Vilanova Artigas: A Mão Livre do Vovô

To celebrate the centenary of João Batista Vilanova Artigas’ (1915 – 1985, Brazil) birth, the Museu da Casa Brasileira (MCB) presents an exhibition panel with original drawings and paper toys that the architect created with his grandchildren. Vilanova Artigas: A Mão Livre do Vovô [Vilanova Artigas: Grandpa’s Freehand] also occupies the Biblioteca Parque Villa-Lobos with drawings and facsimiles from the same series. The selection of works was done after the research developed by Michel Gorski and Sílvia Zatz for the book “A mão livre do Vovô, published by the Editora Terceiro Nome.

The exhibition allows the visitor to see a new facet of the founder of the Architecture and Urbanism School of the University de São Paulo (USP). The exhibited images are the results of Artigas having fun with his grandkids: they built machines and animals, draw musical instruments, conceived entire universes. The drawings were created in regular or scratch paper with coloured pencils, felt and ballpoint pens, and many of them carry interventions by the kids.

Vilanova Artigas graduated as an architect from the Polytechnic of the University of São Paulo in 1937. He was the founder of the University’s Architecture and Urbanism School, in 1948, where he leaded, in 1962, a curriculum reform that was later adopted by several other Architecture colleges in Brazil. He was member of the Communist Party and engaged in several popular movements, what caused his persecution by the military dictatorship. His works received two international awards (Jean Tschumi Award, 1972, and Auguste Perret Award, 1985), and he remains to this day a major influence for Brazilian architects.