New acquisition: Sérgio Milliet

Sérgio Milliet (São Paulo, SP, 1898 – São Paulo, SP, 1966) occupies a particular place in the history of Brazilian art. In addition to being one of the protagonists of Brazilian modernism, producing literature, poetry, criticism and painting, Milliet was also one of the decisive agents in the first phase of the history of the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art. In 2024, a self-portrait made by him was donated by Maria Lúcia de Araújo Cintra to the museum's collection.

The oil painting on wood by Sérgio Milliet is on display at the Paulo Mendes de Almeida Library at MAM and presents self-portraits with different finishes on the two surfaces of the support. On both sides, the author's facial elements are formed or crossed by curved and diagonal lines, which also structure the surrounding space. In the most finished side of the work, all the fragmented planes are filled with colors, but in one of the central planes, which corresponds to one side of the face, an eye is missing and the little coloring indicates that this would not be the final version of the painting either. The self-portrait on the other side of the support is only partially colored in the upper planes, but also contains the features of the face that reappear on the opposite side.

Training in Switzerland and Paris at the beginning of the 20th century gave Milliet contact with artistic and scientific transformations that were decisive in the West. During this period, he acquired a familiarity with modernism that contributed to the spread of European avant-garde art in Brazil between the 1920s and 1960s. With his poetry, he participated in the 1922 Modern Art Week in São Paulo. Furthermore, Milliet's contribution to the process of institutionalization of modern art in Brazil was relevant. Achievements such as the Art Section of the Mário de Andrade Municipal Library, opened in 1945; the ABCA (Brazilian Association of Art Critics), created in 1949; the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art, founded in 1948, and the São Paulo Biennale owe to the presence and active participation of Sérgio Milliet in their trajectories. In the last two, he played the role of artistic director respectively in 1952–57 and 1953–58.

In 1969, MAM São Paulo presented the exhibition Homenagem a Sérgio Milliet, where it brought together paintings that were scattered in collections of the artist's friends. On the occasion of the closing, critic Geraldo Ferraz published an article in Estado de S. Paulo suggesting that Milliet “was not a simple Sunday painter”, but his various occupations would have been the cause of the absence of a creative achievement of greater relevance. In the article, which is available for consultation at the MAM Library, Ferraz also summarizes the main sets of the work, highlighting the portraits and landscapes.

In general, Milliet's painting presents simple and clear lines that, in many cases, circumscribe her effort for a more formal use of color. Fractional planes with different colors and luminosities are common, referring to the aesthetic ideals of Cubism and the chromatic exercise of French Expressionism. This is notable in the six paintings by Sérgio Milliet that MAM already has in its collection and also in this recently acquired front-and-back self-portrait.

Gabriela Gotoda
Curated by MAM São Paulo

 

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