Exposições realizadas

Exposições itinerantes realizadas

As soon as I arrived in Tokyo, in 2001, I became interested in some dolls that were sold at the city's antique fairs, sometimes outdoors. Ningyo means "human form": nin (human, people) and gyo (form). In Japan, these dolls have a wider function than just toys. They are a celebration of childhood and the crucible of parents' hope for a harmonious, successful life for their children.

They are not suitable for playing and are not part of the children's playful universe. They are, rather, fetishes loaded with symbolism. They are displayed for around 15 days, on specific dates – Girls' Day and Boys' Day – and then collected, carefully stored in boxes, and passed from generation to generation. Sometimes they are discarded forever, especially those that did not achieve what was desired, as it is believed that they have accumulated negative energy.

Some are offered when a newborn is visited and represent emperors and empresses, beautiful young women, samurai Noh characters, benevolent entities, healthy babies, in other words, a whole range of individualities that reveal the deepest ideals of the Japanese collective (un)conscious.

The objects presented here have spanned the last 200 years of Japan and show a little explored, but extremely rich, aspect of the Japanese soul and culture.

Fausto Godoy – Donor of the Asian Collection

 Paper has always been one of the preferred supports for Asian civilizations. There are a few older works on another type of support – silk, in China, is one of them. Several types of vegetables are used to manufacture paper. In Japan, most pastes are made from washi, composed of fibers from shrubs native to the region – kozo (Broussonetia papyrifera), gampi, and mitsumata (Edgeworthia chrysantha) –, whose production continues to this day, using ancient techniques.

Washi was considered an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO. Paper is a natural support for the ukyo-e, in literal translation, "portraits of the floating world". This is a genre of wood engraving that prospered in Japan between the 17th and 19th centuries. Initially, it was intended for consumption by the merchant class of the Edo period (1603-1867), who sought entertainment in kabuki theaters and in the Yoshiwara region, in Tokyo, where the geishas and courtesans lived. The term ukiyo ("floating world") described the hedonistic lifestyle of that era. But wood engraving was also intended to portray heroes and their deeds, in addition to the wars in which the Japanese empire was involved at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th.

Fausto Godoy – Donor of the Asian Collection 

The traveling exhibition “Japanese Art in the MON Collection” held by the Oscar Niemeyer Museum takes a section of the Asian collection that belongs to the institution to the Japanese Immigration Memorial of Assaí, in the north of the state. This place has a large Japanese community directly linked to the colonization and history of this city.

The exhibition presents a part of the collection of traditional Japanese Ningyos dolls, as well as masks, wood engravings, and utensils, such as trays and vessels. The exhibition has 63 works of art that are part of the Asian art collection comprising more than three thousand pieces donated to MON in 2018 by Ambassador Fausto Godoy. 

Once again, the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON) exceeds the limits of its walls, democratizing access to its collection and reaching even larger audiences. With the exhibition “Japanese Art in the MON Collection”, an excerpt from the Asian collection, MON pays homage to the immense Japanese community of Assaí, which is directly linked to the colonization of the city and which builds its history. 

It is important to highlight that this would not be possible without the special focus that the State of Paraná, especially through the Secretariat of Culture, has dedicated to this important sector, always prioritizing the decentralization of the arts so that it reaches all audiences. This is attentive and sensitive management, which believes in the transformative role of culture. 

The moment is especially important for MON, which today is part of the list of great international museums. The size and relevance of its collection, which increased fivefold in recent years and became more comprehensive, were fundamental in this trajectory, in which the importance of the Asian art collection is immense, with almost 3 thousand works, donated to MON by diplomat Fausto Godoy. 

The exhibition presented here is part of this collection that, due to its size and grandeur, constantly surprises us with works that have never been exhibited before. Disputed by other institutions in Brazil and by collectors abroad, the Asian collection that belongs to MON and the people of Paraná – allows for countless readings and approaches. 

MON's main proposal with roaming is to facilitate dialogues between cultures and territories through art. The exhibition instigates and demonstrates that multiple and transversal knowledge crosses cultures, territories, and eras.   

