On May 1, 1946, the Hotel and Spa Quitandinha opened an exhibition of the painter from Rio Grande do Sul Wilson Tibério, which was reported in the following days in daily newspapers in Rio de Janeiro and Petrópolis as part of an initiative by Quitandinha to publicize national painting in its halls and hallways. The canvases on display were part of the painter's ongoing interest in documenting the daily lives of black people like himself.
Wilson Barcelos Tibério was born on November 24th, 1920, in the city of Porto Alegre, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. After visiting some artists' ateliers in his hometown, youth Tibério decided, upon reaching adulthood, to move to Rio de Janeiro and face the challenge of becoming a professional artist.
The first years in the federal capital were intense for young Tibério. The drawings under his arm became a means of sustenance and found their way onto the pages of newspapers and magazines, where they published sketches produced in the daily life of the Center of Rio de Janeiro, among street vendors, bar patrons and passersby. People he portrayed from a distance or with whom he interacted during his artistic practice.
In the following years, he gradually occupied spaces in the art world, with works that began to appear constantly in group exhibitions. In a painting from 1941, the oldest of those we know about by the painter, Tibério portrayed himself in a studio wearing a white coat, with a painting on the easel that features a woman in a classic painting teaching position
— as if sending news home saying that his plan to become an artist in the federal capital was going very well.
His first solo exhibition took place in October 1945 at the Associação Brasileira de Imprensa (Brazilian Press Association) (ABI) “Motivos afro-brasileiros”(Afro-Brazilian reasons) as he called it, began a sequence of exhibitions presenting a broad view of the black experience from different regions of Brazil, including portraits, intimate scenes of day-to-day life and public celebrations. That same year, the artist had participated in the producer of the play O Imperador Jones (The Emperor Jones), by Eugene O'Neill at the Theatro Municipal (City Theater) in Rio de Janeiro, the premiere of the Teatro Experimental do Negro (Black Experimental Theater) on stage, directed by Abdias Nascimento.
The ABI exhibition was followed by two large exhibitions held the following year: the first in May 1946 in Quitandinha and the second in November at the headquarters of the Ministério da
Educação e Saúde (Ministry of Education and Health). During the production of these exhibitions, Rio de Janeiro was immersed in debates surrounding the finalization of the new federal Constitution, signed in September 1946. A question of special interest for Tibério, if we consider his obstinate political engagement in the years of dismantling of the dictatorial government of the Estado Novo. During this period, he accompanied other black intellectuals such as Abdias Nascimento and Aguinaldo Camargo to meetings with political parties that had recently emerged from illegality to promote a markedly anti-racist agenda.
In 1947, Tibério moved definitively to France, in search of realizing his dream
of visiting Africa. In his visits to different territories on the African continent, the painter not only documented the “black continent”, but also demonstrated his revolt against the violences of the colonial force. In the following decades, he became part of circles formed of black intellectuals from around the world, living in the constant African Diaspora until his death on July 20th, 2005.
When he began holding solo exhibitions, the militant painter Wilson Tibério developed the habit of dedicating the shows to black intellectuals and leaders in each conversation with newspapers and magazines. Abolitionist leaders José do Patrocínio and Booker T. Washington and the ialorixá Mãe Menininha do Gantois are some of the mentioned names by him at the time. When remembering Wilson Tibério's time at Quitandinha, We ask ourselves who the painter would honor if he lived today? What advances would he recognize as a result of the struggle of his time, and what challenges would he see for building a more just society?
Critical Text
Wilson Tibério: reference paitings for a black social memory
Vídeo Thomas Mendel.
Fotografias Thomas Mendel, Lucas Landau.
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wall of journals
The first reports published in 1940 about Wilson Tibério provided details of the artist's practice as an illustrator shortly after arriving in Rio de Janeiro. At that moment, his drawings of day-to-day life in the Rio downtown seduced editors of the illustrated press, who guaranteed their publication along with texts that introduced Tibério to their readers.
It was common among journalists, who reported on Tibério's approach to the printing industry, to criticize the devaluation of illustration to the detriment of painting, and how this fact impacted the daily life of that “Rio flagrant recorder”. In Rivadávia de Souza's chronicle, the praise for his drawing technique is accompanied by a sensationalist tone regarding his financial condition. A vision that is repeated throughout the text, right from its title: “Wilson Tibério, the artist who doesn’t know whether to buy a pencil or eat bread and butter…” Towards the end of his presentation of Tibério, the journalist reveals with some indifference that racial inequality was already a concern of the painter, “ Wilson Barcelos Tibério, to use an expression that is both common and vague, is a man of color”.
