BRAZILIAN ART MUSEUM ( MAB ) : INTEGRATION WITH ART IN BRAZIL AND WORLDWIDE

Museums can dissolve time, break down geographical barriers, make the past into the present, and recover memory; they can make us aware of who we were, what we are, and how we reached this point through art. At FAAP, in the interval between classes spent at the mab (Brazilian Art Museum), millennia are dissolved from the instant the student leaves a computerized environment to plunge into the world of Egyptian art, the history of China, or exhibitions on earth sciences, life sciences, or the Araripe Plateau [Chapada do Araripe]. Celita Procopio de Carvalho, Antonio Bias Bueno Guillon, Américo Fialdini Jr., and Victor Mirshawka may be found at the Louvre one day or in Berlin the next, busily arranging exhibitions. Before China and the us, they had been to Saint Petersburg, where they figuratively prized open the locked doors of the fantastic Hermitage, or Moscow where they arranged for the precious works in the Kremlin Museum to be shown at the Heritage of the Czars exhibition which opened the 2005 season. The exhibition included icons, gold stirrups, and precious stones, incense burners, gold crosses, veils of sacred vases, the burial veil of Prince Ivan Mikhaylovich, mitres, and chasubles. Fascinating treasures.

Each journey has led to a mega-exhibition of the type that Brazilians rarely get to see. mab is much more than a Brazilian art museum. The modern and dynamic concept of the museum is to bring art from all over the world to Brazil. Exhibitions have used all available resources, from holography to computers, from video to miniatures, and light and sound effects (such as the cry of battle), from theatrical representations to projections and set design, in all cases designed by leading names in scenic arts. The Napoleon Bonaparte exhibition included his hat and a replica of the imperial cloak, documents, paintings, notebooks and maps, tickets, letters (one of them a love letter in holographic montage, which made a vivid impression on visitors). Some 80,000 books have been written on Napoleon, but in fact, this was an entirely new interpretation of the legend.

MAB exhibitions may be large or small but they are invariably events of great importance. All themes are chosen for specific and definite reasons; decisions are taken on the basis of studies, research, and evaluations. After Napoleon, Brazilians (visitors come from all over the country) were able to see Egyptian art from the time of the pharaohs (including the rich marble sarcophagus of the courtier Udjahor and the reconstituted tomb of the artisan Sennedjem); from China came imperial art, everyday art, and contemporary art. There were amusing Brazilian caricatures from the last 200 years in a sample of Humor (with drawings and illustrations aiding understanding of the press and the country's history too). mab has been able to cover a huge range of themes, from Kôguei, contemporary craft from Japan, plastic - forms and colors of synthetic materials - to José Zaragoza's advertising layouts, or photographs by Bob Wolfenson and Luiz Tripoli. In fact, the art museum's portfolio has long included photography with Tina Modotti; J. R. Duran; Michael Lewis and his Africa; the National Geographic; Mario Testino, fashion superstar; and the much commented and impeccable exhibition Femmes, plus que femmes, featuring photography from Jacques-Henri Lartigue to Lilian Bassman and the controversial David La Chapelle. Not to mention architecture, with works by Hugh Newell Jacobsen or Jean Nouvel and the 1985-96 Japanese designs. The museum has also shown work by Otto Dix, Lasar Segall, Vlaminck, Debret, Daumier, Araújo Porto- Alegre, and Marquet. Not to mention the piece by Yoko Ono, Beatle John Lennon's widow, in Over the Rainbow. The museum takes a broad, diversified, and up-to-date approach.

In 1997, it showed original pieces by Cocteau, poet, filmmaker, visual artist, graphic artist, in The World of Jean Cocteau, with 389 items, including sessions showing his films. The approaching fifth centennial of the discovery of Brazil (2000) prompted, in 1999, the exhibition Brasileiro que nem eu - que nem quem? [Brazilian Just Like Me - Just Like Who?], a multifaceted exhibition with scenic design by Bia Lessa, perusing our history from the Indians to Noel Rosa's poetry, and involving visitors in an unusual way: everyone who came was photographed and their image placed on a panel to represent Brazilians. The event was a great hit.

In the same year, Flávio de Carvalho - One Hundred Years of a Romantic Revolutionary showed the work of the Brazilian architect and graphic artist, something of a provocateur given to experimenting with crowd behavior.

