Global InformationPainting in Rio Grande do Sul information
Painting in Rio Grande do Sul, as an independent art, developed at the end of the 19th century. It originated in the port cities of Porto Alegre, Pelotas and Rio Grande. The first evidence of pictorial art in Rio Grande do Sul appeared as decoration for religious temples, public buildings and palaces.[1]
Until the beginning of the 19th century, Rio Grande do Sul was an area still in the process of settlement with ill-defined borders and an incipient culture. The most significant cultural episode occurred between the 17th and 18th centuries during the Jesuit Missions in the northwest of the state, at the time under Spanish possession. The different political and military turbulences throughout the 18th and 19th centuries hindered the locals from having enough time, resources and educational bases to develop their culture.[1]
In the 1920s, modernism began to spread, clashing with academic tradition and conservative cultural sectors, and triggering a public controversy that lasted until the 1950s. At the same time, especially through the actions of the Institute of Fine Arts, painting as an autonomous artistic genre become established and prestigious. The market developed, researchers and critics multiplied, updates from abroad were increasingly incorporated and an original character for southern production emerged for the first time. Between the 1960s and 1970s, painting in Rio Grande do Sul entered a crisis. New aesthetics emerged, such as pop art and the new figuration. Other avant-gardes that questioned the primacy of painting and the concept of a work of art also appeared. They focused on the idea, the creative process and the hybridization of different techniques and materials used in unusual combinations.[1]
In the 1980s, painting in Rio Grande do Sul made a significant comeback, revisiting the past critically while globalizing and consecrating plurality as the typical current language. By the end of the 20th century, it had become a national reference, following national and international trends. At the same time, important artists remained unmoved by the appeals of regionalism and focused on the mythical figure of the gaucho and on historical scenes and characters. Rio Grande do Sul developed a vast and richly diversified collection of paintings, a public to appreciate them and a large group of institutions capable of studying, preserving and exhibiting them. Porto Alegre remains the most important center, while amateur painting flourishes in the countryside. There is a large bibliography on specific aspects of painting in Rio Grande do Sul, but general studies are still lacking.[1][2]
- ^ a b c d Bohns, Neiva Maria (2005). "Continente Improvável: Artes Visuais no Rio Grande do Sul do final do século XIX a meados do século XX" (PDF). UFRGS.
- ^ Silveira, Verli Fátima (2004). "Imaginário sobre o gaúcho no discurso literário: da representação do mito em Contos Gauchescos, de João Simõe Lopes Neto, à desmitificação em Porteira Fechada, de Cyro Martins" (PDF). UFRGS.