It's not an exaggeration to call him a master. With this latest achievement by the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, “German Lorca, Master of Photography”, MON confirms its vocation of, among other artistic aspects, collecting and exhibiting photos, bringing them to our immense and interested viewing public.

Award-winning Brazilian photographer German Lorca dedicated most of his almost 100 years (1922-2021) to recording with his cameras scenes, scenes, and characters that could only have been discovered by him. 

He printed his mark on everything he did, revealing innovative images, which made his work unmistakable. He broke the limits of photography by masterfully using shadow and light techniques, always seeking new and different framings.

This exhibition is a testimony to decades immortalized thanks to his sensitive vision. His unique perception of revealing everyday scenes unusually has elevated him to the category of photographer-artist. 

His work has been included in the most important collections in the world, such as the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), among many others. Here at MON, seven of his photographs are part of the Museum’s permanent collection, enriching our collection.

The exhibition “German Lorca, Mestre da Fotografia” (“German Lorca, Master of Photography”) takes us to travel in time and space. They are genius images that have poetry, that touch and inspire, and that allow a silent dialogue with each visitor. Reflecting and admiring is the aim.

Juliana Vellozo Almeida Vosnika
Diretora-presidente do Museu Oscar Niemeyer 

New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is considered one of the most important museums in the world. It features works from the 1940s and 1950s by German Lorca and two from the iconic Aeroporto (Airport) series from the 1960s. Being part of MoMA's collection of notable photographers marks German Lorca's recognition in the context of world art.

In March 2021, the museum held a large exhibition focusing on Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante (Bandeirante Photo Cine Club), an essential training center for Brazilian photographers, attended by German Lorca in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Lorca's works were a major highlight of the exhibition.

Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante (Bandeirante Photo Cine Club), created in São Paulo in 1939, was extremely significant for disseminating information about the technique and training of amateur and professional photographers. Between 1949 and 1952, German Lorca attended the club. There, he broke the rules of traditional photography, gaining prominence among the participants. Both in the photographic excursions promoted by the group and in the exhibitions he participated in, Lorca's irreverent and innovative images stood out. They were a counterpoint to the existing pictorial construction.

German Lorca was a pioneer in introducing a new visuality to Brazilian photography. He explored and tried unusual plans and different angles.

In addition to the figurative images, which sought the personality of the person portrayed—or who created them—he often gave an expressionist character to the photography. At other times, he looked for abstraction in his images. He flirted with informal Concretism, which was in vogue in the 1950s and 1960s. Cuts and framing, both when capturing the photo and when developing it, showed that, in his laboratory, he used innovative and difficult-to-manage artisanal techniques.

Lorca was enchanted by the computer and, together with an assistant, tested the infinite possibilities of recreating the images, changing the cut, texture, and highlighting, especially, the colors. There was one image in particular that struck him. In a swimming pool, he found an inflatable mattress on a sunny morning. His keen eyes noticed that the total lack of wind and movement created a perfect moment: it seemed as if the mattress was floating in the air and the water did not exist. He took the image but felt that the colors didn't match the magic of the moment. Later, with the studio assistant, he changed the image until arriving at the famous final version: “Levitação na Piscina” (“Levitation in the Pool”). This is how he decided to rescue his old colored images and produce new ones.

German Lorca loved New York. He was there several times, and in three of them (1967, 1978, and 1984), he portrayed in black and white, faithfully, with his keen eye, the figures that represented the city, sometimes with its main symbols as a background. He managed to create a very significant panel of different types of New Yorkers: children, young people, many elderly people, and even tourists—a great social mosaic of characters from one of the main cities in the United States.

The year was 2014. German Lorca, aged 92, had to remain secluded in his home due to a small health issue. Creative and restless as he always was, he found a way, sitting next to the living room window, to record the sunlight and the shapes and shadows it caused as it entered through the cracks and the curtains. The result is a beautiful shoot done with his Digital Leica —a true study on light and environment that he poetically named A Geometria das Sombras (Geometry of Shadows).

German Lorca impresses us and overlaps past and present. Invited in 2018, after completing 70 years of his career, to document again some locations of his iconic photos of the city of São Paulo, he surprises us with the same mastery. At 96 years old, he faces the challenge, climbs the slope, and looks for the same angles. In the image he made on the Fourth Centenary of São Paulo's anniversary, at the inauguration of Ibirapuera Park, with his grandmother and son walking towards the OCA building like abductees in a spaceship, he finds the same magic again. He photographs, more than 60 years later, his niece and his young son, capturing the same emotion.

In the 1950s, with the arrival of car manufacturers in Brazil, a large advertising market began to emerge. The large consumer goods department stores were also investing. Lorca combined his experimental freedom with curiosity about techniques for researching new things and generating impactful images for ads. By freezing moving scenes using new electronic flashes, Lorca generated innovative and distinctive advertising images. Just like in authorial images, in commercial photography, the artist always makes the perception of magic present. That's why he was so sought after by agencies—something new to Brazil—and he grew with them.

The exhibition “German Lorca, Mestre da Fotografia” (“German Lorca, Master of Photography”) highlights the photographer's artistic career, which is recognized nationally and internationally. Exhibiting since his first work as an amateur photographer in 1947, the exhibition features around 160 photographs, as well as cameras and other personal items.

Curated by Adriana Rede and José Henrique Lorca, the photographer's son, the exhibition is organized into eight sections that highlight the photographer's emotional outlook on the world. Throughout his career, Lorca experimented with different types of photography, from analog to digital, always maintaining his unique language in the scenes he captured.

GERMAN LORCA, MASTER OF PHOTOGRAPHY 
German Lorca was one of the few photographers to fully experience photography in its most diverse modalities: from amateur to professional, from analog to digital, and from cameras to smartphones. With a peculiar vision of the most diverse themes, he uniquely established his language.

At the end of the 1940s, Lorca accompanied a new movement—the dawn of a modern aesthetic in Brazilian photography. He joined Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante (Bandeirante Photo Cine Club), in São Paulo, now the subject of international study for his avant-garde. With a unique look, capable of combining photography and art—unlike conventional pictorial photography—in his long artistic career of more than 70 years, German Lorca has always been free when taking photographs. Unafraid of criticism, he remained true to himself.

When modern photography gained momentum and revolutionized the Brazilian scene, Lorca stood out with his cuts and framing, both in the photo capture and in the development process. He went through a so-called “concrete” phase during the concrete movement in the 1950s. He explored unusual planes and different angles, but Lorca's “concretism” was not exactly intentional; it was free and generated beautiful works. 

In advertising photography, he was a pioneer. Incessantly looking for new things, with audacious chromatic searches, bold angles, and irreverent and provocative themes, he conquered the advertising market, which was starting in Brazil. 

With a restless look, he took advantage of his rare moments of intermission to make official records, always getting the best angle of the scene that his gaze chose. With a recognized trajectory, both nationally and internationally, he never stopped. He continued with his watchful eye, forming generations of photographers who were inspired not only by his technique, but also by his emotional way of looking at the world. They called him Master. Always timeless, he continued taking photos until the last days of his extraordinary life. We see that when observing his work, our gaze rests between the real and the imaginary. Each moment is an accomplice-moment.

