Page 28 - Studio International - February 1965

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many influences and nationalities have to be absorbed.
melted together. digested-in order to produce the true
contemporary painting of Brazil. But nevertheless there
are painters such as I bere Camargo, for ever searching,
expressing himself through violent brushstrokes and
almost abstract compositions. where human figures aro
beginning to reappear; Ivan Serpa, who after a long
and good constructivist period. and a short but equally
good abstract expressioni.st period, has gDne on to a
new concept of the tragic grotesque in the human
figure; Tomie Ohtake. also Japanese born. whose
severe and monumentally conceived abstractions are
winning more and more acclaim; Yolanda Mohalyi.
the prizewinner at the last Sao Paulo Biennale. with
her luminous and well-balanced abstractions; Antonio
Bandeira. who now lives in Paris. and who has become
famous for his delicate and gay oils and watercolours;
Maria Leontina and her 'Banners.' refined in colour and
in structure; Alfredo Volpi, nail and sophisticated at the
same time; Frank Schaeffer. a master of the gouache
and for ever a romantic. but also producing excellent
oils of fantastic 'Machines·; Laszlo Meitner. with
beautifully painted subdued landscapes and still-lives;
Gastao Manoel Henrique. whose compositions in wood
and metal. of a frequently colonial inspiration.are some­
times a mixture between sculpture and painting;
Benjamin Silva and his exuberant and rich abstract
expressionism; Sergio Campos Mello and his delicate
colour transparencies; Paulo Becker. with a sure sense
of colour and composition; Hercules Barsotti and
Willys de Castro. the last good practitioners of geometric
constructivism; Arcangelo lanelli. whose paintings are
rich in texture. and who with a limited number of
colours and shapes succeeds in giving his canvases a
monumental feeling; his younger brother Thomaz
lanelli. whose delicate and transparent landscapes and
still-lives have an almost childlike simplicity; Djanira.
whose very direct approach to painting and subject
gives her canvases an almost primitive strength. There
are many others of course. it would be impossible to
mention them all by name. There is certainly no lack of
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