Director-president of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum

Cena da guerra sino-japonesa, 1894-1895
Japão
Xilogravura
50,5 x 90 x 2 cm
Acervo Museu Oscar Niemeyer - Coleção Asiática

Sem título (Shi Shi - Ningyo), Era Meiji (1867-1812)
Madeira, metal, algodão, casca de ovo, cabelo e policromia
14 x 17 x 15,5 cm
Acervo Museu Oscar Niemeyer - Coleção Asiática

Japanese Immigration Memorial
Av. Rio de Janeiro, 720 — Assaí/PR
Monday to Friday from 8:00 am to 11:30 am - 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm

MON takes Asian collection to the north of Paraná

The Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON) promotes the traveling exhibition “Japanese Art in the MON Collection”, with part of the Asian collection belonging to the institution. The opening will be on May 16th, at the Japanese Immigration Memorial of Assaí, in the north of the state. This place has a large Japanese community directly linked to the colonization and history of this city.

The exhibition presents a part of the collection of traditional Japanese Ningyos dolls, as well as masks, wood engravings, and utensils, such as trays and vessels. The exhibition has 63 works of art that are part of the Asian art collection comprising more than three thousand pieces donated to MON in 2018 by Ambassador Fausto Godoy.

“The Oscar Niemeyer Museum remains firm in its mission to promote broad access to culture and decentralization of art by the State, a fundamental guideline of our management at the State Secretariat for Culture and Government of Paraná”, states Luciana Casagrande Pereira, Secretary of State for Culture. “It is a great joy to see the touring project of MON's beautiful Asian collection arrive in Assaí, a city that has a massive presence of Japanese descendants, connecting art, history, and cultural identity", she says.

Juliana Vosnika, the Director-president of the Museum, comments that the magnificent Asian collection, which today belongs to the MON and the people of Paraná, was competed for by other institutions in Brazil and by collectors from abroad.

“With this exhibition, the Oscar Niemeyer Museum goes beyond the limits of its walls, democratizing access to its collection and reaching even larger audiences”, she says. “It is important to highlight that this would not be possible without the special attention that the State of Paraná, especially through the Secretariat of Culture, has dedicated to this important sector, always prioritizing the decentralization of the arts so that it reaches all audiences”, declares Juliana.

She also comments that MON's main proposal for itinerancy is to facilitate dialogues between cultures and territories through art. “The exhibition instigates and demonstrates that multiple and transversal knowledge crosses cultures, territories, and eras”. 

Traditionally, Ningyos are auspicious gifts to wish longevity, health, and fertility to newborn babies. Families also display them on special dates, and they are assigned the mission of protecting and purifying the homes that receive them.

The meaning of the word Ningyo is “human form”: nin (human, people) and gyo (form). “These objects presented here have spanned the last 200 years of Japan and show a little explored, but extremely rich, aspect of the Japanese soul and culture”, comments Fausto Godoy, donor of the collection to MON and curator of the exhibition.

The traveling exhibition “Japanese Art in the MON Collection” held by the Oscar Niemeyer Museum takes a section of the Asian collection that belongs to the institution to the Japanese Immigration Memorial of Assaí, in the north of the state. This place has a large Japanese community directly linked to the colonization and history of this city.

The exhibition presents a part of the collection of traditional Japanese Ningyos dolls, as well as masks, wood engravings, and utensils, such as trays and vessels. The exhibition has 63 works of art that are part of the Asian art collection comprising more than three thousand pieces donated to MON in 2018 by Ambassador Fausto Godoy.

Japanese Art in the MON Collection

The ancient metaphor of the power of trees has never been as appropriate as when associated with the enduring connections to our Mother Africa. If we then think of the metaphors of the gigantic baobab trees, from the severe historical references associated with slavery by the 'Tree of Forgetfulness' to the gentler ones by the famous tree from The Little Prince, the lessons learned would be analogous: 'You become eternally responsible for what you have tamed,' as Saint-Exupéry said.

Strengthening institutional bonds, the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON) received this important donation of African works from the Ivani and Jorge Yunes Collection (CIJY). Over more than 50 years, the couple acquired works that span five continents. From Africa, 1,700 objects were donated to the Oscar Niemeyer Museum's collection, which we congratulate for taking this timely step, enriching its collection and, at the same time, the entire African legacy in Paraná and Brazil.

With the exhibition of objects from such distinct cultural heritages, we find an important common point here: within the Museum, these arts are elevated to the same artistic platform, equating African art with the level of world art. This is a way of honoring the visual ancestry of the past and opening new plantings, routes, and perspectives for this art in the future.

