Artistic Migration

Book excerpt: Artistic Migration: Reframing Post-War Italian Art, Architecture, and Design in Brazil investigates a selection of works by Italian artists and architects, and an art critic and dealer, who immigrated to Brazil after World War II, and were involved in the first activities and opportunities created by the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP). Although foreigners, these experts, namely Bramante Buffoni, Roberto Sambonet, Lina Bo Bardi, Giancarlo Palanti, and Pietro Maria Bardi, were engaged in the construction of paths for Brazilian art, architecture, and design, in production marked by the intertwining of artistic disciplines. By examining the works produced between 1946 and 1991, and focusing on the relationship between art and architecture, with previously unexplored cases, the text investigates how these actors engaged in the dilemmas of Brazilian culture and became part of its invention. The intention is to understand the nature and meaning of this recognizable experience, the continuities of and ruptures from modern architectural, art and design ideals, pre-war experience, and immigration, illuminating a complex framework of relationships with local ideas. The approach and the extensive archival research in Italy and Brazil adopted for the book sheds new light on critically rethinking and reframing Italian and Brazilian cultural events, and will be of interest to architects, researchers, teachers, and students interested in the history of architecture, museums, design, and art.