MASP's LGBTQIA+ Series Examines Mário de Andrade's Collection Through Queer Lens

The MASP exhibition 'Mário de Andrade. Duas Vidas,' curated by Regina T. Barros, presents a selection from the critic's art collection, focusing exclusively on works depicting male figures. This curatorial choice aligns the show with the museum's 2024 LGBTQIA+ programming, which also includes a Francis Bacon exhibition. The display, drawn largely from the Instituto de Estudos Brasileiros da USP's holdings, features key Brazilian modernists like Anita Malfatti, Di Cavalcanti, and Candido Portinari, alongside colonial pieces and Andrade's own travel photographs from the 1920s. The exhibition's premise—to view the collection through a 'gay sensibility'—is explored in the accompanying catalog. Essays by Barros and Ivo Mesquita analyze Andrade's elusive sexuality, referencing personal letters and his critical writing on Portinari's 'rude males.' The catalog argues that while individual works may not be homoerotic, the all-male assemblage, privately consumed, allows for a 'gay reception.' The review contrasts this focused, thematic presentation with the broader, more visceral homoeroticism in Bacon's paintings, questioning the effectiveness of the curatorial filter. It concludes by critiquing the high cost of the exhibition catalogs as a barrier to the MASP's stated goals of diversity and inclusion. The show remains on view until June 9, 2024.