Mario Zanini (São Paulo SP 1907 - idem 1971)
Mário Zanini was a painter, decorator, ceramist and teacher. Born in São Paulo in 1907, he died in the same city in 1971. He was the son of Italian immigrants and the seventh of nine children. He attended primary school in Cambuci, the neighborhood where he lived most of his life.
He enrolled in the painting course of the Escola Profissional Masculina do Brás, where he studied from 1920 to 1922, and in the evening course of the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios from 1924 to 1926. Between 1922 and 1924, he worked as a sign letterer at the Companhia Antártica Paulista, in the Mooca neighborhood. From 1922 on, Zanini made copies of old paintings, and in 1923 he painted his first landscape.
Meeting Good Friends
In 1927 he met Alfredo Volpi, his neighbor in Cambuci and, like him, a decorator; the following year he studied for a few months with Jorge Fischer Elpons.
Recommended by Paschoal Graciano, he began working with Francisco Rebolo Gonsales, who then kept a decorating office in the Edifício Scafuto, on Rua 3 de Dezembro.
It was 1933, and from then until around 1938 the two would carry out commissions in the Louis XV, Louis XVI, Damascene, Liberty and even Futurist styles, according to the client's taste.
The Santa Helena Group Begins to Take Shape
Of the countless decorations made by Zanini, however, none apparently survives.
In 1935 Zanini moved to the Palacete Santa Helena, on Praça da Sé, where Rebolo had set up his office-studio a few months earlier.
In 1936 he rented a room of his own, which he would soon share with Manoel Martins and Graciano. Thus, little by little, the so-called Santa Helena Group emerged, the nucleus of the future Família Artística Paulista.
Zanini, like the other members of the group, left the city whenever he could to paint outdoors in the suburbs, in small neighboring towns or on the coast.
The Painter Begins to Be Noticed
He had taken part in group shows since 1934, and in 1939, exhibiting at the 2nd Salon of the Família Artística Paulista, he earned favorable critical notice from Mário de Andrade, who said:
"This namesake of mine was a revelation to me. It is hard to diagnose whether the diversity of his current handling of the brush indicates richness or indecision, but I sense in him the makings of a great landscape painter."
The year 1940 was one of great activity and progress: Zanini, exhibiting in the Modern Division of the Salão Nacional de Belas Artes, received the silver medal (he would win the domestic travel prize in 1941, but would never obtain the foreign travel prize).
Contact with French Modernism
Later, at the invitation of Paulo Rossi Osir, he produced tile patterns for Osirarte, a company founded by the latter.
He went on to take part in the third and last exhibition of the Família Artística Paulista, held in Rio de Janeiro, and became interested in the monotype technique.
In Itanhaém, a town his friend Volpi had already visited in 1940, he began his series of seascapes.
Furthermore, that same year, like several of his colleagues, he felt the profound impact of the Exhibition of French Art then sent to Brazil.
Joys and Frustrations
Zanini held very few solo exhibitions: the first was in 1944, at the Livraria Brasiliense; the second, in 1962, at the Casa do Artista Plástico de São Paulo, brought together 81 paintings; the third took place in Porto Alegre, at Galeria Pancetti, in 1966.
Zanini was invariably present at group shows, such as the Salão Baiano de Belas Artes, the Bienal de São Paulo (1951 to 1955, 1959), the Salão Paulista de Arte Moderna (domestic travel prize in 1955), the Salão Paranaense de Belas Artes, etc.
His great frustration was never having been awarded the foreign travel prize. At his own expense, he traveled to Italy with Volpi and Rossi Osir, staying there from April to October 1950.
Well Remembered after His Death
Three years after his death, Opus Galeria de Arte held a retrospective, bringing together 39 works belonging to collectors and friends.
Coincidentally, that same year Zanini's family donated to MAC-USP 108 works covering the painter's various phases. This allowed the museum, in 1976, to hold a substantial retrospective of 205 of his works, including paintings, drawings, prints and ceramics.
