Directly facing the entry to the second floor exhibit space were three large paintings. The width of the second floor patio is aligned with the spacing of these paintings by Portinari (they are not murals because Portinari did not want them to be destroyed with the pavilion), and they were the first works of art seen by visitors in the exhibit. This large architectural gesture framed the initial wide view of the paintings. As the viewer moved closer, the white, structural columns divided the far wall into three perfect segments. Each segment received a different Portinari painting; Noite de Sao Joao, Jangadas do Nordeste and Cena Gaucha. The positioning of the paintings at the entry point is significant. It would serve as the initial introduction to Brazilian culture on a large global stage.

Contrary to the Brazilian Government’s initial theme to depict a homogenous culture, Portinari chose to paint three regional archetypes of the working class Brazilian; the fisherman, 

the bahianas, and the cowboys.³⁷ The paintings were true to the style of all of Portinari’s previous works- painted with bright colors and represented the human subject with over-exaggerated extremities and body parts. The subjects are all engaged in manual labor and these exaggerations give an feeling of sturdiness and strength. In his reading of this particular exhibition, Daryle Williams, describes that the images depicted “a nation not populated by pretty white faces, but also by weathered mestizo fisherman, powerful black washer women and brawny cowboys.”³⁸ It showed “a Brazil that was rawer, more human, more vibrant.”³⁹ This first representation of a Brazilian in the pavilion would set a powerful tone by depicting the average citizen not as a white man, but as black, tough and industrious. This carefully tailored sequence of art and architecture shows one of the ways in which the pavilion uses the two mediums to work together in order to convey a specific message about Brazilian Culture.

Entry Vestibule. Photographer unknown.
1939. Print, Arqtexto no. 16.