Inimá de Paula

Available artworks

Biography

Inimá de Paula (Itanhomi MG 1918 - Belo Horizonte MG 1999)

Painter and draftsman.

From 1937, he attends the Núcleo Antônio Parreiras in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais. In 1940, he settles in Rio de Janeiro, enrolling in the classes of Argemiro Cunha (1880-1940) at the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios do Rio de Janeiro, which he soon abandons. He begins painting with some former members of the Núcleo Bernardelli. In 1944, he moves to Fortaleza, where he meets local artists and takes part in founding the Sociedade Cearense de Artes Plásticas (SCAP). He returns to Rio de Janeiro in 1945 and exhibits with Aldemir Martins (1922-2006), Antonio Bandeira (1922-1967) and Jean-Pierre Chabloz (1910-1984) at Galeria Askanasy. In 1948, thanks to the support of Candido Portinari (1903-1962), he holds his first solo show at the Instituto dos Arquitetos do Brasil (IAB/RJ). In 1950, he wins the domestic travel prize of the Salão Nacional de Belas Artes (SNBA) and, the following year, travels to and exhibits in Bahia. In 1952, he receives the foreign travel prize of the Salão Nacional de Arte Moderna (SNAM). In Paris, between 1954 and 1956, he attends courses at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. He then follows the classes of André Lhote (1885 - 1962) and Gino Severini (1883-1966). On his return, he begins making abstract paintings, some of which he shows at the 5th Bienal de São Paulo. In the first half of the 1960s, he moves to Belo Horizonte and returns to figurative painting. In 1998 the Fundação Inimá de Paula is established in Belo Horizonte.

Critical Commentary

Inimá is known as "the Brazilian fauve"1 because of the strong, vibrant colors he paints with, which are indeed a striking feature of his work. Reds, blues, yellows and greens that seem pure and are laid on the canvas with vigorous movements. In some cases, he recalls the Henri Matisse (1869-1954) of La Plage Rouge (1905) and, in others, Expressionism. As in the seascape Pequeno Porto [Small Harbor] (1987), entirely in intense colors, or in some self-portraits, in which vigorous strokes and somber colors give the figure a troubled quality.

Nevertheless, throughout his career Inimá also produces works dominated by whites and grays. Whether in the urban landscapes of Santa Teresa, in the seascapes of Ceará or, later, in the views of Minas Gerais, white is used as a color, lending even greater tranquility to scenes already practically devoid of action. Many critics emphasize this aspect.2

Another feature usually seen as defining Inimá's work is the predominance of landscape, specifically urban landscape. The combination of architecture and nature allows the painter to create very balanced compositions, in which he tends to cover most of the canvas, leaving little room for the sky, alternating the orderly colors of the rows of houses with the color patches of the vegetation.

However, he also paints portraits, still lifes and abstract compositions. The still lifes reveal the influence of Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) and Matisse, in line and color as well as in the objects. His abstract period is varied, ranging from more Cubist compositions that retain a vestige of the figure to more informal ones.

Notes
1 MORAIS, Frederico. Inimá de Paula. Rio de Janeiro: L. Christiano, 1987, p. 15.
2 MORAIS, Frederico. Op. cit., p. 23 and, for example, Rubens Navarra in SAMPAIO, Renato. Inimá. Belo Horizonte: Rona, 1999, p. 172.