Teacher, Landscape and Seascape Painter
From 1968, Mário Zanini also taught at the Faculdade de Belas Artes de São Paulo (ten years earlier he had taught printmaking at the Associação Paulista de Belas Artes and the Escola Carlos de Campos), and served as a juror on several organizing, selection and awards committees of art events.
As a landscape painter, Zanini interpreted with simplicity and emotion the countryside around São Paulo.
Being far from the coast, his presence as a seascape painter is less constant, but no less notable. He ventured into still life and, occasionally, made some approaches to abstraction, without ever settling in that genre.
His painting sometimes resembles Volpi's, sometimes Rebolo's. What distinguishes him from the other members of the Santa Helena Group and the Família Artística Paulista, however, is his intense, deep, almost fauve color: alongside Volpi, Zanini is in fact one of the great colorists of modern Brazilian painting.
Less Known, but Always Sought After
He also designed cartoons for tiles, and found in drawing and printmaking, especially the former, expressive means that he used with sensitivity and intelligence.
Producing a great deal but exhibiting only very rarely, it was natural that he did not achieve recognition and success, especially outside São Paulo.
Although not a nationally prominent name, his presence on the Rio-São Paulo axis is always noted, and his works appear frequently at art auctions in both states.
Critical Commentary
The son of Italian immigrants, Mario Zanini develops his artistic career in São Paulo, where he lives in the working-class neighborhood of Cambuci. In 1927, he becomes friends with Alfredo Volpi, later joining the Santa Helena Group together with him. This close association results in freer compositions, with broad brushstrokes, marked by the tension between emotional painting and the desire for formalization, as the art critic Alice Brill points out. According to Brill, the affinity with Volpi can be seen in the way the brushstrokes are applied and in the treatment of the figures. The influence of the French painter Paul Cézanne, which marks the production of the Santa Helena artists, is present, for example, in Trecho de Linha [Stretch of Railway], 1939.
In both printmaking and painting, the artist depicts many scenes of the city of São Paulo, at times including factory chimneys seen from his studio window. Urban life is a constant theme in his production, which portrays, for example, popular musicians, workers and groups of children or cyclists.
Mario Zanini also paints many landscapes depicting the suburbs of São Paulo as they were beginning to be swallowed by the metropolis. In several works he depicts groups of people sitting on the banks of the Tietê River, the typical washerwomen, and the regattas held there. Accompanied by other artists of the Santa Helena Group, he makes frequent trips to the coast and interior of the State of São Paulo, which serve as inspiration.
Critiques
"Mário Zanini's trajectory can be defined as a slow evolution, a development of his creative potential gradually achieved through great craft and intellectual effort. The artist himself always attached great importance to the technical and craft foundation of his work and to daily, constant work in achieving a personal figurative language. The work is homogeneous in its aspects and in its subject matter, with a social concern, documenting a typically suburban experience of the still provincial city of São Paulo. As regards formal research, there was a period when the artist let himself be carried along by the influences of his milieu; in the words of Walter Zanini: 'He becomes involved in the tensions that, in Brazil as in other countries, mark the conflict between abstraction and figuration', contrary to his natural inclination. This period appears as a hiatus within the artist's work, a moment of hesitation, overcome by his determination to remain faithful to spontaneous figuration, the general keynote of the earlier phases. (...) Like Cézanne, Zanini seeks to reconcile harmony of color with a visual elaboration of space, emotionality with constructiveness. If the Macchiaioli approach, Van Gogh's painting and De Fiori's 'expressionism' appeal to his emotionality, Cézanne's lesson represents for Zanini a more intellectualized and constructed painting, introducing new concepts of volume and spatial organization. (...)"
Alice Brill
BRILL, Alice. Mário Zanini e seu tempo: do Grupo Santa Helena às bienais. São Paulo: Perspectiva, 1984.