Renato Araújo da Silva
Curator and specialist in African Art

The Government of the State of Paraná is proud to strive to maintain cultural institutions such as the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, one of the most important museum entities in the world. But we also understand that cultural policies must promote and encourage the democratization of art and culture for all people. 

The extension of the MON collection to Cascavel, an important city in the West that leads a region with 54 municipalities, is a milestone for our policy of decentralization and exchange. 

With it, we materialized one of the pillars of our government plan for Culture. Thus, we establish a bridge between the public of the capital and that visit the city of Curitiba, to have access and the opportunity to have contact with this important artistic collection. 

Leading a federation unit at a time like the pandemic is, at the same time, challenging and extremely enriching. This is due to the fact that we know that, in addition to basic needs, people need interaction with art.

The exhibition “Africa, Artistic Expressions of a Continent” puts into perspective and exalts our African matrix with a fabulous collection of works. This collection has a lot to reveal to us and to teach future generations. It is a pleasure to be able to share this with the people of Paraná. 

Carlos Massa Ratinho Junior,
Governor of Paraná

Having, Maintaining, and Sharing: these are the three axes that guide the Ivani and Jorge Yunes Collection (CIJY).

When looking at the first axis, my parents saw the opportunity to realize what they called the "will of the world."

World, world, vast world. This is how I define the CIJY. Over fifty years of exchanges and learning, it expanded. Today it is composed of pieces that span twenty-two centuries of history, five continents, and the most diverse techniques and mediums. This is its essence.

Among its various cores, the African art one had a special place on the horizon: the construction of a museum to house it. That was Ivani and Jorge's great dream.

Naturally, I assumed with my mother the commitment to care for the second axis of the CIJY: Maintaining.

Various developments such as researching, cataloging, restoring, and exhibiting are part of the act of collecting. What a pleasurable responsibility to care for this small vast world!

I remember long and fond conversations with my father, when he quoted Heraclitus' Panta Rei: everything flows, nothing stays the same. The universe is an eternal flow.

This brings us to the third axis of the CIJY: Sharing.

The passage of our Afro Collection, from its private sphere, to the Oscar Niemeyer Museum greatly honors us and finally fulfills an old dream.

Among so many learnings, the greatest was the certainty that the collector has a biography, while objects have many.

It is in sharing the collection with the public that the alchemy happens. New dialogues, new reinterpretations, new horizons.

May African art lead us to still unknown ports. Panta Rei!

Beatriz Yunes Guarita 
Ivani and Jorge Yunes Collection

It is with great pride that the population of the city of Cascavel and the western region of Paraná receives this extension of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum – MON – from Curitiba. Museums show a path towards the past, a space for knowledge, preservation and memory of our history and identity and, also, a place of connection between the past, the present and the future.

MON in Cascavel adds to our other cultural spaces as a new option in our city. This was only possible with the partnership between the Government of the State of Paraná, the city of Cascavel and the Associação dos Amigos do MON (Association of Friends of MON). This sum of efforts was essential in the viability of this project.

In 2021, Cascavel was considered the third best city in Brazil; therefore, I believe that investing in the cultural area is to foster the development of tourism and the generation of new jobs to leverage local commerce and the city's creative industry, bring in new businesses and further boost economic development.

In this spirit of partnership, African art, with works from the Jorge Yunes Collection, was chosen to open this path. In it, there are works of art that show the strength, wealth and power of one of the ethnic matrices in the formation of the identity of the Brazilian people.

With the reception of MON in Cascavel, the Sefrin Filho Cultural Complex is promoted to the hall of the great cultural complexes existing in the country. There are 12,402 square meters of area dedicated to the access and enjoyment of art, the artistic and cultural memory of our city.

Leonaldo Paranhos da Silva
Mayor of Cascavel

Bringing art and culture beyond the established spaces, such as museums, theaters and institutions, is one of the noble premises of the current administration of the State Government. The realization of this – which is one of the most significant exhibitions of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum – outside the physical limits of MON, proves the desire to democratize culture, bringing it to the public.

The exhibition “Africa – Artistic Expressions of a Continent”, which now arrives in the western region of our State, is the consolidation of a long and careful process that culminated in the arrival of one of the most important and significant collections of contemporary African art to MON and, consequently, to the people of Paraná. 

