Portinari
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.