Negotiating Afro-Brazilian Abstraction: Rubem Valentim in Rio, Rome, and Dakar, 1957–1966 (original) (raw)

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Negotiating Afro-Brazilian Abstraction: Rubem Valentim in Rio, Rome, and Dakar, 1957–1966 examines the artistic journey of Rubem Valentim, an Afro-Brazilian painter, highlighting his evolution in response to the cultural, political, and artistic contexts of Brazil, Italy, and Senegal during this transformative period. The study connects Valentim's work with the historical narrative of Afro-Brazilian identity, the concept of Racial Democracy, and the impact of modernism in Bahia. Through an exploration of key exhibitions, societal influences, and Valentim's unique abstraction style, it aims to illustrate how Afro-Brazilian art contributed to broader discourses on race, culture, and modernity in 20th-century art.

Figures (4)

In Valentim’s Pintura, which appears in the photograph of his Rome studio in the middle row on the far right, the shapes are more complex than his Rio period, and now include various colors and symbols within them (see fig. 5.1). The lines of symbols are not divided into sections; two lines of signs interact with one another on each side and are separated by a striped band at the center. In the bottom part of the painting, two bases support the lines of symbols at the top: one rectangle with a symmetrical arrangement and below, a slightly axed-shaped rectangular form with two arrows arising from each side. As Valentim mentioned in his letter to Didrio Carioca, he related the symbolism from his Bahian youth to what he saw in the British

In Valentim’s Pintura, which appears in the photograph of his Rome studio in the middle row on the far right, the shapes are more complex than his Rio period, and now include various colors and symbols within them (see fig. 5.1). The lines of symbols are not divided into sections; two lines of signs interact with one another on each side and are separated by a striped band at the center. In the bottom part of the painting, two bases support the lines of symbols at the top: one rectangle with a symmetrical arrangement and below, a slightly axed-shaped rectangular form with two arrows arising from each side. As Valentim mentioned in his letter to Didrio Carioca, he related the symbolism from his Bahian youth to what he saw in the British

Sa IS a a hE eC a iMeecenie Unenemarcan I A poet and intellectual, Senghor worked with other Négritude intellectuals in 1930s Paris also involved in the festival including Aimé Césaire. This group reunited black intellectuals especially from French colonies to produce a literary movement that centralized black consciousness and critiqued colonialism.*? According to art histo- rian Elizabeth Harney, Senghor “envisioned Négritude not only as a theory of racial belonging for black people worldwide but also as a cultural rallying point with which to begin the crucial postcolonial process of nationalist affirmation.”® At FWFNA, Senghor sought to create a Pan-African unity that valued historic black culture as

Sa IS a a hE eC a iMeecenie Unenemarcan I A poet and intellectual, Senghor worked with other Négritude intellectuals in 1930s Paris also involved in the festival including Aimé Césaire. This group reunited black intellectuals especially from French colonies to produce a literary movement that centralized black consciousness and critiqued colonialism.*? According to art histo- rian Elizabeth Harney, Senghor “envisioned Négritude not only as a theory of racial belonging for black people worldwide but also as a cultural rallying point with which to begin the crucial postcolonial process of nationalist affirmation.”® At FWFNA, Senghor sought to create a Pan-African unity that valued historic black culture as

Plate 8 Manuel de la Cruz Gonzalez, San José No.1, from the series Espacio color (Space Color), 1958. Lacquer on wood. Museos del Banco Central de Costa Rica.

Plate 8 Manuel de la Cruz Gonzalez, San José No.1, from the series Espacio color (Space Color), 1958. Lacquer on wood. Museos del Banco Central de Costa Rica.

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