EngenhodeDentroWorkshop

When she was assigned, in 1946, to work with the occupational therapy section at the Pedro II National Psychiatric Center, the psychiatrist Nise da Silveira pioneeringly set up painting and modeling studios. Located in the Engenho de Dentro neighborhood, the traditional psychiatric institution still used methods that Nise disapproved of, as she saw in art an effective therapeutic path in the treatment of patients.

Image description: The image is a photograph of an elderly person with gray hair, looking to the right. Behind them, there is an abstract background with lines and geometric shapes in shades of red, yellow, green, and black.

His initiative sparked an intense debate within the local art scene, such as the controversy between Mário Pedrosa and Quirino Campofiorito in the Rio newspapers: the former placing the works made at Engenho de Dentro by names such as Fernando Diniz, Emygdio, Adelina, Isacc, and so many other patients of the Occupational Therapy and Rehabilitation Sector within the category of art, and the latter refusing to include them in this category.

Image description: The image is a black-and-white drawing. On the left, there is a vase with a hanging chain. The chain is made up of small circles connected to one another. Beside the vase, there is a human figure in profile, with the head bowed downward. The figure has a large beaded necklace at the throat and a horizontal band across the lower part of the body. At the bottom right of the image, it reads "RAPAHEL".

Another impact of the Engenho de Dentro studios on Rio's artistic scene was the collaboration of young artists as teachers. The Rio-born Almir Mavignier and Ivan Serpa, along with Abraham Palatnik – all of whom would become involved with the Grupo Frente in the following years – were some of those who engaged with Nise da Silveira's idea in its earliest moments. Still in 1946, just three months after the courses opened, an exhibition was held on the premises, which, the following year, led to further shows at the Ministério da Educação and at the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes. In November 1949 the Câmara Municipal, then presided over by the physician and poet Jorge de Lima, brought to Rio de Janeiro the 149 works from the exhibition Nove Artistas de Engenho de Dentro, which had been shown at the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo.

Image description: This is a black and white photograph of an outdoor studio. On the left, we see a man walking with a bag in his hands. In the center, a woman stands near a table, holding a painting. Behind her, two men are seated, also with their paintings. On the right, another man is focused on his work. Everyone is in an area surrounded by stones and trees.

In 1952, Nise da Silveira created the Museum of the Unconscious's Images, also located within the Pedro II Hospital complex itself. With the aim of housing the hundreds of works produced over the decades, the Museum still exists today, still following the idea of a "living museum," in which artists and collections coexist in the same space. The contribution of the works made by the Engenho de Dentro workshops and by Nise da Silveira's research was fundamental to Brazilian art of the 1950s. Incorporated into the critical debate and into the institutions that shaped the contemporary debate in the country at that time, they worked as an expressive counterpoint to the rationalist discourse that the concrete movement represented in that period.