Recreation and outdoor life in São Paulo’s playgrounds in Mário de Andrade’s collection of drawings

Abstract

Implemented in the 1930s, São Paulo’s playgrounds were institutions that illustrated the fusion of the education renovation movement and the aesthetics of modernist. Drawings are among the activities developed by the children, and make up a collection assembled by Mário de Andrade. This article examines this collection, considering the drawings sources and looking into those that represent play and games. Children drew children’s traditional play, the park’s equipment, sports games and folkloric manifestations. In the composition of the drawings, the presence of nature is also noteworthy, and so are traces of a technological development.