Who
once told me with much tenderness about Cândido
Portinari, was my friend Henrique Tondinelli
Filho, companion neighbor and partner in passion
for painting. My opposite by birthplace…me
from the north and he, from the south, me from
São João, he from São Sebastião
do Paraíso. Tondinelli and I have been
fraternally admirers of philosophy and art,
and it was like this, and for this, that my
friend Tondinelli, even at a distance, served
me as cicerone on one of my trips to the interior
of São Paulo state, in passing to a vacation
to Rio Grande do Sul state.
What
a beautiful journey, initiated by visiting the
Furnas Dam, the cities of Passos and São
Sebastião, still in Minas Gerais. After
passing the state line, not very far, there
were two small, marvelous cities, The very clean
and romantic Batatais and Brodósqui,
lands of agriculture and love of the great Portinari.
In both, are apparent the signs of dedication
of one of the greatest geniuses of Brazilian
painting. In Batatatais, in the church of the
Matriz, a great part of his religious art is
there; in Brodósqui, his homeland, the
museum Portinari and all the mistica of admiration
for the existence and work of it’s illustrious
son.
In
Brodósqui, everything is Portinari. Everything!
A mixture of enchantment and color, life shared
and moved by life, by the absence feelings of
love, legitimate translation of eternal tones
of a blue, a very pure blue, color of love and
the recognition of the master.
