Moacir Andrade (Manaus AM 1927 - idem 2016)
Painter and draftsman.
He began painting self-taught. Around 1942, he studied drawing at the Escola Técnica de Manaus. He graduated in Museology from the Museu Histórico Nacional in Rio de Janeiro. Around 1954, he joined the Clube da Madrugada in Manaus.
Critiques
"The banners of ecological defense had not yet been unfurled, and already the Amazonian artist, endowed with a vision that carried on that of the greatest landscape painters of all time, was declaring and defending in his canvases, through the voice of colors, the most beloved profiles of Amazonian life and man. The whole nature of the Plain, punished to the point of the sacrifice of species, could providentially show itself first in Moacir's creations. One might say that he was an effective means the Amazon found to defend itself and perpetuate itself in its most beautiful and essential features as a green power, of infinitely outpoured life. This affective phenomenon of nature finding in artists its sacramental path, its transposition into the future, occurs insistently, is ardently studied, and remains mysterious. What is certain, however, is that the art of the enlightened is a pure and ancestral movement for the preservation of decisive values in the evolution of peoples, an effort for the perpetuity of the most eminent biosocial and human characteristics. The art that exercises eternity is a complex conjunction, in which man's exchanges with nature appear synergistically completing each other and acting redemptively, always exorcising the approaching darkness and showing the bridges to the dawn. Thus the whole of Moacir Andrade's work, seen in its fertile grandeur of half a century, seems more like a convulsion of nature, a powerful awakening of the Amazonian natural forces seeking space to multiply their gifts, extend their embraces, lavish their lights. Emotionally considered and critically measured, Moacir Andrade's work cannot be only art, only love of the land; it is a true descent into the sacred fire, an anointing upon the forest, the overflowing of a personality that the ages call for from millennium to millennium (...)"
Max Carphentier
ANDRADE, Moacir. 50 anos de exposições pelo Brasil e pelo mundo. Apresentação de Thiago de Mello. Textos de Max Carphentier, Menotti del Picchia, Câmara Cascudo, Jorge Amado, Gilberto Freyre, Gabriel García Márquez. Manaus: Editora Umberto Calderaro Ltda., s.d., 54p. ilust.
"Moacir Andrade subjects, in disciplined spaces of art - tapestry roosters, the glitter of mosaics and the magic of nativity scenes - the paroxysms of his diluvian zoorama, a dazzling epic of fauna: fish, leviathans, dragons, harpies, beaded with cold foam and spotted with dreamlike memories, in the light of a yellow at once telluric and transcendent; he thus captures in a tense round the life of the great river and engraves in the eyes of abyssal pets the vastness and forest, the cosmic, silent essence of the Amazon."
João Guimarães Rosa
KAWALL, Luiz Ernesto Machado. Artes reportagem. Prefácio de Luís Arrobas Martins. Apresentação de Francisco Luís de Almeida Salles. São Paulo: Centro de Artes Novo Mundo, 1972.
"It is true that his tendency to stylization - in portraits as well as in landscapes, figures and typical scenes - has often led him to produce works that do not have a directly equatorial and specific atmosphere, mixing such diverse techniques and interests as those of a certain expressionism with a compositional function, a gesturalism derived from the pleasure of broadly covering the surface of the paper or canvas, and a constructive desire to organize the multiple areas of color into structures with a geometrizing tendency. However, his Amazonian origin and experience have lately come to assume direct importance in his painting, modifying the earlier schemes very broadly. What stimulates him today is the attempt to retell, on large canvases entirely covered with countless details, the popularly disseminated legends of the region. If Moacir Andrade's painting formerly sought to be grounded in more classical standards, it now presents itself freed for the exercise of imagination, abolishing the conventionalism of perspective and becoming childlike in the joy of gathering raised dots of color, fantastic elements of fable and symbology atavistically stored by man."
Roberto Pontual
PONTUAL, Roberto. Arte/Brasil/hoje: 50 anos depois. São Paulo: Collectio, 1973.
Solo Exhibitions
1941 - Manaus AM - Primeira exposição [First exhibition], at Liceu Industrial
1955 - Manaus AM - Solo, at Biblioteca Pública/Clube da Madrugada
1956 - Manaus AM - Solo, at Biblioteca Pública/Clube da Madrugada
1957 - Manaus AM - Solo, at Ideal Clube
1958 - Brasília DF - Solo, at Hotel Nacional de Brasília
1958 - Manaus AM - Solo, at Biblioteca Pública/Clube da Madrugada
1958 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Masp
1959 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Montmartre-Jorge
1960 - Manaus AM - Solo, at Biblioteca Pública/Clube da Madrugada
1960 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at MAM/SP - Probel Painting Competition
1961 - Manaus AM - Solo, at Escola Técnica Federal
1962 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Galeria Casa das Molduras
1963 - Brasília DF - Solo, at Galeria do Hotel Nacional
1963 - Manaus AM - Solo, at Jornal do Comércio
1964 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Belvedere da Sé
1966 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Secretaria de Turismo do antigo Estado da Guanabara