Adriana Rede e José Henrique F. Lorca
Curators

German Lorca, Mestre da Fotografia é a mais nova realização do Museu Oscar Niemeyer (MON), em cartaz na Sala 1. A exposição tem curadoria de Adriana Rede e José Henrique Lorca, filho do fotógrafo.

Mineral pigment on cellulose base
61 x 46,5 cm

Mineral pigment on cellulose base
50 x 41,6 cm

Mineral pigment on cellulose base
36 x 34,7 cm

Mineral pigment on cellulose base
35 x 31,6 cm

Mineral pigment on cellulose base
34,4 x 35 cm

Mineral pigment on cellulose base
43,9 x 61 cm

MON holds an unprecedented exhibition by German Lorca

The exhibition “German Lorca, Mestre da Fotografia” (“German Lorca, Master of Photography”) is the Oscar Niemeyer Museum’s (MON) newest exhibition. Curated by Adriana Rede and José Henrique Lorca, the photographer's son, the exhibition will be displayed on July 5th in Room 1.

“German Lorca is simply one of the biggest names in Brazilian photography,” says the Secretary of State for Culture of Paraná, Luciana Casagrande Pereira. "Our expectation for this Lorca exhibition at MON is that it will be a landmark for the Museum due to the greatness of his career, which deserves to be seen, reviewed, and known by the public here in Paraná."

According to Juliana Vosnika, director-president of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, the exhibition makes us travel through time and space. “These are brilliant images that have poetry, that touch and inspire, and that allow a silent dialogue with each visitor”.

She comments that “with this exhibition, MON confirms its vocation of, among other artistic aspects, collecting and exhibiting photographs, taking them to the immense and interested spectator public”.

Brazilian German Lorca (1922-2021) was one of the few to fully experience photography in its most diverse forms: from amateur to professional, analog to digital, from cameras to smartphones. With a peculiar vision of the most varied themes, he uniquely established his language.

His work is part of the most important collections in the world, such as that of the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), among many others. Seven of his photographs are part of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum's permanent collection.

Divided into sections, the exhibition comprises a retrospective of his work, including his first as an amateur photographer in 1947. There are around 160 photographs, as well as cameras and other personal items. The exhibition covers Lorca's trajectory as an artist and professional in photography for more than 70 years with exceptional dedication, winning several awards and recognition in Brazil and abroad.

“His work makes up a large section of the history of Brazilian photography, following a new movement, a new form of photographic expression, and the dawn of a modern aesthetic in our Brazilian photography,” inform the curators.

At the end of the 1940s, Lorca joined the Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante (Bandeirante Photo Cine Club) in São Paulo, today the object of international study for its avant-garde. “When modern photography gains momentum and comes to revolutionize the Brazilian scene, it stands out with its cuts and framing, both in capturing the photo and in the act of developing it,” explain Adriana and José Henrique.

Lorca went through a so-called "concrete" phase, in which he explored unusual plans and different angles. He was a pioneer in advertising photography. Incessantly looking for new things, with audacious chromatic searches, bold angles, and irreverent and provocative themes, he conquered the advertising market, which was just starting in Brazil.

With a recognized trajectory, both nationally and globally, it has never stopped. He continued with his watchful eye, forming generations of photographers who were inspired not only by his technique but also by his emotional way of looking at the world. “Always timeless, he continued taking photographs until the last days of his extraordinary life,” explains the curator. 

The eight sections that compose the exhibition are: “Lorca na coleção do MoMA” (“Lorca in MoMA’s collection”), “Primeiros tempos: Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante” (“Early times: Bandeirante Photo Cine Club”), “Um olhar livre” (“A free look”), “E fez-se a cor” (“Let there be color”), “New York e seus personagens” (“New York and its characters”), “A geometria das sombras” (“The geometry of shadows”), “Sobreposição do tempo” (“Time overlapping”), and “O Mago dos Anúncios” (“The Wizard of Advertising”).

German Lorca, Mestre da Fotografia é a mais nova realização do Museu Oscar Niemeyer (MON), em cartaz na Sala 1. A exposição tem curadoria de Adriana Rede e José Henrique Lorca, filho do fotógrafo.
Dividida em núcleos, apresenta uma retrospectiva de sua obra, incluindo desde seus primeiros trabalhos como fotógrafo amador, em 1947. São cerca de 160 fotografias, além de câmeras e outros itens pessoais. 
A mostra percorre a trajetória de Lorca como artista e profissional na fotografia, por mais de 70 anos, com excepcional dedicação, conquistando diversas premiações e reconhecimento, no Brasil e no exterior. 

German Lorca, mestre da fotografia

MON is alongside major museums in Brazil and around the world on the Google Arts & Culture platform. Visit our exhibitions in virtual format. Find out more about this exhibition on the Google Arts & Culture platform.

More than celebrating the centenary of this artist from Curitiba, who is one of the main names in the arts in the State and the Country, the exhibition “Trilhos e Traços – Poty 100 anos” (“Tracks and Traces – Poty 100 years”), held by the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON), becomes a reference point for Poty Lazzarotto.

From now on, visitors to MON, especially the hundreds of students from public and private schools who visit the Museum daily, will certainly be able to find out more and get to know this brilliant artist better.

It is also an opportunity for the viewer to delve into Poty's life and work. This immersion in such vast content, gathered here, increases the repertoire, instigating a new perspective about the artist.

Recently, the Museum added the largest collection ever donated to the institution to its collection: approximately 4 thousand works of art signed by him. An excerpt of this can now be seen in this exhibition. Thus, the central axis of this building becomes the stage for the largest collections received by MON, alongside Asian and African art exhibitions.

The donation of Poty's work, generously made by the artist's family, brought to the Museum, in 2022, more than 3 thousand drawings and 366 engravings, in addition to tapestries, carvings, silkscreens, and sculptures. These are works that further enrich MON's collection, which in recent years has increased fivefold in size, consolidating the Museum as one of the most important in Latin America. 

Being the institution that preserves Poty's legacy is a source of pride, joy, and responsibility. In this exhibition, we share some of these feelings, translated by the artist's unmistakable traits. Belonging here has a full name: Poty Lazzarotto.

Juliana Vellozo Almeida Vosnika 
Director-President of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum

"A alma se expressa com mais claridade através do rosto [The soul expresses itself most clearly through the face] (Simmel)." We find this depth in Poty's portraits. They are expressive and agitated images: they have an actual existence, and there is no room for impersonality. Icons that surprise natural and social reality, ranging from realism to caricature. They are precise strokes and economic lines that synthesize the subject's personality in small details. The macambúzio (sullen) Bakun contrasts with the artist's energetic self-portraits. Poty, looking at himself, reveals the individuality of a firm and direct man, given to few daydreams - and human, all too human.

Born in a modest wooden house in Capanema, raised on the railroad tracks that passed in front of his home, with a father who was a railroad worker, a mother who was a cook, and a grandfather who was a carpenter, Poty developed a passion for humble workers that he cherished throughout his life, even after living in metropolises such as Rio de Janeiro and Paris. His drawings and engravings reflect his passion for the working man, both the day-to-day hard worker, especially the railway worker, the "polaca's" carts, the street vendors, the drivers of the open streetcars and the pub owners, and the simple man in everyday life: at church parties, workers' societies, the Cine Morgenau, the game of truco, all celebrating life. Poty sees work much more as fulfillment than hardship and alienation. In this poetic work, we find St. Francis's energy, Goya's courageous strokes, and Käthe Kollwitz's tenderness. Delicacy and social character, dignity, and humanity.

