Priscila Lena Farias / Anna Calvera Marcos da Costa ... - Blucher

“Go you too to Amazonia”: analysis of a poster designed by Jean-Pierre Chabloz for the “Rubber Campaign”
month, Chabloz would have presented the layout almost finished
to his boss, Paulo de Assis Ribeiro, who would have approved the
job and allowed the artist to finish it the next day.
A month and a half later, on May 4, Chabloz was confronted with
the finished versions of the first and the second posters he had
designed for SEMTA, printed by lithographic process in Mendes
Júnior printing company in Rio de Janeiro. His reaction was
of outrage and indignation. The artist believed that his elaborate
designs would be printed by means of photolithographic
process; instead of that, however, they had been lithographed
manually. Chabloz felt betrayed and greatly upset with the final
product of his work, as he recorded in his diary:
Treason! Shallow, academic, “Arts and crafts,” plane, without
vibration of color: all my shades “enamel”, impressionists, were
suppressed: work of laborer without spirit, without art: men of pay
and not of Faith! (...) But these badly reproduced posters will fall
on me! Competent people will judge me through them! Patience!
Until I can do all by myself, from A to Z, vigilant and demanding to
achieve Perfection! (Chabloz 1943a)
In the collection of MAUC, I found about a dozen copies of the finished
version of the second poster, but I did not come across any
record of the layout, the work that, on itself, bore the “marks of
the artist’s hand”. Thus, I can only quote the complaints of Chabloz,
without, however, having the chance to compare the lithograph
to its corresponding layout.
3. Images of departures
In the poster Go you too to Amazonia, protected by SEMTA, a human
figure is shown in the foreground. The right side of his body
is directed toward the viewer, while his face turns to the opposite
direction. The young man with brown skin, big body and large
bare feet, leans against a wall at the left side of the composition:
right leg resting on the floor, arms and left foot slightly pressing
the wall.
The man has a faraway look, which leads the viewer to the image
background. In this most remote part of the composition, we
see several men on a green truck bed. Most of them are sitting
with their backs to the viewer, being identified only by their yellow
hats. Two of them, however, stand out: standing on the truck
bed, they stare at their companion who observes them and they
wave to him, with outstretched arms. To the left of that vehicle,
there is the front part of another similar truck. On its bed, we see
only a man – upright body and left arm outstretched - who also
waves to the colleague that, from a distance, observes the group.
The poster in question covers the moment when men recruited
by SEMTA departed for Amazonia. Sitting or standing on the truck
bed, they then began a new stage in their lives. Some of them
stretched out their arms in a demonstration of courage and
hope. Others kept sitting, waiting for what was to come.
As Chabloz lived in Fortaleza, where he had seen the departure of
trucks for Amazonia, it is very likely that he sought to situate the
scene of his second poster in the capital of Ceará. The flat landscape
with sparse vegetation differs considerably from the thick
forest of the poster Mais borracha para a vitória (More rubber
for victory) (fig. 2), the first one designed by Chabloz for SEMTA,
as well as from the bucolic scenery with lush vegetation of his
third poster, entitled Vida nova na Amazônia (New life in Amazonia)
(fig. 3). The open-air landscape of the work studied here,
where the soil seems hot and the flora is sparse, indicates that
the scene was built on the starting point of the workers’ journey:
the Brazilian Northeast, which, according to government rhetoric,
should be abandoned because of its infertile lands. On the
other hand, the two other Chabloz’s posters above mentioned
were already located at the arrival point of the migrants’ journey:
the bountiful lands of Amazonia where the so-called “rubber soldiers”
should produce a large volume of that material for the success
of the allied forces in the war. The contrast of landscapes
between the image that represents the starting point and those
which show the arrival point is quite revealing of the contents of
the official discourse uttered at that time.
Figure 2. Jean-Pierre Chabloz’s poster More rubber for victory (1943). Lithograph,
67.3 x 109.3 cm, MAUC (photo by Ana Carolina Moraes).
Figure 3. Jean-Pierre Chabloz’s poster New life in Amazonia (1943). Lithograph, 99
x 66 cm, MAUC (photo by Ana Carolina Moraes).
In his diary, Chabloz reported he had seen the departure of the first
group of workers from Fortaleza for Amazonia, which took place on
the first of February, 1943. The artist also recorded he had made
several sketches of the episode for possible later uses.
In a letter addressed to a friend, named Moser, dated February 6,
1943, Chabloz also referred to the departures of migrants:
This week has been busy: Monday, the 1st. hour of the morning,
the first contingent of men departed for Amazonia: 235 men, in six
trucks, plus a truck for luggage and supplies. (...) Tuesday, second
departure, similar, and at night, arrival, at 17 or 18h, of a troop
of 330 Cariocas and many others: people from the hills, from the
slums, sambistas and angry “faquistas”... (...)
Wednesday, departure of the third local group, and Thursday, of
the majority of cariocas. The rest will depart on Monday. These
departures are very impressive: although well maintained, and
supported, surrounded until the end and even at workplaces,
these men are going to meet a serious adventure and some of
them will most likely not return... (Chabloz 1943b)
Design Frontiers: Territiories, Concepts, Technologies 487