Exhibition "DALTON PAULA: BRAZILIAN PORTRAITS

DALTON PAULA EXHIBITS PREVIOUSLY UNPUBLISHED PAINTINGS
PERSONALITIES AT THE MASP

The show brings 45 portraits, 12 of them donated by the artist to the museum in 2022,
and integrates the biennial program of MASP dedicated to Brazilian Stories

29 July to 30 October 2022

The MASP - Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand and the Ministry of Tourism present, from July 29 to October 30, 2022, the solo exhibition Dalton Paula: Brazilian portraitswhich occupies the mezzanine on the first floor of the museum. Curated by Adriano Pedrosa, artistic director of MASP, Glaucea Britto, assistant curator of MASP, and Lilia Schwarcz, guest curator of histories, the exhibition brings together 45 paintings that portray black leaders and personalities historically invisible in Brazil. Among the works, 12 were produced from 2019 to 2022 with financial support from the museum and then donated to MASP by the artist. The exhibition has the master sponsorship of Bradesco, sponsorship of Livelo and support from Lefosse.

Dalton Paula (1982 - Brasília) lives and works in Goiânia, where he graduated in Visual Arts at the Universidade Federal de Goiás (UFG). His artistic practice uses various languages, such as painting, performance, installation, photography and object, to highlight relationships between image and power. In her repertoire, the central figure is the black body in diaspora, its rites and rituals, with emphasis on the portraits of black personalities that constitute a proposal to review Brazil's official historiography.

The exhibition Dalton Paula: Brazilian portraits brings works from different phases of the artist's trajectory, from 2018 to the present day, 30 of them being exhibited for the first time. The works are the result of a long artistic process that begins with the selection of biographies, goes on to research and the collection of documents, such as photos and clippings, and then moves on to the production phase. "It is possible to say that the paintings speak among themselves, like close friends, expressing their personalities, philosophies and practices. They are made in the collective, as are the ancestral teachings," reflects curator Lilia Schwarcz.

In his research, Paula revisits issues from official historiography and art histories as material for the creation of his portraits, in order to give new meaning and prominence to the contributions of African descendent personalities. An example of this is the use of photography, in which the artist subverts the supposed photographic objectivity and its value as a historical record by using contemporary photographs of people from the quilombo Alto Santana, in Goiás, and black personalities from different origins and historical periods as a basis for the creation of some of his new portraits through painting.

In the construction of the works, the artist explores the resource of colour to evoke different meanings and as a metaphor for the occupation of other spaces: of art, history and society. "Color has been thought of as a strategy both to avoid framing his production in certain aesthetic categories that would subordinate it and to 'call the eye to dance' through the layers of paint and meaning that give form and prominence to his characters," reflects curator Glaucea Britto.

The use of two canvases to compose each portrait is another striking visual feature of Paula's work, acting as a metaphor for the research process experienced by the artist in quilombola communities, where it is possible to search for traces and gather fragments in the reconstruction of a history that remains open, fissured, indicating other possibilities of meaning. As Lilia Schwarcz describes: "the artist seeks a vocation in the present without getting rid of the violence of the past. So much so that he 'breaks' his portraits in two, in two united canvases, which allow a glimpse of the fissure. Thus, the incompleteness, but also the fullness of these people becomes apparent".

In his most recent works, the artist adopts the paint unfilled spaces, suggesting a history in reconstruction. The 22-carat gold leaves used as adornment in the hair of those portrayed exalt the central importance of the head in Afro-Brazilian traditions as a sacred place and honor the stories of these personalities - some of them kings and queens on the African continent - who were enslaved in Brazil. 

"The brightness of the sun, the candle and the flower of the senzala shines in the golden threads of his characters. Thus, the process of building the colour and applying the gold leaf are for the artist a kind of ritual that requires a high degree of concentration and technical refinement, often recorded in his study notebook," says Britto. "By articulating these various interpretative layers to the process of image construction, the portraits created by Dalton Paula confer dignity on black men and women who have been objectified, stereotyped and dominated by a visual tradition, whether of photography or painting, oriented by the white standard", he concludes.

Dalton Paula: Brazilian Portraits is part of MASP 's biennial programme dedicated to Brazilian Stories (2021-22), on the occasion of the bicentenary of Brazil's independence in 2022. This year, the programme also includes exhibitions by Joseca Yanomami, Madalena dos Santos Reinbolt (1919-1977), Judith Lauand and Cinthia Marcelle, as well as Brazilian Stories, a major collective.

ABOUT DALTON PAULA

Dalton Paula was born in 1982 in Brasília (DF), and lives and works in Goiânia (GO). He has a bachelor's degree in Visual Arts and discusses the silenced body in the urban environment. In 2021 he participated in the exhibition Encyclopedia negra, at the Pinacoteca de São Paulo; in 2020 he had his first solo exhibition, Dalton Paula: a kidnapper of Souls, in New York, at the Alexander and Bonin Gallery. In 2019 he was one of the five winners of the 7th edition of the CNI Sesi Senai Marcantonio Vilaça Award for the Visual Arts and exhibited in the 36th Panorama of Brazilian Art: Sertão, at the Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo (MAM). In 2018 he was selected for the Songs for Sabotage Triennial, at the New Museum in New York, was part of the 11th Mercosur Biennial of Visual Arts - The Atlantic Triangle, in Porto Alegre (RS); and had works in the exhibition Afro-Atlantic Histories, at MASP and Tomie Ohtake Institute. In 2017 he participated in the exhibition The Atlantic Triangle, at the Goethe Institute in Lagos/Nigeria, and in 2016 he was one of the artists invited to the 32nd Bienal de São Paulo. His work is part of important collections such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo and the Museu de Arte de São Paulo(MASP).

CATALOGUE

An illustrated catalogue will be published to accompany the exhibition, with images of all the works in the exhibition and brief biographies of the characters. The publication is organized and curated by Adriano Pedrosa, Glaucea Britto and Lilia Moritz Schwarcz, with texts by Adriano Pedrosa and Heitor Martins, Divino Sobral, Glaucea Britto, Lilia Moritz Schwarcz, Marcelo Campos and Vivian Braga dos Santos. The design is signed by Bárbara Catta, from MASP.

SERVICE

DALTON PAULA: BRAZILIAN PORTRAITS

Curated by Adriano Pedrosa, artistic director of MASP, Glaucea Britto, assistant curator of MASP, and Lilia Schwarcz, guest curator of stories
1st basement (mezzanine)

29.07 - 30.10.22
MASP - Art Museum of São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand
Avenida Paulista, 1578 - Bela Vista
01310-200 São Paulo, SP
Telephone: (11) 3149-5959
Hours: Tuesdays from 10am to 8pm (free admission until 7pm); Wednesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm (free admission until 5pm); closed on Mondays
Online booking required through the link masp.org.br/ingressos
Tickets: R$ 50 (admission); R$ 25 (half-entry)