Di Cavalcanti: 9 works to understand or artist

Di Cavalcanti (1897-1976), whose name was Emiliano Augusto Cavalcanti from Albuquerque e Melo, was an artist of Brazilian modernism who portrayed culture and everyday life.

Mixing innovative references from leading-edge European art, Di Cavalcanti is seen as one of two great names in national painting.

He also carried out works of illustration, caricature and cenography, as well as work, not daily work.

1. Catalog and letter Modern Art Week (1922)

Di Cavalcanti was the artist who illustrated the letter in the catalog of the Modern Art Week, held in the Municipal Theater of São Paulo, in February 1922.

Seen as a framework for Brazilian art and culture, or an event that presents an innovative artistic production on a national territory and was idealized by Di Cavalcanti.

Foi ele um two main organizers of the Week, also holding an exhibition with 12 works on occasion.

Or catalog draw an image in preto with woodcut aesthetics. We can see this in the beginning of the name of the artist D.C. A handwriting is displayed incomum, as it is possible to perceive the word "catalog", since the last letters are reduced I do not sing directly.

Já o cartaz presents a fairly simple design of a growing tree with apparent roots, suggesting the beginning of a nova way of thinking about Brazilian culture.

2. Pierrete (1922)

Pierrete It is a painting by Di Cavalcanti feita also in 1922. Nela is displayed as a figure of a girl fantasized in the "pierrot" style, to jump or carnival.

The canvas belongs to the first modernist period and was made with an oil ink technique, having dimensions of 78 x 65 cm.

Here, to lyrical atmosphere It is evidenced by the presence of the feminine figure, which exhibits a languid expression and body movement suggesting a step of dance, as it is elapsed to flutter.

It has also happened that I will go to her direction and part of a glass of flowers I do not sing directly from the cloth, which contributes to the poetic and delicate dinner.

Note-the fabric also has sinuous lines and characteristic elements of Art Nouveu, such as a large spiral in the foreground.

3. Samba (1925)

Samba é o nome dessa painting from 1925. For this reason, Di Cavalcanti returned from a stay in Europe, where he lived for 2 years and I contacted you with great names of artistic vanguard, such as Picasso, Georges Braque, Léger and Matisse.

Assim, it is possible to notice nessa work marked modern characteristics as a profusion of cores e or use of cylindrical shapes to build the corpos two personagens.

In the meantime, as he was his own two Brazilian modernists, or an artist faced here a mix of two references to the reality of nosso povo, exploring or samba, a sensuality da woman and a boemia.

4. Five girls from Guaratinguetá (1930)

Em Five girls from Guaratinguetá, from 1930, or artist once more explicitly influenced by movements such as cubism and fauvism.

Two artists strongly inspired by Di Cavalcanti was Pablo Picasso. Nessa's work notes the connection between these two painters through the manner of the girls portrayed, as voluminous bodies and simple and stylized shapes.

The color palette varies between warm and earthy tons, albeit blue. The style of roupas das mulheres allows us to deduce at the time that the cloth was painted, pois é um figurine quite characteristic of the 30s.

5. Mulheres with fruits (1932)

Em Mulheres with fruits, Di Cavalcanti exhibits two recumbent girls, in a dinner that suggests a picnic. There is a basket of fruits and flowers made up of the landscape.

Tons used by painter hair are soft roses in the forms presented are curved. There has also been work to cubist influence, noted through the manner as the artist built or drawn, with traços bem delimited.

A representation of the woman and a theme that permeates the work of Di Calvalcanti. A woman, especially the fruit of mixed races, and displayed in a poetic and sensual manner.

6. Portrait of Noêmia (1936)

In 1936, Di Cavalcanti produced Portrait of Noêmia, where Noêmia Mourão appears, a painter who was born to him and how he married in 1933.

Nessa works and it is possible to notice influence of the expressionist movement, through the vermelha dress and the inquisitive posture of the woman, tracing a dramatic olhar to dinner.

7. Mulheres Protesting (1941)

Mulheres protesting It is a composition that reveals the political face of the artist. In 1928, Di Cavalcanti joined the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) and intensified its olhar on social causes, or that I will reflect on all of your production.

Also, this cloth or painter traced feminine indignation as a theme, evidencing that women were also shown in other painter hair, not just in their beauty and sensuality.

No one knows for sure that you are the women of Di protestavam. Perhaps there was a feminist manifestation, given that in the 1940s there was still much to do for a greater reconstitution of the role of women in society.

In pictorial terms, the painting portrays a major concern of the artist in transmitting an idea and an artistic gesture. Second or art critic Mário Schenberg:

Fazia, for example, is a square purposely 'killed' in that in the end it was not a square, it was or a gesture; This importance of gesture to his activity is closely related to certain aspects of conceitual art.

8. Negreiro ship (1961)

Or large mural Negreiro ship It was painted in 1961. The work is a triptych (composed of 3 parts), with dimensions of 4 x 6 meters and is printed with oil ink.

Or work is the fruit of influences, no mexican muralism produced by artists Diego Rivera, Orozco and Siqueiros. Nesse style são feitas monumental works portraying social themes and luta do povo por liberdade.

Here, it is possible to see a ship tracing people from Africa to be screened in Brazil. O cenário is of an intense color and traces various icons of Brazil, such as tropical vegetation and povo.

A curiosity is that this composition was created for 25 years located in the Museu de Belas Artes do Rio de Janeiro, in 2019 I was withdrawn from the premises to become the owner and join the collection of the Bank J. P. Morgan.

9. Popular dance (1972)

Popular dance It was born in the last decade of the artist's life, in the 70's. A fabric, quite colorful as is characteristic of its production of it, exhibits um genuinely brazilian theme: to music and to dance.

Here, o povo negro is portrayed in a festive manner. A woman is placed one more time in a voluptuous and attractive way.

These approaches are always present in his work, contributing to the formation of a visual group of Brazil between the years 20 and 70.

Di Cavalcanti produced intensively, he died in 1976, not on the 26th of October, at the age of 79 due to complications from health.

Di Cavalcanti's legacy

The artist entered the Brazilian art history as a respectable name, leaving a legacy important, as it is possible to verify through the art critic and filmmaker Olívio Tavares de Araújo:

He tinha prazer how he painted and did not worry about reaching his first work each time; I basically wanted to express myself. In our 20s and 30s, his production is more homogeneous; Nos 40 and 50, emergem numerous and famous magistrais works; two 60 em diante, they became rarity.
Despite disso, Emiliano Di Cavalcanti will remain forever as one of the two greatest Brazilian painters, and who has captured a certain side of the country: either loving, or sensual. The long predominance of the human figure in his art is also a manifestation of his essential humanism. The same humanism that has become an individual gives rise to, but is not exactly a partisan activist. Like Segall, Ismael Nery e Portinari, Di fez do homem or object of his attention.

You can also be interested:

• Modern Art
• Important artists of Modern Art Week