This exhibition is an excerpt from the generous donation of approximately 1,700 works of African art, the result of a partnership between the Oscar Niemeyer Museum and the Ivani and Jorge Yunes Collection (CIJY), from São Paulo. Since 2021, the collection belongs to the State of Paraná.

As the largest art museum in Latin America, with a space of more than 35 thousand square meters of built area, with 17 thousand square meters of area for exhibitions, MON is a state patrimony linked to the Paraná State Secretariat for Social Communication and Culture. 

With its natural vocation for visual arts, architecture and design, it has Asian and African collections. In recent years, its collection has tripled in size and now has more than 9,000 pieces, which consolidates it as one of the most important in the country. 

It is part of the Museum's mission, in addition to collecting and exhibiting, to provide transformative experiences and dialogue between the public and art. The objective is to make MON increasingly alive and active, nationally and internationally.

This would not be possible without the special look that the State of Paraná has dedicated to the cultural sector. Fortunately, this is a very attentive and sensitive management, which believes in the transformative role of art and culture.

We understand that a museum exists from its collection, but it is through the interaction with the public that culture and knowledge are disseminated – goods that make us more human. We are sure that the great collection of African art will offer the public of Paraná exciting and uplifting experiences.

Juliana Vellozo Almeida Vosnika
Director-President of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum

Kingdom of Benin (Nigeria)
Metal alloy
33.5 x 28 x 20 cm

Ivory Coast
Painted wood
31.5 x 16.5 x 4.5 cm

africa-cascavel-en.pdf

Africa, Artistic Expressions of a Continent - Traveling Exhibition in Cascavel

Africa, Artistic Expressions of a Continent

“Violence Under Delicacy – Whippings” presents a selection of the work of artist Vera Martins, who had a solo exhibition held at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum from October 2020 to March 2021.

The works presented here are new, but the process developed is the same: unraveling the canvas, which is the support of the painting, turning the threads into whip-brushes and applying gestures allow for mediation between the three main elements of the art system, which are the artist, the viewer, and the artwork.

By bringing a bit of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum to other municipalities of the State through traveling exhibitions, the institution extends its reach. At the same time, it leaves an invitation for the greater integration of Paraná’s culture.

Vera Martins, Violence Under Delicacy - Guarapuava

Marina Karam Primak Municipal Theater
R. Padre Chagas, 3151 - Centro, Guarapuava - PR

vera_martins_pt-br.pdf

Vera Martins - Violence Under Delicacy, Guarapuava

The Ningyos hold a place in Japanese society very different from that of dolls in the West. For us, they are toys, whereas in Japan, they are objects filled with millenary meanings, evoking a magical and ritualistic atmosphere. They are very valuable, fragile, and kept as family treasures. The dolls presented here belong to the exceptional Asian collection donated by ambassador Fausto Godoy to the Oscar Niemeyer Museum and form a significant set.

The exhibition opens with the Gosho-Ningyos, chubby, adorable boys with friendly faces. They are given as auspicious gifts, wishing health, success, or protection, and their name means 'coming from the palace.' Most of the pieces belong to the Hina Matsuri (Girls' Day), celebrated in Japan on March 3rd, and whose original objective was to ensure a good marriage for girls. The altar represents an imperial court from the Heian period (794-1192). There are 15 figures arranged on a seven-step red staircase, following a strict order: the imperial couple, three court ladies, five musicians, two guards, three heralds, and, on the last two steps, offerings or accessories. It is also customary to give Kyobinas to girls on this day; they are delicate dolls symbolizing beauty.

The Gogatsu-no-Sekku (Boys' Day) is celebrated near the end of May. During this celebration, the Musha-Ningyos, impressive figures wearing full armor with energetic and proud faces, are displayed. They represent the samurais, whose qualities of courage, honor, and loyalty parents wish for their male children.

Magical and enchanted, the sophisticated world of the Ningyos represents the love of parents for their children, the eternal desire for boys and girls to succeed and be happy.

As soon as I arrived in Tokyo in 2001, I became interested in some dolls that were sold at the city's antique fairs, sometimes outdoors. Ningyo means “human form”: nin (human, people) and gyo (form). In Japan, these dolls have a broader function than a mere toy. They are a celebration of childhood and the crucible of parents' hope for a harmonious and successful life for their children.

