Exhibit celebrates Brazilian painter Anita Malfatti's 100th debut anniversary

The São Paulo Museum of Modern Art (MAM) is housing the works of Anita Malfatti that sparked passionate reactions from the critics when they were first put on show, in 1917.

Her solo exhibit, which included 53 works—among which paintings, engravings, and drawings—heralded the Modern Art Week of 1922, which paved the way for Brazil's artistic avant-garde trends. Some of the pieces, created during the six years she spent in the US and Germany and in the year she returned to Brazil, are part of the exhibit Anita Malfatti: 100 Years of Modern Art.

In addition to this early phase, the exhibit shows a wide selection from Malfatti's oeuvre, divided into three periods. The first, marked by the scandal with broken paradigms, led to the return of five sold pieces. This phase include famous pieces such as The Man of Seven Colors (1915/16), and the oil paintings The Japanese Man and The Lighthouse.

The second period, in turn, in comprised by works developed during her studies in Paris, like the oil painting Port of Monaco (19265), A Pyrenean Landscape, in addition to watercolor paintings Venice, Canal, and The Vista of Fort Antoine in Monaco.

The last part of the collection displays the artist's production starting from the 1930's, when Malfatti painted the portraits of a number of friends and family members. Indoor scenes include the Toy Train (1940), Samba, (1945), and At The Shop Door.

The daughter of an American mother and an Italian father, Anita Malfatti was born in 1889, in São Paulo. She studied painting in art schools in Germany and the US.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira