Agostinho Batista de Freitas (Paulínia, distrito de Campinas SP 1927 - São Paulo SP 1997)
Agostinho Batista de Freitas was a painter and draftsman. At 17, he moved to the city of São Paulo, settling in Imirim. The son of Portuguese immigrants from Madeira who worked in agriculture in the interior of the state, Agostinho helped in the fields and looked after the animals as a child. His first drawings were made on the ground and on trees. He learned to read and write in São Paulo and worked at various trades, such as bricklayer's helper, packer and electrician. He was discovered by Pietro Maria Bardi, who found him selling his works on Sundays in the Praça do Correio and organized his first exhibition at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP), in 1952.
Agostinho portrayed the urban landscape of São Paulo with a unique eye: "The city is like this, with these skyscrapers, these buildings, it feels like we're in the middle of a rock, it seems like a mystery, it seems like a cemetery" (interview with Lélia Coelho Frota, 1976). Although he also painted rural scenes, he preferred the city to the countryside: "Neon sign over here, lettering over there, it gets you thinking about so many things, you know. Now, out in the bush, no, all you see is bush, the only thing is to think about going to plant, you know." For him, the city stood both for an architecture of tombstones and for constant movement, with a hyperrealist approach. The countryside, in his words, was a "picture from imagination", idealized by distance and by nostalgia for the past.
Besides depictions of city and countryside, he also painted a few scenes of Catholic rituals and very rare still lifes, creating a singular body of work. He took part in numerous exhibitions in Brazil and abroad, such as the Venice Biennale (1966), "Brazilian Primitives" in the United States (1975) and "Arte Naïf: Cinco Artistas" [Naïve Art: Five Artists] in São Paulo (1998). Born in Paulínia (a district of Campinas, SP) in 1927, and deceased in São Paulo in 1997, Agostinho Batista de Freitas began his career as a self-taught painter around 1950, while still working as an electrician. His first works were sold in the Praça do Correio, where he was discovered by Pietro Maria Bardi, who encouraged him to record a panoramic view of São Paulo, seen from the top of the Banco do Estado de São Paulo building. The São Paulo cityscape became a recurring theme in his artistic production.
Note
1 It became a municipality only in 1964
Solo Exhibitions
1952 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Masp - organized by Pietro Maria Bardi, who had discovered him
1952 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at MAM/SP
1952 - Salvador BA - Solo, at MAM/BA
1952 - Campinas SP - Solo, at MACC
1966 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at MAM/RJ
1978 - São Paulo SP - Agostinho Batista de Freitas: Paintings, at Centro de Artes Shopping News
1980 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Paulo Figueiredo Galeria de Arte
1985 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at José Duarte de Aguiar e Ricardo Camargo Galeria de Arte
1990 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Pinacoteca do Estado
Group Exhibitions
1966 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Artist and the Machine, at MAM/RJ
1966 - Venice (Italy) - 33rd Venice Biennale
1975 - United States - 19 Brazilian Primitives, traveling
1979 - São Paulo SP - Art in Brazil: A History of Five Centuries, at Masp
1980 - Mexico City (Mexico) - Pintores Populares y 3 Grabadores de Brasil [Popular Painters and 3 Printmakers from Brazil], at Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes
1984 - Goiânia GO - Festival of Colors, at Museu de Arte de Goiânia
1985 - Penápolis SP - 6th Noroeste Visual Arts Salon, at Fundação Educacional de Penápolis. Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras
1988 - São Paulo SP - Brasiliana: Man and the Land, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1994 - São Paulo SP - Great Exhibition of Brazilian Naïve Art, at Galeria Jacques Ardies
1995 - Osasco SP - 2nd Art Show, at Centro Universitário Fieo
1996 - Osasco SP - Expo FIEO: Luiz Ernesto Kawall Donation, at Centro Universitário Fieo
1996 - Osasco SP - 3rd Art Show, at Centro Universitário Fieo
1996 - São Paulo SP - The World of Mário Schenberg, at Casa das Rosas
Posthumous Exhibitions
1998 - São Paulo SP - Naïve Art - 5 Artists, at Galeria Jacques Ardies
1998 - São Paulo SP - São Paulo Iconography in Private Collections, at Museu da Casa Brasileira
2000 - São Paulo SP - Brasil + 500 Rediscovery Exhibition. Popular Art, at Fundação Bienal
2001 - Brasília DF - Form-and-Color as Light in the Naïfs, at Galeria Itaú Cultural
2001 - Penápolis SP - Form-and-Color as Light in the Naïfs, at Galeria Itaú Cultural
2002 - Piracicaba SP - 6th Bienal Naïfs do Brasil, at Sesc
2002 - São Paulo SP - Pop Brasil: Popular Art and the Popular in Art, at CCBB
2002 - São Paulo SP - Santa Ingenuidade [Holy Innocence], at Unifieo
2003 - São Paulo SP - The Art Behind the Art: Where Artworks Are Kept and How They Travel, at MAM/SP
Source: Itaú Cultural
