In 1951, Peter Scheier photographed the mounting and opening of the 1st Bienal de São Paulo, organized at the time by the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art (MAM-SP). In a temporary pavilion on the Trianon Terrace on Paulista Avenue, in the area now occupied by MASP, the exhibition brought together a group of modern international works, in numbers never before seen in Brazil.
Scheier’s photographs are a valuable record of the museological culture of the time, as well as the works displayed, and the people involved in the event. To today’s eyes, used to the strict rules of contemporary art conservation, some of the scenes are curious, such as those where artists and museum directors are seen smoking next to works of art or touching them with their bare hands. Scheier registered the interactions between international personalities with Brazilian artists, some of whom were already established while others were at the beginning of their careers and helping with the mounting of the exhibition, such as Marcelo Grassmann, Aldemir Martins and Carmelo Cruz.
Scheier applied the rhetorical strategies commonly used in the photojournalism of O Cruzeiro to his photographs of the 1st Biennale. His photos contrast the manual labor of those mounting the exhibition with the sophistication of the works of art themselves, establishing a contrast between an archaic Brazil and one that was in the throes of modernization. From a formal point of view, he overlapped focal planes, establishing relationships between distinct elements.
Captions – Bienal
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The Pavillion of the 1st Biennale of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, Trianon Terrace, Paulista Avenue, 1951
PHOTOGRAPH ON PAPER, GELATIN AND SILVER
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INSTITUTO MOREIRA SALLES COLLECTION
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Workers Carrying Works During the Mounting of the 1st Biennale of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, Trianon Terrace, Paulista Avenue, 1951
PHOTOGRAPH ON PAPER, GELATIN AND SILVER
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Mounting the 1st Biennale of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo. In the background, a container with works from Belgium. Trianon Terrace, Paulista Avenue, 1951.
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Mounting the 1st Biennale of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo. The artist Carmélio Cross carrying sculptures by Bruno Giorgi. Trianon Terrace, Paulista Avenue, 1951.
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Mounting the 1st Biennale of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo. In the background, the painting Divisibility Undefined (1942) by Yves Tanguy; on the right, upside down, The Transparent (1951) by Yves Tanguy; above, the mobile Ogunquit (1946) by Alexander Calder. Trianon Terrace, Paulista Avenue, 1951.
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Mounting the 1st Biennale of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo. In the background, A primeira missa no Brasil [The First Mass in Brazil] (1948) by Candido Portinari; on the left, the sculpture Figura [Figure] (1951) by Bruno Giorgi. Trianon Terrace, Paulista Avenue, 1951.
PHOTOGRAPH ON PAPER, GELATIN AND SILVER
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Mounting the 1st Biennale of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo. In the rear, the Swiss delegation, to the right, the Belgian room. Trianon Terrace, Paulista Avenue, 1951.
PHOTOGRAPH ON PAPER, GELATIN AND SILVER
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Mounting the 1st Biennale of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo. Men cleaning the Swiss room, with paintings by Sophie Taeuber-Arp: from left to right, Escalation (1934); Triangle Opposed by a Vertex, Rectangle, Square, Bars (1931); Composition in Overlapping Circles and Overlaid Arms (1930); and Six Spaces in Four Small Crosses (undated). Trianon Terrace, Paulista Avenue, 1951.
PHOTOGRAPH ON PAPER, GELATIN AND SILVER
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Mounting the 1st Biennale of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo. The Italian delegation: from left to right, casts of Woman Sitting (1947) and Falling Horse (1950) by Pericle Fazzini. Trianon Terrace, Paulista Avenue, 1951.
PHOTOGRAPH ON PAPER, GELATIN AND SILVER
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Mounting the 1st Biennale of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, Trianon Terrace, Paulista Avenue, 1951
PHOTOGRAPH ON PAPER, GELATIN AND SILVER
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INSTITUTO MOREIRA SALLES COLLECTION
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Mounting the 1st Biennale of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo. From left to right: engraver Oswaldo Goeldi, French critic Georges Duhamel, unidentified man. Trianon Terrace, Paulista Avenue, 1951.
PHOTOGRAPH ON PAPER, GELATIN AND SILVER
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Mounting the 1st Biennale of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo. From left to right: Oscar García Kingdom, Commissioner for Uruguay; René d’Harnoncourt, Director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York; and the painter Samson Flexor. Trianon Terrace, Paulista Avenue, 1951.
PHOTOGRAPH ON PAPER, GELATIN AND SILVER
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The 1st Biennale of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo. Special room of the works of the sculptor Maria Martins. Trianon Terrace, Paulista Avenue, 1951.
PHOTOGRAPH ON PAPER, GELATIN AND SILVER
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Mounting the 1st Biennale of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo. From left to right: unidentified man; the artists Oswaldo Goeldi, Carmélio Cruz and Aldemir Martins; in the foreground, from left to right, the sculptures O oitavo véu [The Eighth Veil] (1948), A mulher que perdeu sua sombra [The Woman Who Lost Her Shadow] (1947) and O impossível [The Impossible] (1940) by Maria Martins. Trianon Terrace, Paulista Avenue, 1951.
PHOTOGRAPH ON PAPER, GELATIN AND SILVER
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Mounting the 1st Biennale of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo. The artist Marcelo Grassmann contemplates the sculpture Mulher e sua sombra [Woman and Her Shadow] (undated) by Maria Martins. Trianon Terrace, Paulista Avenue, 1951.
PHOTOGRAPH ON PAPER, GELATIN AND SILVER
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Mounting the 1st Biennale of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo. Special room of the works of the sculptor Maria Martins: on the left, sculpture A mulher que perdeu sua sombra [The Woman Who Lost Her Shadow] (1947); in the mid-ground, O oitavo véu [The Eighth Veil] 1948); in the rear, on the right, O impossível [The Impossible] (1940). Trianon Terrace, Paulista Avenue, 1951.
PHOTOGRAPH ON PAPER, GELATIN AND SILVER
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The artists Aldemir Martins and Marcelo Grassmann at the mounting the 1st Biennale of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, Trianon Terrace, Paulista Avenue, 1951
PHOTOGRAPH ON PAPER, GELATIN AND SILVER
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The 1st Biennale of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo. From left to right: Abraham Palatnik, Waldemar Cordeiro, Kazmer Féjer and Tomás Maldonado, next to the sculpture Tripartite Unity (1948-1949) by Max Bill. Trianon Terrace, Paulista Avenue, 1951.
PHOTOGRAPH ON PAPER, GELATIN AND SILVER
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Mounting the 1st Biennale of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo. René d’Harnoncourt, Director of MoMA, between two unidentified people; to the left, paintings by Yves Tanguy: Divisibilidade indefinida [Undefined Divisibility] (1942), Os transparentes [The Transparents] (1951) and Lentamente para o norte [Slowly to the North](1951); to the right, the mobile Ogunquit (1946) by Alexander Calder. Trianon Terrace, Paulista Avenue, 1951.
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Mounting the 1st Biennale of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo. On the right, Criança morta [Dead Child] (1944) by Candido Portinari; from left to right: unidentified man, Aldo Bonadei, Bruno Giorgi, Sérgio Milliet, unidentified woman and Victor Brecheret. Trianon Terrace, Paulista Avenue, 1951,
PHOTOGRAPH ON PAPER, GELATIN AND SILVER
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The 1st Biennale of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo. Italian Room: to the right, Large Portrait of a Lady (1946) by Giacomo Manzù; in the background, Horse Falling (1950), by Pericle Fazzini. Trianon Terrace, Paulista Avenue, 1951.
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