Verbal and nonverbal art in 1930: the partnership between Arnaldo Tabayá and Cornélio Penna

Abstract

The following paper aims to analyse the particularities of the partnership between two important names of the Brazilian 1930s Novel: Arnaldo Tabayá and Cornélio Penna. Although he would later establish himself as a writer in 1935, Penna worked with the author as a visual artist, illustrating the cover of Tabayá’s novel Badu, published by Editora Guanabara, and a short story called “A dama de negro”, published in the newspaper A Nação, in 1932 and 1933, respectively. It is possible to observe how the two of them contribute to each other’s work. Even while working within the constraints of Tabayá's narratives, it is possible to trace a subtle evolution in Penna’s art over the years and according to the historical and artistic context of that specific time. To understand Cornélio Penna’s characteristics as a visual artist, we draw on considerations made by Alexandre Eulalio (1980), as well as a research on his published projects and sketchbooks, according to the catalog from Fundação Casa de Rui Barbosa (2023) and Caderno de Pinturas e Desenhos, by Cornélio Penna, published by Faria e Silva Editora, in 2020. For Arnaldo Tabayá’s life and work, extensive research was conducted using Hemeroteca Digital, which, for this particular paper, led to the discovery of one short story illustrated by Penna, and a review made by Tabayá about Penna’s first novel, Fronteira (1935).