modern Brazilian Theater, 1918-1938
Zbigniew Ziembinski (1908-1978). Innovative Polish-born stage director.
Nelson Rodrigues (1912-1980). Innovative, iconoclastic playwright. The play, Vestido de Noiva (1943), although having a very short stage run, fundamentally influenced Brazilian theater in the second half of twentieth century. Texts
√ Teatro Brasileiro de Comédia - TBC (Brazilian Theater of Comedy), actors: Paulo Autran, Cacilda Becker, Sérgio Cardoso; Italian directors: Luciano Salce e Adolfo Celli
√ Os Comediantes (The Comedians) theater company, founded by Ziembinski and Santa Rosa.
√ Escola de Arte Dramática - EAD (School of Dramatic Art), founded in Sao Paulo in 1948 by Alfredo Mesquita.
√ Serviço Nacional de Teatro - SNT (National Theater Service), late forties. -- 7
° Classical Music, Performance, and Ballet
° MUSIC
Before the Modern Nationalist Tradition
Late nineteenth and turn-of-the-century nationalist precursors to modernist music: Carlos Gomes (1836-1896) Alexandre Levy (1864-1892) Alberto Nepomuceno Leopoldo Miguez Henrique Oswald Francisco Braga Selected Recordings of Composers (in midi format, select composer from menu on left of screen). See Brazilian Music Bibliography Project.
First Nationalist Generation
Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959). Pioneer of the nationalist school of Brazilian music, noted for his Bachianas brasileiras and extensive orchestration of Brazilian folk and popular music. "Bachiana" originated from his concept of the Baroque nature of Brazilian culture and the identity of Bach as the empitome of this style. The "bachianas" were his "brazilianizing" of this European origin of Brazilian culture. Summary and Critique of Work Recordings of Music
Oscar Lorenzo Fernández (1897-1948). Innovative composer of Brazilian-themed opera and concert music; noted comic opera, Malazarte. Recordings of Music Sources
Francisco Mignone (1897-1986). Profile composer in extensive formats, especially lyrical concert and ballet compositions.
Mozart Camargo Guarnieri (1907-1993). Innovative composer of Brazilian-themed operas and concert music. Recordings of Music -- 4
International Serialist School
Hans-Joachim Koellreutter (1915- ). German-born serialist composer (student of Paul Hindemith) and teacher of numerous leading Brazilian composers and concert performers, a significant vanguard influence on musical developments in Brazil through the middle and late twentieth century. Moving to Brazil in 1937, he founded the dodecaphonic-oriented Música Viva Brasil group in 1939, the São Paulo Quintet in 1943, and founded and directed the Symphony Orchestra of Bahia from 1952 to 1962. -- 1
Nationalist-Serialist Synthesis
César Guerra Peixe (1914-1993). Leading member of second nationalist generation who attempted to integrate that tradition with 12-tone music, eventually rejecting synthesis. - 1
Magdalena Tagliaferro (1893-1986). Noted concert pianist in Europe and the United States.
Guiomar Novaës (1895-1979). Noted pianist who introduced many international audiences to Louis Gottschalk’s Grande fantaisie triomphale sur l'hymne nationale brésilienne, op. 69. As a student she obtained first place in an admissions competition to the Paris Conservatory, with members of the jury consisting of Claude Debussy and Gabriel Fauré.
Bidú (Balduina) Sayão (1902-1999). Famed opera soprano who was responsible for introducing the “cantilena” of Bachiana brasileira no. 5 to international audiences, she sang at the New York Metropolitan Opera from 1937 to 1951. Recording from Madame Butterfly (click "play" at end of page). -- 3
The Ballet Corps of the Teatro Municipal of Rio de Janeiro emerged from a private school founded in Rio de Janeiro in 1936 by Maria Oleanava (a graduate of the Bolshoi School in Moscow and a colleague of Ana Pavlova). This nucleus grew when Nina Verchinina (also Vershinina, 1912-1995; her sister was Olga Morosova ) and Tatiana Leskova (1922- ), of the Original Ballet Russe (of Col. de Basil, from Monte Carlo) settled in the city with the dissolution of the company after World War II. Vaclav Veltcheck (also Veltchek, 1896-1967), who had been dance master of the Théâtre Châtelet in Paris, came also to reside in Rio in the forties. Maria Makharova (1912- ), who had trained at the Marinsky Theater, later the Kirov Ballet, became an influential teacher of ballet, forming several generations of dancers in Brazil. Originating also with the Kirov was Eugênia Feodorova (1926- ), who additionally furthered ballet education and choreography. Ballet in Brazil, 1950-1979 -- 5
Pixinguinha (1898-1973). Song writer, musician, and noted flute player, one of the earliest Afro-Brazilians to tour with a group of his own abroad, especially Paris, presenting concerts of Brazilian popular music; pioneered the recording of popular music.
