Painting in Rio Grande do Sul, as an independent art, developed at the end of the 19th century. It originated in the port cities of Porto Alegre, Pelotas and Rio Grande. The first evidence of pictorial art in Rio Grande do Sul appeared as decoration for religious temples, public buildings and palaces.
Until the beginning of the 19th century, Rio Grande do Sul was an area still in the process of settlement with ill-defined borders and an incipient culture. The most significant cultural episode occurred between the 17th and 18th centuries during the Jesuit Missions in the northwest of the state, at the time under Spanish possession. The different political and military turbulences throughout the 18th and 19th centuries hindered the locals from having enough time, resources and educational bases to develop their culture.
In the 1920s, modernism began to spread, clashing with academic tradition and conservative cultural sectors, and triggering a public controversy that lasted until the 1950s. At the same time, especially through the actions of the Institute of Fine Arts, painting as an autonomous artistic genre become established and prestigious. The market developed, researchers and critics multiplied, updates from abroad were increasingly incorporated and an original character for southern production emerged for the first time. Between the 1960s and 1970s, painting in Rio Grande do Sul entered a crisis. New aesthetics emerged, such as pop art and the new figuration. Other avant-gardes that questioned the primacy of painting and the concept of a work of art also appeared. They focused on the idea, the creative process and the hybridization of different techniques and materials used in unusual combinations.
In the 1980s, painting in Rio Grande do Sul made a significant comeback, revisiting the past critically while globalizing and consecrating plurality as the typical current language. By the end of the 20th century, it had become a national reference, following national and international trends. At the same time, important artists remained unmoved by the appeals of regionalism and focused on the mythical figure of the gaucho and on historical scenes and characters. Rio Grande do Sul developed a vast and richly diversified collection of paintings, a public to appreciate them and a large group of institutions capable of studying, preserving and exhibiting them. Porto Alegre remains the most important center, while amateur painting flourishes in the countryside. There is a large bibliography on specific aspects of painting in Rio Grande do Sul, but general studies are still lacking.
Beginning and first stage
Until the beginning of the 19th century, Rio Grande do Sul's history was characterized by militarism. The territory was controlled by Spain and the government's main concern was to stabilize and defend the borders. Until 1821, the most remarkable cultural event in the area was sponsored by Spanish Jesuits, who founded several missions in the central-northwestern region in the 17th century to acculturate indigenous people, which favored the creation of a hybrid culture guided by the missionaries. In Porto Alegre, there were few conditions for art to prosper, a situation that remained unchanged until the Ragamuffin War, a military incident that lasted from 1835 to 1845. The first notices about painting date back to the late 18th century and mention artisanal painters who left mural decorations in churches, although their names have not been kept.
In the middle of the 19th century, traveling artists began to arrive. They were the first to contribute to the painting of Rio Grande do Sul. The most notable were João de Deus, from São Paulo, the first famous set designer to work in the state; Alphonse Falcoz, a Frenchman who graduated from the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts; Manoel José Gentil, from Bahia; Eduardo Timoleon Zalony, who was active in Rio Grande and Porto Alegre, and introduced the technique of painting on glass; Jean-Baptiste Debret, a member of the French Mission, and Herrmann Wendroth, a German mercenary.
At the time, many people interested in art had established in Pelotas and Porto Alegre, including Guilherme Litran and Frederico Trebbi. They laid the foundations for education and the formation of a small market, and trained several disciples who would continue their legacy. However, the scene was mainly dominated by amateurism until the 1890s. The situation began to change with the work of Antônio Cândido de Menezes, the first successful painter born in the state. He graduated from the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts and worked extensively in Porto Alegre as an artist and teacher.
By the end of the 19th century, Rio Grande do Sul's economy was reasonably structured and society began to express varied interests in art, including theatrical performances, classical music, opera and literary soirees. The large influx of European immigrants provided the cultural elements to spark the first significant movements in painting, although it occurred almost exclusively in Porto Alegre. A bourgeoisie with purchasing power, who could afford to buy art and decorate their homes with murals, began to emerge. The creation of the Sociedade Partenon Literário, formed by the intellectual community of Rio Grande do Sul, and the first art salon in 1875, included in the Exposição Comercial e Industrial, where Grasselli, Menezes and Theodor Bischoff exhibited, were important. In 1883, the idea of creating a school of arts in Porto Alegre based on the European academies was proposed by set designer Oreste Coliva, but it failed.
