Liberata

Dalton Paula

2020

A frontal painted portrait in oil, pencil, and gold leaf on two joined canvases in which Dalton Paula reimagines an Afro‑Brazilian ancestor to reclaim dignity and presence within the tradition of portraiture.

What strikes you is the mask‑like, carved quality of the face—warm brown planes and gleaming highlights—bisected by a visible seam, set against a flat teal field and framed by long braids and a stiff, pale‑pink high‑collared dress that feels both intimate and formally monumental.

Paula’s work responds to and upends colonial portrait conventions, using precious materials and the joined canvases’ seam to make visible erased Afro‑Brazilian histories and to open a space for recovered lineage and contemporary mythmaking.

Palette

Art Terms

Portrait Oil paint Pencil Diptych African diaspora Investigating identity Figurative

Exhibitions

Naive Painting: A Selection from the Museum Collection

1972

Latin-American Art, 1931–1966, from the Museum Collection

1967

Committed to Print

1988

Large-Scale Modern Paintings

1947