Djanira da Motta e Silva

Djanira da Motta e Silva (Avaré, SP, 1914 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 1979)

Djanira da Motta e Silva was a Brazilian artist who distinguished herself as a painter, draftsman, illustrator, poster artist, set designer, and engraver. In the late 1930s, she moved to Rio de Janeiro, where she began her artistic training in a night drawing course at the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios. She also took classes with the painter Emeric Marcier, a guest at the boarding house she ran in Santa Teresa. The environment of the boarding house, frequented by artists such as Carlos Scliar, Milton Dacosta, Arpad Szenes, Vieira da Silva, and Jean-Pierre Chabloz, was decisive for the development of her work.

Djanira da Motta e Silva debuted in exhibitions at the 48th National Salon of Fine Arts in 1942 and held her first solo show the following year at the Brazilian Press Association. In 1945, she traveled to New York, where she encountered the work of Pieter Bruegel and met modern artists such as Fernand Léger, Joan Miró, and Marc Chagall. Back in Brazil, she created remarkable works such as the mural "Candomblé," made for Jorge Amado's house, and a panel for the Municipal Lyceum of Petrópolis.

Between 1953 and 1954, Djanira da Motta e Silva took a study trip to the Soviet Union. Upon her return, she engaged in the mobilization of Brazilian artists, leading the Black and White Salon movement, which protested the high cost of art materials. One of her most significant works was the Santa Bárbara tile panel, completed in 1963 for the Santa Bárbara Tunnel Chapel in Rio de Janeiro. In 1966, the publisher Cultrix released an album with poems and silkscreen prints by her.

Djanira da Motta e Silva was recognized for her authentic portrayal of Brazilian popular culture. In 1977, her career was celebrated with a major retrospective at the National Museum of Fine Arts. Her work stands out for its depiction of the daily lives of the Brazilian people, with a strong presence of religious themes, rural landscapes, and popular festivals.

Critical Commentary

Djanira da Motta e Silva was born in the interior of São Paulo, into a family of limited resources, and lived a life marked by overcoming challenges and a profound dedication to Brazilian art. Widowed at a young age, she was admitted to the Dória Sanatorium in São José dos Campos at the age of 23 with tuberculosis, where she produced her first drawing: a Christ on Golgotha. After recovering, she moved to Rio de Janeiro, settling in Santa Teresa, a neighborhood with clean air and a vibrant cultural life. In 1930, she rented a small house and opened a family boarding house. The painter Emeric Marcier, one of her guests, encouraged her and gave her painting lessons. Djanira also attended a drawing course at night at the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios, where she became acquainted with artists such as Arpad Szenes, Vieira da Silva, Milton Dacosta, and Carlos Scliar.

In 1945, Djanira da Motta e Silva traveled to the United States, a decisive experience in her artistic development. She personally met Marc Chagall, Joan Miró, and Fernand Léger, and was welcomed by the sculptor Maria Martins, then Brazilian ambassador. During museum visits, she was captivated by the work of Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel. Returning to Brazil in 1947, she turned to popular and social themes, such as in "Parque de Diversos" (1948), in addition to portraying workers—coffee pickers, fishermen, cowboys, weavers, and factory workers—and producing portraits, self-portraits, landscapes, and religious scenes.

Djanira da Motta e Silva's paintings in the 1940s featured dark tones and rigorous geometric composition. In the 1950s, her palette became more vibrant, exploring tonal gradations and expressing dignity in the human types depicted. The artist sought to directly experience the themes of her works: in the 1950s, she lived with the Canela Indians in Maranhão; in the 1970s, she visited coal mines in Santa Catarina and learned about the iron extraction process in Itabira.

Djanira da Motta e Silva also worked in printmaking, woodcuts, metalwork, tapestry, and tilework. One of her most notable works is the tile panel for the chapel of the Santa Bárbara tunnel in Rio de Janeiro, completed in 1958. Initially classified as a "primitive" artist, her work has gained critical acclaim over time. As Mário Pedrosa pointed out, Djanira did not improvise: her paintings, although seemingly naive, are the result of careful aesthetic elaboration.

