Dalton Paula: Brazilian Portraits

by C&AL

Wed 14 Sep, 2022

MASP presents the solo show Dalton Paula: Brazilian Portraits, curated by Adriano Pedrosa, MASP artistic director, Glaucea Britto, assistant curator at MASP, and Lilia Schwarcz, guest curator. The exhibition brings together 30 paintings of Black leaders and personalities who have historically been overlooked in Brazil.

The paintings are the result of an ambitious artistic project that includes a range of biographies, research, and collected documents, such as photos and clippings. In his process, the artist revisits issues of official historiography and art history as material for creating his portraits, in order to re-signify and give prominence to the contributions of people of African descent.

In his most recent work, the artist uses 22-karat gold leaf to adorn the hair of his subjects, highlighting the central importance of the head in Afro-Brazilian traditions as a sacred place and honoring the stories of these people—some of them kings and queens on the African continent—who were enslaved in Brazil.

Dalton Paula: Brazilian Portraits
On view until October 30, 2022

MASP
Avenida Paulista, 1578, Bela Vista.
São Paulo/SP, Brazil
Free for all visitors on Tuesdays, from 10 am to 8 pm (last entry 7 pm); Wednesday to Sunday, from 10 am to 6 pm (last entry 5 pm); closed Mondays.

www.masp.org.br

View from "Dalton Paula: Brazilian Portraits", 2022, MASP. Photo: Isabella Matheus

Dalton Paula (Brasilia, Brazil, 1982), Assumano Mina do Brasil, 2022. Gold leaf and oil on canvas, 61 x 45 cm. Gift from the artist to MASP’s collection, 2022. Photo: Paulo Rezende

"By combining these various interpretive layers with the process of constructing the image, the portraits created by Dalton Paula lend dignity to Black men and women who were objectified, stereotyped and dominated by a visual tradition guided by the white standard," Glaucea Britto

View from "Dalton Paula: Brazilian Portraits", 2022, MASP. Photo: Isabella Matheus

Dalton Paula (Brasília, Brazil, 1982), Pacífico Licutan, 2022. Gold leaf and oil on canvas, 61 x 45 cm. Gift from the artist to MASP’s collection, 2022. Photo: Paulo Rezende

"The artist seeks his calling in the present without discarding the violence of the past. So much so that he 'splits' his portraits in two, on two canvases joined together, leaving the gap between them visible. This makes the incompleteness, but also the wholeness of these people apparent”, Lilia Schwarcz

View from "Dalton Paula: Brazilian Portraits", 2022, MASP. Photo: Isabella Matheus

Dalton Paula (Brasilia, Brazil, 1982), Maria Firmina dos Reis, 2022. Gold leaf and oil on canvas, 61 x 45 cm. Photo: Paulo Rezende

Translation: Zoë Perry