The first generation of female painting teachers, including Edilia Azarini, Margarida Ahrons and Dorothea Alruz, emerged. At the time, women represented the majority of practitioners, whose participation in the salons was acclaimed and production approached the decorative arts and domestic gifts. A more erudite group includes the important series of official portraits of benefactors of the Beneficência Portuguesa and Santa Casa de Misericórdia. Smaller, isolated, semi-amateur figures such as Pietro Stangherlin and Antônio Cremonese also practiced painting in Caxias do Sul and Farroupilha.
Creation of an identity
From the end of the 19th century, native painters emerged, such as Augusto Luiz de Freitas, author of monumental canvases, and Pedro Weingärtner, the greatest figure of the first generation of painters from Rio Grande do Sul. Weingärtner trained in Europe and developed an internationally renowned career until the 1920s. He worked on a wide variety of themes, such as genre scenes, mythological scenes, landscapes and regionalist scenes. Weingärtner and Freitas pursued the traditions of great academic painting, combining neoclassical, realist and romantic references.Positivism also influenced the arts in Rio Grande do Sul by pursuing progress and democracy in order to achieve a significant and peaceful social life. The arts were valued as an instrument of social education, but the system was precarious. There were no art museums or structured academies; in 1893 the first gallery in Porto Alegre opened as a separate room in the Ao Preço Fixo bazaar. Despite the limited support structure and the small market, the press regularly reported the novelties in painting. At the time, Porto Alegre counted hundreds of painters, both professional and amateur. Many offered classes and private schools provided an introduction to the basic techniques of painting and drawing, while decorative mural painting in homes and public buildings became fashionable. Painting became known and appreciated. Dozens of painters, many from the countryside, participated in the 1901 exhibition in Porto Alegre.
The next generation of artists was born in the 1800s, but their work flourished in the first decades of the following century. Oscar Boeira, Afonso Silva, Libindo Ferrás and João Fahrion joined the group. Foreign artists such as Eugenio Latour, Francis Pelichek and Luiz Maristany de Trias also made significant contributions. Leopoldo Gotuzzo exhibited in Porto Alegre but pursued most of his career in Rio de Janeiro. Their distinctive feature was their ability to assimilate important lessons from impressionism, evident especially in the work of Boeira and Maristany. They eased the academic rigor in drawing and the organization of space, using the stain as an expressive resource and showing a new sensitivity to the effects of light, which prepared the way for the more radical innovations of the moderns.
In 1903, the first event entirely dedicated to the plastic arts, promoted by Gazeta do Commercio and featuring Weingärtner, Romualdo Prati, Francesco Manna, Augusto de Freitas and Libindo Ferrás, occurred. According to Damasceno, it was "the first event to grant the arts of Rio Grande do Sul an autonomous status, [...] legitimizing them as an object of social approval and distinction".
Institute of Fine Arts
In 1908, the prestige of the plastic arts among official and cultural elite circles led to the foundation of the Free Institute of Fine Arts, later the Institute of Fine Arts (IBA), predecessor of the current Institute of Arts at UFRGS, which concentrated the production of erudite art in Porto Alegre and was the most significant institutional reference in Rio Grande do Sul until the mid-1950s regarding the study, teaching and production of painting. For a long time, the place remained the stronghold of academicism due to the connection with the government and the conservative elite. Researcher Círio Simon, who compiled the history of the institution, stated that "it was created by art amateurs as the culmination of the civilizing project formed by the free higher education schools that were the origin of the first university in the region", but soon professionals joined in and "assumed their role as agents, beginning to express the autonomy of art, taking advantage of their institutional place".
Despite the promotional role played by the IBA, prejudice against professional artists remained strong. The classes were seen as leisure or social adornment by society. Although the Painting program had been planned since the IBA's creation, it was approved in 1926. The institution's orientation applied criteria derived from the traditional 19th century schools and the connection with the state government remained intact. Libindo and Pelichek taught painting at the institute until the 1930s, including special guests such as Weingärtner, Boeira and Torelly.
Modernism
Beginning
The relative isolation and peculiar characteristics of Rio Grande do Sul's economy and cultural background created the conditions for the renewal of modernism to proceed in a different way. In the state, the synthesis between 19th century academic schools and positivist ideological painting was considered the most modern art, while the schools of the international avant-garde, such as expressionism and cubism, were gradually introduced through the illustrations published in magazines such as Máscara, Revista do Globo and Revista Kodak. The graphic arts were a good alternative market for the more inquisitive painters of the time. Photography also contributed to the development of a new approach to painting, as reflected in Weingärtner and other portrait painters who were active at the time.