Reviews

Rubem Navarra
Painting as Popular Decorative Art

"(...) This artist lives in a permanent state of contemplative grace. The people are in the themes and colors. And still largely in the visual aspect. These are irremediably warm colors, sometimes without any cool transition to balance them—they threaten to explode. A smooth aspect of one-hundred-percent decorative art, poster, rug, panel, or book illustration. She belongs to the phase in which art feeds on folklore blood, primitive sources, crudely lyrical and popular art. Her painting passed through the snows of New York and returned as it was in spirit. Even the scenes of frozen Babylon take on some mysterious peasant and plebeian atmosphere. Brenghel visits the suburbs. Decorative art, asking for cafes and circuses and tents to decorate. Kindergarten amusement walls. Painting that is not entirely at home in the destiny of easel art for luxury salons. (...) This painting has the verve of what is close to the tradition of folklore and childhood. (...) But there is also, in this art, a certain individual meditative and dreamy side, and in this field the trip to America allowed one to compare one's own dreams with those of a fraternal master: Marc Chagall". Source: NAVARRA, Rubem. Djanira: collection of the National Museum of Fine Arts. Rio de Janeiro: Colorama, 1985.

Mário Barata
Djanira da Motta e Silva as a vital force of Brazilian art

"Djanira works as she breathes. Hours and hours, with or without health, in this artmaking, in which one's own existence is often spent sowing with her magical breath another life. That of the creator and that of creation. And with this, the possibility of feeling fulfilled in realizing one's work, in making one's fantasy real. (...). Djanira's uncontainable strength is vital and fruitful. It is a genesis, a gestation, the birth of a world, a Brazilian world par excellence and in essence. Everyone knows that whenever I can, I rush to see Djanira's paintings. The basis of her universe is also the Brazilian world: the Rio Negro and Maranhão, Belém do Pará and the São Francisco River. João Cabral's Beberibe and the far south: São Paulo and the coffee plantations, Ouro Preto, Rio Paraíba, Bahia, and Parati. Djanira penetrated deeply into rural environments, in contact with the men and women of the people, with her people, who are the true country. She perceives and captures them with the gift of love and the faculty of artistic creation that she possesses to such a high degree. Unlike another poet from the outside world—the Russian-Israeli Marc Chagall—she is not a dreamer. She is a realist, truly realistic. Her work emanates from a vision applied to things, with lyricism. Source: BARATA, Mário. Djanira: collection of the National Museum of Fine Arts. Rio de Janeiro: Colorama, 1985.

Ferreira Gullar
The People's Artist and Her Connection to Popular Roots

"(...) A young woman from the interior of São Paulo, who spent the first phase of her life in contact with animals, farm workers, and the simple and hard life that was also hers, Djanira would later give artistic form to this indelible experience. (...) She would seek to maintain, throughout her life, the connection with this past: she lived surrounded by birds, plants, and animals, and, whenever her health permitted, she traveled through the interior of the country, as if to renew contact with the sources that inspired her art and even her life. Born of the people, she remained a woman of the people, an artist of the people, identified with them in their suffering and struggles. (...) This identification with her people and their land, this generosity of feelings, would inevitably have to be reflected in her work." painter, where the landscape and Brazilian people occupy the foreground. These elements—and others also linked to them—constitute her universe, the world she needed to organize, transfigure, save from death. And she did so by instilling in them the strength of her lyricism and the beauty that her sensitivity captured and revealed in the simplest things, in the most common scenes of work and daily life." Source: GULLAR, Ferreira. Djanira: collection of the National Museum of Fine Arts. Rio de Janeiro: Colorama, 1985.

Collections

Itaú ​​Bank S.A. Collection - São Paulo, SP
Collection of the Pinacoteca of the State of São Paulo, Brazil
Rio de Janeiro Museum of Modern Art Collection - RJ
Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection - MAM RJ - Rio de Janeiro, RJ
National Museum of Fine Arts - Rio de Janeiro, RJ

Solo Exhibitions

1943 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - First solo exhibition, at ABI
1945 - Boston (United States) - Solo exhibition, at the Pan-American Union Gallery
1945 - Washington D.C. (United States) - Solo exhibition, at the Pan-American Union Gallery
1945 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo exhibition, at IAB/RJ
1945 - New York (United States) - Solo exhibition, at the New School for Social Research
1948 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo exhibition, at MEC
1949 - Petrópolis RJ - Solo exhibition, at Museu Imperial de Petrópolis – first exhibition ever held by an artist in this museum
1958 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Retrospective, at MAM/RJ
1958 - Munich (Germany) - Retrospective, at Haus der Kunst
1958 - São Paulo SP - Retrospective, at Galeria de Arte da Folha
1960 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo exhibition inaugurating Galeria Bonino
1962 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo exhibition, at MNBA
1976 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Retrospective, at MNBA
1978 - Vienna (Austria) - Solo exhibition – artist's first exhibition in Europe

