Ado Malagoli (Araraquara SP 1906 - Porto Alegre RS 1994)
Painter, teacher.
In 1922, he studied decorative arts at the Escola Profissional Masculina do Brás, in São Paulo, where he was a student of Giuseppe Barchita. Between 1922 and 1928, he attended the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios de São Paulo - Laosp, where he studied with Enrico Vio (1874 - 1960). During this period, he came into contact with Alfredo Volpi (1896 - 1988) and Mario Zanini (1907 - 1971), with whom he often painted landscapes on the outskirts of the city. He worked with Francisco Rebolo (1902 - 1980) painting decorative panels. He moved to Rio de Janeiro and enrolled at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes - Enba [National School of Fine Arts] in 1928. He also took part in the founding of the Núcleo Bernardelli in 1931. His output is predominantly figurative. In 1942, at the 48th Salão Nacional de Belas Artes - SNBA [National Salon of Fine Arts], he received the foreign travel prize and went to the United States, where he stayed for three years. He studied art history and museology at the Fine Arts Institute of Columbia University, and museum organization at the Brooklyn Museum. On returning to Brazil, he settled in Porto Alegre, after a period in Rio de Janeiro. He joined the Instituto de Belas Artes do Rio Grande do Sul as a painting teacher, where he taught from 1952 to 1976. In 1954, he created the Museu de Arte do Rio Grande do Sul [Rio Grande do Sul Art Museum], which opened in 1957. In 1997, in tribute to its founder, the museum was renamed Museu de Arte do Rio Grande do Sul Ado Malagoli.
Critical Commentary
Ado Malagoli took part in the founding of the Núcleo Bernardelli in Rio de Janeiro in 1931. His figurative painting reveals a concern with social issues. He also painted urban scenes, still lifes, portraits and landscapes.
The work of Malagoli and of other artists linked to the Núcleo Bernardelli can be understood within the aims of the return to order. His work reveals an interest in "neo-Renaissance" Italian painting, as can be seen in the pictures that refer to the tradition of the Venus in a landscape. In his paintings, line prevails over color, and the artist depicts the human body in an idealized way.
Malagoli moved to Porto Alegre in 1952, where he also worked as a teacher, contributing to the renewal of the arts in Rio Grande do Sul and taking part in the restructuring of painting instruction at the Escola de Belas Artes. He created the Museu de Arte do Rio Grande do Sul, which was later named after him, and promoted important exhibitions, such as those of Weingärtner (1853 - 1929) and Candido Portinari (1903 - 1962). His mature work is marked by paintings of rows of old houses and ruins, with an expressionist tone, in which he sometimes engages with abstraction.
Critiques
"Malagoli, like the modernists, rebelled against the narrow academicism that still reigned in the 1930s, when he attended the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes in Rio de Janeiro. He was once even thrown out of class and forced to paint in the corridor for disagreeing with the conservative ideas of one of the masters. His work alongside his colleagues of the Núcleo Bernardelli was, without a shadow of a doubt, revolutionary. His work was always innovative. But he never radically broke with the past. He always sought the passage that links today to the truest foundations of yesterday. Hence his criticism of the modernism of 1922: 'In many cases, modernism developed a nationalism of labels: a few mulatto women, a few bananas, a few coconuts. . . all of it in cubist forms freshly imported from Paris'. He never jumped on the bandwagon of sheer destructiveness that the Modern Art Week unleashed. He knew how to free himself from what was unnecessary and unimportant, keeping the most fertile legacies of tradition, which allowed him to achieve a better expression of the present. His pictures retain the flavor of the painting of other eras while at the same time placing him as a clearly contemporary painter. Thus, the Brazilian Ado Malagoli always remained a European; the modern painter of national scenes and dramas places himself, like a classic, at the service of expressing universal truths; the boy Ado already carried the age of an old Italian, and the mature man of today still lives with the themes and concerns of the boy of yesterday. These apparent contradictions have confused many. They are resolved, however, in a lucid historical vision and an intense feeling of temporality that turn Malagoli's canvases into a tense and problematic synthesis between what was and what is to come".
