Nacional versus internacional no modernismo brasileiro: a proposta da obra plástica de IUsmael Nery
Abstract
Ismael Nery, an artist associated to expressionistic, futuristic and surrealistic plastic resolutions, imprinted in pictorial images ideas about the permanences and essences of the human body separated from time and space. Painting
and drawing, more than instruments for the metaphysical inquietudes, were an exercise for him to dominate a technique. Thus, the Brazilian themes, which interested the national vision in the Brazilian modernism context, were absent
from his work, as they were also absent of his plastic and visual concerns. Therefore, the oblivion and the “resurrection” of Ismael Nery are both sides of the same coin. The national theme rejected by Ismael Nery led to the artist´s marginalization, not only during his life, but, above all, after his decease; the crisis of the national theme after World War II enabled to bring back Nery´s work to the artistic world. The development of a new vision, when creating a new visual syntax in Brazil, enabled Ismael Nery’s rehabilitation.