Portinari

by Leighton Gage 

Some three-quarters of a century ago, my mother-in-law accompanied a friend on a visit to a coffee plantation in the interior of São Paulo. While there, they visited a family she’d never met before, and has never seen since, but has always had good cause to remember. Because their home was filled with paintings by a young nephew named Candido Portinari.

Portinari, the son of immigrant laborers from Veneto, Italy had been born on that very plantation.

He went on to become one of the two leading Brazilian artists of his generation (the other being Di Cavalcanti, five years his senior).

Classified as a neo-realist, the range and scope of Portinari’s work is remarkable.

It includes images of childhood…

…paintings depicting labor…

…refugees fleeing the hardships of Brazil's rural north-east...

…treatments of key events in Brazilian history…

…portraits of members of his family…

…and leading Brazilian intellectuals…

…even book illustrations…

…and decorative tiles. 

At the United Nations Building in New York, you can also admire his enormous panels Guerra e Paz (War and Peace).

Not, however, as of this writing, because they happen to be in Brazil for restoration.

Like some other countries proud of their painters (France and the Netherlands come  immediately to mind) the government once saw fit to honor him by putting his image on the currency.

And these are the images of him, that Brazilians will most readily recognize.

Of Portinari, it can truly be said he gave his life to his art.

He died in Rio de Janeiro, in 1962, of lead poisoning contracted from his paints.

Images In Sand

by Leighton Gage

In northeastern Brazil, in the State of Rio Grande do Norte, the dunes overlooking the sea are permeated with salts and minerals.

And the same is true here, in the sandstone cliffs of the Morro Branco, in the State of Ceará. 

In both places, the presence of such salts tints the sand into an astonishing variety of very distinct colors.

And the availability of that colorful sand has given rise to a uniquely Brazilian art form.

It would be wrong to call it bottle painting, because what you see here hasn’t been painted, or even sketched in advance.

It’s formed by adding layer after layer of sand, and by the shaping of each layer with a wand inserted into the mouth of the bottle.

The artists pass on their techniques from generation to generation.

And, with few exceptions, the designs follow traditional patterns.

You’d think they’d be costly, wouldn’t you?

But no. It’s one of the poorer regions of the country and labor, even skilled artisanal labor, is cheap.

The smaller examples of this work can be had for as little as two American dollars.