MASP

A member of the former Partido Comunista do Brasil (PCB) [Brazilian Communist Party] since 1928, Emiliano Di Cavalcanti defended art that was politically committed to representing and valuing labor and popular customs and subjects. He sought to develop a form of painting and themes that could construct a national pictorial identity. In Pescadores [Fishermen] (1944), Di Cavalcanti grandiosely paints the broad and solemn gestures of his subjects—who occupy most of the canvas—conferring to them a sense of importance and dignity. His paintings from the time reveal an awareness of German expressionism, especially the work of George Grosz (1883–1959), which is marked by an acidic and caricatural social criticism, as well as by bohemian themes and abstracted bodies in somber tones. In this painting, Di Cavalcanti seeks to understand a particular way of life in Brazilian society while valuing activities linked to traditional cultures. With integrity and beauty, he paints the labor of fishing, a theme that frequently appears in his work. Note the care taken to represent the result of collective work: the fish. The painting displays different patterns: the black background with brown brushstrokes, the striped pants, the geometry of the bricks, the woven baskets, the wood slatting and the fish scales—painted in bright tones of silver, yellow and green. The female worker seems to be manipulating a white fabric, which runs through the composition and protects the stand where the fish are sold.

— Guilherme Giufrida, assistant curator, MASP, 2018

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