MASP

Liane Chammas did not have a formal or academic artistic education, nor was part of artists’ collectives or studios. She started to paint in 1966, initially portraying landscapes. Her first exhibition was held in 1969 at Clube Atlético Monte Líbano, Rio de Janeiro. Between 1970 and 1973, she started the research that would result in the series Nossos mitos, nossa gente, nossa terra, nosso amor [Our myths, our people, our land, our love], of 1975. Still that same year, she integrated the 13th São Paulo Bienal and made a solo exhibition at Galeria Canadá, also in São Paulo. Chammas was interested in Brazilian popular and massive culture; she portrayed from anonymous children to media idols, like Pelé (1940) or Chacrinha (1917-1988), a comedian and TV personality. In the painting Christiane and Anabelle, the two girls with doll-like aspect play together in front of a mirror. The white girl combs the hair of the black one, thus inverting the relation the European colonization established with the African population.

— MASP Curatorial Team, 2017

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