Ismael Nery

de Paulo Sérgio Duarte

Ismael Nery (Belém de Pará 1900- 1934), modernist painter and poet of the early 20th century, and a contemporary of the modernist artists and intellectuals who participated in the "Semana de Arte Moderna" in 1922. While the new generation of modernist artists pursued a national identity, Nery experimented in more contemporary movements such as expressionism and cubism and preferred to paint himself and his wife: poet and author Adalgisa Nery (1905-1980). Ismael Nery travel to Europe in 1927 and was a frequent visitor of the studio of Chagall where he meet André Breton, the author of the "Manifeste du surréalisme" (1924). The total freedom of this new art movement deeply impressed the young artist. "Two Brazilian artists practiced this freedom in the visual arts in the 1920's: Ismael Nery and Cicero Dias."--Page 127.