José Antonio da Silva was a self-taught artist. At the age of 22 he moved to São José do Rio Preto, in the interior of São Paulo state. There he participated in the inaugural exhibition of the city’s Casa de Cultura, in 1946, a space that today bears his name—Museu de Arte Primitivista José Antonio da Silva. Pietro Maria Bardi (1900–1999), the founding director of MASP, saw his work at an exhibition at Galeria Domus, where he acquired artworks for the museum’s collection. José Antonio da Silva’s paintings won awards at the 1st Bienal de São Paulo (1951) and took part in the 33rd Venice Biennale (1966). Although Silva also painted self-portraits and religious scenes, his major themes are related to the countryside—farming, animals, workers, and houses, often inserted in the landscape. In Colheita de algodão, six characters in the foreground are working as though they were on a theater stage, arranging the piles of cotton. In the background, the white of the plantation is laid out in diagonals that extend to the horizon, fading into the sky. The greater part of the scene is occupied by the cotton crop and dry trees; the work in the countryside seems to oppress the horizons.
— MASP Curatorial Team, 2015