They are not meant for play and are not part of the children's playful universe. Rather, they are fetishes loaded with symbolism. They are displayed for about 15 days on specific dates – Girls' Day and Boys' Day – and then collected, carefully stored in boxes, and passed down from generation to generation. Sometimes they are discarded forever, especially those that did not fulfill their purpose, as it is believed that they have accumulated negative energy.

Some are offered when visiting a newborn and represent emperors and empresses, beautiful young people, samurais, characters from Noh, benevolent entities, healthy babies, that is, a whole range of individualities that reveal the deepest ideals of the Japanese (sub)conscious collective.

The objects presented here have spanned the last 200 years of Japan and show a little-explored but extremely rich aspect of the Japanese soul and culture.

The exhibition “The Magical World of Ningyos,” organized by the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON), presents to the public a collection of Japanese dolls that are part of the Asian art collection consisting of more than three thousand pieces and recently donated by Ambassador Fausto Godoy to MON.

One of the largest collections of Asian art in Latin America, which belongs to the collection of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON) thanks to a generous donation of three thousand works made by Professor Fausto Godoy, is presented here in a very captivating selection.

'The Magical World of Ningyos' brings to the public the admirable Japanese dolls that, in that country, go beyond child play. Much more than toys, they are objects of strong symbolism, revealing Japanese customs and culture.

Organized by the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, the exhibition fulfills the museum's most noble and important mission of disseminating knowledge and democratizing art and culture.

By presenting this important symbolic and aesthetic dimension of Japanese culture, MON invites reflection on the cultural manifestations of different regions and countries and what connects us as individuals and as a society.

The exhibition 'The Magical World of Ningyos', organized by the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON), presents to the public a collection of Japanese dolls that are part of the Asian art collection consisting of more than three thousand pieces recently donated by ambassador Fausto Godoy to MON.

Showa Era (1926-1989)
porcelain, sawdust, fabric, paper, and silk

Meiji Era (1867-1912)
gofun, sawdust, fabric, metal, lacquered wood, silk

Edo Era (1603-1868)
gofun, sawdust, fabric, and silk glass eyes

Atílio Rocco Museum
R. Quinze de Novembro, 1660 - Centro, São José dos Pinhais - PR

ningyos_pt-br.pdf

The Magical World of Ningyos, traveling São José dos Pinhais

Within the Brazilian constructive spirit, so revered as it is important, the work of Antonio Arney represents a rare aesthetic exception in the panorama of art. Due to the historical moment it is part of and the geography from which it projects, this temporal and local laterality, with respect to an artistic lingua franca, signifies a poetic, new sap, worldview, and incorporation of heterodox elements, not previously catalogued in this visual repertoire.

It is an ascetic work that revolves around the same generative matrix, which is, at the same time, abstract and material, deepening and modulating a coherent research with successive variations, modulations. An unsuspected and submerged serial side of his work; it aims to be more infinite or variable than delimited or fixed (his painting is iconographically obsessive in its field investigation, like Morandi, Fontana, Volpi, Mondrian, Van Velde, among others).

In fact, the reconciliation of a rigorous project and an eroded materiality allows this painting to embody in its construction a certain perfume of things (memory or function). It brings us closer to them, either by the unusual elements at play (wooden plates, screws, dyed papers, screens, objects), or by the visual arrangement of its configuration (shapes, iconography, colors). A corpus that is singular for erecting a paradoxical imagery of geometric elements by means of used and discarded materials, providing an oblique porosity between painting and world. It is an unusual collage that offers itself as a window, stage, or even architectural facade in the memory of time and the world (the link of life, space, representation).

However, here, pictorial illusion is denied: this painting does not want to be summarized in pure two-dimensionality, within the strict limit of the plane (its illusionist characteristic or vision beyond). The surface itself is resized with a different spatial apprehension and sensation, more physical. In his latest painting-architecture full of domes, arches, arcades, friezes, columns, transoms, shutters... a type of objectual architecture is constructed, in other words, almost a pictorial model. Or would they be models of a larger painting-architecture?

In any case, there is a request for presence and relationship that expands in this painting, as Arney's 'sculptural' pieces want to bring us into a contingency, a closeness, and not a visual escapism or a distant fantasy of one who flees from the here and now. And despite the symmetrical compositions, the manifest balance of his paintings, his symbolic contribution is not transcendentalist but rather a product of the age of uncertainty in which we are installed.

