Flávio de Carvalho

The first thing to notice about this painting by Flávio de Carvalho is the large eyes looking to the left. They are part of a rather mask-like face with a pointed nose, also turned to the left. It is reminiscent of the faces in Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon from 1907 – an icon of European modernism. Above the face, hair curls upwards. Underneath, an amoeba-like form spreads out, bearing no resemblance to a human body: curved lines and shapes alternate with angular surfaces. Towards the edge of the picture, the shapes are mainly rectangular. The portrait is painted in bright colours. In the centre of the painting, shades of pink predominate, reminiscent of human skin. In addition, de Carvalho has painted areas in yellow, blue or orange and other mixed colours. The colours become darker towards the edges, where reds and browns dominate.

De Carvalho combined his exploration of the unconscious from surrealism with cubist imagery to create a mixture of figurative and abstract elements. The artist thought little of pure abstraction, as he once remarked:

“Abstract painting is painting without a ‘soul’. Its rational nature, to which it retreats, is used for all kinds of mental blackmail. The greatest justification one could grant abstract art is the invocation of the creative freedom of the artist, namely that the artist has the right to reveal and express himself as he pleases.”

The sitter in this portrait is Niomar Moniz Sodré Bittencourt, born in 1916. In the 1940s, she married her second husband, the journalist and businessman Paulo Bittencourt, who owned the Correio da Manhã newspaper in Rio de Janeiro. She was closely involved in the creation of the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro and served on its board for decades.