Collective Exhibition
São Paulo, Brasil
09/09/2026 - 07/11/2026

The exhibition For them, with them: from modern to contemporary aims to highlight the participation of women in Brazilian art through two sets of works — one of a historical nature, the other current — consistent with the profile adopted by each of the units of Dan Galeria, in the capital of São Paulo. This double exhibition suggests a journey that goes from the mid-20th century to the present day, a period in which women, confirming the pioneering spirit of Tarsila do Amaral and Anita Malatti, maintained a growing and prominent presence on the cultural scene,

despite persistent difficulties with female ascension.

A search of the Dan Galeria collection resulted in a selection of rare works capable of illustrating the first segment. They are small treasures, such as an architectural model made with matchboxes by Lygia Clark, a small column by Mary Vieira, a set of metal plates assembled by Amélia Toledo, and a study book carefully prepared by Eleonore Koch. The rescue also includes several series of drawings by Judith Lauand, Mira Schendel and Maria Leontina, as well as unpublished sculptures by Ione Saldanha and paintings by Tomie Ohtake and Yolanda Mohalyi, always in small formats. The intention is to emphasize the experimental and/or preparatory nature of this production and thus to emphasize the creation process of these artists, women who built their works alongside colleagues such as Waldemar Cordeiro, Ivan Serpa, Hélio Oiticica, Milton Dacosta, Manabu Mabe, Iberê Camargo and many

others.

The sculptor Maria Martins escapes this approach. He spent many years abroad, living with exponents of the international avant-garde such as Marcel Duchamp and Breton. From her, a monumental sculpture will be presented at Dan Contemporanea’s generous exhibition space. Made up of two figures cast in bronze from plaster originals from 1938, Martins’s piece, with its surrealist roots, precedes and borders on the abstraction that would undermine the hegemony of figurative art in the country, when at the end of the 1940s, national themes were abandoned in favor of abstract art. This shift towards the internationalization of visual language was not made without protests. Renowned artists like Di Cavalcanti resisted abstraction, but with the inauguration of the São Paulo International Biennial in 1951, the mission to build national art became a thing of

the past.

Several factors contributed to this move towards updating the visual arts in Brazil. The activities of MASP, the newly founded modern art museums in Rio and São Paulo, and the International Biennial were of special relevance in the dissemination of modern art and its consequences around the world. It is enough to recall the great exhibition of Max Bill and the artist’s arrival in São Paulo at the invitation of MASP and the anthological exhibitions of the historical avant-garde brought by the 1953 Biennial (including the one by Mondrian) to get an idea of the value of knowledge placed within the reach of the Brazilian cultural environment. It was in this climate of cultural effervescence (when Brasília was built) that the art produced in Brazil reached maturity in ten years, and then went hand in hand with international art.

It should be noted that in the transition from modern to contemporary art, Brazilian artists made undisputed advances. Judith Lauand and Lygia Clark, for example, were at the forefront of concrete art. The contribution of these artists began with the effort to critically review the historical avant-garde carried out within the groups Ruptura de São Paulo and Frente do Rio de Janeiro, to then advance poetics based on their own experimentations. There was no simple mimicry of what came from the traditional centers of modern art in Europe or the United States, but rather the development of original creations,

now recognized internationally.

Immigrant artists such as Tomie (Japan) and Yolanda (Hungary) embraced gestural abstractionism in vogue at the turn of the 1950s to the 60s and left their marks; others such as Mira (Switzerland) and Eleonore (Germany) worked almost in isolation on highly individualized productions. Throughout their lives, the resilience of these women resulted in very consistent and highly original works. For them, recognition was slow but arrived. After the realization that the art that was made in Brazil and abroad was not a copy but a creation loaded with information, experimentation and the desire to overcome its own limits, it would no longer be possible to understand artistic modernity

as homogeneous and universal.

A leap to the turn of the millennium and the rise of instant communication. There’s no need to update anymore, everything is present. However, drawing, painting, photography, montages, cinema and video are still being done as in the 20th century. The second core of the exhibition consists mostly of artists participating in the gallery’s paintings. They were joined by four guests. This choice is not intended to reflect the intense search for cultural inclusion that mobilizes some institutions, but to reveal issues underlying the production of this small group of artists. An attentive eye will find in the chosen works two relevant themes, both connected to the current reality: one, linked to nature and everything it represents in modernity and the other, linked to feminine problems, intimacy and the social position

of women.

Maria Alice Milliet — curator