The exhibition A arte deve viver ao sol – Gastone Novelli no Brasil is currently underway in São Paulo, the result of a collaboration between the Italian Cultural Institute and the Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo.
Curated by Ana Magalhães and Marco Rinaldi, the exhibition features 29 works by Gastone Novelli (1925–1968), who lived in Brazil between 1948 and 1954 and developed his artistic vocation during this period.
In Brazil, where he arrived at the age of 23, Novelli encountered a time of great cultural ferment, with the opening of two major art museums that became focal points of debate on abstraction: the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art (MAM) and the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP). The latter’s director, Pietro Maria Bardi, founded the museum’s Institute of Contemporary Art (IAC) and invited Novelli to teach composition and drawing there.
The exhibition reflects this context, in which Novelli first explored abstract painting while also working in ceramics and mural art. Moreover, he played a prominent role in the Brazilian art scene by developing exhibition projects, teaching at the IAC, participating actively in the Oficina de Arte (ODA), and exhibiting at the São Paulo Biennials of 1951 and 1953.
The exhibition’s title is drawn from a manifesto published in 1952 by the Oficina de Arte, signed by Novelli: “Art must live in the sun, in the squares, among the people!”. This declaration embodied his and his peers’ commitment to uniting art with industrial design and mural painting, with the goal of democratising artistic research.
The opening was attended by the curators, Ivan Novelli (President of the Gastone Novelli Archive), Italian Deputy Consul in Brazil Marianna Haddad, and the Director of the Italian Cultural Institute, Lillo Teodoro Guarneri.
