Ismael Nery: modern trap" at Pinacoteca de São Paulo

Photo: Disclosure
Androgynous bodies, superimposed self-portraits, and figures oscillating between affection and violence set the tone for this panoramic exhibition dedicated to Ismael Nery (1900-1934) at the Pinacoteca de São Paulo. A painter, draftsman, architect, set designer, and poet, Nery absorbed cubism and surrealism through direct contact with figures like André Breton, Marcel Noll, and Marc Chagall during his time at Académie Julian in Paris, but developed his own poetics based on Essentialism, a philosophy centered on detachment from notions of time and space. The exhibition brings together about 230 works including drawings, paintings, portraits, and self-portraits, highlighting the recurring theme of duality: in "Self-Portrait with Adalgisa" (undated), the artist's face merges with that of his wife, the writer Adalgisa Nery, suggesting two manifestations of a single spiritual organism. In other canvases, such as "Internal Vision – Agony" (1931) and "Eternity" (1931), the body appears open and fragmented, its viscera articulated to the landscape, transforming suffering into meditation on mortality and eternity. Died at 33 from complications of tuberculosis, Nery remains one of the most unique voices of Brazilian modernism, with works present in important public collections in the country.