Group Exhibitions

1942 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 48th National Fine Arts Salon, at MNBA
1943 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 49th National Fine Arts Salon, at MNBA - honorable mention
1944 - Argentina - 20 Brazilian Artists
1944 - Belo Horizonte MG - Modern Art Exhibition, at Edifício Mariana
1944 - Chile - 20 Brazilian Artists
1944 - London (England) - Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, at the Royal Academy of Arts
1944 - Norwich (England) - Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, at Norwich Castle and Museum
1944 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 50th National Fine Arts Salon, at MNBA - bronze medal
1944 - Uruguay - 20 Brazilian Artists
1945 - Bath (England) - Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, at the Victory Art Gallery
1945 - Bristol (England) - Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, at Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery
1945 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - 20 Brazilian Artists, at the National Exhibition Halls
1945 - Edinburgh (Scotland) - Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, at the National Gallery
1945 - Glasgow (Scotland) - Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, at Kelvingrove Art Gallery
1945 - La Plata (Argentina) - 20 Brazilian Artists, at Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes
1945 - Manchester (England) - Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, at Manchester Art Gallery
1945 - Montevideo (Uruguay) - 20 Brazilian Artists, at the Municipal Culture Commission
1949 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - National Fine Arts Salon - silver medal
1950 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 2nd Municipal Fine Arts Salon
1950 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Federal District Salon - silver medal
1951 - Rio de Janeiro - Still Life Salon - Ipase Prize
1951 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - National Modern Art Salon
1951 - São Paulo SP - 1st São Paulo International Biennial, at the Trianon Pavilion
1951 - São Paulo SP - 1st São Paulo Modern Art Salon - small gold medal
1952 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Artists Exhibition, at MAM/RJ
1952 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - National Modern Art Salon - travel award
1953 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 5th Municipal Fine Arts Salon, at MNBA - bronze medal
1953 - São Paulo SP - Extraordinary Congress of the International Association of Art Critics, at MASP
1953 - São Paulo SP - 2nd São Paulo International Biennial, at the States Pavilion
1954 - Goiânia GO - National Congress of Intellectuals Exhibition
1954 - Hungary - Brazilian Artists Group Exhibition
1954 - Poland - Brazilian Artists Group Exhibition
1954 - Czechoslovakia - Brazilian Artists Group Exhibition
1955 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Black Christ Salon - first prize in painting
1955 - São Paulo SP - 4th São Paulo Modern Art Salon, at Prestes Maia Gallery - acquisition prize
1956 - Neuchâtel (Switzerland) - Modern Primitive Brazilian Art, at Musée d´Ethnographie de Neuchâtel
1957 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - National Modern Art Salon - Diário de Notícias Prize
1958 - New York (USA) - Guggenheim International Award
1958 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Salão do Mar
1958 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - National Modern Art Salon
1959 - Leverkusen (Germany) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1959 - Munich (Germany) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe, at Kunsthaus
1959 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 30 Years of Brazilian Art, at Macunaíma Gallery
1959 - Vienna (Austria) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Mexico City (Mexico) - 2nd Inter-American Biennial - invited artist
1960 - Hamburg (Germany) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Lisbon (Portugal) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Madrid (Spain) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Paris (France) - Brazilian Modern Art, at the Museum of Modern Art
1960 - Paris (France) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - São Paulo SP - Leirner Collection, at Folhas Art Gallery
1960 - Utrecht (Netherlands) - First Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1961 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Face and Work, at Ibeu Copacabana Gallery
1963 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st JB Art Review, at Jornal do Brasil - silver medal
1963 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Landscape as Theme, Ibeu Copacabana Gallery
1966 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Self-Portraits, at Ibeu Copacabana Gallery
1967 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Retrospective Studio Show, at MAM/RJ
1972 - São Paulo SP - Art/Brazil/Today: 50 Years Later, at Collectio Gallery
1974 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Sea, at Ibeu Copacabana Gallery

