Agostinho Batista de Freitas

Agostinho Batista de Freitas (Paulínia, Campinas district, SP, 1927 - São Paulo, SP, 1997)

Agostinho Batista de Freitas was a painter and illustrator. At the age of 17, he moved to the city of São Paulo, settling in Imirim. The son of Portuguese immigrants from Madeira, who worked in agriculture in the interior of the state, Agostinho helped out on the farm and tended the animals as a child. His first drawings were made on the ground and in trees. He learned to read and write in São Paulo and worked in various trades, including bricklayer's helper, crater, and electrician. He was discovered by Pietro Maria Bardi, who found him selling his works on Sundays in Praça do Correio and organized his first exhibition at the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) in 1952.

Agostinho portrayed the urban landscape of São Paulo with a unique perspective: "The city is like this, with these skyscrapers, these buildings, it seems like we're in the middle of a rock, it seems mysterious, it seems like a cemetery" (interview with Lélia Coelho Frota, 1976). Although he also painted scenes of the countryside, he preferred the city to the countryside: "Lights here, signs there, you study so many things in your head, right. Now, not in the woods, you only see woods, the only thing to think about is going to plant, right." The city, for him, represented both the architecture of tombstones and the constant movement, with a hyper-realistic approach. The countryside, in his words, was a "picture of imagination," idealized by distance and nostalgia for the past.

In addition to depictions of city and countryside, he also painted scenes of Catholic rituals and rare still lifes, creating a unique body of work. He participated in numerous exhibitions in Brazil and abroad, such as the Venice Biennale (1966), "Brazilian Primitives" in the United States (1975), and "Naive Art: Five Artists" in São Paulo (1998). Born in Paulínia (Campinas, São Paulo) in 1927 and died in São Paulo in 1997, Agostinho Batista de Freitas began his career as a self-taught painter around 1950, while still working as an electrician. His first works were sold at Praça do Correio, where he was discovered by Pietro Maria Bardi, who encouraged him to record a panoramic view of São Paulo from the top of the Banco do Estado de São Paulo building. The São Paulo cityscape became a recurring theme in his artistic production.

Note
1 It only became a municipality in 1964

Solo Exhibitions

1952 - São Paulo, SP - Solo Exhibition, at Masp - organized by Pietro Maria Bardi, who had discovered it
1952 - São Paulo, SP - Solo Exhibition, at MAM/SP
1952 - Salvador, BA - Solo Exhibition, at MAM/BA
1952 - Campinas, SP - Solo Exhibition, at MACC
1966 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Solo Exhibition, at MAM/RJ
1978 - São Paulo, SP - Agostinho Batista de Freitas: paintings, at the Shopping News Arts Center
1980 - São Paulo, SP - Solo Exhibition, at Paulo Figueiredo Art Gallery
1985 - São Paulo, SP - Solo Exhibition, at José Duarte de Aguiar and Ricardo Camargo Art Gallery Art
1990 - São Paulo SP - Solo show, at the State Art Gallery

Group Exhibitions

1966 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - The Artist and the Machine, at MAM/RJ
1966 - Venice (Italy) - 33rd Venice Biennale
1975 - United States - 19 Brazilian Primitives, traveling
1979 - São Paulo, SP - Art in Brazil: A History of Five Centuries, at MASP
1980 - Mexico City (Mexico) - Popular Painters and 3 Engravers of Brazil, at the National Institute of Fine Arts
1984 - Goiânia, GO - Festival of Colors, at the Goiânia Art Museum
1985 - Penápolis, SP - 6th Noroeste Visual Arts Salon, at the Penápolis Educational Foundation. Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters
1988 - São Paulo SP - Brasiliana: Man and Earth, at the State Art Gallery
1994 - São Paulo SP - Great Exhibition of Brazilian Naive Art, at the Jacques Ardies Gallery
1995 - Osasco SP - 2nd Art Exhibition, at the Fieo University Center
1996 - Osasco SP - Expo FIEO: donation by Luiz Ernesto Kawall, at the Fieo University Center
1996 - Osasco SP - 3rd Art Exhibition, at the Fieo University Center
1996 - São Paulo SP - The World of Mário Schenberg, at the Casa das Rosas

Posthumous Exhibitions

1998 - São Paulo SP - Naive Art - 5 Artists, at the Jacques Ardies Gallery
1998 - São Paulo SP - Paulistana Iconography in Private Collections, at the Casa Brasileira Museum
2000 - São Paulo SP - Brazil + 500 Rediscovery Exhibition. Popular Art, at the Biennial Foundation
2001 - Brasília, DF - Form-and-Color as Light in Naive Art, at the Itaú Cultural Gallery
2001 - Penápolis, SP - Form-and-Color as Light in Naive Art, at the Itaú Cultural Gallery
2002 - Piracicaba, SP - 6th Naive Biennial of Brazil, at Sesc
2002 - São Paulo, SP - Pop Brazil: popular art and the popular in art, at the CCBB
2002 - São Paulo, SP - Santa Ingenuidade, at Unifieo
2003 - São Paulo, SP - The Art Behind the Art: where works of art are and how they travel, at MAM/SP