Alfredo Andersen (Christiansand, Norway 1860 - Curitiba PR 1935)
Pinter, sculptor, decorator, scenographer, designer, teacher.
Alfredo Emílio Andersen began his artistic training in Oslo, where he studied with Wilhelm Krogh, a well-known scenographer, painter and decorator, between 1874 and 1878. In the early 1880s, he frequented the Academy Real de Fine Arts of Copenhagen, where he receives guidance from the portraitist Carl A. Andersen. He teaches drawing, between 1881 and 1883, at the School for Boys in Vesterbron Asyl. In 1891, the artist undertakes a journey through South America, and passes through the Brazilian coast. He returns to Norway, and, in 1893, makes a second trip to Brazil. He resides for about ten years in Paranaguá, Paraná. He moved to Curitiba in 1902, where he created a private school of drawing and painting. He also teaches drawing at the German school and at Colégio Paranaense. In 1909, he took over the evening classes of the School of Fine Arts and Industrial, in Curitiba. After his death, the art school, which had operated in his home, is transformed into a museum, housing much of his production. Andersen stands out in the artistic scene of Paraná for his work, which includes portraits, landscapes and genre scenes, and, above all, for his relevant didactic activity, which earned him the designation of "Father of Paraná painting".
Commentary Critic
When he arrived in Brazil in 1893, Alfredo Andersen initially settles in Paranaguá, Paraná, where he remains for about ten years. It makes canvases and drawings that have as their theme the landscapes of Porto and the Railroad, in addition to the representation of popular types. As the scholar Adalice Araújo points out, his work is characterized by three main themes: the portrait, the landscape and the genre scenes. In the portrait, he generally explores the effects of light-darkness. In landscapes, its palette gradually becomes lighter and closer to Impressionism, presenting greater formal freedom.
In the landscapes it makes in the 1920s and 1930s, it represents the fields and, mainly, the araucarias, characteristics of the vegetation place, integrating the space through a golden luminosity. In Sete Quedas (1904) it presents, in a large picture, a lyrical view of nature, in which the luminous movement of water and the breadth of space, populated by large rocks, stand out.
Alfred Andersen He is responsible for the formation of new generations of artists in Paraná, like Lange, from Morretes (1892 - 1954), Gustavo Kopp (1891 - 1933) and Theodoro de Bona (1904 - 1990).
Criticism
"In addition to his didactic importance, which earned him the title of 'Father of Painting in Paraná', Alfredo Andersen's value was great as a plastic artist. Three main thematic lines characterize the work of Alfredo Andersen as a painter: the portrait, the landscape and the genre scenes. (...) In landscapes and gender scenes, the initial compositions, which tended to pastels and ash, are replaced - in contact with the light of the tropics - by a lighter palette, closer to impressionism. This proximity is characterized, however, more by the invoice and the visual sensation of capturing the fugitive from the nature than by the colors and loose touches themselves. The light, delimiting the form without destroying it, brings it closer to the realists, partially linked to Impressionism, like Manet or Degas. More important, however, that the attempt to fit Alfredo Andersen in this or that current is to seek to understand him as one of the most emotional interpreters of people and the landscape of Paraná at the beginning of our century. It is in the genre scenes that we will find the most spontaneous creations by Alfredo Andersen. Without any concern to please the possible consumer, the pure emotions that spring from the gestures and scenes of everyday life constitute for the perennial artist a source of inspiration. In the landscapes, a process is observed identical to that of the genre scenes. The freedom of the message increases as Andersen joins the new medium."