Still in 1999, with an exhibition of antiques rescued from the wrath of revolutionary socialists in 1917, the museum continued to analyze, innovate, extend, and raise issues under the title of Icons - the Soul of Russia, winning praise from reviewers. The same year of 1999 saw a selection of Peruvian Silverware - 2,500 Years of Art with pieces that had never before left their country. Next, in 2000, came the peculiar Nins - Children's Portraits from the 16th-19th Centuries from the collection of the Fundación Yannick y Ben Jakober in Majorca, Spain.

For the museum's 40th anniversary in 2001, there was a sample from its own collection including paintings by Volpi, Tarsila, and Portinari telling the story of FAAP's Museum since its official founding and first exhibition in August 1961. In the same year, Anita Malfatti's modernist work had an unusual feature: children could go inside the threedimensional painting of a lighthouse in A Journey with Anita - a Feast of Form and Color.

Another important character from our cultural history, Olívia Guedes Penteado, was also honored by the exhibition In the Time of the Modernists: Donna Olívia Penteado, Lady of the Arts, in 2002. The 80th anniversary of the 1922 Modern Art Week was celebrated by showing changes in several fields of artistic expression in Brazil over three crucial decades. During the exhibition, there were soirées on Sundays with the String Quartet of the City of São Paulo playing classical and popular Brazilian music. In 2002-3, Modernism was again the point of departure for the exhibition Brazil 1922-1950: from Anthropophagy to Brasília.

There was the unforgettable splendor of Lighting and Design: 1920-2004, which delighted large numbers of visitors in 2004. On the opening night, mab inaugurated its modern lighting system, which creates pleasant environments, climates, and singular effects in a unique concept in Latin America.

In 2006, MBA-FAAP started the year with The Modernist Gaze of JK in São Paulo, which had already been staged at Itamaraty in Brasília in 2004. An event in May 2006 at the Cultural Salon had an Internet-type address as title, translated as FAAP Innovating - Creativity/:Art/:Technology ; curatorial design was by Marcelo Tas and it was organized with the it School, showing the feasibility of this partnership. Again in the first semester of 2006, the Lutetia building hosted photographs from the permanent collection and work done by Maria Teresa Louro during her Paris sojourn at Cité des Arts. The Greek Gods exhibition began in August and ran throughout the second semester with Greek and Roman artworks from the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, the event being organized by German archeologists especially for the presentation at MBA-FAAP.

Since 1965, the Museum has held an annual art show to take stock of what the School of Visual Arts has stood for in its training new generations of artists. Students from all courses may enroll. Many alumni are now well known creative artists and others have become members of faculty. The annual art show is always formatted in different ways, with scholarships for award winners. After the 30th event of this kind, students went outside the Institution to connect with the external context by honoring significant artists; Nelson Leirner was the first, Julio Plaza the most recent. There is also Annual Design showing work by students on the Industrial Design course.

In short MBA-FAAP is sure of a prominent place on any panorama of the cultural scene in São Paulo, or even in cultural life on the nationwide level. This private hi-tech institution never fails to mount an impressive exhibition but does not charge admission. Moreover, students act as guides on tours provided for students traveling by bus from the interior of the state or from the public school system.

MAB was formally inaugurated on July 2, 1960 with a performance by the Harps of São Paulo and the Violin Group from the School of Music (which was located in the FAAP complex). However, it was not really functioning until the following year, since the second semester of 1960 was taken up with organizing the Museum infrastructure and producing the first major exhibition (on Brazilian Baroque) for 1961, with some 300 works being shipped from all over Brazil. Some had never left their places of origin, such as Aleijadinho's Cristo no Horto [Christ in the Garden] created for the Stations of the Cross at the Shrine of Bom Jesus de Matosinhos in Congonhas do Campo; or Batismo de Cristo [Baptism of Christ] by Master Ataíde. Part of the exhibition comprised plaster reproductions of the ten figures of the prophets in Congonhas do Campo, with portals, pulpits, and architectural elements all produced by the Heritage Department. These statues have now become an inseparable part of the hall in the main building.

MAB'S first anniversary took place a year after the death of Cândido Portinari, who was the featured artist for the event. Since then, the Museum has grown and raised its profile, with exhibitions and debates such as Proposta 65, followed by Proposta 66 and Proposta 67, with discussions in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo on the relations between art, participation, and social awareness. Events have almost overlapped. In 1966, the Restoration Studio and the Museum of Brazilian Dress were opened (organized by Darcy Penteado and Lourdes Milliet). In 1971, there were innovative exhibitions on information technology and electronics, such as Arteônica. A presentation named A phala (curators Sérgio Lima and Leila F. Lima) looked at the theme of magic and the primordial androgyne, an entirely new discussion on surrealism from the Latin-American point of view. The new Department of Brazilian Art Research and Documentation was founded in 1977, coordinated by Daisy Peccinini. Together with the School of Visual Arts, it launched two major projects in 1978: one on the Seibi and Santa Helena groups painters, the other titled The Object in Art: Brazil at Sixty.