Poty celebrates the indigenous wisdom of nature and myths. Amid the countless languages and rich rituals, he gathers the born artist in the basketry, the stools, the bows and arrows, the body painting, the masks, and even the superficial knots and the architecture of the huts. Poty's Upper Xingu drawings in the still extensive Amazon Rainforest of the 1960s (1967/68) are a eulogy to nature, to Rousseau's good savage. They do justice to the overflowing intellectual and intuitive imagination of the locals.

"O mundo profano é o universo das interdições, enquanto o mundo sagrado corresponde ao das transgressões [The profane world is the universe of interdictions, while the sacred world corresponds to that of transgressions] (Bataille)." Poty's saints are well known, especially St. Francis, whom he has drawn, carved, and engraved countless times. The traces of the sacred, the communication with the metaphysical present in Poty's soul, lead him to a religion in the sense of religar, from the Latin religare, which celebrates human understanding. So, you don't necessarily have to be linked to a religion praising the gods to be religious. The aura, if there is one, is the one that involves connecting with others, the practice of humanism. Inspired by Saint Francis, Poty celebrates nature and the human person.

Immersing yourself in Poty's drawings and engravings means traveling through the daily life of provincial Curitiba. From the scenes of the "polacas'" carts, workers going to the trade by bicycle, disasters on the railroad, fights in the bars, the floods in the city center, the children flying kites, the Queirolo Brothers' Circus, and Didi Caillet's glorious return, to the procession of children running after Father Maurício's trolley, which handed out candies to attract the little ones to the Holy Office. He also extended his gaze to other places: his strokes slipped through the maritime scenes of Bahia, the churches and saints of Ouro Preto, and the sculptures of Chartres and Paris cathedrals. An eternal traveler, Poty combines nostalgic Curitiba with the discovery of the world.

Since the beginning of his artistic activity, Poty has always been a narrator, creating images to tell stories. As a child, he made comic strips inspired by American models; as a teenager, he created images of violence and fantasy inspired by authors such as Edgar Allan Poe and William Shakespeare. The cinema, also a form of narration through images, was another decisive influence on his work: as a child, he used to go to the old cinema at the Morgenau Club and then draw the scenes that stuck in his memory. Poty became a book illustrator at a young age: from 1943 until the end of his life, he illustrated more than 170 titles by Brazilian and foreign authors. With his love of cinema, he also produced a masterful series of drawings in the style of classic movie posters - drawing as an extension of the seventh art.

"Na galeria dos nossos grandes (mas muito poucos) ilustradores de nossos livros (numerosos, mas ainda muito poucos), nunca a fusão verbo-ícone atinge tão intrínseca adequação: nunca um ilustrador, entre nós, foi tão ilustrador, tão capaz de dizer o que as palavras não sabiam ou não podiam. [In the gallery of our great (but very few) illustrators of our books (numerous, but still very few), never has the verb-icon fusion reached such an intrinsic adequacy: never has an illustrator, among us, been so illustrative, so capable of saying what words did not know or could not.]" (Antônio Houaiss)

Poty's first public mural was in Praça 19 de Dezembro, on the occasion of the Centenary of the Emancipation of Paraná, in 1953, in a more realistic style. Since then, he has created many public works, which are present in several Brazilian cities, and has also reached Europe, with works in the Algarve, Portugal, and Paris. Public murals were an extension of engraving for the artist due to their ability to bring his art to a broader audience. In his public work, Poty uses sophisticated techniques to assemble and articulate symbolic elements to represent human history, the development of cities, the arts, knowledge, and technology. For those who visit Curitiba, we invite you to find Poty's murals in the city: like the rain and the pine trees, they are part of the Curitiba landscape.

"Cabe a cada menino guardar, para todo o sempre, um instante daquele voo de silêncio e fúria, de ruído e paz... [It is up to each child to keep, forever and ever, an instant of that flight of silence and fury, of noise and peace...]" (Valêncio Xavier)

The exhibition “Trilhos e Traços – Poty 100 anos” (“Tracks and Traces – Poty 100 years”), held by the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON), has approximately 500 works, a sample of the donation of 4 thousand works made by the artist’s family to the Museum, in 2022. Curated by Maria José Justino and Fabricio Vaz Nunes, it celebrates the centenary of Poty Lazzarotto (1924-1998).

In the exhibition, the works were organized around nine thematic groups present in Poty's artistic career, representing his different facets: the Narrator, the Work, the Xingu, the Sacred, the War, the Daily Life, the Traveler, the Muralist, and the Portraitist.

Poty, an artist from Curitiba? No: Poty, artist of the world. The premise of this exhibition is to show one of Curitiba's most essential artists in his universal dimension. We are celebrating the centenary of Poty Lazzarotto's birth by bringing to the public a wide selection of his works, which were recently donated to MON by Mr. Lazzarotto. João Geraldo Lazzarotto, the artist's brother. In this exhibition, the pieces have been organized around nine thematic nuclei present in his work, representative of the different facets of the artist: o Narrador (the Narrator), o Trabalho (the Work), the Xingu, o Sagrado (the Sacred), a Guerra (the War), o Cotidiano (Everyday Life), o Viajante (the Traveller), o Muralista (the Muralist) and o Retratista (the Portraitist). But Poty, the "piá" (kid) from Capanema who loved movies and comic books, is even more than all that. Through drawing, his primary means of expression, he approached the most varied themes, passing through different styles, always seeking to take art to its most important destination: the people. In his constant and obstinate artistic activity, he showed the real world of work and social reality; he recreated, in images, the creative universe of literature; in his murals, he shaped the great adventure of universal history. Always seeking to make art popular, he went from engraving to illustration, from tiny drawings to monumental murals. In the simplicity of his drawing, with his human and poignant vision of the human experience in all its dimensions, Poty created a vast collective imaginary: in his trails and strokes, we travel the world.

A exposição “Trilhos e Traços – Poty 100 anos”, realizada pelo Museu Oscar Niemeyer (MON), reúne aproximadamente 500 obras, um recorte da doação de 4 mil peças realizada pela família do artista ao Museu, em 2022. Com curadoria de Maria José Justino e Fabricio Vaz Nunes, comemora o centenário de Poty Lazzarotto (1924-1998).

MON holds a grand exhibition celebrating the hundred years of Poty Lazzarotto

The Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON) is holding the grand exhibition “Trilhos e Traços – Poty 100 anos” (“Tracks and Traces – Poty 100 years”), to celebrate the centenary of Poty Lazzarotto (1924-1998). Curated by Maria José Justino and Fabricio Vaz Nunes, the exhibition brings together approximately 500 works, a portion of the donation of 4,000 pieces made by the artist's family to the Museum, in 2022. The opening will be on April 11th, at 7 pm, in Room 6.

"Poty, in its centenary, remains current, incomparable, and this new exhibition reinforces the importance of the artist to the cultural identity of Paraná. I am sure that the exhibition at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum will introduce his unique work to thousands of people and also to new generations", says Luciana Casagrande Pereira, Secretary of State for Culture of Paraná.

