Yara Tupynambá (Montes Claros MG 1932)
Yara Tupynambá was a painter, printmaker, draftswoman, muralist and teacher. At 17, she got her first job as a typist, through a public competition, at the Caixa Econômica Estadual, where she stayed for two years. Thanks to her fast typing, she made an arrangement with her boss to have more free time, which she began to devote to drawing. She began her art studies in 1950, in Belo Horizonte, with Guignard, and went deeper into printmaking in 1954 with Misabel Pedrosa, later perfecting her skills with Oswaldo Goeldi in Rio de Janeiro. She studied at the School of Visual Arts of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), where, in 1967, she defended a thesis on Albrecht Dürer and, the following year, began teaching printmaking at the same institution.
Yara devoted herself especially to woodcut, preferring black and white to the use of color. In her oil paintings, she depicted congados, cavalhadas and guitar players, themes that recalled her adolescence and her travels through the interior of Minas Gerais. She even made some of her own vinyl paints. She was invited to create a mural on the Inconfidência Mineira for the UFMG rectory, inaugurated in 1969, and later became director of the university's School of Fine Arts. In the 1970s, she produced several murals for homes, businesses and public institutions, such as the mural Minas, do Século XVII ao Século XX [Minas, from the 17th to the 20th Century], for the Legislative Assembly of Minas Gerais.
Among her works, the mural in the Igreja Matriz of the town of Ferros, in Minas Gerais, stands out: it depicts Adam and Eve naked and caused controversy, leading the mayor to take out insurance on the work. She researched 18th-century painting in the churches of Ouro Preto and Sabará, creating designs on chests and trunks, as well as depicting historical scenes and symbols such as coats of arms. She led the Atelier Vivo at the National Biennial in São Paulo in 1974, where she presented research in the field of education and with banners. She received a scholarship from the Pratt Institute and traveled to New York, returning to Belo Horizonte to work as cultural adviser to the Minas Gerais Tourism Company (Turminas) and to coordinate a program to requalify Minas Gerais handicrafts for the Ministry of Labor. In 1992, she was granted the title of Honorary Citizen of Belo Horizonte by the government of Minas Gerais; she was chosen several times by critics as an outstanding figure in the arts and was honored in poems, such as Exposição, written by Carlos Drummond de Andrade.
Critiques
"(...) It is Yara's magical universe, in the vein of magical surrealism, her current concern, where not everything follows logic. The unfolding of landscapes in counterpoint with romantic figures - a man and a woman, and most often only the woman - blurs surface and sea floor, or indoor and outdoor settings, in a perfect coexistence of the unreal and the real. Her concern with meticulous realism goes as far as trompe-l'oeil or the use of photography (hyperrealism). Her universe reveals itself in all its purity: distant perspectives of seascapes seen through deep windows in wide, dark walls, with the human element in the foreground. Through construction and color, Yara orders and combines the characters with a firm, well-constructed painting on the space/paper and, moreover, proposes new forms and new visual rhythms: this is the new phase of Yara Tupynambá, through painting".
Morgan Mota
TUPYNAMBÁ, Yara. Yara Tupynambá. Belo Horizonte: AMI Galeria de Arte, 1973.
"Yara Tupynambá's work in drawing and printmaking, already spanning twenty continuous years, once again proves that close bond with the land and history of Minas Gerais which is an essential mark of so many artists born there or drawn there since the presence and lyrical teaching of Guignard. (...) Her origins in the sertão and her constant contact with the cities of the gold cycle, especially the old Vila Rica, determined her exclusive interest in figuring themes between the dramatic and the poetic, between the real and the dreamlike, between the resonant and the prosaic, between the historical and the individual, embodied in small works or in the large murals on the Inconfidência Mineira and the opening up of the São Francisco River, not to mention the more recent series of painted chests and trunks. The spirit of Minas feeds here on old, strong shadows that return to roam these landscapes and stories of other times and other riches; the expressionist inclination, evident even in her preference for the violent contrast of black and white, can take Yara's drawings and woodcuts to the critical point of a dramatizing death rattle, but, on the other hand, the periodic return of lyricism and sweetly dreamlike fantasy restores their coexistence with the musical and pacified elements of events that memory has definitively condensed, beyond the acid of contemporary times. Narrative, sharply cubo-expressionist and baroque in the Minas manner, is therefore this artist's specific way of expressing herself, for whom Minas is the world".
Roberto Pontual
PONTUAL, Roberto. Arte/ Brasil/ hoje: 50 anos depois. São Paulo: Collectio, 1973.
Testimonials
"The attraction of black and white, whose visual effect has always appealed to me far more than color and tonal ranges. I like to work the material or support directly so as to imprint on it the objectification of my gesture, guided by emotion. Now, wood is the support that most faithfully receives the artist's smallest finger movements... In my current printmaking I try to reconcile the problems of carving and texture, the latter serving as a background for the former. Next, I try to make the white work as atmosphere or 'air'. And, finally, I intend to release the area and volume of the composition beyond the field of the plate, giving it dynamism".