Critiques

"(...) Inimá has remained an expressionist throughout his artistic career, with the sole exception of an abstract phase resulting from his stay in Paris. (...) In the first period of his stay in Rio, Inimá painted urban landscapes of Guanabara, above all the century-old houses of Cidade Nova and Santa Teresa. (...) These pictures, followed by some portraits, are the most representative works of the painter's expressionist period. In the Parisian period, (...) he is then concerned above all with the structuring of space and the geometrized representation of nature, in keeping with his master's ideas. (...). Coming back from Europe, Inimá returned to Minas, settling between Belo Horizonte and Ouro Preto. He returned to figuration at a time when the crisis of abstraction was already evident in Europe. (...). The expressionist tendency would soon loom large in the early days of this new return to figuration, marked shortly afterwards by a surprising revaluation of the object. Inimá's Minas Gerais landscapes, especially those of Ouro Preto, differ from Guignard's pictures. (...) But while Guignard's solutions are almost always painterly, Inimá's have other aims in view, including spatial or architectural ones, although the artist is also concerned with imposing subjectivity on the composition, following in this respect a characteristic of the expressionist painters. Finally, in his second, Rio phase, (...) Inimá's art grows richer and his landscapes more varied (...)"
Antônio Bento
CAVALCANTI, Carlos; AYALA, Walmir, org. Dicionário brasileiro de artistas plásticos. Apresentação de Maria Alice Barroso. Brasília: MEC/INL, 1973-1980. (Dicionários especializados, 5).

"Except for the long period of work in abstraction, during most of the 1950s and the beginning of the following decade, Inimá de Paula, from Minas Gerais, has kept a natural tendency toward a blend of Fauvism and Expressionism, through which he approaches his favorite subjects: landscape and portrait. As Antônio Bento noted, this basic propensity may have developed more intensely from the years spent in Ceará, when he was just beginning his career as a painter after a brief apprenticeship in Juiz de Fora and Rio. The landscape of the Northeast and the place of human beings within it would have offered him contrasts and violence that would be reflected in the scenographically dramatized aspects of the portraits, in the luminosity of the Minas and Rio landscapes of various phases, or in the Matisse-like intense and lyrical interiors of other moments. Even the years of non-figurative language - at first dominated, under the stimulus of studies with André Lhote in Paris, by the search for constructive discipline, and later moving into Tachisme - ended up serving as a dynamo to intensify the whole preexisting fauve-expressionist structure that defines him. More recently, this foundation has led to paintings in which landscape is subjected to broad, grave brushstrokes of seething colors, dominated by greens, reds, blues and whites, without its Cubist-derived limits being entirely disguised, though tending more and more to disperse in gestural effort. (...)"
Roberto Pontual
PONTUAL, Roberto. Arte brasileira contemporânea: Coleção Gilberto Chateaubriand. trad. Tradução de John Knox; Florence Eleanor Irvin. Apresentação de Pereira Carneiro. Rio de Janeiro: Jornal do Brasil, 1976.

"One cannot properly speak of phases in Inimá de Paula's painting. Or, at least, they are not well delimited thematically and formally. At most, one can circumscribe his output by his geographical moves, and even then only precariously, because above them is the artist's own state of mind. There is no sequential or linear development of subjects and color in his work. Color sometimes bursts out furiously amid long periods dominated by whites and grays, and this is independent of where he is. Likewise, during his abstract phase, he did not stop painting figurative works. (...)

However, the most visible and at the same time the deepest mark is Fauvism, which asserts itself fully in his final phase, in Minas Gerais. Through Fauvism and his affinity with the painting of Kaminagai, he connects with the School of Paris, without losing his Brazilian roots. When Inimá says he has always been an expressionist, one must understand the meaning of his statement well. It may be a reference to more dramatic moments in his painting, such as the Rio period of 1967/1968, or he may be using the term in its broadest sense, which defines Expressionism as a permanent tendency in the history of art, resurfacing from time to time whenever there is a crisis, be it aesthetic, moral, political or economic. In other words, Expressionism would be the pole of crisis, as opposed to the pole of construction, of which Cubism is an example. Crisis and construction, or emotion and rigor, would then be the two fundamental currents of art history, each encompassing different schools, isms and tendencies. Within this broader perspective, Fauvism belongs to the expressionist current. Or else one can say it is one of its roots, alongside Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter, born in Germany, the homeland par excellence of Expressionism.