“More than celebrating the centenary of this artist from Curitiba, who is one of the main names in the arts in the State and the Country, the exhibition becomes a place of reference for Poty Lazzarotto”, says the director-president of MON, Juliana Vosnika.

“From now on, visitors to MON, especially the hundreds of students from public and private schools who visit the Museum every day, will certainly be able to learn more and get to know this genius of the arts better”, she comments.

The exhibition is also an opportunity for viewers to delve deeper into Poty’s life and work. “By providing an immersion in such vast content, gathered here, MON encourages the public to expand their repertoire by taking a new look at this unique artist”, says Juliana.

The premise of the exhibition, according to the curators, is to extrapolate regional borders and present Poty in its universal dimension. “In his ceaseless and obstinate artistic activity, he recreated, in images, the creative universe of literature; in his murals, he created the great adventure of universal history”, they inform. “Always seeking popular dissemination of art, he went from engraving to illustration, from tiny drawings to monumental murals.”

In the exhibition, the works were organized around nine thematic groups present in Poty's artistic career, representing his different facets: the Narrator, the Work, the Xingu, the Sacred, the War, the Daily Life, the Traveler, the Muralist, and the Portraitist. “But Poty, the boy from Capanema who loved cinema and comic books, is even more than all of that,” say the curators.

On March 29, Curitiba's birthday – and coincidentally, Poty Lazzarotto's birth date – MON received the largest collection ever donated to the institution: approximately 4.5 thousand works. The year was 2022. This collection has more than 3,000 drawings and 366 engravings, as well as tapestries, carvings, screen prints, and sculptures, among others. The donation was made directly by João Lazzarotto, brother of the artist.

These are works that further enrich MON's collection, which in recent years has increased fivefold in size, consolidating the Museum as one of the most important in Latin America.

A selection of Poty's vast collection can be seen in this exhibition. Thus, the central axis of the Museum building becomes the stage for the largest collections received by MON, alongside displays of Asian and African art.

Poty Lazzarotto (Curitiba, 1924-1998) followed his path through drawing, then delving deeper into engraving, of which he became a master, being the creator of the first engraving course at the São Paulo Museum of Art (Masp). Much of his production is biographical, ranging from boyhood memories around railway tracks and train carriages to records of Curitiba types and the settings they inhabit.

 Poty is direct and straightforward in his drawings and engravings. It was with this spontaneous characteristic that he illustrated various works of Brazilian literature, such as Os Sertões (Rebellion in the Backlands), by Euclides da Cunha, and Grande Sertão: Veredas (The Devil to Pay in the Backlands), by Guimarães Rosa. He could also not have failed to give life to the controversial people from Curitiba portrayed in the stories of another icon from Paraná, Dalton Trevisan. 

 As if his presence in literature were not enough, Poty left his mark throughout Curitiba through his monuments or tile and exposed concrete panels, a practice that began with the panel “Desenvolvimento Histórico do Paraná” (Historical development of Paraná), in 1953, at 19 de Outubro Square. Other examples of this production are the panels on Nestor de Castro Street, in which he shows, on one side, a scene from a Curitiba that no longer exists, and, on the other, the evolution of the city, which emerged amid pine forests, inhabited by immigrants, and which stands out in the field of urbanism.

 The collection donated to the Oscar Niemeyer Museum relates to this entire production. In it we can find originals so often reproduced in books and other publications about the artist, we come into contact with the drawings he made on his expedition to the Xingu, in 1967, and we enter the intimacy of an almost unknown Poty. Furthermore, we still find sketches, projects, and studies, and we can see the evolution of the trait, from its youth to maturity. Therefore, the collection constitutes true ethnographic material about this artist. 

 Donated to MON by Poty Lazzarotto's family, the collection also includes, of course, consummate works, drawings, woodcuts, lithographs, metal engravings, wood carvings, and concrete blocks: thousands of pieces that give clear testimony to the versatility of this artist. Through Poty, we learned about the art that was made and is being made in Paraná.

 Preserving not only the legacy of this artist, but his memory, is above all a duty – a task assumed and adequately carried out, now, by the Oscar Niemeyer Museum.

A exposição “Trilhos e Traços – Poty 100 anos”, realizada pelo Museu Oscar Niemeyer (MON), reúne aproximadamente 500 obras, um recorte da doação de 4 mil peças realizada pela família do artista ao Museu, em 2022. Com curadoria de Maria José Justino e Fabricio Vaz Nunes, comemora o centenário de Poty Lazzarotto (1924-1998).

Na mostra, as obras foram organizadas em torno de nove núcleos temáticos presentes na trajetória artística de Poty, representativos das suas diferentes facetas: o Narrador, o Trabalho, o Xingu, o Sagrado, a Guerra, o Cotidiano, o Viajante, o Muralista e o Retratista.  

Trilhos e Traços – Poty 100 anos

O MON está ao lado de grandes museus do Brasil e do mundo na plataforma Google Arts & Culture. Visite nossas exposições em formato virtual.

Conheça mais sobre esta exposição na plataforma Google Arts & Culture.

The exhibition “Alex Flemming 70 Anos” (“Alex Flemming 70 Years”), designed for the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON) in Curitiba, comprises the recurrence of portraiture in his vast production, this exhibition commemorating his 70th birthday. Historically, over the centuries, the portrait genre has evolved from a faithful representation of physical appearance to an in-depth exploration of the identity and subjectivity of the sitter. Contemporary portraiture, as seen in this exhibition, often explores identity in complex ways, touching on issues of gender, race, sexuality, social class, and culture. It stopped being a simple representation of external appearance to become a deep investigation into the complexities of human identity—a mirror of society —, reflecting its tensions, transformations, and diversities. Through innovative techniques and conceptual approaches, such as those present in the universe of Alex Flemming, the limits of the portrait and the portrayed are expanded, challenging the viewer to reconsider their perceptions about him, themselves, and others. 

Attentive to his surroundings and armed with his camera, Alex Flemming makes his everyday life his final work and rewards us with introspective contexts. In this exhibition, we present works created from 1982 to 2023 that emphasize how consistent his conception, creation, and propagation of his cultural legacy. The portraits themselves, with different techniques and supports, reveal not only formal representation but mainly the creation of a diversified and experimental work, which encompasses painting, installation, photography, and engraving. 

The theme “Retrato” (“Portrait”) was intentionally selected for this commemorative exhibition because human representation is the fundamental and seminal axis of Alex Flemming's visual research. For him, human existence is intrinsically and deeply connected to the concepts of Eros and Thanatos, originating from Freudian psychoanalysis, which represent, respectively, the forces of life and death. These forces, when applied to the interpretation of portraiture in contemporary art, can provide a compendium for depicting the tensions between destruction and creation, death and life, and pain and pleasure. The portrait, in this context, becomes a means to investigate these fundamental dualities of our human condition. This is the life cycle that Alex Flemming shares with us on the occasion of his 70th birthday: art and fascination!

The exhibition “Alex Flemming 70 Years”, held by the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, comprises more than 80 works by this internationally recognized Brazilian artist who has lived between Germany and Brazil for decades.