Yara Tupinambá
VIEIRA, José Geraldo. Yara Tupinambá. Folha da Noite, Belo Horizonte, July 4, 1960. Section: Artes Plásticas.
"This is how I would describe my latest series of works representing the life and culture of Minas Gerais: the mountain, the oratory, the flower that grows wild in the sertão, the churches, the golden arabesques, the poles with little flags, the fireworks of the São João festivities.
All this, which touches our souls deeply, which belonged and still belongs to our daily lives, represents for us mineiros the strongest symbols of this native soil.
Minas is a state of mind and so, even in faraway cities, the mineiro evokes it, as Carlos Drummond de Andrade did in these lines:
Espírito de Minas,
me visita
e sobre a confusão desta cidade
lança teu claro raio ordenador
[Spirit of Minas, / visit me / and over the confusion of this city / cast your clear, ordering ray]
It is this lesson of the spiritual permanence of the mineiros that leads writers, musicians, painters and dancers to a perennial search for our roots, as I do now, a search for the essence of Minas, for the exact air, in this discreet breathing of the mineiros that means synthesis, knowledge and a great love for this state".
Yara Tupinambá
TUPINAMBÁ, Yara. "Signos de Minas". Available at: [www.caleidoscopio.art.br/yaratupynamba]. Accessed on: Oct. 12, 2001.
Solo Exhibitions
n.d. - Brasília DF - Solo, at Oscar Seraphico
n.d. - Brasília DF - Solo, at Teatro Nacional
n.d. - Brasília DF - Solo, at Performance Galeria
n.d. - Guanabara - Solo, at Galeria do ICBEU
n.d. - Paris (France) - Solo, at Galeria Inter Art Brasil
n.d. - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Sobrado
n.d. - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Casa das Artes
n.d. - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Danúbio
n.d. - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Portal
1963 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Galeria AMI
1963 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Galeria do ICBEU
1963 - London (England) - Solo, at the Institute of Education, London University
1963 - Paris (France) - Solo, at Galeria Inter Art Brasil
1963 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Museu de Arte do Rio Grande do Sul
1963 - Santiago (Chile) - Solo, at the Brazilian Cultural Center
1965 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Galeria Guignard
1965 - San Francisco (United States) - Solo, at Hourian Fine Art Galleries
1972 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Galeria Guignard
1972 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Chica da Silva
1973 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Galeria AMI
1988 - Belo Horizonte MG - Retrospective, at Palácio das Artes
1990 - San Francisco (United States) - Solo, at Hourian Fine Art Galleries
1991 - Sete Lagoas MG - Solo, at Galeria de Arte Casa da Cultura
1992 - Belo Horizonte MG - A Mesa: Poema de Carlos Drummond de Andrade Desenhado por Yara Tupynambá [The Table: A Poem by Carlos Drummond de Andrade Drawn by Yara Tupynambá], at Palácio das Artes
1992 - London (England) - Solo, at the University of Nottingham
1992 - Santiago (Chile) - Solo, at the Brazilian Cultural Center
ca.2001 - Belo Horizonte MG - Fragmentos de Minas [Fragments of Minas], at Atelier Cor de Minas
Group Exhibitions
1958 - Belo Horizonte MG - Municipal Salon of Fine Arts - 1st prize in printmaking
1960 - São Paulo SP - 9th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1960 - São Paulo SP - The Contribution of Women to the Visual Arts in Brazil, at MAM/SP
1960 - São Paulo SP - Nelson Leirner, Ismênia Coaracy, Yara Tupynambá, Fernando Odriozola, at Galeria de Arte das Folhas
1961 - Belo Horizonte MG - 16th Municipal Salon of Fine Arts - 1st prize in printmaking
1961 - Recife PE - 20th Painting Salon of the Museu do Estado de Pernambuco
1962 - São Paulo SP - 11th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art
1963 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 12th National Salon of Modern Art
1963 - São Paulo SP - 12th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art
1963 - São Paulo SP - 2nd Labor Salon - 1st prize in printmaking
1964 - Brasília DF - 1st Federal District Salon of Modern Art
1964 - Ribeirão Preto SP - 1st Exhibition of Young Brazilian Printmaking
1964 - São Paulo SP - 1st Exhibition of Young Brazilian Printmaking, at MAC/USP
1965 - Belo Horizonte MG - 1st Exhibition of Young Brazilian Printmaking, at MAP
1965 - Curitiba PR - 1st Exhibition of Young Brazilian Printmaking, at the State Department of Education
1965 - Florianópolis SC - 1st Exhibition of Young Brazilian Printmaking, at Masc
1965 - São Paulo SP - 14th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art
