Ismael Nery (October 9, 1900 – April 6, 1934) was a Brazilian artist.

Biography

Background

Born in

Belém Belém (; Portuguese for Bethlehem; initially called Nossa Senhora de Belém do Grão-Pará, in English Our Lady of Bethlehem of Great Pará) often called Belém of Pará, is a Brazilian city, capital and largest city of the state of Pará in ...

Pará Pará is a state of Brazil, located in northern Brazil and traversed by the lower Amazon River. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas and Roraima. To the northwest are the borders of Guyana a ...

, of Dutch, Native-Brazilian, and African ancestry, he studied at the

Escola Nacional de Belas Artes Escola de Belas Artes (School of Fine Arts) is one of the centers of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and dates back to colonial times. A royal letter of Nov 20 1800 by John VI of Portugal established the ''Aula Prática de Desenho e Figu ...

(National School of Fine Arts) in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

and at the

Académie Julian The Académie Julian () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907) that was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

. He created numerous paintings, wrote many poems and also helped design Brazil's National Patrimony of the Treasury department. Nery married a poet,

Adalgisa Nery Adalgisa Nery (October 29, 1905 – June 7, 1980) was a Brazilian poet, journalist and politician. Biography She was born in Rio de Janeiro as Adalgisa Maria Feliciana Noel Cancela Ferreira, the daughter of a civil servant. In 1922 she ...

, in 1922. He contracted

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, ...

in 1931, and died of it in 1934. His iconic work is Autorretrato, 1927 (Autorretrato Rio/Paris) , a surrealist painting commonly compared to the ''

Green Violinist ''Green Violinist'' is a 1923–24 painting by artist Marc Chagall that is now in the permanent collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. The work depicts a fiddler as the central figure who appears to be floating or dancin ...

'' of

Marc Chagall Marc Chagall; russian: link=no, Марк Заха́рович Шага́л ; be, Марк Захаравіч Шагал . (born Moishe Shagal; 28 March 1985) was a Russian-French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with se ...

. Nowadays Autorretrato, 1927 (Autorretrato Rio/Paris) is exhibited by MASP. Ismael Nery - Auto-Retrato (Homem de Chapéu)

Life

Born in 1900, his family settled in 1909 in Rio de Janeiro. In 1915, he joined the National School of Fine Arts. He traveled to Europe in 1920, and attended the Académie Julian in Paris. Back in Brazil, he worked in the architecture section of the National Heritage service at the Ministry of Finance, where he became friends with the poet Murilo Mendes. In 1922, he married Adalgisa Ferreira. In this period, he produced works with an expressionist tendency. His favorite themes are always linked to the human figure: portraits, self-portraits and nudes. He is not interested in national, indigenous and Afro-Brazilian themes. It diversifies the techniques used. He is also a scenographer . In 1929, he had two solo exhibitions, in Belém and Rio de Janeiro . The welcome disappoints him. He also participates in a group exhibition of Brazilian painting in New York.

Sickness and death

That same year 1929, after a trip to

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

and

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

, a diagnosis revealed that he was carrying

, which forced him to live in a sanatorium for two years. He comes out apparently neat. He participated in a few shows, such as the Salão Revolucionário in Rio de Janeiro in 1931 and the Exposição de Arte Moderna da SPAM in São Paulo in 1933. But in 1933, the disease returned irreversibly. He died in 1934, at the age of thirty-three, in Rio de Janeiro, at a time when his notoriety beyond the circle of connoisseurs was still nascent. He is buried dressed in Franciscan, in a homage of the monks to his ardent Catholic faith.

Legacy

In 1959, Adalgisa Nery published an autobiographical novel, ''A Imaginária'' , which became a bestseller. The book relates in particular the common years with Ismael Nery. Adalgisa Nery describes the fascination she initially felt for her husband, but also their agitated relationship, the internal torments of Ismael Nery, and her violence in everyday life. Ismael Nery's work was forgotten by the public and critics until the 1960s, when his name was inscribed on the Biennale of São Paulo, In the room devoted to surrealism and fantastic art. His works were also exhibited in the 10th Biennale. In 1966 in Rio de Janeiro, and in 1984, at the Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo (Ismael Nery Retrospective - 50 years later), two retrospectives of his creations were presented.

Gallery

Image:Ismael nery namorados.jpg, Ismael Nery - ''Namorados'', circa 1927 Image:Ismaelnery - figura1927.jpg, ''Figura'', 1927 ( Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo). File:Ismael Nery - Desejo de Amor.jpg, ''Desejo de Amor'' File:Ismael Nery - Auto-Retrato com Adalgisa.jpg, ''Selfportrait with Adalgisa'' File:Ismael Nery - Composição Surrealista.jpg, ''Composition'' Nery Adalgisa.jpg, Adalgisa Ismael Nery - Figura com cubos.jpg, ''Figura com cubos'', z.d. Ismael Nery - Nude woman crouching - sd.jpg, ''Mulher Nua Ajoelhada'', ca. 1930 Ismael Nery - Auto-retrato, 1927.jpg, ''Auto-retrato'', 1927 Nery Nu feminino 1925.jpg, ''Nu feminino'', 1925 Ismael Nery - Nu, s.d. (MAC-USP).jpg, ''Nu, z.d.''

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nery, Ismael Brazilian painters Brazilian people of Dutch descent Brazilian people of indigenous peoples descent 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Modern painters Académie Julian alumni 1900 births 1934 deaths 20th-century Brazilian architects Brazilian people of African descent Tuberculosis deaths in Rio de Janeiro (state)