The Brasilian Museum of Naive Art in Rio de Janeiro http://www.museunaif.com.br/ is an overlooked little treasure house at the foot of the hill – Corcovado – on which the statue of Cristo Redentor stands with its arms spread wide. A pleasant villa beside the rack rail tram terminal for the journey to go up Corcovado, it sees a tiny fraction of the visitors to the statue. But it is very much worth a look.
Tiled veranda floor, Museu Internacional de Arte Naif do Brasil
To be sure, Corcovado is a visual delight. You can see why Tom Jobim’s jazz standard http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8pmAGjqMU4 spotlights it. The views of Rio from its heights are breathtaking.
Rio de Janeiro at the feet of Cristo Redentor: “Que lindo … “
Rio’s natural setting and its flora and fauna are memorable.
On the steps to the Corcovado summit
Monkeys in residence in an abandoned hotel on the way to Corcovado summit
The paintings in the museum, though not always well lit, are a fascinating international cross-section of naive art.
The British representative work
They range from works which take their cue from the high art tradition
Married (casada) Couple
to more lyrically abstract pieces,
Iracema Arditi, Azulzinho (Little Blue),1972
from the documentary
The Australian contribution
to the quirkily poetic.
Eve Vic, Suriname, Cuidade com a cobra (Beware of the Snake)
But whether they portray animals or people, at work
Market, Kenya, 1996
or at play,
House band at Estudantina – not playing musica Brasileira the night we visited
they do what all good art can do:
View of Rio, detail
they transform the way you see. Truly worth a look, if you’ve already made the journey to or from Corcovado’s more well-known art work.
World’s largest Art Deco sculpture
Life imitates art. Tourists photograph themselves in the same pose at the summit
theproverbial.org 