Guignard University of Art of Minas Gerais


The Guignard University of Art of Minas Gerais is a university of fine arts in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brasil. It was founded on 28 February 1944 by the Brazilian painter Alberto da Veiga Guignard on request of Juscelino Kubitschek, mayor of Belo Horizonte and later President of Brazil. Guignard became a noted arts educator in Brazil and remained a professor at Guignard for the remainder of his life.
The school is noted for its unorthodox administration and educational methods: students and teachers work together freely, and the school lacks the bureaucracy typical of other Brazilian educational institutions. Guignard offers two degrees: a degree in art education and bachelor's degree in fine arts.

History

The university traces its origin to Guignard's Escola de Belas-Artes, founded in 1943. It merge with the Department of Architecture of the Institute of Fine Arts of Belo Horizonte in 1944 to form the Escola Guignard. The period from 1944 to 1962 are regarded as the "golden age" of the school: it remained under Guignard's direction, and largely away from political and administrative problems of Brazil of the period. Guignard also benefited from its proximity to the Pampulha Project of the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, a series of modernist buildings constructed in Minas Gerais in the early 1940s.
Under the new constitution of the state of Minas Gerais of 1989 the school became part of the Universidade do Estado de Minas Gerais. The architect Gustavo Penna, a native of Minas Gerais, designed the current distinctive buildings of the school in the early 1990s, and completed the works by 1994.

Noted students

Guignard is noted for training numerous Brazilian artists like the contemporary Desali, Priscila Resende and Luiza Schiavo and the very relevant Farnese de Andrade, Maria Helena Andrés, Amilcar de Castro, Mário Silésio, Mary Vieira, Franz Weissmann. Also, foreign artists received formative training at Guignard, such as the Ghanaian artist Serge Attukwei Clottey.