Eugênio de Proença Sigaud (Santo Antônio de Carangola¹ RJ 1899 - Rio de Janeiro RJ 1979)
Painter, printmaker, graphic artist, illustrator, set designer, critic, teacher, architect and poet.
He graduated in agronomic engineering in 1920 from the Escola de Agronomia de Belo Horizonte. In 1921, he attended the open course at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes - Enba, where he studied under Modesto Brocos. Later, in 1927, he enrolled in the architecture course at Enba, which he completed in 1932. Sigaud took part in the 38th Salão Nacional de Belas Artes, organized in 1931 by the urban planner Lucio Costa and known as the Salão Revolucionário [Revolutionary Salon] because it allowed the works of all applicants to be shown, sparking the controversy that led to the planner's removal from the head of the institution. Soon after, in 1931, Sigaud formed the Núcleo Bernardelli together with Quirino Campofiorito, Milton Dacosta, Joaquim Tenreiro and José Pancetti. A movement opposed to the conservatism prevailing at Enba, the group advocated, among other initiatives, the democratization of technical education and free access to art salons. In 1935, the group was expelled from Enba's basement under pressure from the academics, but it remained together until the early 1940s. Also in 1935, Sigaud joined the Grupo Portinari, an informal association gathered around Candido Portinari, one of whose main lines of work was mural painting. Sigaud became one of the leading spokesmen for muralism when, that same year, he published the article Por que É Esquecida entre Nós a Pintura Mural? [Why Is Mural Painting Forgotten among Us?] in the Jornal de Belas Artes. He was one of the Brazilian artists selected for the 1st São Paulo International Biennial, at the Pavilhão do Trianon. At the invitation of his brother, Bishop Dom Geraldo Sigaud, he designed and decorated the Metropolitan Cathedral of Jacarezinho, in Paraná, between 1954 and 1957.
Critical Commentary
Known as the painter of the workers, Sigaud explores labor in his canvases in an intense and militant way, above all from the mid-1930s on. That is when he joined the Grupo Portinari, in 1935, and openly took a stance in defense of more popular forms of expression, such as mural painting. Landmark canvases such as A Torre de Concreto [The Concrete Tower], 1936, and Acidente de Trabalho [Work Accident], 1944, both belonging to the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes - MNBA, correspond to the most intense phase of proletarian representation in his output and show how he not only brings anonymous people onto the scene but seeks to portray them in their productive context, amid buildings symbolized by vertiginous iron structures, scaffolding, ropes and other references to daily life on construction sites. Influenced by Mexican muralism and by Portinari's nationalism, and marked by an intense dialogue with Expressionism, Sigaud heightens the dramatic character of his scenes through unusual angles, the distortion of the figures, chromatic contrast and a strongly vertical, somewhat claustrophobic composition of the urban landscape.
"In my view, all art can contribute to stimulating political debate, thereby improving, indirectly, the life of man," Sigaud stated in an interview with Frederico Morais.² His political engagement is expressed not only in his choice of subjects but also in his participation in events such as the exhibition Artistas Plásticos do Partido Comunista [Visual Artists of the Communist Party], at the Casa do Estudante, in 1945, and above all in his constant presence in artists' associations defending freedom of artistic expression and the democratization of art education and exhibition, as in the case of the Núcleo Bernardelli, which he helped found in 1931.
Besides the labor scenes, admittedly influenced by his work as an engineer and architect, Sigaud devoted himself to technical research, exploring a wide range of supports, materials and languages. In painting, for example, he experimented with various techniques, from oil paint and watercolor to works in encaustic, tempera and fresco. In mural painting, his most notable work is the panel he made in the 1950s for the Cathedral of Jacarezinho, in Paraná, at the invitation of his brother, the conservative-leaning Bishop Dom Geraldo de Proença Sigaud. In this work, carried out together with a series of architectural modifications, the artist - who did not hesitate to reaffirm his status as an atheist and communist - reconciles the depiction of religious scenes with a kind of inventory of the local population, inserting into the work a series of portraits of celebrities, popular figures and anonymous people.
Notes
1 Since 1947, its name has been changed to Porciúncula, and it has been separated from the territory of Itaperuna.
2 The quotation is reproduced in an article published shortly after the artist's death. MORAIS, Frederico. O trabalho como temática e norma de vida. Rio de Janeiro, O Globo, 8 ago. 1979.