Testimonials
"Zanini was the first artist to join me in the Santa Helena studio, later moving to a studio next to the one I rented. Talented and sensitive, he loved music and got me to love it too, in our daily conversations; he aroused my interest so much that I often ended up going with him to churches at mass time to listen to the religious music. He also loved reading, making up for the reserved type he was outside his circle of friends. We began going out together, Zanini, Volpi and I, mainly to paint 'from life', in Canindé, in Cambuci and at many other spots on the outskirts. In fact, Volpi and Zanini were so inseparable that the Santa Helena people called them 'Mutt and Jeff', the inseparable characters of a comic strip of the time. (...) I always thought Zanini was a great painter, as well as a good companion. Concerned with mastering the brushstroke, especially in the details of his pictures, he made his landscapes with a concern for great synthesis. By 1939 he was already a painter much praised by critics, despite his modesty".
F. Rebolo Gonsales
ZANINI, Mario. Mário Zanini. São Paulo: Grifo Galeria de Arte, 1977. p. 4. [Depoimento a Lisbeth R. Gonçalves por ocasião da exposição na Galeria Opus, junho de 1974.]
Solo Exhibitions
1944 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria da Livraria Brasiliense
1962 - São Paulo SP - 81 Paintings by Mário Zanini, at Casa do Artista Plástico de São Paulo
1966 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Galeria Pancetti
1968 - Santos SP - Solo, at CCBEU
Group Exhibitions
1934 - São Paulo SP - 1st São Paulo Fine Arts Salon
1935 - São Paulo SP - 2nd São Paulo Fine Arts Salon
1935 - São Paulo SP - 3rd São Paulo Fine Arts Salon
1937 - São Paulo SP - 1st Salon of the Família Artística Paulista, at Hotel Esplanada
1938 - São Paulo SP - 4th Salon of the Visual Artists' Union
1939 - São Paulo SP - 2nd Salon of the Família Artística Paulista, at Salão Eldorado
1940 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 3rd Salon of the Família Artística Paulista, at Palace Hotel
1940 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 46th National Salon of Fine Arts, at MNBA
1940 - São Paulo SP - 5th Salon of the Visual Artists' Union, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1941 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 47th National Salon of Fine Arts, at MNBA
1941 - São Paulo SP - 1st Art Salon of the National Industries Fair
1941 - São Paulo SP - 1st Osirarte Salon, at Rua Barão de Itapetininga, 124
1942 - São Paulo SP - 7th Salon of the Visual Artists' Union, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1943 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Anti-Axis Exhibition, at Museu Histórico e Diplomático - Palácio Itamaraty
1943 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Osirarte Tile Exhibition, at MNBA
1944 - Belo Horizonte MG - Modern Art Exhibition, at MAP
1944 - London (England) - Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, at Royal Academy of Arts
1944 - Norwich (England) - Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, at Norwich Castle and Museum
1944 - São Paulo SP - 9th Salon of the Visual Artists' Union, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1944 - São Paulo SP - Exhibition of Brazilian-North American Modern Painting, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1944 - São Paulo SP - Mario Zanini, Bruno Giorgi and Hilde Weber, at Livraria Brasiliense
1945 - Bath (England) - Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings
1945 - Bristol (England) - Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings
1945 - Edinburgh (Scotland) - Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings
1945 - Glasgow (Scotland) - Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings
1945 - Manchester (England) - Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings
