Research Catalog

Alfredo Volpi, between the modern and the popular

Title

Alfredo Volpi, between the modern and the popular / edited by Adriano Pedrosa, Tomás Toledo ; curated by Tomás Toledo.

Publication

São Paulo, Brazil : MASP, Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, [2022]
©2022

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Use in library	ND359.V64 A4 2022g	Off-site

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Description

248 pages : illustrations (chiefly color); 28 cm

Summary

"This book covers five decades of Alfredo Volpi's (Lucca, Italy, 1896 - São Paulo, 1988) prolific career as a painter, a pivotal figure in the history of Brazilian and Latin American art in the twentieth century. Known for his paintings of little flags and geometric façades, Volpi developed a strong interest in Brazilian popular culture themes, images, and narratives, something he incorporated into his works throughout his trajectory. This is the framework of this monograph, which accompanies the exhibition of the same title at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (MASP), as its title indicates: Alfredo Volpi: Between the Modern and the Popular. As a child, Volpi migrated with his family from Italy to São Paulo. Coming from humble origins, he worked in construction, specializing in decorative wall painting. Self-taught, he began to paint in 1911, producing urban, rural, and coastal landscapes, as well as portraits. His interest in popular culture emerges in his work in the 1940s, when he began to produce religious portraits, representations of popular festivities, and his iconic flags and façades of Brazilian vernacular and colonial architecture. From that period on, his paintings became increasingly geometricized, marked by an exceptional use of color, a subtle brushstroke, and the unique texture of his tempera. After all, his painting increasingly moved towards formal synthesis, flirting with geometric abstraction, without ever losing interest in popular culture and figuration. Fully illustrated, this publication includes seven new texts written by Brazilian and American specialists, as well as two historical interviews with the artist. This is an essential book for anyone who wants to know or delve into Alfredo Volpi's work, as well as for those interested in geometric abstraction and the intersections between popular culture and Modernism in Latin America." --
A fresh view of the acclaimed Brazilian modernist painter through the lens of arte popular Italian-Brazilian artist Alfredo Volpi (18961988) was a central figure of Brazilian art in the 20th century. His painting is influenced by both modern and customary traditions, including handcraft, popular parties, religious themes and the facades of Brazilian colonial and vernacular architecture. With a panoramic perspective, this exhibition covers five decades of the career by Alfredo Volpi (Lucca, Italy, 1896 - São Paulo, 1988) and has as a framework the continuous interest of the artist for images, narratives and characters of Brazilian popular culture. With 96 paintings, the exhibition was organized into seven non-chronological thematic nuclei: Saints and saints; Portraits; Navies; Nautical and recreational themes; Urban and rural scenes; Facades; and Bandeirinhas and masts. Volpi popular integrates the biennium of MASP programming dedicated to Brazilian Stories, in 2021-22, on the occasion of the bicentenary of Brazil's independence in 2022.

Uniform Title

Volpi popular. English.

Subject

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Exhibition catalogs.

Note

Published on the occasion of the exhibition held at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, MASP from February 25 to June 30, 2022.

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (pages 242-248).

Language (note)

Translated from Portuguese.

Contents

Alfredo Volpi at MASP / Adriano Pedrosa and Heitor Martins -- Popular Volpi / Tomás Toledo -- 'Strange navigation indeed!': Following the siren, following lemanjá / Kaira M. Cabañas -- Volpi-popular: Communication-irritation in Brazil / Antonio Brasil Jr. -- Volpi's secret arcadias / Sônia Salzstein -- Scenes without characters / Nathaniel Wolfson -- 'Our common citizen': Alfredo Volpi's outsider status / Adele Nelson -- Memories of Volpi / Aracy Amaral -- Reproduction of works -- Interviews / Mário Pedrosa, Walmir Ayala.

ISBN

6557770217
9786557770214

OCLC

on1338256559
1338256559
SCSB-14540941

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries