Anita Malfatti

A Brazilian artist, one of the leaders of Brazilian avant-garde painting.

She was the second daughter of an Italian engineer and American B. Krug, an art teacher who initiated the artistic and cultural education of her youngest daughter. The future artist was born with atrophy of the right hand. Three-year-old Anita was sent to Lucca (Italy) to correct the defect, but to no avail. The girl learned to draw with her left hand under the guidance of American teacher Marcia Brown.

The exhibition of 53 paintings by the artist in 1917 is the first in the history of the fine arts of this country, where works in the style of expressionism with elements of cubism and other latest trends were presented. She was the organizer of the landmark festival “Week of Art”, a member of the progressive art group “Five”.

Key ideas:

– Innovative artist Anita Malfatti had been preparing herself for a creative career since childhood. Her talent, inherited from her mother and supported by her, was revolutionary not only for the small Brazilian town of São Paulo at that time, but for her native country as a whole. This was demonstrated by the first solo exhibition of the artist, which she held, after returning from training in Europe and America, where she worked side by side with Expressionists and Cubists. She conscientiously tried to avoid a scandal by not including male nudes in the exhibition and exposing her works to “local” topics. She deliberately reworked the work – “Tropical Fruits” to the exhibition – softened bright colors, minimized the use of abstract forms and so on. Moreover, she included the works of her colleagues in the opening day to emphasize: she, the quote, “is not the only a person who paints in this style, unfamiliar to you, this is a new, modern art, which many accept and experiment further”. However, Brazilian criticism was merciless – without the historical context of predecessors, such as Cezanne and the Fauvists, without other exhibitors “with the name”, her bold, sharp and expressively distorted compositions created a confrontation with everything that happened before that time.

– Bright colors applied with fast, gestural and free strokes were identified as daub. The artist applied on the canvas a lot of bright colors that reflect emotion and dynamism, which is typical of the expressionist style, the origins of which lie in the work of Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Edward Munch. The most courageous in a form were the portraits, for which she chose ordinary people as models — often immigrants who had recently arrived in America. The “yellow man” is squeezed into a limited space; both of his hands are cut off by a frame; the whole posture of his body reveals tension. The man, although he put on a tie, does not look presentable. The general depression is emphasized by dark eyes under the outlines of thick eyebrows – two rounded accents. Without the comment that the author gave, it is clear that he is poor and not sure about his future. The portrait was bought by M. de Andrade, as he promised the artist, commenting: “This picture impresses me!”

– The distinctive luminosity of the paint layer, which she achieved with strokes with lighter than the basic tone strokes, was a special feature of Anita Malfatti’s style. In her mature period, the master switched from active expression to Post-impressionist methods of painting that are more relaxed in the mood.