In October 1945, Tibério presented at the exhibition “Motivos Afro-Brazilian”, at the headquarters of the Associação Brasileira de Imprensa (Brazilian Press Association), sixty works, including canvases painted with oil paint, watercolors, drawings and metal engravings. A brief note published on the 16th of that month in the newspaper A Noite revealed the themes of some of the works in the exhibition: “Washers women, street singers, samba dancers, macumbas, carnival details, ultimately, a whole enchanting facet of Rio de Janeiro life will parade through Wilson Tibério’s canvases.” In a report in “Fon-Fon!” magazine, we can identify a carnival scene that has the title Praça Onze. In it, the broad celebration led by black people seemed to tension recent conflicts in relation to the occupation of urban space in the the city of Rio de Janeiro downtown. The Praça Onze, a square where the first samba school competitions had taken place in the early 1930s, had been almost completely destroyed in the last years for the construction of Presidente Vargas Avenue, which was inaugurated on September 7th, 1944 (Brazil’s Independence Day) and became, at that time, a landmark of the authoritarian government of the Estado Novo.
The opening of Tibério's exhibition at Quitandinha in 1946 on National Labor Day echoed his political practice in recent years. In 1944, the painter was present at the creation of the Teatro Experimental do Negro - TEN (Black Experimental Theater) and participated in its first production, O Imperador Jones (Jones Emperor in free translation), by Eugene O’Neill. In addition to being a theater group, TEN became a nucleus of anti-racist political articulation that assumed a strategic position in the intellectual debate in the following years. After the end of the dictatorship of Estado Novo, many political parties emerged from illegality, returning to operate formally in the country. In 1946, Tibério, alongside other TEN partners, became involved in the creation of the Black Directory of the Brazilian Labor Party (Diretório Negro do Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro) and joined the Communist Party of Brazil (Partido Comunista do Brasil), following a growing dialog between organized black movements and State institutions.
In the exhibition “Motivos rituais afro-brasileiros”, held in November 1946, at the Ministério da Educação e Saúde (Ministry of Education and Health), he presented 127 works, including oil paintings, drawings and watercolors, produced by him during a trip to Salvador. This was certainly the largest Tibério exhibition held in Brazil. Along with the opening of the exhibition, the Alvorada — the São Paulo black press newspaper — published an interview with the artist. Who interviewed him was the journalist Isaltino Veiga dos Santos, someone with a long history in organized black movements in São Paulo, having been one of the founders of the Civic Center Palmares in 1926 and the Frente Negra Brasileira (Black Brazilian Front) in 1931. To Isaltino dos Santos, the painter revealed his plan to travel to the “black continent” by March of the following year. He says he would do it with his own resources, contrary to the rumor that he had gotten a scholarship, and the trip would be the fulfillment of an old dream of getting to know the continent where his ancestors came from. In the magazine Revista da Semana, a text about Tibério's recent career was published by Aguinaldo Camargo, who was a lawyer, agronomist and actor at the TEN (Black Experimental Theater) since its creation.
In each interview about the November 1946 exhibition, Wilson Tibério dedicated the exhibition to different men and women, forming a constellation of references valued by the black movements of the time. In one of these conversations, the painter paid homage to two black abolitionists from the 19th century: the Brazilian journalist José do Patrocínio and the North American George W. Carver. The latter, a polymath who was born into slavery and experienced abolition in his country, later becoming an educator, agronomist and practitioner of botanical painting. At other times, the artist dedicates the exhibition to figures such as Paul Leroy Robeson — a bassist, American football player and actor who had starred, in 1925, in the first revival of Eugene O’Neill’s O Imperador Jones (Jones Emperor) in the United States; and the opera singer Marian Anderson, who would visit Brazil two years later, being warmly welcomed at social events by the Teatro Experimental do Negro (Black Experimental Theater).
showcase newspapers and magazines
The newspapers and magazines from the period in which Wilson Tibério lived in Rio de Janeiro are important material to monitor the development of his artistic production. In the first months of the year of 1940, he began visiting the offices of different press vehicles to show his drawings to editors. At that moment, illustration allowed that newly arrived artist in the city to quickly enter the world of work. On the other hand, that production also became a way for Tibério to practice and circulate his art, despite the lack of a studio and better conditions to work with other formats.
In the following years, he worked as an illustrator in the press and exhibited year after year at the Salão Nacional de Belas Artes (Fine Arts National Saloon), in the Graphic Arts category. It was during this period that the painter met Abdias Nascimento, Aguinaldo Camargo and other partners from the TEN (Black Experimental Theater). In 1944, Tibério attended the group's first meeting at the Amarelinho bar, in the center of Rio de Janeiro, and followed the entire production of O imperador Jones (The Emperor Jones), the first play produced by the group, which premiered at the Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro (City Theater), in May from 1945.
