Shaping the art collection

When he was nine years old, he was the drawer of the Expedition of the naturalist Jean Brunet to the Northeast region. He studied in Rio de Janeiro and received a scholarship in France. He taught at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts.

Probably made in Italy, this brief sketch belonging to the Collection shows lines of some horses and the physiognomy of a prince with Prussian military uniform.

The artist devoted himself exclusively to painting, portraying mainly the Brazilian nature, with poetry and sensitivity. Morro do Jaraguá highlights one important landmark in São Paulo.

This painting represents the agony of the Bandeirantes (settlers and explorers) from São Paulo, in a forest landscape. It integrates the set of historical paintings of the artist, specifically about the São Paulo history.

Preparatory drawing for the La Tasse painting, in which the creation of the nude refers to the circular shapes subject to vertical and horizontal lines, Léger-like.

The Collection covers the set of original illustrations from Tarsila do Amaral for the poems "Pau-Brasil" (1925), of Oswald de Andrade.

Tarsila brought influences from the painting studios she had visited in Paris, but she knew how to amalgamate her Brazilian roots to the formal theories of Gleizes, Lhote and Léger, who influenced her Pau-Brasil phase.

That phase was followed by the Anthropophagy phase, a movement that was more liberated from the forms and combined with the native imagination.

Writer, arts and literature critic, Sérgio Milliet took part in the Modern Art Week in São Paulo, in 1922. He was the director of the Municipal Library and created the Section of Arts, which originated this Collection. Portrait made by Tarsila.

The Section of Art founded by Milliet may be considered as one of the first modern art centers in Brazil.

The artist choose popular themes and flat painting. This work shows several coordinating scenes, confirming the narrative style: the figures are structured, the lines are continual and rounded.

"Poetry collectively assembled", that's how Paul Eluard used to define the game Exquisite Corpse (Cadavre Exquis). Here, three critics and writers try the game.

In 1946 he took part of the "Quatro Novíssimos" (Four Brand-New) Exhibition, an initial part of the "Grupo de 19 Pintores" (Group of 19 Painters). He studied in Rome and Vienna. As an engraver, we can perceive a great symbolic meaning, revealing his admiration for Doré e Goeld.

Grassmann developed an unparalleled journey with his gloomy drawings and illustrations, with very accurate technique and a mythical theme, close to the medieval imagery and woodcuts tradition.

The municipal collection has two newspaper Flans (Graphic Matrices), with high and bas-relief, produced by Antônio Manuel in the workshops of the O Dia newspaper, from Rio de Janeiro.

Aldo Bonadei joined the Santa Helena Group and was one of the first artists in the country to create abstract works. Painted still life, landscapes, images and hybrid composition.

The artist questions the means, the process, the production, the market, the authorship of the work, the criticism, the institution and everything involving the context where it is made.

This work belongs to a series made by Antônio Dias in 1970, which was essential for the development of his poetics.

José Spaniol started to work in São Paulo in the 1980s. The artist created this work for his first exhibition, which took place in the Paulo Figueiredo Gallery, in 1990.

In this monotype, instead of pencil, paintbrush or pen, Stela Barbieri uses cloth soaked in red ink, and brings to her work her constant search for different materials and procedures.

After joining the Casa 7 Group (1985), Carvalhosa created this work for an exhibition in the Paulo Figueiredo Gallery, in 1989. The material aspect of the painting paved the way to a new phase of the artist.

As a part of the Casa 7 Group, at the beginning of 1980, Paulo Monteiro presented his first individual exhibition in 1987, and in 1994, he took part in the XXII Bienal Internacional de São Paulo.

In "Anamorfas" (Anamorphous), Regina Silveira subverts the perspective systems and reinvents those codes, in order to get new possibilities of signification and questioning about the perception and the visual representation.

Anatol Wladyslaw was one of the precursors of the abstract art in Brazil. In 1952 he took part in the Ruptura (Disruption) Group, along with Luis Sacilotto and Waldemar Cordeiro. The municipal archive has a collection with 112 works from the artist.