Considered one of the protagonists of the national artistic tapestry,
Rubem Dario Horta Bittencourt (1941-1978) from Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro will be the subject of an exhibition in São Paulo, which will open on April 13th — the artist's first solo exhibition. Installed at Galeria Passado Composto Século XX,
"Rubem Dario: o Poeta das Cores" brings together 67 unique works that, together, represent the importance of Rubem's contribution to Brazilian culture. The place couldn't be more special.
Galeria Passado Composto Século XX , run by curator and owner
Graça Bueno , has as one of its missions the recovery of memory and the appreciation of national design and art. In this sense, tapestries have always had a special place on the walls of the space, located in the Jardins neighborhood.
Curated by Graça, with special collaboration from historian Paulo César Garcez Marins, the exhibition rediscovers Dario's memory, outlining a panorama based on
historical documents and a collection of works that have been under the care of his sister, Anna Lúcia Bittencourt, since 1978. Visitors will be able to immerse themselves in the artist's work, produced
between 1963 and 1978 , and see 56 model cards, 6 tapestries, 3 drawings and 2 project studies. Of the collection assembled by Graça, most of the gouaches on paper have never been exhibited and these works can be considered unpublished. As a highlight, the curator chooses a monumental wool tapestry, measuring 2.91 m x 2.16 m, dated 1965 and produced by Artesanato Guanabara on a manual loom.
She is a self-confessed fan of Rubem Dario and recalls when and how she first met the artist. "In 2013, I acquired a
monumental and exceptionally beautiful tapestry with
tropical themes . At the time, I had bought it from a family and I didn't know anything else about the artist. I simply fell in love with the work. Years later, in 2016, when I met his sister, Anna Lúcia, in person, I discovered, through the vast historical archive housed in her residence in Rio de Janeiro, that this magnificent tapestry had been commissioned in 1968 by Colégio Santo Inácio and was executed by the Ateliê da Penitenciária de Bangu, which for years was a reference in social work", she says. According to Graça, Rubem Dario could not live without the
landscape or the vision of
nature . He created tapestries with themes of tropical vegetation and the combination of opposites, machine and nature, symbolizing the man of the city and the country. "Beginning in painting and with a vocation for murals, he produced unique works in gouache as a basis for his tapestries, for which he achieved success, recognition and the title of the magician of colors", he explains.
Graça also states that Dario's production is remarkable for the
national artistic tapestry due to its
originality and
magical mastery of colors in the various themes of nature — from tropical to abstract, geometric and figurative strokes from the period 1963 to 1978. “Although his career was short and meteoric, his poetic and consistent legacy was concretized by the success of his participation in individual and collective exhibitions in Brazil and abroad, especially in the 1st Biennial of Applied Arts of Uruguay in Punta Del Este, in March 1965”, he concludes.
Service "Rubem Dario - The Poet of Colors"
When? From April 13 to June 26, 2024
Where? Gallery Past Compound 20th Century
Address: Alameda Lorenda, 1996 – Jardins, Sao Paulo/SP
Opening hours: Monday to Friday, 10am to 7pm Saturdays, from 10am to 2pm 