Ary Barroso (1903-1964). Widely popular samba and theater composer, noted for creating form of "samba exaltação," an orchestrated form of samba often emphasizing themes of national distinction, especially "Aquarela do Brasil."
Noël Rosa (1910-1937). Noted composer, transforming samba music into bittersweet, haunting song.
Rise of the major samba schools with public, competitive parades in central Rio de Janeiro in the thirties, and the formation, by the fifties, of structured sections in the parading of each school. From these developments emerged the dramatic panoply of the parades, the thundering percussion of the music and sensuous luxury of the costuming--or lack of it. The playful, cutting irony of the groups and schools has been at the heart of samba performance since its earliest displays in the nineteenth century.
Vinícius de Moraes (1913-1980). Bohemian, poet, and diplomat, his work with Tom Jobim on the movie Orefeu Negro (play, 1956; film of Marcel Camus, 1959), resulted in producing the words for Jobim's music, Chega de Saudade, performed by João Gilberto, giving birth to bossa nova.
Tom Jobim (1927-1995). International master of bossa nova, the romantic hybrid of samba and jazz that became the dominant characteristic and force of mid-twentieth century Brazilian popular music. Much like Brasília and Pelé, it came to identify Brazil abroad as possessed of lyrical, assured vibrancy. Recordings
João Gilberto (1931- ). Guitarist, initially of samba-canção, who in 1957 recorded Tom Jobim's Chega de Saudade. Using an intimate manner of singing and a technique with the guitar that made it "stammer" or emit slow, echoing repetitions (violão "gago"), this style became the hallmark defining "bossa nova," the new beat or style of Brazilian popular music. Images -- 6
During the decade of thirties, sound studios and radio stations in Rio became instrumental in divulging and creating the rising stars of samba composition and performance. Radio was also a vehicle of Vargas government propaganda and nationalist celebration. Radio MEC, of the Ministry of Education and Culture, developed along the lines of the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) after World War II. Edgard Roquette-Pinto (1884-1954) was a pioneer of public service radio in Brazil and crucial to the founding of Radio MEC. Recordings of Historic MEC Broadcasts.
Hora do Brasil. A one-hour, daily propaganda radio broadcast, transmitted in the evenings on all radio channels, that began in 1938, the year after the establishment of the Estado Novo (New State). Its cultural programming considerably emphasized national music, widely divulging the work of Brazilian classical and popular composers. Its radio dramas highlighted the works of Brazilian playwrights. -- 2
√ Humberto Mauro (1897-1983). The founder of Brazilian cinema, he inspired the works of Glauber Rocha and Nelson Pereira dos Santos in the vanguard of the Cinema Novo (New Cinema). Among his outstanding productions, was The Discovery of Brazil (O Descobrimento do Brasil, 1937), an historical epic re-enacting the voyage of Pedro Alvares Cabral in 1500. The music for the film was composed by Heitor Villa-Lobos. The film accompanied the wave of nationalism encouraged by Getúlio Vargas with his establishment of the dictatorship of the New State (Estado Novo, 1937-1945). Critique
Alberto Cavalcanti (1897-1982). Pioneer cinema director, especially documentaries, he spent his career mostly in France and England, except as producer for the Vera Cruz Film Company, in Rio de Janeiro.
Nelson Pereira dos Santos (1928- ). Neo-realist cinema director whose film, Rio 40 Graus (1954) launched the Cinema Novo (New Cinema, also: New Wave) movement.
√ Vítor Lima Barreto (1906-1982). Originally a documentary film maker, in 1953 he produced O Cangaceiro, highlighting the drama of outlaw life in the Brazilian Northeast, winning a Cannes film award.
