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Untitled

Rubem Valentim

Untitled Screenprint on Paper , 1982 Signed and dated 40 x 60 cm

Regular Price: $950.00

Preço Promocional $665.00 -87%

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Rubem Valentim, born in Salvador, Bahia, on November 9, 1922, was a prominent Brazilian visual artist and professor, widely recognized as a master of concretism in Brazil.

He began his painting career in the 1940s and, between 1946 and 1947, joined the Movement for the Renewal of Plastic Arts in Bahia alongside artists like Mario Cravo Júnior and Carlos Bastos. Early in his career, Rubem produced figurative works, including still lifes, urban landscapes, flowers, and human figures, influenced by realism and expressionism.

In 1953, Valentim graduated in journalism from the University of Bahia and published articles on art. That same year, he began incorporating symbols and emblems from African-based religions, such as Umbanda and Candomblé, into his abstract canvases, a practice that became more frequent from 1955 onwards.

In 1957, Valentim moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he worked as an assistant to Professor Carlos Cavalcanti in the Art History course at the Institute of Fine Arts. During this period, he abandoned figuration and delved deeper into his research on the iconography of Afro-Brazilian religions, adopting a strictly geometric approach. His participation in the National Salon of Modern Art earned him the Prize for Travel Abroad, allowing him to live in Rome from 1963 to 1966. In 1966, he participated in the First World Festival of Black Arts in Dakar, Senegal.

Upon returning to Brazil, Valentim settled in Brasília, where he taught painting at the Free Studio of the Institute of Arts of the University of Brasília until 1968. In the 1970s, in addition to painting, he began creating murals, reliefs, and monumental wooden sculptures. In 1972, he completed his first public work, a marble mural for the NOVACAP headquarters building in Brasília.

In 1977, at the 16th São Paulo International Biennial, Valentim presented the work “Templo de Oxalá,” consisting of panels and white wooden sculptures. In 1998, the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia inaugurated the Rubem Valentim Special Room in the Sculpture Park. In 1979, he worked on a concrete sculpture installed in Praça da Sé, São Paulo, which he described as a “Syncretic Landmark of Afro-Brazilian Culture.”

Despite being considered a constructivist painter, Valentim rejected affiliation with any European movement, especially concrete art, reaffirming the exclusively national character of his work. His art, based on religious emblems and symbols, transforms into constructive symbolism in line with the international language.

Learn more about the work: (11) 9 9695-3218

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