Curated by Tereza de Arruda and on display in Room 3, it presents works carried out from 1982 to 2023. The works, imbued with symbols and messages, invite the viewer to go beyond common sense. 

Through innovative techniques and conceptual approaches, such as those present in the universe of Alex Flemming, the limits of the portrait and the portrayed are expanded, challenging the viewer to reconsider their perceptions about the artist, themselves, and others.

The exhibition commemorating Alex Flemming's 70th birthday, several of which are dedicated to the arts, takes our audience into direct contact with the best of contemporary production. MON is a reference institution in visual arts in Brazil and worldwide. Recently, it has held many important exhibitions on the local and international scene.

Irreverent and observant, this Brazilian artist, who has lived between Germany and Brazil for years, has in his works a contemporary portrait far beyond the simple representation of what he sees. He translates his sharp and attentive vision when discussing a chaotic and multifaceted world. He addresses various social issues with the subtlety that only art allows.

The works are filled with symbols and messages that, unpretentiously, invite us to go beyond common sense. They are layers that lead to our essence. Each of them gains its meaning from the viewer’s unique perspective.

We understand that artistic work must always provoke and instigate the viewer. By staging the exhibition “Alex Flemming 70 Years”, the Oscar Niemeyer Museum proposes a reflection on human beings and society. His subjective art will certainly lead each person to their interpretations.

With the promise of always being recognized as a living and active museum, nationally and internationally, MON offers this exhibition as an opportunity for dialogue and a transformative experience for visitors.

Juliana Vellozo Almeida Vosnika
Diretora-presidente do Museu Oscar Niemeyer

Idade Plástica Identidade Plástica, 2004

Acrílica sobre tecido | Dimensões variáveis

Foto e acrílica sobre PVC | 203 x 153 cm

 MON holds new exhibition by Alex Flemming 

 The unprecedented exhibition "Alex Flemming 70 Years", the newest project of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON), will open on August 29 in Room 3. Curated by Tereza de Arruda, the exhibition brings together more than 80 works, some of them large, by this internationally recognized Brazilian artist who has lived between Germany and Brazil for decades. 

"Alex Flemming is undoubtedly one of the greatest Brazilian artists of his generation and throughout his career he has had important connections and presences in Paraná. For us, it's an honor to present an exhibition celebrating his 70th birthday here at Oscar Niemeyer Museum," says Luciana Casagrande Pereira, Paraná's Secretary of State for Culture. 

MON's CEO, Juliana Vosnika, says that "the Alex Flemming commemorative exhibition brings our public into direct contact with the best of contemporary production". 

She comments that Alex Flemming, an artist who is always irreverent and observant, brings a contemporary portrait to his works that goes beyond the simple representation of what he sees. ''He translates his sharp and attentive vision when talking about a chaotic world full of trends. He addresses various social issues with the subtlety that only art allows," says Juliana. 

The exhibition features works from 1982 to 2023. The works, impregnated with symbols and messages, invite the viewer to go beyond common sense. They are layers that gain their own meaning from the singular gaze of each visitor. 

Through innovative techniques and conceptual approaches, such as those present in Alex Flemming's universe, the boundaries of the portrait and the portrayed are expanded, challenging the viewers to reconsider their perceptions of the artist, themselves and others. 

The exhibition brings together a variety of techniques, such as photography on glass, oil on canvas, enamel on wood, acrylic on fabric and painting on porcelain, etc. 

The theme "Portrait" was intentionally selected for this commemorative exhibition because human representation is the fundamental and seminal axis of Alex Flemming's plastic research. According to the curators, the exhibition presents the recurrence of the portrait in his vast production. 

"Historically, over the centuries, the genre of the portrait has evolved from a faithful representation of physical appearance to an in-depth exploration of the identity and subjectivity of the subject," explains Tereza de Arruda. 

"Contemporary portraiture, as can be seen in this exhibition, often explores identity in complex ways, addressing issues of gender, race, sexuality, social class and culture. 

According to the curator, "it has ceased to be a simple representation of external appearance and has become a profound investigation into the complexities of human identity - a mirror of society - reflecting its tensions, transformations and diversities". 

Alex Flemming was born in 1954 in São Paulo. He lives and works in São Paulo and Berlin. He studied Cinema at FAAP and Architecture at USP, and is self-taught in the visual arts. He made several short films in Super-8 and participated in festivals. From the late 1970s onwards, he devoted himself exclusively to the visual arts. He always creates his work in series, the first of which denounces the violence of torture in the cellars of the Brazilian military dictatorship (series ''Natureza Morta", 1978). His art is basically political and over the years he has tackled themes such as war ("Body Builders" series, 2000), September 11 ("Flying Carpets" series, 2003) or terrorism ("Apocalypse" series, 2015). Another ever-present theme is the human body, "the human being as the center of the universe", as the artist himself says, which is the focus of the exhibition "Alex Flemming 70 Years". 

Tereza de Arruda has a master's degree in Art History from the Free University of Berlin and has been following Alex Flemming's work since 1991, exhibiting his works in various shows in Brazil and abroad. Among them, the solo exhibition "Flying Carpets", held in 2005 at the Chicago Cultural Center; "Alex Flemming: Uniplanetary System", in 2008, at St. Paul's. Johannes Kirche, in Berlin and at the MAM - Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro; "Alex Flemming: Galileo Galilei", in 2011, at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Santiago, Chile, as well as the group show "Brasilidade Pós-Modernismo", held from 2021-2022, on the CCBB circuit in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Brasília and Belo Horizonte. 

The exhibition “Alex Flemming 70 Years”, held by the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, comprises more than 80 works by this internationally recognized Brazilian artist who has lived between Germany and Brazil for decades.
Curated by Tereza de Arruda and on display in Room 3, it presents works carried out from 1982 to 2023. The works, imbued with symbols and messages, invite the viewer to go beyond common sense. 
Through innovative techniques and conceptual approaches, such as those present in the universe of Alex Flemming, the limits of the portrait and the portrayed are expanded, challenging the viewer to reconsider their perceptions about the artist, themselves, and others.

Alex Flemming 70 years

By holding this unprecedented exhibition by Brazilian artist Efrain Almeida, the Oscar Niemeyer Museum brings a garden into the exhibition room. Here, there will certainly be a silent exchange between artist and visitor.

With his birds, houses, nests, trees, and various other animals, Efrain connects us to nature, which can serve as an antidote to oblivion and contemporary ephemera. Sculptures, installations, paintings, and embroidery evoke simple scenes that bring us into contact with our essence.

Each work gains its meaning from the viewer's singular gaze, confirming the most genuine vocation of artistic creation: to provoke reflection. 

His intimate, symbolic work is always sensitive. Attentive, he turns banal images into disturbing art. Unusually, he demonstrates in his work what often escapes our hurried glances. 

MON’s purpose is to raise people’s awareness of art. By offering multiple experiences, such as the presentation of this artist's interesting work, it provides the viewer with a more plural interpretation of themselves and the world. 

In a happy coincidence, the “O Jardim” (“The Garden”) exhibition takes place simultaneously with the installation of the “MON sem Paredes” (“MON without Walls”) project, in which the Museum breaks its physical limits. With an interactive sculpture park in the outdoor area, MON embraces the public and invites them to enter.