The artist's half-century of production represents a legacy and invites us to recognize a unique, self-taught and particular pictorial map. The aesthetic provocation in Arney's work realigns waste and subjugates dominant visual orders. As a construct for survival, it teaches us to combine realignments: us with others, things, the city, nature. It is time to recognize the search for possible exchanges in activation, new adhesions or games.

Thus, the omnipresent materiality of this assembled, screwed, repaired painting seems to symbolize the silent power of its images. Then, its rough secret, half real-unreal or fictional, in short, is the place of the immaterial where forms and structures are a value, a permanent work agenda. Arney's imaginary (closer to the ground than Rubem Valentim, another constructive out of the standards) is made through visual equations that never reveal the unknown: to the value of the exact is added the value of the irregular, as two contradictory measures-structures per se, of the artist, of his independent language. This painting maintains a precarious double life. It promises an intriguing visual allegory: that dialectic between transparency and opacity – “useful fictions,” according to Artur Freitas – never wants to be resolved. In the end, all of Antonio Arney's work represents a pictorial space between dissimilar things, a poetics of the interval.

Adolfo Montejo Navas & Eliane Prolik
Curators

The Oscar Niemeyer Museum brings to the public of Piraquara, the birthplace of the artist Antonio Arney, the exhibition “Structures and Values”. His fellow citizens will be able to see in this exhibition a bit of his long and consistent trajectory, with more than 60 years of artistic production.

Arney's wooden works take us back to a world built in respect to nature, coming from trees and the knowledge of adding elements, as well as the values of life: the landscape, the city, others, the house or a social architecture.

The artist points out new meanings, potentials and discoveries and makes us reflect on reuse, sustainability and recycling, as well as the importance of the memory of things, of time, themes that are always current and relevant.

By bringing a bit of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum to other municipalities in the state through itineraries, the institution extends its reach. At the same time, it invites greater integration of Paraná's culture.

Antonio Arney, Structures and Values - Piraquara

2015 | Collage, Relief, Painting | 50 x 63 x 8 cm

2015 | Collage, Relief, Painting | 60 x 50 x 8 cm

2011 | Collage, Relief, Painting | 59.5 x 50 x 6 cm

2015 | Collage, Relief, Painting | 59.5 x 50 x 10.5 cm

1978 | Collage, Relief, Painting | 103 x 131 cm

2018 | Collage, Relief, Painting | 58 x 43.5 x 13 cm

Casa da Memória Manoel Alves Pereira
Av. Getúlio Vargas, nº 67 - Centro, Piraquara - PR

Antonio Arney Structures and Values - Piraquara

In the Brazilian constructive spirit, so revered as important, the work of Antonio Arney represents a rare aesthetic exception in the art landscape. Due to the historical moment it is part of and the geography from which it projects, this temporal and local laterality, with respect to an artistic lingua franca, signifies a new poetics, a new sap, a worldview, and the incorporation of heterodox elements not cataloged until then in this visual repertoire.

It is an ascetic work that revolves around the same generating matrix, which is at the same time abstract and material, deepening and modulating a coherent research with successive variations and modulations. An unsuspected and submerged serial side of his work; it wants to be more infinite or variable than delimited or fixed (his painting is iconographically obsessive in its field investigation, as in Morandi, Fontana, Volpi, Mondrian, Van Velde, among others).

In fact, the reconciliation of a rigorous project and an eroded materiality allows this painting to embody in its construction a certain scent of things (memory or function). It brings us closer to them, either through the unusual elements at play (wooden plates, screws, dyed papers, screens, objects) or through the visual arrangement of its configuration (forms, iconography, colors). A corpus that is singular for erecting a paradoxical imagery of geometric elements through used materials and rejects, bringing an oblique porosity painting-world. It is an unusual collage that offers itself as a window, stage, or even architectural facade, in the memory of time and the world (the link of life, space, representation).

However, here, pictorial illusion is denied: this painting does not want to be summarized in pure bidimensionality, in the strict limit of the planar (its illusionist characteristic or vision beyond). The surface itself is resized with a different spatial apprehension and sensation, more physical. In his latest painting-architecture full of domes, arches, arcades, friezes, columns, transoms, blinds… a type of object-architecture is constructed, that is, almost a pictorial model. Or could they be models of a greater painting-architecture?

