São Paulo – Twenty paintings of Brazilian landscapes were presented Monday (7th) evening by Alexandre Reider, the visual artist who painted them, at the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce’s headquarters in the city of São Paulo. The paintings were exhibited together for the only time in this vernissage, since they will be donated to the Arab embassies in Brasília this week. The works portray famous Brazilian landscapes.
Some landscapes painted by Reider were the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP); the Guanabara Bay, Sugarloaf mountain and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Niterói, in Rio de Janeiro; the Porto de Galinhas beach in Pernambuco; the Barra Lighthouse, in Salvador, Bahia; the Iguazú Falls, in Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná; the Amazon River; and the indigenous of Xingu Indigenous National Park, which spread throughout the states of Mato Grosso and Pará. Other Brazilian landscapes were also painted by the artist.
The topic of the paintings was proposed by the Arab Chamber, which commissioned them to the artist, a specialist in portraying landscapes. “I studied landscape and the naturalistic school. For these works, I used photographic references of my own, from friends and also from the internet”, said the painter. For each painting, he used several images of the places as references. Based on them, he made the drawings.
The projects were presented to the Arab Chamber and, after the approval, were oil painted. "The works are gifts to the ambassadors, and this was an important opportunity to my career. Here, they are being displayed together for the only time before being delivered to the diplomats”, he said.
The president of the Arab Chamber, Marcelo Sallum, said that the organization wished to offer gifts to the embassies and also promote Brazil and its touristic attractions. Thus, the opportunity to commission the paintings to Reider presented itself.
“These are works that showcase Brazil, made by a Brazilian artist. It will be a pleasure to visit the embassies and find in them a place of our country represented”, he said. Sallum received as a gift from Reider a painting that portrays the Sugarloaf Mountain. Members of the staff of the Arab Chamber, directors of the organization and guests of the visual artist attended the vernissage.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