The largest art museum in Latin America, with 35 thousand square meters of built area, the MON building is the result of a bold proposal designed by Master Niemeyer. 

Transformed into a museum, what would otherwise be just a building, it is a living space inhabited by art. And, so that its content never falls short of the beauty of the building, which is immense, it is always necessary to delight the public. That is the role of exhibitions like this. 

Director-president of Oscar Niemeyer Museum

I had a lot of conflicts with my father over issues of belief. Not religious beliefs, but beliefs about things in life. I didn't talk to him for many years, and my work reconnected me with my father. At the time he returned to live in the backlands (Sítio Olho d’Água, in Boa Viagem – CE), I started traveling there frequently and started working on projects that I was willing and interested in. Living in his workshop environment was decisive for the work I do, especially in sculpture. I remember the smell of wood, recognizing wood by its smell, and the specific tools for each type of work.

Then he started helping me with the possible parts of the job. I drew and made the silhouette, and he cut it on a band saw. Then I made the sculpture itself. This manufacturing brings the knowledge of the hand – even the way of holding the piece – and the heat that the hand transfers to the materials you work with. This hand can bring back a kind of ancestral memory. All of this, for me, has a relationship of ancestry and the transmission of knowledge through this type of slow and silent ritual that is manual work. Much of the communication that I begin to establish with my father is a silent kind of exchange.

I also remember a moment when, because of my work, people started to order ex-votos for my father. And then I asked him “how did you manage to make the ex-votos”? He replied: “I learned how to make ex-votos by watching you make your sculptures.” It's very interesting how this story creates a kind of circularity – the ex-voto that my father makes after seeing me working.

Efrain Almeida in an interview with Bitu Cassundé, April 2023.

I work on a small scale – the sculptures are hand-sized. It is as if these works were confessional, a whisper. The work would be much more about something silent than actually a scream, in the sense of being spectacular. It's a small event that will reveal great things to you.

There is a simplified idea of saying that it is a work about the backlands. It's not a work that talks about the backlands: it's a work that talks about my experience in the backlands, my childhood experience, and my experiences as an artist in the world. So, it's much more about this place that I belong to – and about its complexities – than in the sense of representation.

For example, the presence of the hummingbird, a bird that I use frequently, has to do with the experience of being in my parents' garden and having the presence of these birds. It also has to do with knowing that hummingbirds have a spiritual relationship with the representation of the rainbow, water, and the spirit of the forest. It's not about the image, the bird, or nature, but about all the surrounding senses.

So, I always think about these possible connections with the place, with nature, with the idea of belonging, the body as a shelter, or the place that receives this information, and that puts me in touch with these moments, which, for me, are very dear and important, in the sense of realizing that it is something bigger, that it is a vibration, that it is a connection with my history. 

I increasingly believe in the ideas that some scholars defend about ancestral knowledge through dreams, which is that it is through dreams that you connect with your ancestry. I also believe that ancestry and knowledge are given through work and crafts. Manual work and craftsmanship bring a lot to this character of the ancestry. It brings with it the knowledge that is passed from hand to hand. And this hand can bring back a kind of ancestral memory that is passed from generation to generation. That's what reconnects me with my history and with my place of belonging.

I only became aware of this type of production through miracle houses, at religious festivals, mainly in Canindé, which was where my family went for the feast of Saint Francis. So I understand the room of miracles as this place of a kind of religious trance, but also the trance that the work of art itself causes. When you're in front of a work and you don't even know exactly what's happening there, there's something about that exchange, in the presence of that object, that transforms you in some way.

It's this purest sense of art, of transformation, of taking you from one place and putting you in another, of a kind of displacement. It's a key that will take you out of one place and put you in another. Furthermore, it will put you in a different tune. So, it happened to me in the miracle room, and I think it's beautiful to think about these ideas because it's a miracle, it's religion, it's transformation, but it changed me as a person, maybe as an artist. 

The exhibition “O Jardim - Efrain Almeida” (“The Garden - Efrain Almeida”) has nature as its central theme, exploring the dimensions of the sacred, everyday life and life. The territory full of fauna and flora conveys memories and affections originating from the artist's parents' house, located in the Ceará hinterland.

Curated by Bitu Cassundé, the exhibition features sculptures, installations, paintings, and embroidery and invites the public to dialogue with the essence and contact with the metaphorical garden, where everything is renewed, reinvented, and regenerated.

The monographic exhibition O Jardim (The Garden) presents a cross-section of different periods in the production of the artist from Ceará, Efrain Almeida. Developed especially for the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON), the exhibition has nature as its center and highlights nuclei that activate the dimensions of the sacred, daily routine, and life, using the metaphor of the garden – a territory of memories and affections originating from the artist's parents' home, at Sítio Olho d'Água dos Facundos, in the city of Boa Viagem, in the backlands of Ceará. The set presented also comprises the transition that is established in the artist's sculptural projects, from wood production to bronze, in addition to including other techniques he worked on, such as painting, embroidery, and drawing.

The exhibition continues the research that began in 2020 and unfolds in the documentary “Ensaio para outros Instantes” (“Rehearsal for other Instants”) (2021) and the exhibition Encarnado (Incarnate) (2023), presented at Cariri Cultural Center in Crato (CE). Both works discuss the body, the sacred, and the territory, starting from Canindé and Juazeiro do Norte, important religious centers in that state.

In this new moment, O Jardim focuses on the biographical gesture that announces itself through intimate fauna and flora of a body-nature, in which different cycles compose the relationships established between survival and existence, between life and death, between camouflage and mimicry. Cardinals, hummingbirds, moths, and campo troupial materialize displacements, transits, flows, and the desire for survival in other landscapes, processes of a bird-body that are related to the lives of so many migratory bodies throughout Brazil. These are natural actions and processes that are organized with the sole aim of establishing a way of existing and coexisting.

A place for the articulation of an intricate biological plot – where the system of habits and repetitions coexist in a game of exchanges, agreements, and dialogues –, Efrain Almeida's garden combines the biographical dimension with the relationships between life and art that are so fertile in the artist's poetic territory. Here, the simplest places are potential spaces for the great transformations that we see in nature all the time, where everything is renewed, reinvented, reproduced, and regenerated.

Bronze and acrylic
3 + 2AP Edition, 1/3
15,5 x 18,5 x 19 cm

Oil on bronze
Edição de 3 + 2AP, 1/3
6 x 36 x 30 cm

Bronze and oil
3 + 2 AP Edition, 3/3
8 x 11 x 9 cm

Bronze and acrylic
3 + 2AP Edition, 1/3
15.5 x 18.5 x 19 cm
Artist’s collection

MON holds a new exhibition by artist Efrain Almeida

The exhibition “O Jardim – Efrain Almeida” (“The Garden—Efrain Almeida”), held by the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON), will open on June 20 in Room 2. There are nearly 40 works that include sculptures, installations, paintings, and embroidery, covering different periods of the artist's production. Bitu Cassundé is the curator.

Developed especially for MON, the exhibition places nature at the center and highlights the dimensions of sacred, daily routine, and life, using the metaphor of the garden—a territory of memories and affections originating from the artist’s parents’ house, in the backlands of Ceará.

