Exceptional Works: Amadeo Luciano Lorenzato

Sem titulo (Untitled), 1989

Oil on board

15 5/8 x 19 1/8 inches

39.7 x 49.6 cm

“I leave home, pick up a piece of paper and draw on it, then I note down the colors more or less and then... I paint. I have to see the landscape and the things thereon.”

—Amadeo Luciano Lorenzato

Among the foremost Brazilian artists of his generation, Amadeo Luciano Lorenzato (1900–1995) developed a singular body of paintings centered on his fastidious observations of the everyday subjects he encountered in his hometown of Belo Horizonte. Lorenzato’s distinctive compositions are characterized by reduced geometric forms and densely textured surfaces. Imbued with an assured freedom of expression, these canvases masterfully capture the vitality of the artist’s surroundings as well as the colors and textures of the natural world. Lorenzato’s work is included in the 60th Venice Biennale, Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere, which is on view through November 24, 2024.

Made in 1989, Sem título (Untitled) captures Lorenzato’s distillation of form at its most striking extreme. This work is known to be based on a flight the artist took from his hometown of Belo Horizonte to Rio de Janeiro. This painting is included in the artist’s solo exhibition, on view through November 9, 2024 at David Zwirner Hong Kong.

Amadeo Luciano Lorenzato, n.d.

Despite studying briefly at the Reale Accademia delle Arti in Vicenza, Italy, in 1925, Lorenzato was mostly self-taught, developing his technical proficiency in painting through various jobs as a mural painter in Brazil and, later, restoring frescoes in Rome. Lorenzato was particularly interested in the work of Cimabue and the Italian Renaissance painters Masaccio, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo. He was also familiar with contemporary artists in Europe—including Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse—as well as the prevalent (Brazilian) Concrete Art movement that emerged in his hometown in the 1950s.

Installation view, Amadeo Luciano Lorenzato, David Zwirner, Hong Kong, 2024

Sem título (Untitled), 1989 belongs to Lorenzato's late period, when his painting acquired complete freedom in the treatment of his themes. A powerful and unusual composition, this painting nonetheless reflects his interest in depicting horizons, which recur throughout his oeuvre. Importantly, this work is based on an aerial view, which provided the artist with an unusual vantage point.

Although well-travelled, as the son of Italian immigrants who moved extensively between Europe and Brazil, Lorenzato only flew on an airplane a few times. One of these was a flight to Rio de Janeiro from Belo Horizonte, when he had a window seat. During the journey, he made a sketch that became this painting, which depicts the sunset beneath the wing, the sea, and the pattern on the inside of the plane.

Belo Horizonte airport, 1994

“Airplanes appear just a few times in the work of Lorenzato, but they always suggest movement and transformation. An ingenious landscape painter, in his compositions landscape elements often end up turning into pure form. The interplay between abstraction and figuration constitutes one of Lorenzato’s modern signatures. This is the case with this painting, which captures what appears to be a sunset, or the full moon, seen through the window of an airplane in mid-flight.”

—Rodrigo Moura, Chief Curator, El Museo del Barrio, New York and author of the 2022 monograph Lorenzato

Amadeo Luciano Lorenzato, Sem título (Untitled), 1989 (detail)

Sem título (Untitled) features a richly textured surface that is a characteristic feature of Lorenzato’s work. Achieved by the use of combs, forks, and brush handles, this approach is informed by his work in restoration and as a mural painter, as well as his interest in impressionism. The artist also made his own pigments.

While his subjects were commonplace, Lorenzato’s work expresses an important crosscurrent between Brazilian art and broader modernist movements of the twentieth century. He kept on hand a worn copy of Giorgio Vasari’s account of Italian artists and admired painters including Cézanne, Van Gogh, Monet, and Manet. A distinctly Brazilian artist with European roots, Lorenzato’s practice combines Brazilian styles with a unique take on European art.

Here, Rodrigo Moura discusses Lorenzato’s work in 4 Notas Sobre Lorenzato, a video by Gomide&Co, 2022

Wolfgang Tillmans, Leaving St. Petersburg, 2014

Georgia O’Keeffe, Sky Above Clouds IV, 1965

Yayoi Kusama, PACIFIC OCEAN, 2015

William Eggleston, Untitled, 1978

Air travel has long been a source of fascination for artists. In Lorenzato’s rendition, the view from the window is translated into abstract geometric shapes, with curved and linear forms radiating from the off-center focal point of a sun or moon. The lower part of the composition features a placid blue band of sea, beneath which a gid of rose-tinted circles echoes the white orb above. Lorenzato’s pattern is reminiscent of those seen in flight-related works by Georgia O’Keeffe, for example, and Yayoi Kusama who, when traveling from Japan to New York for the first time, was struck by the pattern of the ocean, which would inform her seminal net paintings.

Amadeo Luciano Lorenzato, n.d.. Photo by Paulo Laborne

Erika Verzutti, The Painter’s Wife, 2015

Legendary in his hometown, Lorenzato’s work was collected by fellow artists in Belo Horizonte, who introduced it to new audiences in São Paulo in the 1990s. Recent critical and institutional attention to Lorenzato’s work has expanded the appreciation of his art far beyond the regional recognition it received during his lifetime, and he continues to influence contemporary artists. In 2015, the Brazilian artist Erika Verzutti created The Painter’s Wife in homage to Lorenzato’s airplane painting.

Amadeo Luciano Lorenzato, Sem título (Untitled), 1988, on display in 2020 as part of Picture Gallery in Transformation, a long-term exhibition featuring works from the MASP collection, Museum of Art of São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (MASP), Brazil

Lorenzato’s work is represented in public collections internationally, including Fundação Clóvis Salgado, Belo Horizonte; Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte; Museu de Arte de São Paulo; Nouveau Musée National de Monaco; Pinacoteca de São Paulo; and Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Brazil.

Amadeo Luciano Lorenzato