Adalice Araújo
Andersen. Individuals
1884 - Oslo (Norway) - First Individual
1887 - Copenhagen (Denmark) - Individual
1889 - Oslo (Norway) - Individual
1891 - Oslo (Norway) - Individual
1902 - Curitiba PR - Individual, at the Curitiba Association of Commerce Employees
1908 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual
1918 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - individual, at Galeria Jorge
1920 - Curitiba PR - Individual, at the Commercial Association
1921 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at Casa Editora O Livro
1923 - Curitiba PR - Individual, at the Commercial Association of Paraná
1926 - Curitiba PR - Individual, at the Selecto Club
1927 - Curitiba PR - Individual, at Palácio Garcez
1928 - Christiansand (Norway) - Individual
1930 - Curitiba PR - Individual, at Palácio Garcez
Collective exhibitions
1889 - Oslo (Norway) - Collective
1891 - Oslo (Norway) - Collective
1903 - Curitiba PR State
1905 - Curitiba PR - Exhibition with its students, at the Museu Paranaense
1907 - Curitiba PR - Exposes with its students
1912 - São Paulo SP - Second Brazilian Exhibition of Fine Arts, at the Liceu de Artes and Crafts
1914 - Curitiba PR - Exhibits with his students at the School of Fine Arts and Industry
1916 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 23rd General Exhibition of Fine Arts - Honorable 1st Degree Mention
1917 - Curitiba PR - Exhibition with students, at the Commercial Association of Paraná
1919 - Curitiba PR - 1st State Exhibition Andersen and Disciples
1932 - Curitiba PR -  1st Salão Paranaense of the Society of Artists of the Paraná
1933 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 40th General Exhibition of Fine Arts
1934 - Curitiba PR - 3rd Salão Paranaense
1935 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 4th Salão do Núcleo Bernardelli, at the group's headquarters in the basement of ENBA
Posthumous exhibitions
1935 - Curitiba PR - Retrospective
1941 - Curitiba PR - Exhibition of the Society of Friends of Alfredo Andersen, in the Garcez
1944 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Collective Exhibition of Artists Paranaenses, at the Association of Commerce Employees
1951 - Curitiba PR - 4th Salon of Fine Arts of Club Concórdia
1960 - Curitiba PR - 17th Salão Paranaense de Belas Artes, at the Paraná Public Library
1975 - Curitiba PR - Panorama das Artes in Paraná - From the precursors to the Andersen School
1980 - Curitiba PR - Alfredo Andersen Retrospective Exhibition - 120 Years of Master's Birth 1860-1980, at the Alfredo Andersen Museum
1980 - São Paulo - Exhibition, at Masp
1980 - São Paulo SP - The Brazilian landscape: 1650-1976, at Paço das Artes
1981 - São Paulo SP - Retrospective, at the Pinacoteca do Estado
1982 - Curitiba PR - Alfredo Andersen and his time, at the Alfredo Museum Andersen
1982 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 150 years of navy painting in the history of Brazilian art, at MNBA
1983 - Curitiba PR - Week in honor of Andersen, at the Alfredo Andersen Museum
1984 - Curitiba PR - week in honor of Andersen, at the Alfredo Andersen Museum
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Retrospective, at MNBA
1984 - São Paulo SP - Tradition and Rupture: Synthesis of Brazilian art and culture, at the Bienal Foundation
1985 - Curitiba PR - Week in honor of Andersen, at the Alfredo Andersen Museum
1985 - São Paulo SP - 100 Obras Itaú, at MASP
1986 - Curitiba PR - Tradition/Contradiction, at MAC/PR
1986 - São Paulo SP - Nineteenth: a turn in the century, at the Pinacoteca do Estado
1987 - Curitiba PR - Week in honor of Andersen, at the Alfredo Andersen Museum
1989 - Curitiba PR - The self-portrait in Paraná painting, at the Paraná Art Museum
1989 - Curitiba PR - Week in honor of Andersen, at the Alfredo Andersen
1989 - São Paulo SP - Painting Brazil 19th Century: Works of the Banco Itaú Collection, in Itaugaleria
1991 - Curitiba PR - Municipal Museum of Art: Collection, at the Municipal Museum of Art 
1994 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Brasil Século 20th, at the Bienal Foundation
1995 - Campinas SP - From the Navy to the still life
2000 - Lisbon (Portugal) - 20th century: Art of Brazil, in the José de Azeredo Perdigão Modern Art Center
2004 - Curitiba PR - The landscape of Paraná and its painters, at Casa Andrade Muricy
2004 - São Paulo SP - Portrait of a woman, at the Alfredo Museum Andersen
Source: Itaú Cultural
