Minha Terra Tem Palmeiras (My Land Has Palm Trees)

Notes

The title for the present lot derives from the opening line of a poem by Brazilian poet, Gonçalves Dias (1823-1864), titled Cação de Exilio (Song of Exile).

My homeland has many palm-trees
and the thrush-song fills its air;
no bird here can sing as well
as the birds sing over there.

We have fields more full of flowers
and a starrier sky above,
we have woods more full of life
and a life more full of love.

Lonely night-time meditations
please me more when I am there;
my homeland has many palm-trees
and the thrush-song fills its air.

Such delights as my land offers
Are not found here nor elsewhere;
lonely night-time meditations
please me more when I am there;
My homeland has many palm-trees
and the thrush-song fills its air.

Don't allow me, God, to die
without getting back to where
I belong, without enjoying
the delights found only there,
without seeing all those palm-trees,
hearing thrush-songs fill the air.

Juarez Machado, born in Joinville, Santa Catarina, is a celebrated artist known for his expressive use of colour and movement. Educated at the Escola de Belas Artes do Paraná in Curitiba, he is a multidisciplinary artist who works across painting, sculpture, illustration, engraving and theatre and television design. Influenced by both Brazilian culture and European aesthetics, Machado’s art often captures urban life and human emotion with humour and sensuality. Based in Paris since 1986, his works have been exhibited in Brazil, France, and the United States.