Among the foremost Brazilian artists of his generation, Lorenzato developed a singular body of paintings centered on his fastidious observations of the everyday subjects he encountered in his hometown of Belo Horizonte—including favelas, semi-urban landscapes, and scenes of agriculture and rural industry. Lorenzato’s distinctive compositions are characterized by reduced geometric forms and densely textured surfaces that the artist achieved through the use of richly colored self-made pigments applied with brushes, combs, and forks. Imbued with an assured freedom of expression, Lorenzato’s canvases masterfully capture the vitality of the artist’s surroundings as well as the colors and textures of the natural world.

Though he studied for a brief period at the Reale Accademia delle Arti in Vicenza, Italy, in 1925, Lorenzato was mostly self-taught, and he developed his technical proficiency in painting through holding various jobs as a mural painter in Brazil, and later, restoring frescoes in Rome. Recent critical and institutional attention to Lorenzato’s work has expanded the appreciation of his art far beyond the regional recognition it received during his lifetime, and has entered his oeuvre into the canon of Brazilian art and modern art history.

Press release courtesy David Zwirner