Mario Zanini - Casario
Oil on eucatex (óleo sobre eucatex)
Dimensions - 29 cm x 27 cm
Mário Zanini 1907 – 1971
Mario Zanini was born in São Paulo (SP) in 1907. He was a painter, decorator, ceramist and teacher. At the age of 13 he started a painting course at the male professional school of Brás, in São Paulo. He worked as a typologist at Companhia Antarctica Paulista between 1922 and 1924. In 1924 he enrolled at the evening course in drawing and arts at the São Paulo Arts and Crafts High School - Laosp, which he completed in 1926. In 1927 he met Alfredo Volpi and the following year he studied with the painter Georg Elpons. Between 1933 and 1938 he worked in the decoration office of Francisco Rebolo. In 1935 he installed himself in the Santa Helena palace, Praça da Sé, where he shared a room with Manoel Martins and Clóvis Graciano. From the meeting of these and other artists the Santa Helena Group emerged. In 1940 he received a silver medal at the 46th National Salon of Fine Arts – SNBA. His first solo exhibition takes place in 1944, at the Livraria Brasiliense gallery, in São Paulo. He taught printmaking at the Paulista Association of Fine Arts and at the Carlos de Campos School in 1958. From 1968 he taught at the Faculty of Fine Arts of São Paulo. After his death in 1971 his family donated 108 of his works to the Museum of Contemporary Art at the University of São Paulo - MAC / USP in 1974.