The Afro-Brazilian Sculpture in Bahia

Abstract

Tavares first discusses the connections between European modern artists and “primitive art” and then turns to the contributions made by pioneering writers on Afro-Brazilian sculpture, notably, Raimondo Nina Rodrigues’ essay “As Bellas-Artes nos Colonos Pretos do Brazil. A Esculptura” (1904) and Arthur Ramos’ “Arte Negra no Brasil” (1949). Tavares not only shows the importance of both authors in the study of this type of sculpture in Bahia but also highlights important issues, such as authorship and provenance.

Keywords:

• Afro-Brazilian art
• black art
• Bahia
• candomble
• historiography
• primitivism
• sculpture
• ritual

Notes

1 Translator’s note: this is the literal translation of the Rodrigues text. Brazil was not colonized by slaves, but slaves were used in the process of colonization.

2 “Arte Negra no Brasil” [Black Art in Brazil], in Revista Cultura, n 2, p. 202.

3 Réis: Brazilian currency at that time.

4 Editor’s note: the Paris born photographer Pierre Verger travelled extensively around the world in the 1930s and 1940s before settling in Salvador, Brazil, in the 1940s, where he focused on the African diaspora in America. His photographs were widely published in European journals such as Life and Paris Match, and in 1973 be founded the Afro-Brazilian Museum in Salvador. The captions of the photographs included in the above text are Tavares’ own. They are not always accurate.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Odorico Tavares

Translated by Elton Uliana

Originally published as “A escultura Afro-Brasileira na Bahia,” in O Cruzeiro (April 14, 1951): 59–62, 64.