Galeria Inox

Djanira da Motta e Silva (Avaré, São Paulo, 1914 – Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 1979) was a painter, draftsman, poster designer, and printmaker. Raised in Porto União, Santa Catarina, she moved to São Paulo in 1932. In 1937, after contracting tuberculosis, she was admitted to a sanatorium in São José dos Campos, where she first began to draw. She relocated to Rio de Janeiro in 1939 and opened a boarding house in the Santa Teresa neighborhood, which became a gathering place for modern artists such as Milton Dacosta (1915–1988), Portuguese painter Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (1908–1992), Hungarian artist Arpad Szenes (1897–1985), Carlos Scliar (1920–2001), and Romanian painter Emeric Marcier (1916–1990). That same year, she attended painting classes at the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios in Rio de Janeiro.

In 1942, she exhibited for the first time in the Modern Division of the National Salon of Fine Arts, and the following year held her first solo exhibition at the headquarters of the Brazilian Press Association (ABI) in Rio de Janeiro. In 1943, she participated in the landmark exhibition Modern Brazilian Painting at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, England, while also exhibiting her work in Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile. Between 1944 and 1947, she lived in the United States.

In 1946, she held a solo show at The New School for Social Research in New York and exhibited in Washington, D.C., and Boston. She also participated in the modern art exhibition at the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris. Upon returning to Brazil, she met the poet and historian José Shaw da Motta e Silva (1920–n.d.) in 1950, whom she married. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, alongside participating in numerous exhibitions, she executed major commissions including the mural Candomblé (1957) for the residence of writer Jorge Amado (1912–2001); the glazed tile panels (azulejos) for the Chapel of Santa Bárbara (1958) in Rio de Janeiro; and the illustrations for Campo Geral (1964), a book by author João Guimarães Rosa (1908–1967). In 1977, the National Museum of Fine Arts (MNBA) in Rio de Janeiro organized a retrospective of her career. Following her death, her paintings have been featured in numerous national and international exhibitions, and 813 of her works are housed in the permanent collection of the MNBA.

Source: Itaú Cultural