This article by the art critic Mário Baratta is about the Exposição Cearense dos Pintores: Antonio Bandeira, Inimá, Raimundo Feitosa, Jean-Pierre Chabloz e Francisco da Silva, the exhibition presented at the Askanasy gallery in Rio de Janeiro in 1945. In his article, the author defends the contribution made by artists in the state of Ceará to the renewal of Brazilian painting, and to the removal of the academic yoke through a kind of art that “observes nature.” Baratta refers to the existence of a “melting pot” in the northeastern region of the country that created its own literature which he describes as “the most Brazilian in all of Brazil.” In his opinion, the imminent emergence of a “school of northeastern painting” would similarly lead to a kind of painting that would be “the most Brazilian in all of Brazil” and would be characterized by specific artistic traits that are “hard to deny,” or by certain “economic, ecological, and anthropological” features of the northeastern area. As a coda to his article, Baratta calls for a national plan for Brazilian culture on behalf of the country’s “spiritual vitality.”

In 1945 a group of artists from the state of Ceará (Antonio Bandeira, Inimá [de Paula], Raimundo Feitosa, Jean-Pierre Chabloz, Aldemir Martins, and Raimundo Cela) moved to what was then the national capital city of Rio de Janeiro. In Fortaleza (their state capital) they were all members of the SCAP (Sociedade Cearense de Artes Plásticas), a union founded in 1944 to produce and promote modern art in this northeastern state. Chico da Silva, Bandeira, Inimá, Feitosa, and Chabloz took part in the “exposição cearense” that the critic Mário Baratta discusses in this article. The exhibition, which presumed to showcase the art that was being produced in Ceará at that time on the national stage, was introduced by an essay written by the critic Ruben Navarra.

[Regarding the SCAP and written by Baratta, see in the ICAA digital archive “Aldemir Martins e a pintura” (doc. no. 1110782); “De como deve ser visto o binômio Clã-SCAP” (doc. no. 1111385); “Pincéis e violinos” (doc. no. 1110784); and the letter from Mario de Andrade on the subject (doc. no. 1110783). See also the articles by José Roberto Teixeira Leite “Raimundo Cela: um pioneiro esquecido” (doc. no. 1110790); and by Ronaldo Brito “Trágico moderno” (doc. no. 1110423). See also by Vera Lúcia Alburquerque de Moraes “Abrindo a revista” (doc. no. 1110770); by Aluízio Medeiros “Uma exposição e a história de dois grupos” (doc. no. 1110776); and by Barboza Leite (untitled) [“A arte preside o destino da humanidade (…)”] (doc. no. 1110786)].