Cándido Portinari was an influential Brazilian painter who represented modernism and neo-realism.
The murals of the artist combined the traits of nativism and expressionism. The most famous murals are Cocoa, Coffee, The Mestizo, and War and Peace.
Background
Ethnicity:
Cándido Portinari’s parents immigrated to Brazil from Chiampo, Veneto, Italy.
Cándido Portinari was born on December 29, 1903, in Brodowski, Sâo Paulo, Brazil to a humble family of Giovan Battista Portinari and Dominga Torquato.
Raised on a coffee farm with its dark soil and blue sky, Portinari developed a love for blue and brown colors which appeared in his later artworks. He revealed his artistic abilities at an early age.
Education
Cándido Portinari attended the elementary school. At the age of nine, he developed his artistic skills assisting painters who worked on the restoration of the Brodowski church. The young boy painted the starts. Later, he also helped a sculptor who specialized in making adornments.
With an intention to pursue his artistic training, Portinari came to Rio de Janeiro in 1918 where he entered the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes (National School of Fine Arts). He was taught drawing and painting by Rodolfo Amoedo, Batista da Costa, Lucílio Albuquerque and Carlos Chambelland.
Ten years later, the young artist obtained a scholarship which allowed him to travel to Europe. During the five years he spent there, Portinari explored the local life and different art movements visiting museums and art galleries. On his return to Brazil, he chose to depict all natural beauties of the country and the difficulties of its inhabitants as his main subject matter.
Career
The start of Cándido Portinari’s career can be counted from the exhibitions at the National School of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro. For the first time, the young artist participated at the show in 1922 and the following year he presented a portrait of the writer Paulo Mazzucchelli. The artwork was marked by good reviews and awards. The debut solo show of the artist where he demonstrated twenty-five portraits was held six years later with the support of the Brazilian Artists Association. After, Cándido Portinari went to his European trip visiting the United Kingdom, Spain and France.
Combining his academic talent with the principles of modernism he had explored during his travelling, Portinari created the canvases which depicted that time life in Brazil, from the struggles of the people to the country’s picturesque landscapes. The reality of Brazil became the main subject matter for the entire Portinari’s career.
Right after his return, the artist started to take an active part at the artistic life of his home country. In 1931, invited by that time dean of the National School of Fine Arts, the architect Lúcio Costa, he joined the organizing committee of the National Fine Arts Exhibition. He also presented at the show seventeen of his artworks. The first international acclaim came to the artist four years later with his large canvas untitled ‘Café’ (Coffee) presented at the Carnegie International exhibition in Pittsburgh, United States. The success coincided with a post at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro where he was invited to teach mural and easel painting.
At the middle of the decade, Cándido Portinari evaluated as an artist creating his first mural. It was done for the monument of the Rio de Janeiro-São Paulo Highway. Then, he received a commission from the minister Gustavo Capanema to decorate the walls of the future building of the Ministry of Education.
Portinari definitively set up himself as an accomplished muralist at the New York World Fair of 1939 where he decorated the Brazilian pavilion with three panels, including ‘Jangadas do Nordeste’ (Jangadas from the Northeast), ‘Cena Gaúcha’ (Rio Grande do Sul Scene) and ‘Festa de São João’ (Saint John Party). It strengthened the artist’s position in the United States. The same year, his painting ‘O Morro’ (The Hill) was admitted to the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
Portinari spent the early 1940s in America exhibiting and working on other mural projects, such as the frescos referring to Latin-American history for the Congress Library Hispanic Foundation in Washington D. C. He took part in the exhibition of the Latin-American art at the Riverside Museum in New York City and had a personal show at the Detroit Institute of Arts, both in 1940.
The Second World War had an impact on Partinari’s art of the period. The series of the works reflecting the conflict began with the 1943 ‘Série Bíblica’ (Biblical Series) created under the impression of famous Picasso’s ‘Guernica’. The series ‘Retirantes’ (Migrants) and ‘Meninos de Brodowski’ (Boys from Brodowski), appeared the couple of following years. In 1946, Portinari had his first exhibition on the European territory. The show at Charpentier Gallery in Paris had a great success.
Two years later, Cándido Portinari had to leave Brazil because of political reasons. He fled to Uruguay where he created the panel ‘A Primeira Missa no Brasil’ (The First Mass in Brazil) for Boavista do Brasil bank. The same year, Portinari had a retrospective at the São Paulo Museum of Art. The typical subject matters for the murals of the period were historic themes. Among the examples were the panels ‘A Chegada da Família Real Portuguesa à Bahia’ (The Arrival of the Portuguese Royal Family in Bahia) of 1952 and ‘Guerra e Paz’ (War and Peace) fulfilled in 1956 and gifted for the new United Nations Organization headquarters by the Brazilian government. The latter work was the biggest panel produced by Portinari.
Although having health problems resulted from paint intoxication, Cándido Portinari worked and exhibited a lot during the 1950s. So, he took part in four Biennials, including the one of 1950 in Venice and three São Paulo Biennials in 1951, 1954, 1955 and 1959.
In addition to the multiple shows within his homeland, the artist toured a lot to demonstrate his art in other countries. In 1954, he went to Warsaw, Poland, to assist the exhibition dedicated to the people’s fight for peace. It was initiated by the Committee for the Cultural Cooperation with Foreign Countries. He also visited the United States, Venezuela, Italy, Israel, Germany and France. Portinari was the only artist who represented Brazil at the 50 Years of Modern Art show held in 1958 at the Palais des Beaux Arts (Palace of Fine Arts) in Brussels, Belgium. On his return to Brazil, he decided to try his hand in poetry.
Cándido Portinari stayed active till the end of his days. The final years of his life, he illustrated several books, including the writings by Graham Greene, José Lins do Rego as well as ‘Terre Promisse’ and ‘Rose de September’ by André Maurois. The last exhibition while the painter alive was the show held in 1961 at the Bonino Gallery in Rio de Janeiro.
Cándido Portinari was politically engaged. As a member of the Brazilian Communist Party, he stood for deputy in 1945 and for senator two years later. The persecution of communists led by the government of the time made the artist flee to Uruguay.
Views
Quotations:
"I am the Son of the Red Earth. I decided to paint the Brazilian reality, naked and crude as it is."
Connections
Cándido Portinari married Maria Victoria Martinelli, a nineteen-year-old Uruguayan girl, in 1930. The artist met her during his trip to Paris.
Maria Victoria occupied herself with day-to-day duties which allowed her husband to spent all his time on art.
The couple had a child, the son named João Candido. Cándido and Maria divorced in 1960. However, she continued to help Portinari. The same year, he became a grandfather – his granddaughter Denise was born. Portinari loved her very much and often depicted her on his paintings.