1945 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 51st National Salon of Fine Arts, at MNBA
1945 - São Paulo SP - Alfredo Volpi, Bonadei, Carlos Prado, Quirino da Silva, Francisco Rebolo, Mario Zanini and José Pancetti, at Galeria Benedetti
1945 - São Paulo SP - Anita Malfatti, Virgínia Artigas, Clóvis Graciano, Mick Carnicelli, Oswald de Andrade Filho, José Pancetti, Carlos Prado, Francisco Rebolo, Quirino da Silva, Alfredo Volpi, Mario Zanini, at Galeria Itapetininga
1945 - São Paulo SP - Galeria Domus: Inaugural Exhibition, at Galeria Domus
1945 - São Paulo SP - Posthumous Tribute to Mário de Andrade, at Galeria Itá
1946 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Osirarte, at Salón Peuser
1946 - São Paulo SP - Osirarte, at Galeria Benedetti
1946 - Valparaíso (Chile) - Cia Nacional de Navegação Exhibition
1946 - Valparaíso (Chile) - Exhibition of Brazilian Contemporary Painting, at Instituto de Extensão de Artes Plásticas
1947 - Mendoza (Argentina) - Osirarte, at Galeria Gimenez
1947 - São Paulo SP - 11th Salon of the Visual Artists' Union, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1947 - São Paulo SP - 1st Traveling Visual Arts Exhibition
1947 - São Paulo SP - Watercolors and Gouaches, at Biblioteca Municipal Mário de Andrade
1947 - São Paulo SP - Bonadei, Di Cavalcanti, Noêmia Mourão, Lothar Charoux, Oswald de Andrade Filho, Lúcia Suané, Cesar Lacanna, Mario Zanini and Raphael Galvez, at Galeria Itapetininga
1947 - São Paulo SP - Mario Zanini, Rebolo, Sérgio Milliet and Volpi, at Galeria Domus
1948 - São Paulo SP - 12th Salon of the Visual Artists' Union, at Galeria Domus
1948 - São Paulo SP - Volpi, Zanini, Rebolo, at Galeria Domus
1949 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 55th National Salon of Fine Arts, at MNBA
1949 - Salvador BA - 1st Bahia Fine Arts Salon, at Hotel Bahia
1950 - São Paulo SP - Alfredo Volpi, Nelson Nóbrega, Zanini, Francisco Rebolo, at Galeria Domus
1951 - São Paulo SP - 1st Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Pavilhão do Trianon
1951 - São Paulo SP - 1st São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1952 - São Paulo SP - Volpi, Zanini, Rossi, at Instituto Cultural Ítalo-Brasileiro
1953 - São Paulo SP - 2nd Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at MAM/SP
1953 - São Paulo SP - 2nd Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Pavilhão dos Estados
1954 - Goiânia GO - Exhibition of the National Congress of Intellectuals
1954 - São Paulo SP - 3rd São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1954 - São Paulo SP - Contemporary Art: Exhibition of the Collection of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, at MAM/SP
1955 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 4th National Salon of Modern Art
1955 - São Paulo SP - 4th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1956 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Railway Salon, at MEC
1956 - São Paulo SP - 50 Years of Brazilian Landscape, at MAM/SP
1958 - São Paulo SP - 47 Artists, at Galeria de Arte das Folhas
1958 - São Paulo SP - 7th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1959 - São Paulo SP - 40 Artists from Brazil, at Galeria São Luiz
1959 - São Paulo SP - 47 Artists, at Galeria de Arte das Folhas
1959 - São Paulo SP - 5th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Pavilhão Ciccillo Matarazzo Sobrinho
1960 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 9th National Salon of Modern Art, at MAM/RJ
1960 - São Paulo SP - 9th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1961 - São Paulo SP - Leirner Contemporary Art Prize, at Galeria de Arte das Folhas
1962 - São Paulo SP - 11th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria
1963 - Campinas SP - Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, at Museu Carlos Gomes
1966 - São Paulo SP - 15th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1966 - São Paulo SP - Half a Century of New Art, at MAC/USP
