Modern art from Brazil at the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern
Published: Saturday, Sep 7th 2024, 10:20
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The Zentrum Paul Klee (ZPK) in Bern is currently exhibiting Brazilian modernism through ten artists rarely shown in Europe. In the first half of the 20th century, artists in Brazil sought their own modern artistic expression.
Until 5 January 2025, 130 works will transport visitors to a world shaped by Cubism, declined in a Brazilian way, between warm colors and indigenous culture. Ten artists have been selected to offer the broadest possible spectrum of Brazilian modernism, explains the curator of the exhibition, Fabienne Eggelhöfer.
The exhibition "Brasil! Brasil! Awakening to Modernity" offers for the first time in Switzerland a comprehensive overview of modern Brazilian art with artists from the first half of the 20th century. The pictures on display mix colorful landscapes and lush vegetation with portraits and some more abstract paintings.
Established and unknown artists
Half of the ten exhibited painters have a firm place within Brazilian modernism. They came from wealthy families and were involved with the European avant-garde in the first decades of the 20th century, e.g. Anita Malfatti in Berlin or Tarsila do Amaral and Vicente do Rego Monteiro in Paris.
Lasar Segall and Candido Portinari also studied in Europe. Influenced by expressionist, futurist and cubist movements, these artists developed their own artistic language, referencing the nature of the Amazon and Afro-Brazilian cultures.
Other self-taught artists lived in the shadows for a long time, painting everyday life and folk festivals in dazzling colors. The painter of indigenous descent Djanira da Motta e Silva is perhaps the most representative representative, as her works are close to the little people on coffee plantations and folk festivals.
©Keystone/SDA
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