Posthumous Exhibitions

1980 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Ochenta Años de Arte Brasileño, at Banco Itaú
1980 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Homage to Mário Pedrosa, at Galeria Jean Boghici
1981 - Maceió AL - Brazilian Artists of the First Half of the 20th Century, at Instituto Histórico e Geográfico
1982 - Bauru SP - 80 Years of Brazilian Art
1982 - Bauru SP - 80 Years of Brazilian Art
1982 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Brazil 60 Years of Modern Art: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, at Centro de Arte Moderna José de Azeredo Perdigão
1982 - London (United Kingdom) - Brazil 60 Years of Modern Art: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, at Barbican Art Gallery
1982 - Marília SP - 80 Years of Brazilian Art
1982 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Universe of Football, at MAM/RJ
1982 - Salvador BA - Brazilian Art from the Odorico Tavares Collection, at Museu Carlos Costa Pinto
1982 - São Paulo SP - 80 Years of Brazilian Art, at MAB/Faap
1983 - Belo Horizonte MG - 80 Years of Brazilian Art, at Fundação Clóvis Salgado, Palácio das Artes
1983 - Campinas SP - 80 Years of Brazilian Art, at MACC
1983 - Curitiba PR - 80 Years of Brazilian Art, at MAC/PR
1983 - Olinda PE - 2nd Exhibition of the Abelardo Rodrigues Collection of Visual Arts, at MAC/PE
1983 - Ribeirão Preto SP - 80 Years of Brazilian Art
1983 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 6th National Salon of Visual Arts, at MAM/RJ
1983 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Self-Portraits, at Galeria de Arte Banerj
1983 - Santo André SP - 80 Years of Brazilian Art, at Prefeitura Municipal de Santo André
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Recent Donations 82-84, at MNBA
1984 - São Paulo SP - Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection: Portrait and Self-Portrait in Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1984 - São Paulo SP - Tradition and Rupture: A Synthesis of Brazilian Art and Culture, at Fundação Bienal
1985 - Porto Alegre RS - Iberê Camargo: Trajectory and Encounters, at Margs
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Portrait of the Collector in His Collection, at Galeria de Arte Banerj
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Retrospective, at MNBA
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 8th National Salon of Visual Arts, at MAM/RJ
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Six Decades of Modern Art: Roberto Marinho Collection, at Paço Imperial
1985 - São Paulo SP - 100 Works Itaú, at Masp
1986 - Brasília DF - Iberê Camargo: Trajectory and Encounters, at Teatro Nacional Cláudio Santoro
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Iberê Camargo: Trajectory and Encounters, at MAM/RJ
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Times of War: Hotel Internacional, at Galeria de Arte Banerj
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Times of War: Pensão Mauá, at Galeria de Arte Banerj
1986 - São Paulo SP - Iberê Camargo: Trajectory and Encounters, at Masp
1987 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - To the Collector: Tribute to Gilberto Chateaubriand, at MAM/RJ
1987 - São Paulo SP - The Craft of Art: Painting, at Sesc
1988 - New York (United States) - The Latin American Spirit: Art and Artists in the United States, 1920-1970, at The Bronx Museum of the Arts
1988 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Djanira – 1939 to 1977, at Galeria de Arte Ipanema
1989 - El Paso (United States) - The Latin American Spirit: Art and Artists in the United States, 1920-1970, at El Paso Museum of Art
1989 - Fortaleza CE - Brazilian Art of the 19th and 20th Centuries in Cearense Collections: Paintings and Drawings, at Espaço Cultural da Unifor
1989 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Six Decades of Brazilian Modern Art: Roberto Marinho Collection, at Centro de Arte Moderna José de Azeredo Perdigão
1989 - San Juan (Puerto Rico) - The Latin American Spirit: Art and Artists in the United States, 1920-1970, at Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña
1989 - San Diego (United States) - The Latin American Spirit: Art and Artists in the United States, 1920-1970, at San Diego Museum of Art
1990 - Miami (United States) - The Latin American Spirit: Art and Artists in the United States, 1920-1970, at Center for the Fine Arts Miami Art Museum of Date
1991 - Curitiba PR - Municipal Art Museum: Collection, at Museu Municipal de Arte
