The Marumbi mountain range attracts attention as soon as it appears before the eyes of anyone crossing the Serra do Mar. The complex is made up of nine mountains, one followed by the other, like a gigantic natural staircase. Its summit, Olympus — not that of the Greek gods, but the highest mountain in the complex — rises 1,539 meters and was named in honor of the first person to reach its top, Joaquim Olimpio Carmeliano de Miranda, at a time in which mountaineering was a beginning practice in Brazil — some say that Marumbi is the birthplace of this activity in the country.
In the eyes of Frederico Lange de Morretesthe Serra do Mar and the Marumbi mountain range appear imposing in the middle of the Atlantic Forest, in a blurred vision, perhaps inspired by the fog of a morning in Morretes, a scene he knew well, as he was born and died at the foot of the mountain (perhaps there is a poetic license here, as some mountaineers say that, in the work popularly known as “Nhundiaquara and Pico Marumbi”, the Marumbi complex appears only in part). The important thing is to note that the most imprecise lines give life and movement to the work. More than that: feeling. An image that seems to come out of a dream, escaping the realism of the more well-behaved contours. A version of reality expressed by the artist’s peculiar style and sensations.
“Lange de Morretes developed his own style, which absorbs the influences of European Modernism, with which he came into contact in Germany during the 1920s, as well as academic painting dominant in Brazil at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, giving new meaning -them in a unique aesthetic, which combines tradition and modernity”, defines Marco Baena, curator of the exhibition “Lange de Morretes: entre-paisagens”, on display at the Museu Paranaense.
The landscapes of the Paraná mountains, observed since childhood, when he lived with his family in the historic Casa do Ypiranga, while his father, the engineer Rudolph Lange, was one of those responsible for the construction of the Paranaguá-Curitiba railway, were just the beginning of a love story between the artist and the natural world. “The lush landscape of the mountains, observed in his childhood, was one of Lange’s first contacts with the Paraná landscape. When he went to Germany at age 18 in 1910, he lived near the Bavarian Alps, where he also developed his landscape painting. Upon returning to Brazil, in 1920, he traveled through the landscapes of the Paraná and São Paulo coasts. All of this makes him a local and global artist at the same time”, points out Baena.
Known mainly for the stylized pine nuts that mark the sidewalks of Curitiba – the Paranista rose windows – and for being one of the founders of the Paranista movement, Lange de Morretes is one of the artists who made the most use of the Paraná territory as a character in his works. His on-site observations, capturing the complex variation of colors, movements and lights in the environment, make his landscapes more than mere records of nature, but works immortalized with his own interpretation of Paraná.
“Art has this ability to give another dimension to the landscape, and that is what gives it strength. Every work is an interpretation, and Lange managed to go beyond representing nature. He was able to translate the sensations that nature transmits. The sensation that a pine tree causes with all its grandeur”, exemplifies Rafaela Tasca, art curator responsible for a project that rescues and pays homage to the work of Lange de Morretes.
