São Paulo celebrates Tarsila do Amaral and Joan Miró in two major exhibitions

The Museu de Arte Brasileira at FAAP, in São Paulo, hosted until October 17 the exhibition “Joan Miró: Mestre das Formas,” curated by Jordi J. The show brought together over 100 original works by the Catalan artist, including paintings, prints, sculptures, tapestries and historical documents from major collections, offering Brazilian audiences a broad survey of Miró’s production, from his early figurative experiments to the more mature achievements of his abstract language. The variety of techniques on display made it possible to trace decades of work, conveying the experimental dimension that accompanied the Catalan artist’s entire career.

During the same period, the Museu FAMA is showing “Tarsila: Onde Nascem as Imagens,” a journey bringing together around 45 studies created by Tarsila do Amaral, a central figure of Brazilian modernism. The exhibition focuses on the artist’s creative process, putting the preparatory studies in dialogue with the better-known works of her production, thus offering a less conventional perspective, oriented not toward the final result but toward the stages of elaboration that preceded it.

Completing the picture of ongoing exhibitions in the São Paulo area is Mano Penalva’s show, “Moiré Bereguedê,” on view at the Museu Oscar Niemeyer in Curitiba until November 15. The institution, designed by the architect whose name it bears, thus hosts a contemporary art project alongside the great names of historical modernism, confirming a programming approach that alternates historical retrospectives with recent production.

The three exhibitions, though differing in period and language, reflect the image of a Brazilian museum system that in recent weeks has chosen to bring the historical modernist season — Miró and Tarsila do Amaral — into dialogue with more recent production. The Curitiba exhibition, open until November 15, remains for now the only one of the three still open to visitors for the next two weeks.