Agostinho Batistade Freitas

By LatAm ARTE

Agostinho Batista de Freitas (Paulínia, 1927 - 1997) was a Brazilian naïve painter, a non-academic painting movement. He began painting in the 1950s, selling his works at the Viaduto do Chá in São Paulo, where he was discovered by Pietro Maria Bardi, founding director of MASP, a museum in which, at the age of 25, the artist won his first solo exhibition. It was 1952. This exhibition would also be presented in other important museums in Brazil. In 1966, he participated in the Venice Biennale with José Antônio da Silva and Francisco da Silva, also considered to be part of the Brazilian primitivist and naive movement. His work mainly addresses the urban landscape in the city of São Paulo. In 2017, 20 years after his death, the artist received a new exhibition also at MASP, containing works covering his portraits of the city of São Paulo and all its diversity.