Critiques
"The personality and the work of Eugênio de Proença Sigaud developed as if along a straight line, both proceeding without deviation, always guided in a single direction, as though they shared a common determinant steering them without doubts or untimely ambitions. One does not believe that the reason for this course was a conservative spirit. It is that the goals defined in successive experiments came about naturally and became settled and clear in Sigaud without hindering the evolution of his existence. Only passing influences may have interfered, as is commonly seen in other artists of unimpeachable integrity. But if we take some works from his artistic beginnings, when he attended the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes, and compare them with his mature output or that of his final years, when his activity as a painter greatly intensified, we will find that, besides the accumulation of technical experience, the feeling that animates them, the marks of his inspiration, the human warmth of his visual and aesthetic fervor remain absolutely the same. (...)"
Quirino Campofiorito
GONÇALVES, Luiz Felipe. Sigaud: o pintor dos operários. Apresentação Edson Motta. Quirino Campofiorito. S.l., editado pelo autor, c1981. Bibliografia: p.125-127 Índice onomástico: p.132-136.
"Sigaud always started from an everyday, immediate motif. At the same time, he enjoyed the fantasy of mythologies. But his strength lies in reality, a reality dense with drama and material respect, because his visual world is peopled with the sweat of simple folk, the wear of proletarian muscles, cranes and scaffolding, buckets of cement and bricks. From all this he drew a rough poetry, a song made hoarse by the cry of protest, a sad horizon wounded by unleashed energy, the energy of the humble and forgotten. Sigaud gives a perfect demonstration of great command of drawing, a high level of experience to be closely analyzed in his artistic work. In times of social collapse, he was the celebrant of the worker, the apologist for the anonymous builder of our spaces. Unlike advertisements with beautiful women, big cars and dandies, he gave us the bare atmosphere of the skeletons of high-rises, the paraphernalia of the docks, illuminating the stevedore and the bricklayer with a magical and Greek dimension. As a person, as a presence, alert and pulsating, he left us a timely warning".
Walmir Ayala
GONÇALVES, Luiz Felipe. Sigaud: o pintor dos operários. Edson Motta. Quirino Campofiorito. S.l., editado pelo autor, c1981. Bibliografia: p.125-127 Índice onomástico: p.132-136.
"Of all the members of the Núcleo Bernardelli, Eugênio Sigaud was the only one who developed a clearly social theme. 'I have always exalted the anonymous worker, I have always denounced life crushed by the system. I have always been aware of the social function of art. In my view, all art can contribute to stimulating political debate, thereby improving, indirectly, the life of man,' he told me in an interview shortly before he died. He was always an expressionist: in the ostentatious distortion of his figures, in the hardly charming theme of the urban working class, in the boldness of his works, in the breadth of his drawing, in the energy of his volumes, in short, in his virile, rough and coarse style. He does not limit himself to showing the worker on the scaffolding of buildings under construction: he also shows workers in the street, amid traffic, in factories, railways, bridges, shipyards and then, moving from the city to the countryside, shows the worker on coffee plantations, muscular and strong, Black, or on the coast, among salt and gravel".
Frederico Morais
MORAIS, Frederico. Dacoleção: os caminhos da arte brasileira. Introdução de Cesar Luis Pires de Mello. São Paulo: Júlio Bogoricin Imóveis, c1986.
