In his text on the life and work of Ismael Nery, writer Murilo Mendes asserts that, though Nery was mostly known as a painter, his true focus was philosophy. Mendes provides an overview of Nery’s “essentialism”—a philosophical system he developed in the twenties. Mendes makes reference to Nery’s interest in the original Surrealist movement and to the fact that he knew figures like André Breton, Marcel Noll, and Marc Chagall. He also provides information about Nery’s life in the Rio de Janeiro of the twenties, when Brazilian intellectuals like Antônio Bento, Mário Pedrosa, and the author himself formed a group around the figure of Nery. The author mentions the exhibitions of Nery’s work and the first texts published on his art, which written by writers like Manuel Bandeira and Mário de Andrade.

This text forms part of a series of articles on painter Ismael Nery (1900–34) written by author and diplomat Murilo Mendes (1901–75). The texts were published in the journal Letras e Artes and in the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo in 1948 and 1949 respectively. The series was essential to gaining Nery critical attention and to drawing public attention to his important painting at a time when the artist was still largely unknown on the Brazilian art scene.

This text provides information on Nery’s artistic education and on his contact with European artists close to Surrealism and with the Brazilian intelligentsia of the twenties. Nery’s visual and literary production is not only autobiographical, but also bound to the artist’s philosophical system, which the author of the text, who was also a close friend of the artist, calls “essentialism”: a set of metaphysical conjectures that reflect on the mysteries of Catholicism. That “essentialism” advocated abstraction of time and space, the discovery of an individual essence, the valorization of the fundamentals of existence, and an art that aims at the universal. Due to its dreamlike quality and its symbolic and psychological characteristics, Nery’s painting is seen as grounded in Surrealism.

For further reading on Nery’s work, see “Eu” (doc. no. 1110381), written by the artist himself; Mário de Andrade’s “Ismael Nery: excertos de textos” (doc. no. 1110382); Murilo Mendes’s “Recordações de Ismael Nery” (doc. no. 1110379); Bruno de Menezes’s “Ismael Nery, artista que honrou a Amazonia” (doc. no. 1111002); and Aníbal Machado’s “A morte de Ismael Nery” (doc. no. 1110380).