“Thinking about nature through art is a magnificent way to raise people's awareness about its importance, and Efrain Almeida develops poetic work around this theme like few others”, states the Secretary of State for Culture, Luciana Casagrande Pereira. “It is an honor for Paraná to host, at MON, this solo exhibition that will certainly move us and connect us not only with nature but also with the popular culture of the Brazilian backlands,” she comments.

Juliana Vosnika, the director-president of MON, explains that when holding this unprecedented exhibition, the Oscar Niemeyer Museum brings a garden into the exhibition room. “There will certainly be a silent exchange between artist and visitor here,” she says.

She highlights that “in a happy coincidence”, the exhibition “O Jardim” takes place simultaneously with the installation of the project “MON sem Paredes” (“MON without Walls”), in which the Museum breaks its physical limit. With an interactive sculpture park in the outdoor area, MON embraces the public and invites them to enter.

“With his birds, houses, nests, trees, and various other animals, Efrain connects us to an intimate nature, which can serve as an antidote to oblivion and contemporary ephemera. Sculptures, installations, paintings, and embroidery evoke simple scenes that make us come into contact with our essence”, says Juliana.

Curator Bitu Cassundé explains that the exhibition, in addition to presenting different periods of Efrain's production, also encompasses the transition that is established in the artist's sculptural projects. “It goes from wood production to bronze, in addition to including other techniques he worked on, such as painting, embroidery, and drawing”, he comments.

The exhibition continues the research that began in 2020 and unfolds into the documentary “Ensaio para outros Instantes” (“Rehearsal for Other Instants”) (2021) and the exhibition Encarnado (Incarnate) (2023), presented at the Cariri Cultural Center, in the city of Crato, state of Ceará. “Both works discuss the body, the sacred and the territory based on Canindé and Juazeiro do Norte, important religious centers in that state”, informs Cassundé.

Recent solo exhibitions by Efrain Almeida include “Encarnado” ("Incarnate"), Cariri Sérvulo Esmeraldo Cultural Center, Crato (2023); “O Sexto Dia” (“The Sixth Day”), Museum of Sacred Art of São Paulo, São Paulo (2022); “A Memória da Mão” (“The Memory of the Hand”), MCO Contemporary Art, Porto, Portugal (2018); and “Trance”, James Harris Gallery, Seattle, United States (2017). He also participated in group exhibitions: “Nunca só essa mente, nunca só esse mundo” (“Never just this mind, never just this world”), Carpentry – Rio de Janeiro (2023); “I Could Eat You”, Fortes d’Aloia & Gabriel + Madragoa + CLEARING, House of Culture Comporta – Comporta, Portugal (2022); “Crônicas Cariocas” (“Rio de Janeiro Chronicles”), Rio Museum of Art (MAR) – Rio de Janeiro (2022); and “Engraved Into the Body”, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery – New York, United States (2021).

Efrain Almeida has works in important public collections, including Caixa Geral de Depósitos (Culturgest) – Lisbon, Portugal; Galician Center for Contemporary Art (CGAC) – Santiago de Compostela, Spain; ARCO Foundation – Madrid, Spain; Inhotim Institute – Brumadinho; Museum of Contemporary Art of Niterói (MAC) – Niterói; Aloísio Magalhães Museum of Modern Art (MAMAM) – Recife; São Paulo Museum of Modern Art (MAM) – São Paulo; Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro (MAM Rio) – Rio de Janeiro; Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) – New York; Pinacotheca of São Paulo – São Paulo; Toyota Municipal Museum of Art – Toyota Aichi, Japan; and The Polyclinic – Seattle.

The exhibition “O Jardim – Efrain Almeida” (“The Garden—Efrain Almeida”), held by the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON), will open on June 20 in Room 2. There are nearly 40 works that include sculptures, installations, paintings, and embroidery, covering different periods of the artist's production. Bitu Cassundé is the curator.

Developed especially for MON, the exhibition places nature at the center and highlights the dimensions of sacred, daily routine, and life, using the metaphor of the garden—a territory of memories and affections originating from the artist’s parents’ house, in the backlands of Ceará.

O Jardim - Efrain Almeida

MON holds an exhibition of African art with pieces recently incorporated into its collection

The exhibition "Africa, Artistic Expressions of a Continent", held by the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, presented by Copel and made possible by the government of the State of Paraná, can be seen by the public from August 31 in Room 4. It is a selection of the significant donation made by the Ivani and Jorge Yunes Collection (CIJY) to the MON.

There are approximately 1,700 works from one of the most significant collections of African art objects from the 20th century, which now belong to the Oscar Niemeyer Museum collection and, consequently, to the State of Paraná.

Africa, Artistic Expressions of a Continent

“Turn a tree into firewood and it will burn; but it will never give you flowers and fruit again.”

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), Bengali poet

The ancient metaphor of fertility related to the vital force and potency of trees, with their deep roots, their stem as a foundation, their ramifications as unfoldings of themselves, their legacy as symbolic flowers and fruits, was never more adequate as to be applied to the permanent links with our Mother Africa. If we then think of the metaphors of the gigantic baobab tree, from the more severe historical references associated with slavery by the so-called “tree of oblivion” to the milder ones, such as the famous tree in the book The Little Prince, the lessons arising therefrom would be analogous: “You become eternally responsible for what you captivate”, as Saint-Exupéry said.

If artistic expressions arise from the senses, the legacy of civilizations arises from the hands; and how beautiful are the manifestations of peoples, how beautiful are the arts of Africa! The love and yearning for the beautiful, the love and fear of nature and the gods and the fearless appreciation of civilization were so dear to African nations that they indistinctly distributed and reputed all aspects of existence, contradictory or not, some form of artistic expression.

The arts demarcate the forms of a time. The long-term exhibition “Africa, Artistic Expressions of a Continent” thus presents one of the essential points of the transition in the development of older African arts, since their withdrawal from the continent and the subsequent decontextualization of their intrinsic meanings, seen in the modern and contemporary world from an emphasis on their artistic forms. Previously restricted to European museums as objects of so-called traditional millenary cultures, today the works bequeathed from Africa have been able to conform to today's artistic work, offering the so-called “traditional contemporary African art” to the whole world, as it is known by specialists. These works are instruments of recent and authentic modernization of African popular arts or even modern reproductions of ancient pieces destined mainly for emerging markets in the tropics.

Strengthening institutional ties, the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON) received this important donation of African works from the Ivani and Jorge Yunes Collection (CIJY). Over more than fifty years, the couple has acquired works that span five continents. This donation includes around 1700 objects from Africa: masks, statuettes, busts, miniatures, everyday objects, musical instruments and a large number of other pieces. In a positive way, they are now part of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum collection, which we congratulate for having taken this opportune step, enriching its collection and, at the same time, the entire African legacy in Paraná and Brazil. We invite everyone to take an active part in this immersion in African art, observing its forms in what they themselves may surprise and allow an equivalent enjoyment to others in the artistic universe, without watertight determinations, taking this dialogue a step further. 