José Luiz do Amaral Neto
AMARAL NETO, José Luiz. O artesão de sonhos. In: MALAGOLI, Ado; QUINTANA, Mario. Ado Malagoli visto por Mário Quintana. Rio de Janeiro: L. Christiano, 1985. p. 22-26.
Testimonials
"The work of art arises from the artist's skill in selecting its main expressive elements, that is, form, color, composition and matter. These elements are eternal and place the art of today on a level with the conceptions of the great geniuses of painting of all time.
I see in all the arts an intensification of life. Thanks to art, I don't count how long I have left until my heart attack. If it comes, it will catch me at the easel. In any other activity, people grow old, retire, and sit in a public square counting the days they have left until their death. If they had enriched their spirit, they would not need to keep looking for ways to pass the time. The artist's leisure is his work.
(...)
While I am working I feel very involved with the canvas. But once it is finished, I disconnect almost completely. As I see it, art is a whole, like a large building made up of several rooms through which one moves. A painting is just an antechamber to another painting. An individual's path must be seen as a whole. There is always a work in progress demanding my attention".
Ado Malagoli
MALAGOLI, Ado. Ado Malagoli. In: MALAGOLI, Ado; QUINTANA, Mario. Ado Malagoli visto por Mário Quintana. Rio de Janeiro: L. Christiano, 1985. [Trecho extraído da orelha do livro].
Solo Exhibitions
1946 - New York (United States) - Solo, at Careen Gems Gallery
1948 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Palace Hotel
1949 - Curitiba PR - Solo
1949 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Calvino
1950 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Galeria de Arte Casa das Molduras
1955 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Xavier da Silveira
1963 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Galeria Domus
1965 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Oca
1965 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Oca
1966 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Galeria Leopoldina
1966 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Oca
1967 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Galeria Leopoldina
1970 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Azulão Galeria
1971 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Esphera Galeria de Arte
1974 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Ami Galeria de Arte
1975 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Galeria Guignard
1976 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Galeria Guignard
1976 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Oficina Galeria de Arte
1979 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Associação Leopoldina Juvenil
1981 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria de Arte da Gávea
1982 - Porto Alegre RS - Ado Malagoli 60 Anos de Pintura. Documentos [Ado Malagoli: 60 Years of Painting. Documents], at Margs
1982 - Porto Alegre RS - Ado Malagoli 60 Anos de Pintura. Retrospectiva [Ado Malagoli: 60 Years of Painting. Retrospective], at Galeria Tina Zappoli
1982 - Porto Alegre RS - Ado Malagoli 60 Anos de Pintura. Trabalho Atual [Ado Malagoli: 60 Years of Painting. Current Work], at Cambona Centro de Artes
1985 - São Paulo SP - Ado Malagoli: retrospective, at Masp
1986 - Porto Alegre RS - Ado Malagoli: retrospective, at Margs
1989 - Porto Alegre RS - Ado Malagoli: retrospective, at Espaço Cultural Banco Francês e Brasileiro
1990 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Ado Malagoli: retrospective, at Vila Bernini Galeria
Group Exhibitions
1934 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - National Salon of Fine Arts, at Enba
1934 - São Paulo SP - 1st São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Rua 11 de Agosto
1935 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 41st National Salon of Fine Arts, at Enba - honorable mention
1935 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 4th Núcleo Bernardelli Salon, at Enba
1937 - São Paulo SP - 5th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon
1938 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 44th National Salon of Fine Arts, at MNBA - bronze medal
1939 - New York (United States) - New York World's Fair
1939 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 45th National Salon of Fine Arts, at MNBA - silver medal
1942 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 48th National Salon of Fine Arts, at MNBA - foreign travel prize
