Inside the studio (1944) by Milton DacostaMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
This exhibit presents some of the acquisitions from after the creation of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Brazil.
Eliseu Visconti com o Presidente Getúlio Vargas by Autor desconhecidoMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
The emergence of a new museum
The Museu Nacional de Belas Artes was established on January 13, 1937, through Law No. 378, signed by President Getúlio Vargas.
Since its creation, the MNBA has occupied the building built between 1906-1908, on Avenida Rio Branco, Rio de Janeiro. The aforementioned building has been adapted with the purpose of guaranteeing technically adequate conditions for the conservation and exhibition needs of the collection.
Coffee (1935) by Candido PortinariMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
In 1941, the MNBA acquired the painting Café by Cândido Portinari.
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Seeking to open up to non-European art, the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes diversified its collection from the 1960s onwards, with the acquisition of the collections of African Art and Popular Art and, later, Indigenous Art.
Collection of Popular Art
Collection of African Art
LicocóMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
Figura masculina sentada by Grupo Cultural KarajáMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
Favela (1958) by Rossini PerezMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
At the beginning of the 1980s, Carlos Martins and his team created the Engraving Cabinet of the Museus Nacional de Belas Artes with the aim of updating, organizing, treating, reprinting, studying and exhibiting the museum's engraving collection.
Favela (1958) by Rossini PerezMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
Currently, the Engraving Collection is made up of more than eight thousand and seven hundred items, featuring important Brazilian artists.
And foreigners, such as:
Currently, the museum has around one hundred thousand items in its collection, including sculptures, paintings, engravings, photographs, drawings, furniture, bibliographic and historical archives, covering various cultures, from different eras, in multiple forms of artistic expression.
Trânsito, do álbum "Arte & Transporte" (1970) by Ana LetíciaMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
FLOR I (1993/1994) by Ana MiguelMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
Black marble (1954) by Zélia SalgadoMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
Sem título (1983) by Pedro VasquezMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
Composição, [do álbum] "Sete lendas africanas da Bahia" (1984) by Carybé, Hector Júlio Páride Bernabó, ditoMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
Composição abstrata (1974) by Emanoel AraujoMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
Objetos reunidos escutando o bule azul (1983) by Carlos ScliarMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
Figura feminina pulando a janela: Ilustração (1923/1929) by Roberto RodriguesMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
Rioma (2017) by Suzana QueirogaMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
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First mass in Brazil by Candido PortinariMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
Purchased by the Brazilian Institute of Museums and donated to the MNBA in 2013, "The first mass in Brazil" by Candido Portinari was designed to form part of Oscar Niemeyer's architectural project for the new headquarters of a bank in Rio de Janeiro.
Unlike the "First Mass in Brazil", by Vitor Meireles, a romantic work conditioned to a supposed historical reality, this work by Portinari explores the sacred rite, eliminating the earth and establishing plans and volumes with its markedly hierarchical characters,
composed of foreign travelers and their different positions in the stratification of military and religious functions.
View of the exhibition Pinturas de Portinari na Capela Mayrink (2013)Museu Nacional de Belas Artes
Another relevant acquisition this same year, the four works created by Portinari for the Mayrink Chapel, located in Floresta da Tijuca, in Rio de Janeiro.
They reveal an artist in full cultural identity, which does not rival the symbolic universe of national baroque religiosity. The images gain a density as if they were statues, not paintings. They seem to project out of the screen.
Purgatory (1944) by Candido PortinariMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
Study for the "Guerra" panel (1955) by Candido PortinariMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
Composing the Portinari collection in the MNBA collection, we have paintings, engravings, matrices and drawings, such as the studies for the War and Peace panels.
Cana-de-açúcar (1955) by Candido PortinariMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
In them we can see the artist's imagination, with sympathy for simple and hard-working people, childish images.
Para conhecer mais sobre as obras de Portinari que integram o acervo do museu, acesse:
Zumbido Zoantrópico (1982) by Jorge GuinleMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
In addition to purchases and donations, the MNBA also receives some of the seizures made by the Federal Revenue Service, of works brought illegally to Brazil, whose buyers were not identified. Some of them are:
Sem Título by François Xavier LalaneMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
Ruína de Charque Ipanema by Adriana VarejãoMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
Sem título (2002/2014) by Os GêmeosMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
Shortcut by Iván NavarroMuseu Nacional de Belas Artes
The museum has many more stories than those told here, but some of them have been erased, silenced or forgotten. Rescuing these stories is an urgent task for the museum and for a society that wants to be more fair and inclusive.
Museu Nacional de Belas Artes: stories of the museum and its collection
Parte II
Concepção, pesquisa e realização:
Rafael Rodrigues Felix
Rossano Antenuzzi
Simone Bibian
Idealizada especialmente para o Google Arts & Culture, 2023.
Referências:
BARAÇAL, Anaildo Bernardo. "Fez-se uma galeria com excelentes pinturas": do Museu Nacinal ao de Belas Artes. Rio de Janeiro: Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, 2019.
COLI, Jorge. Como estudar a arte brasileira do século XIX? São Paulo: Editora SENAC, 2005.
PEREIRA, Sonia Gomes. Arte brasileira no século XIX. Belo Horizonte: C/ Arte, 2008. SIMIONI, Ana Paula Cavalcanti. Profissão Artista: pintoras e escultoras acadêmicas brasileiras. São Paulo: Ed. da USP/Fapesp, 2019.
TELES DA SILVA, Ana; MAIA CRUZ, Danielle. Patrimônio artístico e cultural do Museu Nacional de Belas Artes: reflexões sobre as representações do negro no acervo expográfico. Iluminuras, Porto Alegre.