From the great tree of Africa, multiple fruits and new legacies were generated. It was no coincidence that, like most sub-Saharan peoples, the Assyrians, the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, the Mayans, the Incas, the Aztecs and basically all the great civilizations developed a culture of wearing masks and made representations in sculpture . With the exhibition of objects from such different cultural heritages, we find here an important point in common: within the museum, these arts are elevated to the same artistic platform, equaling African art to the level of world art. Here is a way to honor the visual ancestry of the past and to open up the new plantings, routes and perspectives of this art in the future.

Renato Araújo da Silva
Curator and Specialist in African Art

The exhibition “Africa, Artistic Expressions of a Continent”, held by the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, presented by Copel, can be seen by the public from August 26th, in Room 4. It is an excerpt from the great donation made by the Ivani and Jorge Collection Yunes (CIJY) to MON.

"The arrival of the African art collection is part of a consolidation process of MON's frame of reference. It establishes as a differential of the institution to primarily collect Brazilian and Paraná art and expand its non-Eurocentric look to Latin American, Asian and African art," explains Juliana Vosnika, director-president of MON. "We are constantly seeking to increase the collection because that is the soul of a museum, its essence," she says.

Juliana recalls that, in 2018, MON was the museum chosen for its technical conditions, management capacity, and credibility to receive a donation of almost 3,000 works of Asian art. Donated by diplomat and professor Fausto Godoy and coming from several countries of that continent, part of the works can be seen by MON visitors in the exhibition "Asia: the Earth, the Men, the Gods" in Room 5.

The largest art museum in Latin America inbuilt area, with 35,000 square meters, MON has tripled its collection in recent years. Since it opened in 2002 and until 2015, MON had about 3,000 works of art. Today, it has more than 9,300 works in its collection.

According to the curator of the exhibition "Africa, Artistic Expressions of a Continent," Renato Araújo da Silva, the works donated to MON were acquired over more than 50 years by the couple Ivani and Jorge Yunes, owners of one of the largest art collections in Brazil.

"With the exhibition of objects from such distinct cultural heritages, we find here an important common point: within the Museum, these arts are elevated to the same artistic platform, equaling African art to the level of world art," he says. "Here is a way to honor the visual ancestry of the past and to open the new plantings, routes, and perspectives of this art in the future," comments Renato.

The exhibition includes masks, sculptures, bronze busts and heads, metal miniatures, everyday objects, and musical instruments.

The works come from countries like the Ivory Coast, Mali, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Mozambique, among others.

Renato Araújo da Silva is a historian in Philosophy from the University of São Paulo and coauthor, among other published works, of the book "Africa in Arts." Curator and researcher, he has worked at the Afro Museum and held other exhibitions in museums, such as the Sacred Art Museum of São Paulo.

"Africa, Artistic Expressions of a Continent”
Room 4

folder-africa-en.pdf

ÁFRICA - EXPRESSÕES ARTÍSTICAS DE UM CONTINENTE

The exhibition “Africa, Artistic Expressions of a Continent” is a part of the donation of approximately 1,700 pieces of contemporary African art, from the partnership between MON and the Ivani and Jorge Yunes Collection. Watch a message from the exhibition's curator, Renato Araújo, and visit Room 4 at MON. Exhibition presented by COPEL@copel_energia. #ArteAfricana#MuseuOscarNiemeyer

África, Artistic Expressions of a Continent at MON!

África, Expressões Artísticas de um Continente no MON!

África, Expressões Artísticas de Um Continente. O nascer de um novo legado para a arte, para você.  ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀  Em cartaz na Sala 4 do Museu Oscar Niemeyer.  ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀  Exposição apresentada pela COPEL @copel_energia. #MuseuOscarNiemeyer#ÁfricaNoMON

#emcartaz | África, Expressões Artísticas de Um Continente

#emcartaz | África, Expressões Artísticas de Um Continente

MON is alongside major museums in Brazil and around the world on the Google Arts & Culture platform. Visit our exhibitions in virtual format.

Learn more about this exhibition on the Google Arts & Culture platform.

Domício Pedroso's artistic career is marked by erudition and diversity: cultural animator, regional director of Funarte, exhibition photographer, curator, and, fundamentally, painter and engraver. Deep in the language of painting, a specialist in engraving, and a pioneer in artistic and commercial screen printing, he taught different techniques and worked on planning and assembling exhibitions (expography), in addition to carrying out brilliant curations.

This exhibition aims to provide a retrospective of his artistic production and his role in Brazilian cultural life. The exhibition highlights the artistic energy of paintings, drawings, and prints on themes from Seas to Favelas and Urban Agglomerates (in which the artist achieves a certain degree of abstraction). It covers his vast artistic production, from the 1950s to recent times, revealing the singularity of Domício's poetics, originally constructed in the gap between realism, cubism, and abstraction.

When he reached abstraction, he revealed himself to be a strongly intuitive artist. Intuition is not a mystical force but a work that does not dispense with reason; it is a constructive work. It is a deep way of seeing and perceiving, in which the eye is already spirited. Boats, houses, townhouses, overlapping houses, tangled surfaces of the roofs of shacks and slums, urban agglomerations... Forms that attracted the painter so much and that equally fascinate us.

His painting emerges from the great debate between figuration and abstraction in the 1960s and 1970s. He believed that all experiences and visions were reminiscent of reality. Starting from the most conventional, objective, realistic landscape, the artist simplifies and geometrizes until he creates images—or suggestions of images—that call for the observer's interpretation. Eliminating the lines of flight from a central perspective, he seeks the spatial structuring of the fabric of cities, giving rise to all of his poetics. From this personal look, the artist extends his vision to universal beauty.

Like every imaginative artist, Domício is a great traveler, both in the real and in the imaginary dimension. From the boats and sloops of Bahia to the gondolas of Venice and the old fishing boats of Volendam, the artist travels through Brazilian landscapes—the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, the shacks and settlements of Curitiba, the festival of colors in the stained glass windows of Chartres and Paris—through so many streets in so many places, giving rise to various imaginations. The artist invites us on deep journeys in the joy of discovering new worlds through the charm of ar

Self-portraits are always a conversation with intimacy. We find in Domício's self-portraits a certain detachment, someone who does not expose himself, a certain proximity to Cézanne's impersonality. But we also find, in portraits of him painted by other artists, different ways of trying to understand him: absorbed in De Bona, lyrical in Massuda, reserved in Wollerman, Cézannian in Wong. A difficult soul to reach. A deeply enigmatic man.

“Domício Pedroso, a Tessitura Urbana como Poesia” (“Domício Pedroso, Urban Texture as Poetry”) is the new exhibition at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum. Curated by Fernando Bini and Maria José Justino, the exhibition displays around 85 works, which present a sample of the Curitiba artist's vast production. The exhibition is in Room 7.
The exhibition is divided into four sections: “Paris e Viagens, as Marinhas” (“Paris and Travel, the Seas”),  “Autorretratos e Retratos” (“Self-Portraits and Portraits”), “Casarios e Favelas” (“Townhouses and Favelas”) and “Nova Figuração: Caminhos para a Abstração” (“New Figuration: Paths to Abstraction”). The works present an enormous diversity of techniques, such as oil on canvas, plate, and paper; silkscreen, Chinese ink on paper, and acrylic on canvas.

On view exhibition

German Lorca

Tracks and Traces

Alex Flemming

The Garden

SEE WHAT'S ON

Receive news

Oscar Niemeyer Museum

Tickets