1966 - São Paulo SP - The Santa Helena Group Today, at Galeria de Arte 4 Planetas
1966 - São Paulo SP - Three Premises, at MAB/Faap
1967 - Barcelona (Spain) - Brazilian Painters in Spain, at Galería Syra
1969 - São Bernardo do Campo SP - 12th São Bernardo do Campo Art Salon
1969 - São Paulo SP - 1st Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
Posthumous Exhibitions
1974 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Opus
1975 - São Paulo SP - 40 Years: Grupo Santa Helena, at MIS/SP
1976 - São Paulo SP - Mario Zanini, at MAC/USP
1976 - São Paulo SP - The Salons: of the Família Artística Paulista, of May and of the São Paulo Visual Artists' Union, at Museu Lasar Segall
1977 - São Paulo SP - Seibi Group - Santa Helena Group: 1935 to 1945, at MAB/Faap
1977 - São Paulo SP - Mario Zanini, at Grifo Galeria de Arte
1978 - São Paulo SP - The Biennials and Abstraction: The 1950s, at Museu Lasar Segall
1979 - São Paulo SP - The Santa Helena Group, at Uirapuru Galeria de Arte
1980 - São Paulo SP - The Brazilian Landscape: 1650-1976, at Paço das Artes
1982 - São Paulo SP - From Modernism to the Bienal, at MAM/SP
1982 - São Paulo SP - Seascapes and Riverscapes, at Museu Lasar Segall
1984 - São Paulo SP - Tradition and Rupture: A Synthesis of Brazilian Art and Culture, at Fundação Bienal
1985 - São Paulo SP - 100 Itaú Works, at Masp
1985 - São Paulo SP - Osirarte: Paintings on Tile by Volpi, Zanini, Hilde Weber and Gerda Brentani, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Seven Decades of Italian Presence in Brazilian Art, at Paço Imperial
1988 - São Paulo SP - MAC 25 Years: Highlights of the Initial Collection, at MAC/USP
1992 - Poços de Caldas MG - Brazilian Modern Art: Collection of the Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo, at Casa da Cultura
1992 - São Paulo SP - Sérgio's View of Brazilian Art: Drawings and Paintings, at Biblioteca Municipal Mário de Andrade
1993 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazil, 100 Years of Modern Art, at MNBA
1994 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Brasil Século XX, at Fundação Bienal
1995 - Osasco SP - 2nd Art Show, at Fundação Instituto de Ensino para Osasco
1995 - São Paulo SP - The Santa Helena Group, at MAM/SP
1996 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Santa Helena Group, at CCBB
1996 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Art: 50 Years of History in the MAC/USP Collection: 1920-1970, at MAC/USP
1997 - São Paulo SP - Great Names of Brazilian Painting, at Jo Slaviero Galeria de Arte
1997 - São Paulo SP - The Revealing Touch: Portraits and Self-Portraits, at MAC/USP
1998 - São Paulo SP - São Paulo Iconography in Private Collections, at Museu da Casa Brasileira
1999 - São Paulo SP - Everyday Life/Art. Consumption, at Itaú Cultural
2000 - São Paulo SP - Brazil on Paper: Shades and Experiences, at Espaço de Artes Unicid
2000 - São Paulo SP - Santa Helena Group, at Jo Slaviero Galeria de Arte
2000 - São Paulo SP - The Role of Art, at Galeria de Arte do Sesi
2001 - Brasília DF - Collections of Brazil, at CCBB
2001 - São Paulo SP - Self-Portrait, the Artist's Mirror, at Galeria de Arte do Sesi
2001 - São Paulo SP - Museu de Arte Brasileira: 40 Years, at MAB/Faap
2002 - São Paulo SP - Modernism: From the Week of '22 to Sérgio Milliet's Art Section, at CCSP
2002 - São Paulo SP - Workers on Paulista: MAC-USP and the Artisan Artists, at Galeria de Arte do Sesi
2003 - São Paulo SP - The Art Behind the Art: Where Artworks Are Kept and How They Travel, at MAM/SP
2003 - São Paulo SP - Art and Society: A Controversial Relationship, at Itaú Cultural
2003 - São Paulo SP - Painters of the São Paulo Coast, at Sociarte
2003 - São Paulo SP - One Single Heart, at MAM/SP
2004 - São Paulo SP - Paper Cabinet, at CCSP
Source: Itaú Cultural and CD-ROM: 500 Anos da Pintura Brasileira