(...) All Inimá wants from his painting is to achieve a vibrant atmosphere for color. As he puts it: 'To work on the picture without hurting it, spontaneously, fluidly, one brushstroke, then another, and another, but without losing the sense of form, always seeking the resonance and vibration of color'".
Frederico Morais
MORAIS, Frederico. A obra. In: ___. Inimá de Paula. Rio de Janeiro: L. Christiano, 1987. p. 65, p. 68, p. 112.

Testimonials

"I love painting people and landscapes. When for some reason I can't paint from life, outdoors, I take photographs and go to the easel. Of course, the final work has nothing to do with the photograph itself, because it has been altered. Sometimes I put people in my landscapes, always for reasons of composition and when they are absolutely indispensable. But in any case, in my canvases the landscape is always bigger and stronger than man".
Inimá de Paula ao Jornal da Tarde, 1982
PAULA, Inimá de. Paisagens. In: MORAIS, Frederico. Inimá de Paula. Apresentação de Israel Pedrosa. Rio de Janeiro: L. Christiano, 1987. p. 78

Solo Exhibitions

1948 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Hotel Copacabana Palace
1948 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at IAB/RJ
1948 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at MEC
1948 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Galeria Oxumaré
1949 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Montmartre
1954 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Montmartre
1954 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at MEC
1959 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Galeria Dantez
1961 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Galeria Pinguim
1962 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Piccola Galleria do Instituto Italiano di Cultura
1965 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Biblioteca Nacional
1965 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Barcinski
1965 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria G4
1965 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Macunaíma/Funarte
1966 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Galeria Grupiara
1966 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Galeria Pinguim
1967 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Galeria Guignard
1967 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Ibeu
1967 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at MAP
1968 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Galeria Guignard
1970 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Hotel Copacabana Palace
1971 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Colégio Santa Dorotéia
1974 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Real Galeria de Arte
1974 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Vernissage Galeria de Arte
1975 - Brasília DF - Solo, at Performance Galeria de Arte
1976 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Galeria Caminito Artes e Presentes
1977 - Brasília DF - Solo, at Oscar Seraphico Galeria de Arte
1977 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Banco América do Sul S. A.
1978 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Ami Galeria de Arte
1978 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Kattya Galeria de Arte
1981 - Belo Horizonte MG - Inimá de Paula: 43 Years of Painting, at Ami Galeria de Arte
1982 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Realidade Galeria de Arte
1982 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria de Arte Portal
1983 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Bonino
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Bonino
1985 - Belo Horizonte MG - Retrospective, at MAP
1985 - Brasília DF - Solo, at Performance Galeria de Arte
1985 - São Paulo SP - Retrospective, at MAM/SP
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Landscapes and Seascapes, at Villa Bernini Galeria
1988 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Chromos Galeria de Arte
1989 - Belo Horizonte MG - Inimá de Paula: Recent Works, at Espaço Cultural do Lloyds Bank
1993 - Salvador BA - Inimá, at MCR Galeria de Arte
1996 - Brasília DF - Solo, at Royal Art - Galeria de Arte
1997 - Belo Horizonte MG - Retrospective, at Palácio das Artes
1998 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Galeria Inimá
1998 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Fundação Inimá de Paula
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Retrospective, at Mnba