In any case, there is a request for presence and a relationship that expands in this painting, because Arney's “sculpturized” pieces want to bring us to a contingency, a closeness and not a visual escapism or a distant fantasy of one who escapes from the here and now. And despite the symmetrical compositions, the manifest balance of his paintings, his symbolic contribution is not transcendentalist but rather the result of the age of uncertainty in which we are installed.

The artist's half-century of production represents a legacy and invites us to recognize a unique, self-taught and particular pictorial map. The aesthetic provocation in Arney's work realigns waste and subjugates dominant visual orders. As a construct for survival, it teaches how to combine rearrangements: us with others, things, the city, nature. It is the time to perceive oneself in search of possible changes in activation, new adhesives or games.

In this way, the omnipresent materiality of this mounted, screwed, fixed painting seems to symbolize the silent power of its images. Thus, its rough secret, half real-unreal or fictional, in sum, is the place of immateriality where forms and structures are a value, a permanent work agenda. Arney's imaginary (closer to the ground than Rubem Valentim, another constructive out of the norm) is made through visual equations that never unveil the unknown: to the value of the exact is added the value of the irregular, as two structures-measures per se, contradictory of the artist, of his independent language. This painting maintains a precarious double life. It promises an intriguing visual allegory: that dialectic between transparency and opacity – “useful fictions”, according to Artur Freitas – never wants to be resolved. Basically, all of Antonio Arney's work represents a pictorial space between dissimilar things, a poetic of the interval.

The Government of the State of Paraná and the Secretariat of Social Communication and Culture of the State of Paraná, through the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, with the support of the Guarapuava City Hall through the Municipal Department of Education and Culture, is pleased to present to the public the exhibition 'Structures and Values', by the Paraná artist Antonio Arney, who has a long and consistent trajectory, with more than 60 years of knowledge and experience.

The Government of the State of Paraná and the Secretariat of Social Communication and Culture of the State of Paraná, through the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, with the support of the Guarapuava City Hall through the Municipal Department of Education and Culture, are pleased to present to the public the exhibition 'Structures and Values' by Paraná artist Antonio Arney, who has a long and consistent career with over 60 years of knowledge and experience.

Arney's woodworks remind us of a world built in respect for nature, stemming from trees and the knowledge of incorporating elements, as well as his life values: the landscape, the city, others, the home, and social architecture.

The artist points us to new meanings, potentials, and discoveries, leading us to reflect on reuse, sustainability, and recycling, as well as the importance of the memory of things and time, themes that are always current and relevant.

Bringing a bit of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum to this city is a way to extend the Museum's reach and to provide and encourage new encounters with art. At the same time, it is a proposal for greater integration of the cultural spaces of our State.

Juliana Vellozo Almeida Vosnika
CEO of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum

Antonio Arney, Structures and Values - Guarapuava

2015 | Collage, relief, painting | 50 x 63 x 8 cm

2015 | Collage, relief, painting | 60 x 50 x 8 cm

2011 | Collage, relief, painting | 59.5 x 50 x 6 cm

2015 | Collage, relief, painting | 59.5 x 50 x 10.5 cm

1978 | Collage, relief, painting | 103 x 131 cm

2018 | Collage, relief, painting | 58 x 43.5 x 13 cm

Iracema Trinco Ribeiro Arts Center
R. Mal. Floriano Peixoto, 1399 - Centro, Guarapuava - PR

Antonio Arney Structures and Values - Guarapuava

The exhibition “Poty, de todos nós” (Poty, of Us All), curated by the technical team of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (Curitiba-PR), narrates the work of the engraver, illustrator, and muralist from Paraná, Poty Lazzarotto (1924 to 1998), who played a fundamental role in the art and culture of Brazil and the world.

Poty Lazzarotto is a poet of the line. In theme, form, color, and black and white. He described what he saw, what happened. In factories, in the streets, in brothels. He also described torture, demons, and erotic scenes. He portrayed the relationship between man and his craft. He gave strength to the line, brought lightness to everyday life.

Poty lived in São Paulo in 1950, when he founded the Free School of Fine Arts. He created panels for the Latin America Memorial and was the illustrator for the book “Novelas Paulistanas” (São Paulo Stories), by Antonio de Alcântara Machado.