After holding exhibitions at the Hotel Quitandinha and at the Ministério da Educação e Saúde (Ministry of Education and Health) throughout 1946, Tibério began to plan his move from Brazil more objectively. At the beginning of the following year, he decided to make a series of paintings about the acarajé women from Bahia who worked on the streets of Rio de Janeiro. At that time, these working woman became increasingly scarce due to the lack of support from public authorities to keep them in the trade, as Tibério himself revealed to the magazine Revista da Semana.
In this series of paintings, the artist was determined to experiment with new methods in his creative process. He invited some women to stage in studio his conception of the images he would like to produce, creating their paintings based on observation in a controlled environment and photographs. Among the models who posed for Tibério in this circumstance was the actress and dancer Vera Regina, who years later, when she had achieved fame, recalled the experience of posing for the painter.
After moving to Paris, news about Wilson Tibério became increasingly scarce in the press. In January 1956, journalist Justino Martins, who also lived in the French capital, updated the Brazilian public a little about the painter's life in a report published in the magazine Revista do Globo de Porto Alegre. Martins reports descriptions of the painter in relation to one of his visits to Senegal, where he had painted, but also had come into conflict with the French colonial government at the time.
Among the images that illustrated the report were some of the paintings produced in Senegal, and which were at that time on display at Galerie Paul Mary, located on Avenue Mozart, in Paris. In his text, Martins describes Tibério's circulation in the French capital among African migrants and Brazilian students in 1951, in addition to the success of the current exhibition, which was attracting not only other artists and intellectuals, but also Brazilian and French politicians.
In September of the following year, Tibério's exhibitions abroad once again caught the attention of Brazilian journalists. This time, it was an exhibition held in a gallery on Rue de la Boétie, in Paris, under the sponsorship of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Itamaraty's support for the exhibition was part of a project aimed at Brazilians living in France, and Tibério was one of the recipients. The exhibition gained great visibility in Brazil and France, receiving compliments from art critics such as Quirino Campofiorito.
Although the image does not give the dimension of the presence of women at the event, their almost total absence in the photograph speaks of an inequality that was denounced in a letter signed as “A group of black women”, published in the event's annals. In the document, they pointed out gender inequality in political articulations and the absence of women among the heads of delegations.
From the 1960s onwards, with the beginning of African independence, Tibério began to establish closer relations with the continent. In 1962, he held an exhibition in Abidjan, city on Ivory Coast, where he returned years later. He also exhibited in Niger and, in 1966, participated in the 1st World Festival of Black Arts in Dakar, Senegal. During this period, he also held exhibitions in China, Russia, Italy and France.
Wilson Tibério's legacy is spread across the world, as are the fruits of his fight for freedom. In the present, the memory of his trajectory is an invitation to reflect on these values, and an invitation for them to inspire a more just world.
El sueño de vivir en el continente africano llevó a Wilson Tibério a Francia en 1947, donde se instaló durante las siguientes décadas. Los primeros contactos con África tuvieron lugar años antes de los procesos de descolonización del continente, que cobraron impulso en la década de 1960. En varias conversaciones, Tiberio recuerda su sentimiento de repugnancia ante el trato dispensado a los trabajadores por los agentes de la potencia colonial francesa en Senegal, que le recordaba al antiguo proceso de esclavitud. Sus actos de rebelión provocaron su expulsión de ese territorio.
Back in France, Tibério (1) associated himself with other individuals with whom he shared the same indignation regarding the perpetuation of racism in the world. Based on these networks, was organized the 1st Congress of Black Writers and Artists at the Sorbonne University, at September 1956, in Paris. The event was crucial to the debates surrounding the independence processes that intensified in the following years and had a wide presence of figures who became central in the critique of colonialism and racism around the world.
The dimension of this wide presence is evident in a photograph that records some of the event's participants. Among the painters were the South African Gerard Sekoto (2), a great friend of Tibério and partner in different projects, and Ben Enwonwu (3), a central figure in the nascent modernism of independent Nigeria. Among African intellectuals included the poet Léopold Sédar Senghor (4), who would become the first president of Senegal; the Senegalese historian Cheik Anta Diop (5) and the Malian writer Amadou Hampâté Bâ (6), who produced important bases for African intellectuals to narrate the history of the continent themselves. Among the politicians were people who became essential in the late independence of African countries under Portuguese colonization: Mário Pinto de Andrade (7), founder of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola and Marcelino dos Santos (8), founder of the Mozambique Liberation Front.
Among the black intellectuals born in the Americas were the American writer Richard Wright (9), the Martinique intellectuals Aimé Césaire (10), Frantz Fanon (11) and Édouard Glissant (12), as well as the Haitian ethnographer and politician Jean Price-Mars (13) and his wife Marie-Rose Clara Perez (14).
Wilson Tibério
Curator
Bruno Pinheiro e Marcelo Campos
Edition and image processing
Tratamento da Imagem