Group Exhibitions

1945 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Ceará Group, at Galeria Askanasy
1946 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Painters Go to the People's School, at Enba
1946 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 52nd National Salon of Fine Arts, at Mnba
1947 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 53rd National Salon of Fine Arts - Modern Division, at Mnba - honorable mention
1948 - Fortaleza CE - 4th Salão de Abril [April Salon] - 1st prize
1948 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 54th National Salon of Fine Arts, at Mnba - silver medal
1949 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 55th National Salon of Fine Arts - Modern Division, at Mnba - silver medal
1949 - Salvador BA - 1st Bahia Fine Arts Salon, at Hotel Bahia
1950 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 56th National Salon of Fine Arts, at Mnba - domestic travel prize
1950 - Salvador BA - 2nd Bahia Fine Arts Salon, at Belvedere da Sé - silver medal
1951 - Fortaleza CE - 4th Ceará Fine Arts Salon - gold medal
1951 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 57th National Salon of Fine Arts, at Mnba
1951 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Still Life Exhibition, at Serviço de Alimentação e Previdência Social
1951 - São Paulo SP - 1st Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Pavilhão do Trianon
1952 - Feira de Santana BA - 1st Feira de Santana Modern Art Exhibition, at Banco Econômico
1952 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st National Salon of Modern Art - foreign travel award
1952 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Exhibition of Brazilian Artists, at MAM/RJ
1952 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st National Salon of Modern Art, at MAM/RJ
1953 - Belo Horizonte MG - Belo Horizonte City Fine Arts Salon
1954 - Belo Horizonte MG - Belo Horizonte City Fine Arts Salon
1954 - Goiânia GO - Exhibition of the National Congress of Intellectuals
1954 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Black and White Salon, at Palácio da Cultura - foreign travel award
1954 - Salvador BA - 4th Bahia Fine Arts Salon, at Hotel Bahia - silver medal
1955 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 4th National Salon of Modern Art - hors-concours
1956 - Belo Horizonte MG - 11th Belo Horizonte City Fine Arts Salon - prize/painting
1956 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Railway Salon, at Ministério da Educação e Cultura - 1st prize/painting
1957 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Modern Art in Brazil, at Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires
1957 - Lima (Peru) - Modern Art in Brazil, at Museo de Arte de Lima
1957 - Rosario (Argentina) - Modern Art in Brazil, at Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes Juan B. Castagnino
1957 - Santiago (Chile) - Modern Art in Brazil, at Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Santiago
1958 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Eight Contemporary Artists, at Galeria Macunaíma
1958 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Mother and Child Art Salon
1958 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Salon of the Sea
1959 - Leverkusen (Germany) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1959 - Munich (Germany) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe, at Kunsthaus
1959 - New York (United States) - Inter-American Cultural and Artistic Competition, at Ceceille Art Gallery - 1st prize
1959 - São Paulo SP - 5th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Pavilhão Ciccillo Matarazzo Sobrinho
1959 - Vienna (Austria) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Hamburg (Germany) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Lisbon (Portugal) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Madrid (Spain) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Paris (France) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Utrecht (Netherlands) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1961 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Rio in Brazilian Painting, at Biblioteca Estadual da Guanabara
1963 - Belo Horizonte MG - Belo Horizonte City Fine Arts Salon - 2nd prize
1963 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Landscape as Theme, at Galeria Ibeu Copacabana
1966 - Brasília DF - 3rd Federal District Modern Art Salon - guest artist
1966 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Self-Portraits, at Ibeu Copacabana
1968 - Florianópolis SC - 1st National Visual Arts Exhibition, at Masc
1969 - São Paulo SP - 1st Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1972 - São Paulo SP - Art/Brazil/Today: 50 Years Later, at Galeria da Collectio
1973 - Atami (Japan) - 1st Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition
1973 - Brasília DF - 1st Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition
1973 - Brasília DF - Celebration of the 107th Anniversary of the Battle of Riachuelo, at Hotel Nacional Brasília
1973 - Osaka (Japan) - 1st Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition
1973 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition
1973 - São Paulo SP - 1st Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition
1973 - Tokyo (Japan) - 1st Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition
