Candido Portinari

Cândido Portinari was a Brazilian painter and muralist who is considered one of the most important and influential artists of the 20th century in Brazil. He was born in a coffee plantation near Brodowski, in São Paulo, to Italian immigrant parents. He showed an early talent for drawing and painting, and studied at the National School of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro. In 1928, he won a prize that allowed him to travel to Europe for three years, where he was exposed to the modernist movements of Cubism and Surrealism. He returned to Brazil in 1931, determined to portray the reality of his country, from its natural beauties to the harsh lives of the poor and oppressed. He developed a style that combined academic realism with expressionist elements, creating powerful and original images that reflected his social and political concerns. He painted scenes of rural and urban life, workers, migrants, children, historical events, and religious themes. He also executed several mural commissions, such as the Ministry of Education and Health in Rio de Janeiro, the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and the United Nations Headquarters in New York. His most famous mural project, Guerra e Paz (War and Peace), consists of two panels that depict the horrors of war and the hopes for peace, and was donated to the UN in 1956. Portinari was also active in the cultural and political spheres of Brazil, participating in the Modern Art Week of 1932, founding the Brazilian Communist Party in 1945, and running for senator in 1947. He was forced into exile in Uruguay in 1949, due to his communist affiliation, and returned to Brazil in 1951. He continued to paint until his death in 1962, caused by lead poisoning from his paints. He left behind a legacy of more than 5,000 works of art, which are displayed in museums and collections around the world. He is widely regarded as a national icon and a master of Brazilian art.