It’s encouraging when an unknown painter is unearthed by younger artists. Amadeo Luciano Lorenzato, the Brazilian-born artist shown for the first time in Britain in this exhibition, was born in 1900 and lived to 95.
Towards the end of his life, he formed a relationship with a younger generation in Belo Horizonte, and one of them, the artist Rivane Neuenschwander, co-curated with Alexandre da Cunha two shows of Lorenzato’s work in São Paulo in 2014.
His paintings are small and intense, often evoking landscapes but veering into abstraction. Some have the feel of the childlike language sought by European modernists, while others — the strongest, in my view — feature a visionary response to elemental phenomena: vivid suns and tumbling clouds over seas, hills, and headlands.
While the imagery differs, Lorenzato’s handling of paint is consistent, applied with a fork or a comb. There’s no attempt to find an equivalent in paint for the ephemeral effects of nature; rather, Lorenzato seems intent on turning them into solid form as a means of recording and preserving his emotional response.
Until February 9 (020 3538 3165, davidzwirner.com)