1974 - Belo Horizonte MG - 2nd Global Winter Salon, at Palácio das Artes
1974 - Tokyo (Japan) - Brazilian Painters in Japan
1975 - Japan - 2nd Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition, at Salão da Assembleia Legislativa do Estado
1975 - New York (United States) - Group show, at Genaile Art Gallery Inc.
1975 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 2nd Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition, at Centro Lume
1975 - São Paulo SP - 2nd Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition, at Salão da Assembleia Legislativa do Estado
1976 - Belo Horizonte MG - Exhibitions of the Murals of Belo Horizonte Municipal Schools
1977 - São Paulo SP - 3rd Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition
1977 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 3rd Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition
1977 - Tokyo (Japan) - 3rd Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition
1979 - São Paulo SP - 4th Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition
1979 - Tokyo (Japan) - 4th Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition
1979 - Kyoto (Japan) - 4th Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition
1979 - Atami (Japan) - 4th Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition
1981 - Atami (Japan) - 5th Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition
1981 - Belo Horizonte MG - 8th Global Winter Salon, at Palácio das Artes
1981 - Belo Horizonte MG - Minas Gerais Art in Focus, at Palácio das Artes
1981 - Belo Horizonte MG - Six Artists from Minas, at Ami Galeria de Arte
1981 - Brasília DF - 5th Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition
1981 - Kyoto (Japan) - 5th Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition
1981 - Nekai (Japan) - 5th Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition
1981 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 5th Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition
1981 - São Paulo SP - 5th Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition
1981 - São Paulo SP - 8th Global Winter Salon, at Masp
1981 - Tokyo (Japan) - 5th Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition
1982 - Belo Horizonte MG - Group Show of Brazilian Painters, at Gauguin Galeria de Arte
1983 - Atami (Japan) - 6th Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition
1983 - Kyoto (Japan) - 6th Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition
1983 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 6th Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition, at Mnba
1983 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 6th National Visual Arts Salon, at MAM/RJ
1983 - São Paulo SP - 14th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1983 - São Paulo SP - 6th Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition, at MAM/SP
1983 - Tokyo (Japan) - 6th Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Active Brazilian Painting, at Espaço Petrobrás
1984 - São Paulo SP - Tradition and Rupture: A Synthesis of Brazilian Art and Culture, at Fundação Bienal
1985 - Atami (Japan) - 7th Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition
1985 - Kyoto (Japan) - 7th Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 7th Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition, at Fundação Brasil-Japão de Artes Plásticas
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Six Decades of Modern Art: Roberto Marinho Collection, at Paço Imperial
1985 - São Paulo SP - 7th Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition, at Fundação Mokiti Okada - MOA
1985 - Tokyo (Japan) - 7th Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Wartime: Hotel Internacional, at Galeria de Arte Banerj
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Wartime: Pensão Mauá, at Galeria de Arte Banerj
1987 - São Paulo SP - The Craft of Art: Painting, at Sesc
1988 - São Paulo SP - 15 Years of the Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition, at Fundação Mokiti Okada
1989 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Six Decades of Brazilian Modern Art: Roberto Marinho Collection, at Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. Centro de Arte Moderna José de Azeredo Perdigão
1989 - São Paulo SP - Thirty-Three Ways of Seeing the World, at Ranulpho Galeria de Arte
1990 - Goiânia GO - 20 Years of the Museu de Arte de Goiânia, at Museu de Arte
1990 - São Paulo SP - 6th Brazilian Art Salon, at Fundação Mokiti Okada
1991 - Fortaleza CE - Scap: 50 Years, at Imperial Othon Palace Hotel
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st On the Way to Niterói: João Sattamini Collection, at Paço Imperial
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Eco Art, at MAM/RJ
1992 - São Paulo SP - 7th Brazilian Art Salon, at Fundação Mokiti Okada - MOA
1994 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Brasil Século XX, at Fundação Bienal
1994 - São Paulo SP - Guignard: 50 Years of an Art School, at Galeria Vidyã
1995 - Belo Horizonte MG - Nuance Galeria de Arte Inaugural Exhibition, at Nuance Galeria de Arte
1995 - São Paulo SP - Brazil-Japan Art, at Fundação Mokiti Okada - MOA
1996 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Visions of Rio, at MAM/RJ
1998 - Belo Horizonte MG - Art Encounter-Brazil/Portugal: A Moment of Convergence, at Museu Mineiro
1999 - São Paulo SP - The Resacralization of Art, at Sesc/Pompéia