Brasil! Brasil! The Birth of Modernism
Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern
7 September 2024 - 5 January 2025
Três orixás, 1966
Oil on canvas, 130,4 x 195,5 cm
Collection of the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo,
purchased by the Governo do Estado de São Paulo, 1969
© Instituto Pintora Djanira
Mulato II, c. 1924
Oil on canvas, 64,3 x 45,5 cm
Private collection
The 2024 Venice Biennale is linked to Brazil on several levels. The Zentrum Paul Klee is devoting to the country the large-scale exhibition Brasil! Brasil! The Birth of Modernism, which is organised in collaboration with the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
As the first curator based in the southern hemisphere, Adriano Pedrosa is curating the 60th International Art Exhibition. Pedrosa is the director of the Museu de Arte de São Paulo. It is from the holdings of this museum that the Zentrum Paul Klee is being loaned several masterpieces for its major autumn exhibition Brasil! Brasil! The Birth of Modernism. Six of the artists of whom works are being shown in the exhibition are also represented in the Biennale.
Brasil! Brasil! The Birth of Modernism is on display in Bern from 7 September 2024 to 5 January 2025. The exhibition will then travel to the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
Ascenção definitiva de Cristo, 1932
Oil on canvas, 75,5 x 62 cm
Collection of the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo,
purchased by the Governo do Estado de São Paulo, 1969
Povoação I, 1952
Oil on canvas, 75,5 x 100 cm
Private collection
© Tarsila do Amaral S/A
At the beginning of the 20th century, Brazil was a young nation in search of its own identity. The population was made up of different indigenous groups, former slaves, colonists and migrants from the whole of Europe and Japan. A great variety of cultures met in this context. Art was in a state of upheaval too, and artists were looking for their own modern artistic expressive forms. Their references were the European avant-garde – including Paul Klee – and their own indigenous and Afro-Brazilian cultures.
The exhibition at the Zentrum Paul Klee shows various ways in which Brazilian artists developed their own modern pictorial languages. Alongside works by ten artists it presents an introduction to formative political and economic events as well as milestones in the country’s literature, music, design and architecture.
Exhibited artists:
Tarsila do Amaral (1886–1973)*
Anita Malfatti (1889–1964)*
Lasar Segall (1891–1957)
Alfredo Volpi (1896–1988)*
Vicente do Rego Monteiro (1899–1970)
Flávio de Carvalho (1899–1973)
Candido Portinari (1903–1962)*
Djanira da Motta e Silva (1914–1979)*
Rubem Valentim (1922–1991)*
Geraldo de Barros (1923–1998)
* exhibited at the Venice Biennale
The exhibition is organised by the Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern in collaboration with the Royal Academy of Arts, London, where it will be on display from 28 January until 21 April 2025.
Curators: Fabienne Eggelhöfer, Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, and Roberta Saraiva Coutinho, São Paulo, with Adrian Lock, Royal Academy of Arts, London
ZENTRUM PAUL KLEE
Monument im Fruchland 3, 3006 Bern
