拍品專文
The artist, whose paternal grandparents were French, was born in Petropolis, a summer resort in the hills near Rio de Janeiro. His mother, of Portuguese descent, lost her husband through a hunting accident and some time later was married to a German aristocrat. It was thus that the family set sail to Europe when Guinard was still a child and he was to spend the first part of his youth abroad. Educated in Switzerland, he began his artistic studies at the Koenigliche Kunstakademie in Munich where he studied under Hermann Groeber. Guinard did not return to Brazil until 1929, when he settled in Rio and began what became one of the most distinguished careers in Brazilian modern painting.
In the mid 1940s, Guinard founded the first open-air school of painting called Grupo Guignard, which included many of the aspiring young artists of the time and took place on the Beach of Flamengo. Sand and windy conditions soon made this arrangement rather impractical and the group moved to indoor quarters. Guinard became a famous art teacher of whom one of his students said, "I learned more with him in one day than in four years at the academy." The first exhibtion of work done by the Grupo caused a scandal as it revealed a complete deviation from the academic teachings of the School of Fine Arts, it was something, obviously, that the public was not prepared for.
Guinard's most famous paintings are his 'imaginary landscapes' which he began to create in Minas Gerais, a state to which he moved in 1944 on the invitation of Juscelino Kubitschek, (then mayor of Belo Horizonte). The clear, dry air mountains imbued his paintings with light, color and transparency. The magic of Ouro Preto with its numerous baroque churches and ancient colonial buildings form an ever-recurring background for landscapes which exude a surrealist quality and at the same time represent a true expression of the atmospheric reality of nature. This tranparency and clarity of color can also be found in the flower paintings, another favorite subject of the artist.
The canvas Flores, which represents one of the artist's most delightful renderings of a vase of flowers, is a perfect example. As the American art critic Lincoln Kirstein observed at the occassion of an exhibtion of Latin American Art at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1944, Guinard's work possesses a 'jewel-like' quality, remisiscent of the precious stones found in the rich soil of Minas Gerais. Brilliantly hued, delicate and light, the flowers seem to float on their stems while a halo of light bathes the landscape beyond. The painting is framed by a white tablecloth and some fruit which renders a classic motif with the magic touch of a tropical environment.
In the mid 1940s, Guinard founded the first open-air school of painting called Grupo Guignard, which included many of the aspiring young artists of the time and took place on the Beach of Flamengo. Sand and windy conditions soon made this arrangement rather impractical and the group moved to indoor quarters. Guinard became a famous art teacher of whom one of his students said, "I learned more with him in one day than in four years at the academy." The first exhibtion of work done by the Grupo caused a scandal as it revealed a complete deviation from the academic teachings of the School of Fine Arts, it was something, obviously, that the public was not prepared for.
Guinard's most famous paintings are his 'imaginary landscapes' which he began to create in Minas Gerais, a state to which he moved in 1944 on the invitation of Juscelino Kubitschek, (then mayor of Belo Horizonte). The clear, dry air mountains imbued his paintings with light, color and transparency. The magic of Ouro Preto with its numerous baroque churches and ancient colonial buildings form an ever-recurring background for landscapes which exude a surrealist quality and at the same time represent a true expression of the atmospheric reality of nature. This tranparency and clarity of color can also be found in the flower paintings, another favorite subject of the artist.
The canvas Flores, which represents one of the artist's most delightful renderings of a vase of flowers, is a perfect example. As the American art critic Lincoln Kirstein observed at the occassion of an exhibtion of Latin American Art at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1944, Guinard's work possesses a 'jewel-like' quality, remisiscent of the precious stones found in the rich soil of Minas Gerais. Brilliantly hued, delicate and light, the flowers seem to float on their stems while a halo of light bathes the landscape beyond. The painting is framed by a white tablecloth and some fruit which renders a classic motif with the magic touch of a tropical environment.