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knowledge and wisdom away from the artist; trying to write a chapter, an article, on these I was a partner, lef me traumatized,” he
it is as if knowledge were something only themes. That’s why the texts [presented says. “My initial idea was to just leave my
academic or bookish – rather than the at the exhibition] are very important collection exposed to the public. As time
Bienal de São Paulo. Today he is one of to accompany not only what is being went by, I saw that it wouldn’t work, because
the few contemporary Brazilian artists who exhibited. They are a discourse, a political people wanted to buy it, but I said I wouldn’t
are in major museums around the world and ideological position on issues that are sell it. And there were many artists still alive
such as Moma. Precisely because the very important”, he says. “And this period of who depended on me. So I decided to open
world is changing. The concepts are being the Bienal is a more than perfect moment, the gallery.”
transformed, as well as the historiography because there is a very big confluence. It is Around 2005 6 we started to have a good
of art, not only in Brazil, but worldwide”. no wonder that the Bienal de São Paulo, in art show at the Brazilian Art Market, which
this edition, is more black, made not only by was finally something new. Finally, the
modernists, lina E abdias artists, but also by black curators”. opening of Spa. Expert gained a rhythm
Heráclito considers that the “clash of later with the international shows, etc., as
popular art as an identity art in Brazil” would VILMA EID, A PATRON OF was the reception of the station, the arrival of
have been inaugurated, in a way, by the BRAZILIAN POPULAR ART the station with its proposal in 2004, it was
modernists. “There were two modernist not a good era of admiration for the space,
projects that stood out in that period: by eduardo simões people who came here came because they
the southeastern one, around Mário de had heard saying that it had a very beautiful
Andrade, anthropophagy, etc., and the whenever vilma’s eid birthday space, but they didn’t ask, that’s the state’s
northeastern one, around Gilberto Freyre, approached, her mother used to present responsibility, it’s the city’s responsibility.
with the regionalist movement”, he recalls. her daughter with a work of art, whether it At the time of the opening, Vilma says
“These two projects are very different, but was a painting or a sculpture. At the age that the reception of her gallery in the
they had something in common, which was of 21, already married, her mother took her Brazilian art market was not good. People
to think of popular culture as the identity of to Cosme Velho Galeria de Arte, owned by who came here asked me if it was a state
Brazilian art, since in the xnumxth century art dealer Cesar Luiz Pires de Mello. Vilma or city hall exhibition space, they thought it
all Brazilian art production was a copy of remembers that there were entire walls was something institutional, museological”,
Europe. But the modernists were still going full of paintings, with dark lighting. This says the gallerist. “It took a lot of pressure,
to establish a dichotomy between the art of did not stop her from fixing her gaze on including from friends like Marcelo Araújo
the people, primitive, self-taught, and the one of the paintings that, she recognizes, and Ivo Mesquita, for market acceptance.”
art of the elite, academic or more avant- marked a breaking point in her relationship Over these decades, Vilma recognizes
garde art”. with the arts. that she did a “great job” for the recognition
According to the curator, between these “I saw a grass with two little oxen. My eye of so-called popular art. “It was water on
two modernist poles, Lina Bo Bardi (1914- was glued to it. I didn’t know it was by José hard stone that hits it until it pierces. There
1992) and Abdias do Nascimento (1914- Antônio da Silva [1909-1996]”, says Vilma. was a lot of rejection, because there was
2011) were fundamental in his struggle “to “But I wanted that work, and both my mother confusion about what was art and what was
dismantle, dissolve this dichotomy between and the gallery owner advised me against craf smanship,” she says. Her work, however,
the erudite and the popular”, something it, saying that the artist was a primitivist, has had an impact over the years, not only
that seeks to reverberate in Reverse and that we don’t know if it will lead to anything. among collectors, but also institutions, such
Transverse. For Heráclito, Lina was very ‘Choose something more modern,’ they said. as Masp.
important because she began to think about And I ended up choosing another work.” “It was an epiphany, which can also be
the exhibition spaces in an immersive way The painting with grass and oxen, however, seen today in the Pinacoteca’s programming.
and to reflect, above all, on the Afro question, never lef Vilma’s memory. In the 1980s, she And outside Brazil there was a turning point,
the indigenous question and the formation learned that José Antônio da Silva lived in in 2012, when the Cartier Foundation, in
of Brazilian culture itself. São Paulo, in Vila Mariana, and wanted to Paris, held an exhibition with so-called
“And this is a culture that is built from meet him. “He was very prestigious during popular artists. Hervé Chander, director
dialogues, from negotiations between all his lifetime, he participated in 17 biennials of the institution, not only takes ten artists
this diversity that is Brazil. But Lina starts around the world, six of them the São Paulo from the Station to the exhibition, but
to build all this sense in a non-hierarchical Biennial”, says the gallerist. “I always say also acquires works for the Foundation’s
way, she puts everything on the same that he was the one who put me in this life. collection”.
level. A sculpture of Aleijadinho with an When people tell me that I chose this niche, There is no shortage of reasons to
iron from a saint maker, like José Adário I say that I didn’t choose any niche. It was celebrate Vilma Eid’s trajectory and the
(1947). A frown by Mestre Guarany with a a despair.” events of this year and next year. Brazilian
painting by Portinari (1903-1962) or Djanira At the time, Vilma Eid was a partner in a popular art thanks you.
(1914-1979)”, she says. gallery opened in 1986, but she was already
Abdias do Nascimento, on the other active in the art market as an independent exhibition são paulo [pages 48 to 53]
hand, emphasizes the curator, promoted dealer, a trajectory that in 2023 celebrates
an important reflection in his training: those 40 years. While her Galeria Estação was MARTA MINUJÍN LIVE
popular artists, said to be primitive, were opened in 2004, after she gathered a AND IN FULL COLOR
treated that way because they were black. consistent collection, purchasing many Pinacoteca Luz houses the largest
“He also taught me that within the history works on trips throughout Brazil. In 2024, the panoramic view ever made of the Argentine
of Brazilian art there is structural racism. gallery completes two decades of activity. artist, with emblematic works specially
And thinking about this structural racism, “At that moment, however, I wasn’t recreated for the show
misogyny, gender and social issues is thinking about opening another gallery, by leonor amarante
fundamental for me to design the new paths because the confiscation of the Collor
of the history of Brazilian art ”, he argues. Government’s savings, which had affected the transformative dimension of art
“What we are doing with this exhibition is the business of the previous gallery, of which creates characters that stand out from
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