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st On the Way to Niterói: João Sattamini Collection, at Paço Imperial
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Nature: Four Centuries of Art in Brazil, at CCBB
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Living Djanira, at Oficina de Arte Maria Teresa Vieira
1992 - São Paulo SP - Sérgio’s Perspective on Brazilian Art: Drawings and Paintings, at Biblioteca Municipal Mário de Andrade
1992 - Zurich (Switzerland) - Brasilien: Entdeckung und Selbstentdeckung, at Kunsthaus Zürich
1993 - João Pessoa PB - Woodcut: From Cordel to Gallery, at Fundação Espaço Cultural da Paraíba
1993 - São Paulo SP - Modern Drawing in Brazil: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, at Galeria de Arte do Sesi
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Modern Drawing in Brazil: Gilberto Chateubriand Collection, at MAM/RJ
1994 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Modern Art: A Selection from the Roberto Marinho Collection, at Masp
1994 - São Paulo SP - Woodcut: From Cordel to Gallery, at Companhia do Metropolitano de São Paulo
1995 - Brasília DF - Collections of Brasília, at Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Palácio do Itamaraty
1996 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Visions of Rio, at MAM/RJ
1996 - São Paulo SP - Women Artists in the MAC Collection, at MAC/USP
1997 - Porto Alegre RS - Caixa Collection Exhibition, at Conjunto Cultural da Caixa
1997 - Porto Alegre RS - Parallel Exhibition, at Museu da Caixa Econômica Federal
1997 - São Paulo SP - Caixa Collection Exhibition, at Conjunto Cultural da Caixa
1998 - Curitiba PR - Caixa Collection Exhibition, at Conjunto Cultural da Caixa
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Caixa Collection Exhibition, at Conjunto Cultural da Caixa
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Negotiated Images: Portraits of the Brazilian Elite, at CCBB
1998 - São Paulo SP - MAM Bahia Collection: Paintings, at MAM/SP
1998 - São Paulo SP - The Modern and the Contemporary in Brazilian Art: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection - MAM/RJ, at Masp
1998 - São Paulo SP - The Collectors – Guita and José Mindlin: Matrices and Prints, at Galeria de Arte do Sesi
1999 - Niterói RJ - Rio Gravura Exhibition: Banerj Collection, at Museu do Ingá
1999 - Salvador BA - 60 Years of Brazilian Art, at Espaço Cultural da Caixa Econômica Federal
1999 - São Paulo SP - Works on Paper: From Modernism to Abstraction, at Dan Galeria
1999 - São Paulo SP - On Paper, Graphite, and Ink, at Banco Cidade
2000 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Djanira, at Centro Cultural Light
2000 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - When Brazil Was Modern: Visual Arts in Rio de Janeiro from 1905 to 1960, at Paço Imperial
2000 - São Paulo SP - Brazil + 500 Rediscovery Exhibition, at Fundação Bienal
2001 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Watercolor, at Centro Cultural Light
2001 - São Paulo SP - The Feminine in Art, at Biblioteca Municipal Mário de Andrade
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Art in the Fadel Collection: From the Restlessness of Modernity to the Autonomy of Language, at CCBB
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Identities: The Brazilian Portrait in the Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, at MAM/RJ
2002 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Art in the Fadel Collection: From the Restlessness of Modernity to the Autonomy of Language, at CCBB
2002 - São Paulo SP - Image and Identity: A Look at History in the Museum of Fine Arts Collection, at Instituto Cultural Banco Santos
2002 - São Paulo SP - Modernism: From the Week of 1922 to the Art Section of Sérgio Milliet, at CCSP
2003 - Brasília DF - Brazilian Art in the Fadel Collection: From the Restlessness of Modernity to the Autonomy of Language, at CCBB
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Art: From the 1930 Revolution to the Postwar, at MAM/RJ
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Art in Motion, at Espaço BNDES
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Autonomy of Drawing, at MAM/RJ
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Caixa Treasures: Brazilian Modern Art in the Caixa Collection, at Conjunto Cultural da Caixa
2004 - São Paulo SP - Paper Cabinet, at CCSP
2004 - São Paulo SP - Women Painters, at Pinacoteca do Estado
2005 - São Paulo SP - A Brazilian Century: Roberto Marinho Collection, at MAM/SP