hasPart
5
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name
Building the Highway - Panels for the Highway Monument
description
Panels ordered for Portinari by engineer Iedo Fiúza, director of the National Highway Department (DNER) of the Vargas government, to decorate the Road Monument, located on Rodovia Presidente Dutra (Estrada Rio-São Paulo) in Serra das Araras, Piraí, RJ .
The works were transferred to the National Museum of Fine Arts in 2000, after a campaign that warned about the precarious conservation of the works. The Road Monument was deactivated and had been closed since 1978, without any security or maintenance system to preserve the space and works of art.
Regarding the works, Antonio Bento made the following analysis "They are realistic works, painted in oil on canvas. They even seem to be made on photographs, as did the pop-art artists and later the hyper-realists. There are few figures of workers. But they are already works that reveal a new vision of the Brazilian landscape. They also have a chronological connotation, probably resulting from the adopted theme. They were, above all, the first large-scale works made by the painter" (Antonio Bento, in Portinari, 2003)
The monument:
Designed by architect Raphael Galvão, with the participation of engineer Chagas Dória, it was executed by Construtora Christian Nielsen.
The Touring Club of Brazil was responsible for the construction of the Monument between 1928 and 1930, when the work was paralyzed due to political problems. Construction resumed in 1936, by the Federal Highway Commission.
Inaugurated on May 13, 1938, the Monument was managed by Touring until 1953, when control was passed to the DNER, currently DNIT (National Department of Transport Infrastructure).
Functioning as a viewpoint for the beautiful landscape of the place, the monument provided rest for travelers, with a leisure area and a large restaurant.
On the external walls there are eight bas-relief panels by Albert Freyhoffer.
ownerStr
Obras executadas para decorar o Monumento Rodoviário, Piraí - RJ
notes
The set consists of four oil panels on canvas.
Works provisionally listed by the State Institute of Cultural Heritage in 1990 (see DO 620).
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