1967 - Salvador BA - Solo, at MAM/BA
1967 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at MAM/SP
1968 - Jackson (United States) - Solo
1968 - Knoxville (United States) - Solo
1968 - Memphis (United States) - Solo
1968 - Nashville (United States) - Solo
1968 - Union City (United States) - Solo
1968 - Washington D.C. (United States) - Solo, at Congresso Nacional
1968 - Paris (France) - 35 quadros sobre lendas amazônicas [35 Paintings on Amazonian Legends]
1969 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Solo, sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Amazonas Department of Education and Culture
1969 - London (England) - Solo, at Casa do Brasil
1969 - Washington D.C. (United States) - Solo, at Galeria do BID
1970 - Madrid (Spain) - Solo, sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
1971 - Brussels (Belgium) - Solo, sponsored by the Brazilian Embassy
1971 - Quito (Ecuador) - Solo, sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
1972 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Mini Galeria
1974 - Mexico City (Mexico) - Solo, at Galeria Orozco
1974 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Espade
1974 - Tokyo (Japan) - Solo, sponsored by the Japan Foundation
1974 - Osaka (Japan) - Solo, sponsored by the Japan Foundation
1974 - Nara (Japan) - Solo, sponsored by the Japan Foundation
1974 - Hiroshima (Japan) - Solo, sponsored by the Japan Foundation
1975 - Chattanooga (United States) - Solo, at Learning Disabilities Center
1975 - Nashville (United States) - Solo, at Latin American Center of Vanderbilt University
1975 - Martin (United States) - Solo, at Fine Arts Center - The University of Tennessee
1975 - Cookeville (United States) - Solo, at Tennessee Technological University
1975 - Memphis (United States) - Solo, at Holiday Inn
1975 - Osceola (United States) - Solo, at Carriage Trade Inn
1975 - Washington D.C. (United States) - Solo, at Instituto Cultural Brasileiro
1976 - Manaus AM - Solo, at Galeria do Bradesco
1976 - São Luís MA - Solo, at Galeria de Arte Eney Santana
1977 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Solo, at Galeria do Cassino Estoril
1977 - Manaus AM - Mostra retrospectiva [Retrospective exhibition], at Salão Nobre da ETFAM
1977 - Paris (France) - Solo, at Galeria Debret
1977 - São João da Madeira (Portugal) - Solo, at Câmara Municipal
1978 - Manaus AM - Ecologia [Ecology], at Teatro Amazonas
1978 - Manaus AM - Mostra em defesa da natureza amazônica - Instituto Brasileiro de Antropologia [Exhibition in Defense of Amazonian Nature - Brazilian Institute of Anthropology], at Hotel Amazonas
1978 - Paramaribo (Suriname) - Solo, sponsored by the Brazilian Embassy
1979 - Cayenne (French Guiana) - Solo
1979 - Chattanooga (United States) - Solo, at Hunter Museum
1979 - Atlanta (United States) - Solo, at High Museum of Art
1980 - Adelaide (Australia) - Solo
1980 - Brisbane (Australia) - Solo
1980 - Melbourne (Australia) - Solo
1980 - Sydney (Australia) - Solo
1980 - Bern (Switzerland) - Solo
1980 - Graz (Austria) - Solo
1980 - Lunz (Austria) - Solo
1980 - Salzburg (Austria) - Solo
1980 - Vienna (Austria) - Solo
1981 - Dublin (Ireland) - Solo
1981 - Glasgow (Scotland) - Solo
1982 - Oslo (Norway) - Solo
1983 - Manaus AM - Solo, at Galeria Afrânio de Castro
1983 - Manaus AM - Solo, at Novotel
1983 - Manaus AM - Solo, at Teatro Amazonas
1984 - Manaus AM - Solo, at Teatro Amazonas
1984 - Nashville (United States) - Solo, at Museu da Universidade de Vanderbilt
1986 - Manaus AM - Solo, at ETFAM
1987 - London (England) - Solo, at Casa do Brasil
1988 - Brasília DF - Solo, at Galeria da Embaixada da França
1990 - Manaus AM - Solo, at Pinacoteca Pública do Estado
1991 - Brasília DF - Individual comemorativa dos 50 Anos de Vida Artística [Solo Exhibition Celebrating 50 Years of Artistic Life]
1991 - Copenhagen (Denmark) - Individual [Solo] - premiado
1991 - Helsinki (Finland) - Solo, at Universidade Industrial de Helsinque
1991 - Leticia (Colombia) - Solo, at Centro de Artes
1991 - Lisbon (Portugal) - 50 Anos de Vida Artística [50 Years of Artistic Life], at Galeria do Hotel Meridien
1991 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Solo, at Câmara Municipal
1991 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Solo, at Centro de Estudos Judiciários
1991 - Oslo (Norway) - Solo, at Fundação Cultural
1991 - São João da Madeira (Portugal) - Solo
1991 - Wiesbaden (Germany) - Solo
1992 - Manaus AM - Exposição de inauguração da Galeria Moacir Andrade-Sesc [Opening Exhibition of the Galeria Moacir Andrade-Sesc]
1992 - Natal RN - Solo, sponsored by the Alliance Française
Group Exhibitions
1960 - Manaus AM - 1º Salão de Arte Moderna de Manaus [1st Manaus Salon of Modern Art]
1961 - Manaus AM - 1º Salão da Madrugada [1st Madrugada Salon]
1963 - Belém PA - 1º Salão de Artes Plásticas da Universidade do Pará [1st Visual Arts Salon of the Universidade do Pará]
1966 - Salvador BA - 1ª Bienal Nacional de Artes Plásticas [1st National Visual Arts Biennial]
1972 - São Paulo SP - Arte/Brasil/Hoje: 50 anos depois [Art/Brazil/Today: 50 Years Later], at Galeria da Collectio
1976 - Manaus AM - Salão Aberto de Artes Plásticas da FCA [FCA Open Visual Arts Salon]
1986 - Manaus AM - Group show, at Galeria Anete Brito
1986 - Manaus AM - Group show, at Suframa
1989 - Manaus AM - 1ª Mostra de Arte da Amazônia [1st Amazon Art Exhibition], at Cassam
2002 - São Paulo SP - Santa Ingenuidade [Holy Naivety], at Unifieo
Source: Itaú Cultural