1966 - Brasília DF - 3rd Federal District Salon of Modern Art
1967 - Campinas SP - 3rd Campinas Salon of Contemporary Art, at MACC
1967 - Ouro Preto MG - 1st Ouro Preto Salon
1967 - São Paulo SP - 9th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1969 - Ouro Preto MG - 3rd Ouro Preto Salon
1969 - São Paulo SP - 1st Panorama of Contemporary Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1970 - Porto Alegre RS - 1st Visual Arts Salon - acquisition prize
1970 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 19th National Salon of Modern Art, at MAM/RJ
1970 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Printmaking, at Paço das Artes
1971 - Curitiba PR - 28th Paraná Salon, at the Public Library of Paraná
1971 - São Paulo SP - 3rd Panorama of Contemporary Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1972 - Belo Horizonte MG - 4th Belo Horizonte Salon of Contemporary Art - 1st prize in printmaking with the Estandarte team
1972 - São Paulo SP - Arte/Brasil/Hoje: 50 Anos Depois [Art/Brazil/Today: 50 Years Later], at Galeria da Collectio
1972 - São Paulo SP - Art Exhibition for the Sesquicentennial of Independence and Brasil Plástica - 72, at Fundação Bienal
1976 - Belo Horizonte MG - Exhibition of the Murals of the Belo Horizonte Municipal Schools
1976 - São Paulo SP - National Biennial 76, at Fundação Bienal
1977 - São Paulo SP - 9th Panorama of Contemporary Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1981 - Belo Horizonte MG - 8th Global Winter Salon, at Fundação Palácio das Artes
1981 - Belo Horizonte MG - Students of Guignard, at Itaugaleria
1981 - Belo Horizonte MG - Six Artists from Minas, at Ami Galeria de Arte
1981 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 8th Global Winter Salon, at MAM/RJ
1981 - São Paulo SP - 8th Global Winter Salon, at Masp
1982 - Brasília DF - 1st Women's Art Exhibition, at the Salão Negro of the National Congress
1982 - Penápolis SP - 5th Northwest Visual Arts Salon, at Fundação Educacional de Penápolis. Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Penápolis
1985 - Penápolis SP - 6th Northwest Visual Arts Salon, at Fundação Educacional de Penápolis. Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Penápolis
1990 - Belo Horizonte MG - Woman Portraying Woman, at the Visual Artists' Union
1990 - Belo Horizonte MG - Brazilian Land - Ecological Aspects of the Tripéu Valley, at Museu da Inconfidência
1990 - Goiânia GO - 20 Years of the Goiânia Museum of Art, at the Museum of Art
1991 - Belo Horizonte MG - Grupo Usearte, at Minas Shopping
1991 - London (England) - Second Brazilian Art Exhibition, at the Institute of Education - London University
1992 - Belo Horizonte MG - A Mesa - Homage to Carlos Drummond de Andrade, at Itabira
1992 - Belo Horizonte MG - Group show, at Galeria Solange Pretti
1992 - Belo Horizonte MG - Icons of Utopia, at Fundação Palácio das Artes
1992 - London (England) - Third Brazilian Art Exhibition, at Dixon and Bloomsberry Gallery
1993 - Campinas SP - Printmaking, at PUC-Campinas. Instituto de Letras
1993 - Havana (Cuba) - Grabados del Brasil, at Palacio de las Convenciones
1994 - Belo Horizonte MG - Guignard: 50 Years of an Art School, at Galeria Vidyã
1994 - Bocaiúva MG - A Mesa, at the Arts Gallery of Centro Cultural Henfil
1994 - Campinas SP - Xilo e Print: International Exhibition of Relief Printmaking, at MACC
1994 - Montes Claros MG - A Mesa, at Centro Cultural Hermes de Paula
1995 - Belo Horizonte MG - Projeto Babel, at Praça da Liberdade
1995 - São Paulo SP - Projeto Babel, at Sesc Pompéia
1996 - Belo Horizonte MG - The City and the Artist: Two Centennials, at BDMG Cultural
1996 - Belo Horizonte MG - The Consolidation of Modernism in Belo Horizonte, at the Museum of Popular Art
1996 - Belo Horizonte MG - Improvisation for Guignard, at Espaço Cultural Bamerindus Seguros
1997 - Contagem MG - Students of Guignard in Contagem, at Casa de Cultura Nair Mendes Moreira
1998 - Belo Horizonte MG - Art Meeting Brazil/Portugal: A Moment of Convergence, at Museu Mineiro
1998 - Belo Horizonte MG - Projeto Compact, at the Urban Cleaning Superintendency
1998 - Belo Horizonte MG - Retrospectiva Minas Mundo, at Galeria de Arte da FAFI-BH
1998 - Campinas SP - Xilo e Print: International Exhibition of Relief Printmaking, at MACC
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Mostra Rio Gravura. Modern Brazilian Printmaking: Collection of the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, at MNBA
2002 - Brasília DF - JK - An Aesthetic Adventure, at Conjunto Cultural da Caixa
2003 - Belo Horizonte MG - Women, at Galeria de Arte Copasa
2004 - São Paulo SP - Group Show of Contemporary Artists, at Esporte Clube Sírio
Source: Itaú Cultural