With its energetic leadership, mab witnessed periods of agitation, effervescence, and upsets in the history of Brazil and the arts. Since 1998, the Museum's educational service has trained professors and professionals to assist visitors and make contacts with schools, universities, associations, and institutions, to organize and prepare tours, and develop educational material distributed free of charge.

AN INTERNATIONALIZED MUSEUM

A museum may extend its reach beyond its natural confines of spaces delimited within the institution. In 1995, MBA-FAAP showed this was possible by taking a number of exhibitions to Itamaraty in Brasília, where Brazil's diplomatic service has its school and its home base: Modernists-Modernism, Victor Brecheret (1996), Baroque Heritage (1997), Brazilian Just Like Me. (1998), Sergio Camargo (1999), 19th-century Photography in Brazil (2000), Vlavianos, the Praxis of Sculpture (2002), Baron Rio Branco, His Art and His Times (2003), The Modernist Gaze of jk (2004), and O'Brasil (2005). In 2004, the exhibition Modernism: Proposals and Pathways was shown at the Brazilian Embassy in Berlin and drew huge numbers of visitors with extensive coverage from reviewers. In light of the huge interest in Brazilian art in Germany, a second exhibition of work from the MBA-FAAP collection opened in October 2005 under the title Befreit und Selbstbewusst: Brasiliens modernismus im 20. Jahrhundert which was held at the Museum für Völkerkunde in Hamburg, with further dates posed for other cities.

In March 2006, FAAP and Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil signed a partnership agreement for cultural exchange between Brazil and Germany, including exhibitions of Brazilian art, films, painting, sculpture, and other artistic events for what was called the World Cup of Culture.

One such event took place in the German city of Bamberg, which showed works by Brazilian modernist artists from the 1920s and 30s, such as Ismael Nery, José Pancetti, Tarsila do Amaral, Alfredo Volpi, and Cândido Portinari, and highlighted Mário de Andrade as the main force behind the movement.

A second stage in this partnership saw FAAP getting the Greek Gods exhibition from the Pergamon in Berlin to show in Brazil.

In the view of Celita Procopio de Carvalho, president of FAAP's Board of Trustees, the agreement with the Ministry of Culture helped extend the reach of local and international exhibitions and broaden access to the arts for people in both countries. "Here at FAAP, education and culture go together. On the basis of the aims we have in common with the Ministry, we hope to do great work in encouraging culture," she concludes.

COLLECTION OF ART FROM ALL AGES

The initial core collection comprised works belonging to Annie Alvares Penteado, and has grown over time through acquisitions and donations. Some of the most recent acquisitions were: Brecheret, Vicente do Rego Monteiro, Tarsila do Amaral, Domingos Toledo Piza, Rizotti, Rebolo, Figueira, Galvez, Higaki, Handa, Takaoka, Tamaki, Pancetti, and a portrait of Pagu by Portinari. mab has also had works donated by photographers J. R. Duran and Sara Moon, and artists Gilberto Salvador, Zélia Salgado, Celso Orsini, and Arcangelo Ianelli - the latter's 80th birthday in 2004 was celebrated with The Paths of Figuration, a major retrospective of his oeuvre. As part of the dynamic approach of the museum, three exhibitions were held at the same time: the one on Ianelli, one on the photographer Tripoli (Almost All My Loves), and Earth Sciences, Life Sciences - Chapada do Araripe.

Returning to the collection, some of the most outstanding works are those of academic artists: Pedro Alexandrino, Ferrigno, Antonio Parreiras, Eliseu Visconti, and João Batista Castagneto. Turning to the artists who introduced Modernism, there are a number of Anita Malfatti's drawings and paintings such as a sketch for the painting A boba (1915-6), Portrait of Man, and the drawing Seven-color Man, which was shown at the 1922 Modern Art Week. There is a good selection of works by Di Cavalcanti, Oswaldo Goeldi, Victor Brecheret, Tarsila, Guignard, Portinari, Lívio Abramo, and Flávio de Carvalho. In smaller numbers, but similar artistic quality, are works by Ismael Nery, Antonio Gomide, John Graz, and Segall. There are works by artists active in the 1930s and 40s: Cícero Dias, Volpi, De Fiori, Clóvis Graciano, Rebolo, Mario Zanini, Rossi Osir, Bonadei, Ceschiatti, Roberto Burle Marx. Abstract art of the 1950s is represented by Manabu Mabe, Boese, Shiró, Tomie Ohtake, Arcangelo Ianelli. Artists whose compositions show more definite structures include Jandyra Waters, Geraldo de Barros, Fiaminghi, Weissmann, Israel Pedrosa, Hercules Barsotti, Lygia Clark, Samsom Flexor, and Mary Vieira.

