"... I write as an Afro-descendant man, fully aware of my right to speak on my behalf and that of many black men and women who identify in Portinari's work an extraordinary creative value in the dignifying representation of some of the many dimensions of the Brazilian black experience. In times like today when the fight for equality and justice has different characteristics and, in many ways, more complex than seventy years ago, I see in Portinari an inspiration and an ode to the permanent search for a world that respects the multiple human identities and that you have dignity in high regard. " Silvio José Albuquerque e Silva, Brazilian Diplomat, Member of the United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Master in International Politics from the Free University of Brussels.
Black Mother (1939) by Candido PortinariProjeto Portinari
On Black Awareness Day, I dedicate this presentation to all the excluded, wronged, disadvantaged, and discriminated against, especially to black men and women in Brazil and around the world, portrayed in their dignity and strength by Portinari throughout his life.
In the more than 5,400 works and 30 thousand documents, offered here thanks to the partnership between Google Arts and Culture and the Portinari Project, we can contemplate how this painter dedicated himself, throughout his life, both in his pictorial work and in his citizen activism and politics, to the cause of Black Consciousness.
In this project we will dedicate ourselves to demonstrate this statement.
Correspondencia de Florence Horn (1940-07-25) by Florece HornProjeto Portinari
Florence Horn, journalist for FORTUNE magazine (from the TIME & LIFE group) was one of the main personalities responsible for Portinari's success in the USA, becoming his friend, even coming to meet her family in Brodowski.
"... One more thing, which I hope you will be very frank about. I wish I could say --- because it explains many of your paintings --- that Brazilians don't like the world to know that their population is made up of a large number of mulattos and blacks. From time to time, and by various means, they opposed Portinari because he "paints blacks." Portinari insists on painting Brazilians as they are, despite all the opposition, official and unofficial. [Translator's note: his "Café" screen was banned from going to an exhibition abroad for portraying black men.] Portinari believes that Brazil's racial makeup is nothing to be ashamed of, in fact it is something to be proud of, given to black communities in the interior of the country (although Brazilians are ashamed of it in the eyes of foreigners) is by far more fair than it is in the US I'm sure you wouldn't want me to tell you all about the Feria de San Francisco, the Riverside Museum , etc. Or would you mind? ... "
On April 1940, Portinari's exhibition opens at the Howard University Art Gallery in Washington, DC. As part of a black university, this gallery is interested in Portinari's firm position on the racial issue, as amply demonstrated in his artworks.
On November 22 of the previous year, when negotiating the exhibition with Portinari, Alonzo J. Aden, director of the gallery, wrote:
[...] I am sure, since I am aware of his deep feelings and interest in subjects related to blackness, that this show will be very profitable for both our students and for the friends of the city. [...] I would like to express once again our gratitude for the unusual interest you have shown in the Howard University Art Gallery ...
LetterProjeto Portinari
LetterProjeto Portinari
LetterProjeto Portinari
Guess who was the first visitor, in the vernissage of this Exhibition?
Sra. Eleanor Roosevelt na Exposição Portinari (1944-10)Projeto Portinari
The First Lady of the USA, Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of President Roosevelt!
Clarinetist (1959) by Candido PortinariProjeto Portinari
Greatness and misery in Brazil, its sensitivity, its secret tragedies, the obscure counter-revolt of its unfortunate classes, the frenzy of sambas, batuques, the frevo of frevo, melancholy, without bitterness, of blacks and mulattos, that the slavery policed, the seahorse and the African, the burial of the simple and the humble, the flute player and the trickster of the hills, in all this human comedy the Portinari palette cast immortal colors. His style has no shade of idealization. Fatigued by so much academia, so much art of repetition and decadence, Brazilians turn to the magical interpretation of this worker of authentic national art, which Portinari is. [...] Here he is loose. There was no government, Capanema, state admonitions, nothing, to choke or strangle him. It was up to the inner demon who possesses it, and composed these fables that rise up the walls above like flames of fire from the infernal genius that devours him. Portinari is the greatest and most fantastic painter of black imagery that we've seen. He feels Africa with its magic, its mysteries, its lust, like no other brush artist. One must be Florentine in blood and spark - as he is, to produce these mural wonders that are there. The _generous and universal genius of Florence buried eyes, soul, heart in the black and yellow roots of the Brazilian people, and came from Baixa do Sapateiro [favela in the city of Salvador], from Morro do Querosene _ [favela in the city of Rio de Janeiro ], from the bas-fond of the two cities with these black diamonds that shook the joysticks over there. But it's not just the black and the mulatto he saw. He also saw the jangadeiro and saw the gaucho, that is, he saw the North and South of Brazil, in the serene unity of the materials that nourish his strength with his peculiarities and his bright human color.
(1942, opening of the Series "The Musicians", by Portinari)
Assis Chateaubriand, one of the most important journalists of the time.
Group of Women and Child (1936) by Candido PortinariProjeto Portinari
Annateresa Fabris, professor of Art History at the University of São Paulo.
Coffee (1935) by Candido PortinariProjeto Portinari
45 years later ...
In 1980, Eduardo Coutinho directed a special Globo Repórter about Portinari. Reporter Raul Silvestre found the model he posed for some of Portinari's famous works, such as Café, Mestiço, and Lavrador da Enxada.
With Portinari, the plastic arts of Brazil and the world lose a of their most vigorous expressions. Few until today will have it exceeded in the strength of its creative genius. Revolutionary, tore new and broad perspectives in the horizons of painting. He portrayed as an nobody, the anguish, revolt and suffering of the oppressed and despoiled, making his art one of the instruments of social emancipation of our people. He elevated the culture of Brazil and perpetuated it in the admiration of the whole world. Our people are mourning. He lost one of his highest exponents.
Tancredo Neves (Prime Minister of Brazil) Tribuna da Imprensa 02/08/1962
War and Peace at the UN:
Portinari and the challenges of the 21st century
It would be pertinent to remember, in this context, the thought of another magnificent Brazilian, Celso Furtado:
“… The challenge posed in the 21st century is nothing less than changing the course of civilization, to change its axis from the logic of the means of temporary accumulation to the logic of the ends, in the service of social welfare, the exercise of freedom and cooperation between peoples… ”.
… In this time of global economic crises, of hungry, desperate migrations, of entire destitute populations, even facing the death of children, women, the elderly, these words gain the terrible meaning of Portinari's panels, reality and hope that “only art can emotionally express ... "
(Sérgio Mascarenhas and Isaac Roitman, both Full Members of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences)
Flutist (1934) by Candido PortinariProjeto Portinari
