At the age of 22, José Antonio da Silva moved to São José do Rio Preto, in the interior of São Paulo. In 1946 he participated in the inaugural exhibition of the Casa de Cultura, a cultural space that was later named after him—the Museu de Arte Primitivista José Antônio da Silva. As a self-taught artist, da Silva’s work was often considered primitive or naïve. These designations reflect an elitist and reductionist perspective according to which artworks created by artists without formal training, or artworks that didn’t follow styles accepted by art academies, were considered minor. Works by José Antônio da Silva received awards at the 1st Bienal de São Paulo (1951) and were exhibited at the 33rd Venice Biennale (1966). Early in his practice, the artist created self-portraits and religious scenes. In the 1940s he began to focus on themes related to the countryside—farming, animals, workers, houses—and cotton
plantations in particular, two of them in MASP’s collection. From the 1970s on, his landscapes became increasingly abstract, such as Lindo lindo lindo [Beautiful Beautiful Beautiful]. With the horizon line at the top of the canvas, a path opens in the middle of the green area, dividing the composition into
two parts. Lines formed by white dots become increasingly dense as they converge at the top of the canvas, where clouds occupy the horizon line. This convergence creates an effect of depth and suggests a relationship between the clouds and the cotton plants: one begins where the other ends. The title seems to reflect the artist’s admiration for the extraordinary character of this landscape: “beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.”
— Adriano Pedrosa; Olivia Ardui