Artists who supported the return to figuration from the 1960s onwards - Ana Maria Maiolino, Aldemir Martins, Antônio Henrique Amaral, Baravelli, Cláudio Tozzi, Francisco Stockinger, Gregório Gruber, Glauco Pinto de Moraes, João Calixto, José Roberto Aguilar, Newton Mesquita, Maria Tomaselli, Rubens Gerchman, Siron Franco, Portrait of Man (oil on canvas), Anita Malfatti, MBA-FAAP Collection.

and Wesley Duke Lee. Artists who opted for more simplification of form - Agi Straus, Cássio Michalany, and Manfredo Souzaneto. From the 1980s, Fukushima, Fábio Miguez, Marco Paulo Rolla, and Paulo Whitaker.

MAB - FA A P - LUTETIAANNEX

MBA-FAAP has a distant annex in the Lutetia building on a plaza (Praça do Patriarca) that was restored as part of the process of rehabilitating the former glamour of downtown São Paulo. The location symbolically revisits the story of the founder of the Institution since the plaza was once the heart of what is known as the Old City Center (before the Chá Bridge crossed the Anhangabaú valley). The Lutetia building was erected in the 1920s, when Count Armando Alvares Penteado commissioned São Paulo's top architect, Ramos de Azevedo, who designed the Municipal Theater and gave the city its style. A significant detail from the point of view of behavioral trends is that renowned creative architects were commissioned even for properties built to rent - since the city was seen as a whole and harmonious architectural sphere.

Lutetia is the central part of three different eight-floor buildings joined by one single façade; it is an outstanding example of the predominant architecture of central São Paulo in the first half of the 20th century. It was listed for conservation by the Historical Heritage agency in 1992, and was restored on the lines of a project executed by the Architecture and Urbanism course of FAAP itself, partnered by the ngo Viva o Centro, the municipal government, Emurb, and the Heritage agency, with institutional support from masp (art museum). Three floors comprise mab-Centro; others will be used as residences for artists or foreign students at the arts or film schools.

The commercial office suites, mansard roofs, ground-floor rooms, and basement of the building followed the standards for rental buildings. In 1947, when the Foundation named for him was set up, Armando Alvares Penteado decided that it would be paid for by the rent from properties such as the Lutetia building. The Count's initials are still there on the façade and the glass doors. In 2003, when it was decided to restore the building for a new function, the São Paulo Technology Institute researched its original color. Restoration work was meticulously performed by museum specialists, historians, architects, engineers, chemists, and others. Students from the School of Architecture took practical classes working alongside professors and distinguished professionals. The Lutetia building's reception hall (with a counter) was conserved, as were two pantographic elevators (the first installed in São Paulo), stairways, and elevator lobbies on all levels. Without damaging its original characteristics, water and electricity systems were refurbished and air conditioning and telephone cabling installed.

In February 2004 (the 450th anniversary of the city), the downtown or Center area gained a new cultural space to host exhibitions. The first three were Ramos de Azevedo and the City of São Paulo on the first floor; Sculptures, with thirty works from the collection of MBA-FAAP, from Brecheret to Vlavianos, on the second floor; São Paulo, Multiple Perspectives, with works by professors and students from FAAP's School of Visual Arts on the third floor.

The Lutetia building is also home to FAAP's Artistic Residence program for Brazilian and foreign artists active in the arts, communication, or architecture. Selected artists spend a number of months in one of the ten wide studios in the building, developing their artistic projects and conveying their experiences and knowledge to students and professors at the Foundation, as well as showing their work at the Museum's downtown annex.

In 2006, FAAP arranged with the Fundação Bienal for the Artistic Residence to accommodate international residence program artists selected for the 27th Bienal de São Paulo, to develop research and produce work for this event on the theme of "How to Live Together."

Studio units (floor space 69m2 or 79m2) were fully refurbished and the building equipped with infrastructure such as 24-hour security; laundry and storeroom, common room; space for a future bookstore; and a large multiuse room on the top floor (as a collective studio, space for meetings and conferences, lectures and discussions, films and videos, etc.).