Cândido Portinari (1903-1962)

oil on canvas

Acquired from the artist
Thence by descent

New York, The Museum of Modern Art, 1940; Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts, August 16-September 30, 1940, Portinari of Brazil, no. 29
Newport News, Hampton Woman's Club, National Art Week, November 23, 1941, no. 42, illustrated

Rockwell Kent, Portinari his Life and Art, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1940, n.n., illustrated
Cândido Portinari, Catalogue Raisonné, Volume II, 1939-1944, Rio de Janeiro, Projeto Portinari, 2003-2004, no. 1246, p. 152, illustrated

After his murals in Brazil’s pavilion at the 1939 World’s Fair caused a sensation, Cândido Portinari burst onto the international art scene with one person exhibitions at the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1940. He continued on to a brilliant career as one of Brazil’s most international artists, representing his country in the 1950 and 1954 Venice Biennials, executing murals in Brazil,  notably the church of Sao Francisco de Assis in Belo Horizonte and the Banco do Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. In the United States, his murals can be seen at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. and the United Nations in New York.

Mexerico (The Gossip) 1939, has not been seen on the international market since the 1940 Museum of Modern Art exhibition.