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2. Abdias Nascimento
- University Press of Florida
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T W O Abdias Nascimento Abdias Nascimento (b. 1914–d. 2011) was a self-taught painter based in Rio de Janeiro. He was known nationally and internationally as the founder of the Teatro Experimental do Negro and for his work as a Congressman (1983–1986) and Senator (1991, 1997–1999). His high-profile endeavors in multiple areas and advanced foray into painting at age 54 overshadowed his work as an artist. Despite his late artistic start and involvement in several diverse fields, however, he produced a considerable body of work beginning in the late 1960s. A good part of his oeuvre dates to the thirteen years (1968–1981) Nascimento spent in self-imposed exile in the United States due to the repressive dictatorship in power in Brazil. Significantly , he was the only black Brazilian artist who was active in the U.S. in the 1970s. From the end of the 1960s onward, his work served as a reference for Americans who were interested in exploring African influences across the African Diaspora. Nascimento’s artistic production was in part a cultural manifestation of his pre-established links to national and international black movements and ideologies. In the 1930s he was active in the Frente Negra Brasileira, the country’s organized black movement. In 1944, he founded the Teatro Experimental do Negro, which not only provided Afro-Brazilians the opportunity to participate in the theater, but also offered literacy classes to the corps members, the majority of whom were unschooled domestic servants, laborers, and the unemployed (Sharpe 1973, 42). Through his work with the Teatro Experimental do Negro and Senegalese author Alioune Diop’s journal Présence Africaine, Nascimento and others in the theatrical group discovered the philosophy of Négritude formulated by Léopold Senghor, Aimé Césaire, and Léon Damas in the 1930s (Nascimento 2003, 311). Nascimento and his colleagues believed that they could empower blacks in Brazil through Négritude ’s three elements of identity, fidelity, and solidarity. The philosophy had a profound effect upon the artist and he continued to encourage his countrymen to embrace Négritude up until the late 1960s. Abdias Nascimento 47 Nascimento’s refusal to accept racial inequality in his country often put him in conflict with the administration in power and left him feeling marginalized . His negative experiences with the government ranged from brief incarcerations in 1937 and 1938, to censorship of his theatrical work in the 1950s. In 1966, he was especially angered when white officials excluded blacks from selecting the national representatives and helping with other preparations for Brazil’s participation in the First World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) held in Dakar. Barring blacks from choosing who would define black Brazilian art for the international community was typical of the hegemonic nature of Brazilian society. Senegalese President Léopold Senghor created the Festival as an opportunity to feature artwork from the African continent and Diaspora that celebrated the principles of Négritude. A longtime follower of Négritude, Nascimento was unable to finance his own travel to Dakar and was frustrated that he and other Afro-Brazilians were not at least included in the decision making process. Largely in response to the FESTAC situation, in 1968 he decided to move ahead with his idea for a Museu de Arte Negra (Black Art Museum). Nascimento had been working to create this institution, which would feature Brazil ’s African-influenced art and artists, since the 1950s (Nascimento 1978, 42; Nascimento and Nascimento 1992, 40–42). In a rare show of accord, a handful of forward-thinking politicians and academics publicly supported his plan to create the country’s first such museum in a series of articles that ran in Rio de Janeiro’s Correio da Manhã newspaper. Following the 1966 FESTAC, these individuals saw this as another opportunity to use cultural connections to further economic relations with recently independent African nations. According to Nascimento, the idea that the vanguard individuals supported his plan was not as surprising as the fact that the newspaper actually ran the articles (Interview by the author, November 29, 2005). Nascimento even managed to hold an exhibition of the works he had collected for his institution at Rio de Janeiro’s Museum of Image and Sound in 1968. As Castelo Branco’s dictatorship grew increasingly oppressive post-1964, however, Nascimento felt pressure to flee Brazil. In 1968, just months after he started to paint, he took advantage of an invitation from the Fairfield...