Solo Exhibitions
1941 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Palace Hotel
1946 - Santiago (Chile) - Solo, at Universidad de Santiago de Chile
1947 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Solo, at Galeria Muller
1947 - Montevideo (Uruguay) - Solo, at Instituto de Cultura Uruguayo-Brasileño
1948 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria do IAB/RJ
1972 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Homenagem a Sigaud [Tribute to Sigaud], at Galeria da Praça
1973 - São Paulo SP - Homenagem aos 50 anos de Pintura do Artista E. P. Sigaud [Tribute to the Artist E. P. Sigaud's 50 Years of Painting], at A Galeria
1977 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria B-75
Group Exhibitions
1923 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 2nd Spring Salon
1923 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Exhibition of the Sociedade Brasileira de Belas Artes, at Salão Red Star
1924 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 31st General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1925 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 32nd General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1926 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 33rd General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1926 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Salão dos Novos [New Artists Salon]
1927 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 34th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1929 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 36th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1930 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 37th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1931 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Revolutionary Salon, at Enba
1934 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - National Salon of Fine Arts, at Enba
1935 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Exhibition, at Núcleo Bernardelli
1936 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 42nd National Salon of Fine Arts, at Instituto Previdência - bronze medal
1936 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Exhibition, at Núcleo Bernardelli
1937 - São Paulo SP - 5th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon
1938 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Exhibition, at Núcleo Bernardelli
1939 - New York (United States) - Riverside Museum Exhibition - honorable mention
1939 - São Paulo SP - 6th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon
1940 - Porto Alegre RS - Instituto de Belas Artes Salon - bronze medal
1940 - Porto Alegre RS - Bicentenário de Porto Alegre [Porto Alegre Bicentennial]
1940 - Porto Alegre RS - 2nd Salon of the Instituto de Belas Artes do Rio Grande do Sul
1941 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Núcleo Bernardelli, at Palace Hotel
1942 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 48th National Salon of Fine Arts, at MNBA - silver medal
1944 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 50th National Salon of Fine Arts, at MNBA
1944 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - A Criança na Arte [The Child in Art], at MNBA
1944 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Paisagem Brasileira [Brazilian Landscape], at Museu da Escola de Belas Artes Dom João VI
1945 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Visual Artists of the Communist Party, at Casa do Estudante
1946 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Painters Go to the People's School, at Enba
1946 - Valparaíso (Chile) - Exhibition of the Cia Nacional de Navegação
1948 - Cape Town (South Africa) - Exposição Contemporânea de Artistas Brasileiros [Contemporary Exhibition of Brazilian Artists], at South African National Gallery
1948 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Aspectos do Rio [Aspects of Rio], at MNBA
1949 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Watercolors, at MNBA
1950 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - A Century of Brazilian Painting: 1850-1950, at MNBA
1951 - São Paulo SP - 1st São Paulo International Biennial, at Pavilhão do Trianon
1952 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st National Salon of Modern Art, at MAM/RJ
1953 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 2nd National Salon of Modern Art, at MNBA - acquisition prize
1954 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Black and White Salon, at Palácio da Cultura
1955 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Miniature Salon, at ABI
1956 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 5th National Salon of Modern Art
1956 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - National Salon of Fine Arts
1958 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Work in Art, at MNBA
1959 - Macaé RJ - 2nd Macaé Modern Art Festival
1961 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Movimento dos Artistas Modernos Independentes [Movement of Independent Modern Artists], at Sede do Rei da Voz
1962 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 11th National Salon of Modern Art
1967 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 16th National Salon of Modern Art
1974 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Sea, at Galeria Ibeu Copacabana
Posthumous Exhibitions
1979 - São Paulo SP - Retrospective, at Espaço Chap Chap
1980 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Desenhos de Sigaud [Drawings by Sigaud], at Galeria Andréa Sigaud
1982 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Universe of Football, at MAM/RJ
1982 - São Paulo SP - Núcleo Bernardelli Exhibition: Brazilian Art in the 1930s and 1940s, at Acervo Galeria de Arte
1983 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Self-Portraits, at Galeria de Arte Banerj
1984 - São Paulo SP - Tradition and Rupture: A Synthesis of Brazilian Art and Culture, at Fundação Bienal
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 8th National Visual Arts Salon, at MAM/RJ
1985 - São Paulo SP - Sigaud 1899-1979: 60 anos de linguagem gráfica [Sigaud 1899-1979: 60 Years of Graphic Language], at Espaço Cultural Chap Chap
1991 - Curitiba PR - Museu Municipal de Arte: Collection, at Museu Municipal de Arte
1993 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazil, 100 Years of Modern Art, at MNBA
1994 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Brasil Século XX, at Fundação Bienal
1996 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Visions of Rio, at MAM/RJ
2000 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - When Brazil Was Modern: Visual Arts in Rio de Janeiro from 1905 to 1960, at Paço Imperial
2000 - São Paulo SP - The Angels Are Back, at Pinacoteca do Estado
2001 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Watercolor, at Centro Cultural Light
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Art in the Fadel Collection: From the Restlessness of the Modern to the Autonomy of Language, at CCBB
2002 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Art in the Fadel Collection: From the Restlessness of the Modern to the Autonomy of Language, at CCBB
2003 - Brasília DF - Brazilian Art in the Fadel Collection: From the Restlessness of the Modern to the Autonomy of Language, at CCBB
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Caixa Treasures: Brazilian Modern Art in the Caixa Collection, at Conjunto Cultural da Caixa
2003 - São Paulo SP - Art and Society: A Controversial Relationship, at Itaú Cultural
2004 - Curitiba PR - The Paraná Landscape and Its Painters, at Casa Andrade Muricy
2004 - São Paulo SP - Paper Cabinet, at CCSP
Source: Itaú Cultural
