Talents and culture: the paths of Anita Malfatti

Abstract

There are several studies about gifted and talented individuals and, in several historic moments, there has been concern with this population. One of the first occasions when this subject was discussed in Brazil was in the 1930’s on occasion of the beginning of the Pestalozzi Society. In spite of the growing interest in the subject, there are currently few studies about this subject. This paper aims to understand how gift and talent may manifest and be recognized in the society and culture in which the person is inserted, based on the biography of Anita Malfatti (1889-1964), an expressionist painter, misunderstood in her time, for introducing a way of painting that was not recognized as art in Brazil. This study will present the theory by Gagné, as well as that that will be named by the terms gift and talent. The great challenge in our society is recognizing differences and valuing them, offering these people the means to express their skills, assuring that they are fully inserted in social life and thus feel productive and fulfilled. We must fight against the “solitude of the distance runner”, so that those who are talented are not always ahead of the rest in the intellectual aspect, emotionally lonely and misunderstood.