Exhibition features works by Gastone Novelli from his time in Brazil

The Museum of Contemporary Art of USP (MAC), in São Paulo, hosts until October 12 the exhibition "Art must live in the Sun - Gastone Novelli in Brazil", which features 29 works by the Italian artist who, while living in the Latin American country between 1948 and 1954, matured his artistic vocation in the national territory.

With free admission, the exhibition is held in partnership with the Italian Institute of Culture of São Paulo (IICSP) and with support from the Archivio Gastone Novelli, in Rome.

After studying social and political sciences in Florence and visual arts in Rome, it was in Brazil that Novelli (1925-1968), then aged 23, developed abstract painting for the first time, while also exploring ceramic and mural production.

In the capital of São Paulo, the Italian also assumed a prominent position in his engagement with the artistic environment, creating exhibition projects, teaching at the Institute of Contemporary Art (IAC), actively participating in the Art Workshop (ODA) and being invited to the São Paulo Biennials of 1951 and 1953.

For exhibition curator Marco Rinaldi, the Brazilian landscape was "an opportunity for the theoretical development of the first seeds of reflection on the language of art." From an initial expressionist approach, Novelli experimented with the diverse manifestations of the artistic avant-garde movements that emerged in the early to mid-20th century.

The exhibition's title was taken from the manifesto published in 1952 by the Oficina de Arte, signed by Novelli: "Art must live in the sun, in the squares, among the people!" A statement that expressed his and his colleagues' commitment to uniting art with industrial design and mural painting, aiming to democratize artistic research.

"A fundamental value for modern artists in a world under reconstruction," observes the exhibition's curator, Ana Magalhães.

For Lillo Teodoro Guarneri, director of IICSP, "in addition to highlighting Novelli's fundamental contribution to the development of artistic languages, the exhibition aims to value the role and contribution of the many Italian artists who lived in Brazil, allowing themselves to be permeated by the multiple cultural influences of this continental country."