He began the murals with wood. As an illustrator, he was a historian. He told the story of his childhood, of a boy from the outskirts, of a happy boy. Simple life. He described his grandparents, parents, and brother. Poty's drawing was always something unprecedented. There was no sameness; there was no pretense of being modern or avant-garde. Poty was himself, always.

The synthesis of the landscape transcends the drawing. When he draws a pine tree, he cuts it out as if imprinting another meaning on the object. The symbolism becomes real, Poty goes beyond. The subject and the object meet in Poty's striking line, revealing the quality of his work. As an engraver and contemporary of Goeldi, he described everyday life more than the landscape: he made poetry of the day-to-day.

Poty of Us All

In the year that Itaipu celebrates its 40th anniversary, the Itaipu Ecomuseum has the privilege of hosting the exhibition “Poty, the poet of the stroke,” held in partnership with the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON) and the artist’s family.

Poty Lazzarotto is a poet of the stroke. In theme, in form, in color, in black and white. He described what he saw, what happened. In factories, on streets, in brothels. He also described torture, demons, and erotic scenes. He portrayed the relationship of man with his craft. He imparted strength to the stroke, brought lightness to everyday life.

He started the murals with wood. As an illustrator, he was a historian. He told the story of his childhood, of a boy from the outskirts, of a happy boy. Simple life. He described his grandparents, parents, and brother. Poty’s drawing was always something unprecedented. There was no sameness, there was no pretension to be modern or avant-garde. Poty was himself, always.

The synthesis of the landscape transcends the drawing. When he draws a pine tree, he cuts it out, as if imprinting another meaning to the object. The symbolism becomes real; Poty goes beyond. The subject and the object meet in Poty's striking stroke, revealing the quality of his work. As a printmaker and contemporary of Goeldi, he described daily life more than the landscape: he made poetry out of everyday life.


“(...) if Paraná does not produce any more artists from now on, just with Poty it will be ahead of all the other Brazilian provinces.”

For us at Itaipu, it is a great honor to pay tribute to Poty Lazzarotto, one of the main Brazilian and Paraná artists of the 20th century. Master of visual arts and an intellectual figure of great stature, his work reflects the dynamism of a versatile, multitalented, and prolific artist.

Best known for his monumental works in open spaces, such as murals scattered around Curitiba and several other cities in Brazil and abroad, he left a vast and varied production of drawings, prints, panels, stained glass, silkscreen, and lithography.

A small part of his most representative works in drawings and prints, carefully selected, can be seen at the Itaipu Ecomuseum.

In fact, this exhibition marks the reunion between Poty and Itaipu, a partnership sealed in 1998, when he accepted the hydroelectric plant’s invitation to create a panel in tribute to the more than 100,000 workers who participated in its construction. Fate decreed that this was to be his last major project.

The magnificent 'Barrageiro Panel,' strategically located at the Central Lookout of the Itaipu Dam, created in collaboration with Adoaldo Renato Lenzi, would only be inaugurated posthumously, in November that year, about six months after Poty's passing.

In creating his murals, although he used various materials, Poty had a clear preference for exposed concrete. Itaipu, one of the largest reinforced concrete works in the world, offered the perfect setting for a mural with his unmistakable style.

As should be expected, the Barrageiro Panel, measuring 25 meters in length and 3.5 meters in width, is formed by an arch with one side covered in tiles and the other in high-relief concrete. The artist's style added aesthetic lightness to the hard work of the dam builders who raised the monumental structure of Itaipu.

A master of his craft, Poty earned well-deserved recognition during his lifetime. His contribution to the development of Brazilian visual arts firmly places him in the pantheon of the greatest artists of the 20th century. This exhibition, therefore, pays due tribute to a seminal artist in shaping the artistic identity of Paraná.

By opening the doors to 'Poty, the Poet of the Stroke,' the Itaipu Ecomuseum closes 2015 on a high note, presenting Foz do Iguaçu, on its centennial, with another beautiful exhibition.

Jorge M. Samek
Brazilian Director-General of ITAIPU Binacional

Exposições itinerantes realizadas

Japanese Art in the MON Collection

Africa, Artistic Expressions of a Continent

Vera Martins

The Magical World of Ningyos

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