The piece of art that I chose is a picture of a famous Brazilian painter named Candido Portinari. This specific piece is called “Café”, Coffee in English. The intention of the artist in this painting is show and tell a little bit of the history of Brazil during the colonization period. We can assume that it represents the colonization period analyzing the evidences in the picture. The work is exposed as primitive. People are carrying bags of coffee in their heads, no machinery was used. The use of solid colors makes an association with a shadowy period considered bad in human behavior. We can notice that there are only black people working. None white, Asiatic, or other ethnicity people are exposed in this picture, letting us to assume that in that period only the black people were the labors, making associations we conclude the work as slavery. The clothes are simple, basic t-shirts, pants and no shoes, letting us to think in the cruelty of people against each other in that time. Not even women were free of this exhausting work. They worked under the sun with any place to relax and the only escape for the hot was their hats. The only man with boots in this picture seems like to be ordering something. He seems to be the boss that was the patrolling the workers at all time. He has a rude attitude, letting us assume that the work at that time was really rigid and cruel. This is how I understand the history of Brazil at that time based on this piece of art. Thursday, September 27, 2007
Café by Candido Portinari
The piece of art that I chose is a picture of a famous Brazilian painter named Candido Portinari. This specific piece is called “Café”, Coffee in English. The intention of the artist in this painting is show and tell a little bit of the history of Brazil during the colonization period. We can assume that it represents the colonization period analyzing the evidences in the picture. The work is exposed as primitive. People are carrying bags of coffee in their heads, no machinery was used. The use of solid colors makes an association with a shadowy period considered bad in human behavior. We can notice that there are only black people working. None white, Asiatic, or other ethnicity people are exposed in this picture, letting us to assume that in that period only the black people were the labors, making associations we conclude the work as slavery. The clothes are simple, basic t-shirts, pants and no shoes, letting us to think in the cruelty of people against each other in that time. Not even women were free of this exhausting work. They worked under the sun with any place to relax and the only escape for the hot was their hats. The only man with boots in this picture seems like to be ordering something. He seems to be the boss that was the patrolling the workers at all time. He has a rude attitude, letting us assume that the work at that time was really rigid and cruel. This is how I understand the history of Brazil at that time based on this piece of art. 
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So I know that I need to leave a comment. However, how do I write two hundred fifty words about it? You pretty much summed it up. I believe that this interpretation is very accurate. This means that whatever I make out of it is probably going to be way off. To be completely honest I agreed with everything you said. In addition to everything you said I believe the artist exaggerated the proportions of their bodies or arms in order to emphazise the strength and hardship that the slaves endured. Also, the one character in the picture that one can see clearly seems have a strange look on his face. I believe this character is the most significant one from the painting. If I were a slave I would be pretty pissed off and not have a semi-smile. It almost looks as if he is numb or indifferent to what is going on around him. The artist may have done this in order to display how the slaves were so used to being treated like this that they eventually learned to live with and accept it as a part of their life.
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