1944 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 50th National Salon of Fine Arts, at MNBA
1947 - Paris (France) - Salon d'Automne, at Grand Palais
1948 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Fluminense Salon of Fine Arts - Euclides da Cunha Prize
1948 - São Paulo SP - 14th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia - small silver medal
1949 - Curitiba PR - 6th Paraná Fine Arts Salon, at Instituto de Educação do Paraná Professor Erasmo Pilotto
1949 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Municipal Fine Arts Salon, at Ministério da Educação e Saúde - Arnaldo Guinle Prize
1949 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 55th National Salon of Fine Arts, at MNBA - domestic travel prize
1949 - São Paulo SP - 15th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1950 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Fluminense Salon of Fine Arts - silver medal
1950 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - A Century of Brazilian Painting: 1850-1950, at MNBA
1950 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 2nd Municipal Fine Arts Salon - prize alto mérito
1951 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 3rd Municipal Salon of Fine Arts - Municipality Prize
1951 - São Paulo SP - 1st Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Pavilhão do Trianon
1952 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st National Salon of Modern Art, at MAM/RJ
1954 - Porto Alegre RS - 5th Salon of the Institute of Fine Arts of Rio Grande do Sul
1955 - Porto Alegre RS - 6th Salon of the Institute of Fine Arts of Rio Grande do Sul - silver medal
1956 - Porto Alegre RS - 7th Salon of the Institute of Fine Arts of Rio Grande do Sul
1956 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Guggenheim Prize, at MAM/RJ
1957 - New York (United States) - Guggenheim International Award: 1956, at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
1957 - São Paulo SP - 21st São Paulo Fine Arts Salon - acquisition prize
1960 - Belo Horizonte MG - 15th Fine Arts Salon of the City of Belo Horizonte, at MAP - 1st prize
1961 - Porto Alegre RS - Arte Rio-Grandense: do Passado ao Presente [Rio Grande do Sul Art: From the Past to the Present], at Instituto de Belas Artes
1962 - Belo Horizonte MG - 17th Fine Arts Salon of the City of Belo Horizonte, at MAP - 1st prize
1962 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 11th National Salon of Modern Art
1963 - São Paulo SP - 12th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1969 - São Paulo SP - 1st Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1970 - São Paulo SP - 2nd Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1973 - São Paulo SP - 5th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1975 - Brasília DF - Arte Gaúcha/74 [Gaúcho Art/74]
1982 - Brasília DF - Arte Gaúcha Hoje [Gaúcho Art Today], at Galeria Oswaldo Goeldi
1982 - Porto Alegre RS - Arte Gaúcha Hoje [Gaúcho Art Today], at Margs
1982 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Núcleo Bernardelli Exhibition: Brazilian Art in the 1930s and 1940s, at Acervo Galeria de Arte
1983 - Porto Alegre RS - From the Past to the Present: the Visual Arts in Rio Grande do Sul, at Cambona Centro de Artes
1984 - São Paulo SP - Tradition and Rupture: A Synthesis of Brazilian Art and Culture, at Fundação Bienal
1986 - São Paulo SP - Tempo de Madureza [Time of Maturity], at Ranulpho Galeria de Arte
1989 - Porto Alegre RS - Arte Sul 89, at Margs
1989 - São Paulo SP - Thirty-Three Ways of Seeing the World, at Ranulpho Galeria de Arte
1990 - São Paulo SP - Fruits, Flowers and Colors, at Ranulpho Galeria de Arte
1994 - Porto Alegre RS - De Libindo a Malagoli: as Artes Visuais na Universidade [From Libindo to Malagoli: The Visual Arts at the University], at Museu da UFRGS
Posthumous Exhibitions
1994 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Brasil Século XX, at Fundação Bienal
1998 - Porto Alegre RS - Acervo: Instituto de Artes 90 Anos [Collection: Institute of Arts, 90 Years], at UFRGS. Instituto de Artes
2000 - Caxias do Sul RS - Margs Collection Traveling Exhibition
2000 - Passo Fundo RS - Margs Collection Traveling Exhibition
2000 - Pelotas RS - Margs Collection Traveling Exhibition
2000 - Santa Maria RS - Margs Collection Traveling Exhibition
2002 - Porto Alegre RS - Artist Teachers, at Museu da UFRGS
2002 - Porto Alegre RS - Drawings, Prints, Sculptures and Watercolors, at Garagem de Arte
2003 - Porto Alegre RS - Humanities, at Galeria Tina Zappoli
2003 - São Paulo SP - Art and Society: A Controversial Relationship, at Itaú Cultural
Source: Itaú Cultural