Vera Cruz Film Company (Companhia Cinematográfica Vera Cruz), interested in creating a serious Brazilian national cinema, Francisco Matarazzo Sobrinho e Francisco Zampari, wealthy sponsors of modern art and theater, established Vera Cruz in 1950 under the production management of Alberto Cavalcanti. It brought to Brazilian cinema new technical and aesthetic standards, producing classics of Brazilian cinema, such as O Cangaceiro (Vítor Lima Barreto), winner of an award at Cannes in 1954. However, its chronic financial problems caused it to close in 1954. Although short lived, it had singular effect. List and Synopses of Films -- 5
José Oiticica Filho (1906-1964). Pioneer experimental photographer along lines of Man Ray. (Son was tropicalista sculptor, Hélio Oiticica.) Images
Thomas Farkas (1924- ). Hungarian-born photographer and documentary film maker, the first to exhibit his photos in an art museum (1948, MASP). Images (click "obras"). -- 2
Heitor dos Prazeres (1898-1966). Noted samba composer, in the thirties he began to paint, creating an award-winning "primitivist" or "ingenuous" style portraying city streets, often with scenes of samba and macumba. His fame became such that he participated in the first biennale of São Paulo, 1951, and those of 1953 and 1961, and had exhibitions throughout Latin America and Europe. Paintings (at end of document)
[Mestre] Vitalino Pereira da Silva (1909-1963). Ceramic sculptor, most noted of the school of folk artists that established themselves in the Northeast market city of Caruaru, Pernambuco. Noted folk painters were Heitor dos Prazers and Djanira. Their works can be seen in the Museu de Arte Popular de Caruaru--Alto do Moura (Museum of Popular Art of Caruaru); the Centro Nacional de Folclore e Cultura Popular (National Center of Folklore and Popular Culture), Rio de Janeiro; and the Museu Casa do Pontal (Pontal House Museum).
Djanira da Mota e Silva (1914-1979). A self-taught painter, considered of the "ingenuous" school, her scenes of daily life and their lyrical simplicity attracted much interest among artists in Brazil and France, giving her the distinction of being the first Brazilian to have a work incorporated into the collection of the Vatican. Paintings 1 2 -- 3
Getúlio Dornelles Vargas (1883-1954). President of Brazil, 1930-1945, 1951-1954), labor populist and promoter of Brazil-themed or oriented cultural phenomena as a means to strengthen national sentiment and loyalty, and central government; also persecuted critical cultural figures such as the novelist, Graciliano Ramos.
√ Rodrigo Melo Franco de Andrade (1898-1968). Founder and head (1937-1968) of the Serviço do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional - SPHAN (National Historic and Artistic Patrimony Service), crucially responsible for recognizing and preserving the richness of Brazilian High Baroque culture.
Gustavo Capanema (1900-1985). Second and longest-serving head of the Ministry of Education (MEC) occupying the position from 1934 to 1945. He brought into the ministry some of the most notable participants in the Renaissance in the Tropics: Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Mário de Andrade, Rodrigo Melo Franco de Andrade, Anísio Teixeira, Lourenço Filho, Fernando de Azevedo, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and Manuel Bandeira.
Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira, (1902-1976). President of Brazil, 1956-61), promoter of high modernism in the visual and plastic arts and in architecture through the Pampulha district of Belo Horizonte, of which he was mayor during World War II, and Brasília, which he created as president as the cultural expression of his national developmentalist economic program. -- 4
Olívia Guedes Penteado (1872-1934). Oone of the most traditional paulista families; she nonetheless assumed the role of a key patron of developments in modernist art in Brazil, holding a weekly salon during the twenties and thirties for modernist artists and cultural figures. She was instrumental in founding and maintaining the Paulista Society of Modern Art (Sociedade Paulista de Arte Moderna - SPAM), and was a financial supporter of Mário de Andrade and, for a tour of Brazil, of the French poet, Blaise Cendrars (Frédéric-Louis Sauser, 1887-1961). Comments on and Images of: 1 2 3
Arthur Rubinstein (1887-1982). During the latter years of World War I, while pursuing his interest in developing a repertoire of Spanish and then South American music, he met Heitor Villa-Lobos (1919 through Darius Milhaud, whom he then sponsored during Villa-Lobos's stay in Paris (1927-1930), performing his music (the piano piece, Rudêpoema, is dedicated to Rubinstein --"Mon sincère Ami....") and introducing him to French impresarios and publishers. Photos: 1 2
Francisco de Assis Chateaubriand (1892-1968). A media magnate (Diarios Associados conglomerate of newspapers, radio and television stations, news service, and publishing companies), he was the founder in 1947 of MASP, which gathered the most noted collection of Brazilian and international art works in Brazil.
√ Raimundo Castro Maya (1894-1969). An industrialist who led the project for founding (1948) the Museu de Arte Moderna - MAM (Museum of Modern Art) of Rio de Janeiro, he bequeathed his residence in the city as the Chácara do Céu Museum and his country estate (Tijuca) as the Açude Museum.
Francisco "Ciccillo" Matarazzo Sobrinho (1898-1977). Industrialist and wealthy scion of the Matarazzo family (nephew of Count Francisco Matarazzo, founder of the family fortune), he established in 1946 the Museu de Arte Moderna - MAM (Museum of Modern Art) in São Paulo and then, in 1951, the São Paulo Biennale.
Yolanda Penteado (1903-1983). Wife of Ciccillo Matarazzo Sobrinho and niece of Olívia Guedes Penteado, she emerged as a key supporter in collection building for and sponsoring of the São Paulo MAM and Biennale. -- 6 //-- 104
°
°
