The Brazilianist Magazine

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Manabu Mabe’s life and work enjoyable at the Net

Self-portrait, 1949

NY e São Paulo, 1983

Brasil Vibrante, 1980

Rio-Niterói, 1957

Sky World , 1992

Rei, 1993

Poema Pastoral , 1988

Testemunhas do Século, 1988

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The launching of the official website for Manabu Mabe www.manabumabe.com has already afforded thousands of art lovers the chance to see photos and learn useful information about this brilliant Nipo-Brazilian painter. This site is long overdue and will help solidify Manabu's growing International reputation.

“When I was seven, I painted an umbrella”(…); “When I was ten an autumn landscape” (…); “When I was about 22, I started doing oil paintings of fruits and landscapes”(…); After 1953, I began to become aware of the composition of colours and shapes.”(…); “In 1958, I started creating abstract paintings, as if they were explosions of my own interior, and my blood began to pulse with hope and excitement on the canvas.”

Mabe's website is dynamic and colourful, with plenty of articles, chronicles, digital-video presentations, and interviews with family and friends. Several links take you to the artist’s life, exhibitions, awards, art shop, gallery, chronology, . It also presents the books “Vida e Obra” and “Chove no Cafezal” (edited in Japanese in 1994 and in Portuguese in 1998 ).

Behind this beautifully designed project we find Net ! Sense®, Pure Gold Internet Technology (www.netsense.com.br), with executive production of João Luiz Monteiro, Ana Lúcia Soares, and Manabu Mabe’s sons Joh Mabe, Ken Mabe and Yugo Mabe — from Mabe Promoções de Artes.

“In 1945, my father told me on his deathbed: Make painting a hobby. Stick to administrating the coffee plantation. Life isn’t easy.”

The Grove Dictionary of Arts writes that Mabe "initially painted still-lives and landscapes influenced by Braque and Picasso, such as Still-life (1952; Rio de Janeiro, Mus. N. B.A.), but he developed a calligraphic abstraction of compact brushstrokes, abrupt lines and dramatic bursts of paint generally against monochrome backgrounds. Even at his most abstract he continued to use referential titles alluding to the real world and to human emotions, as in Agony (1963; Washington, DC, A. Mus. Americas).”

Mabe's phases:

1947-1949 Academic School;
1950-1952 Impressionism and Fauvism;
1953-1957 Semi-Abstractionism and Neo-Realism;
1957 on, Abstractionism, maintaining some figures in his works;
1990's painting themes keep on being a continuation from previous years work, but always modifying the abstract of paintings into bi-dimensional sculpture shapes, making the spectator admire the work as if it was alive and passed over the picture to the actual world. Mabe's work shall always be Mabe.

Manabu Mabe website is published in Portuguese, English and Japanese languages. It has already received visitors from Brazil, Japan, USA, Canada, Germany, England, Scotland, Australia, Argentine, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Mexico, The Caribbean, Saudi Arabia, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Israel, Belize and others, recording over 100.000 visits in the first month. Enjoy it!

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