Rubem Valentim

Rubem Valentim (Salvador, BA, 1922 - São Paulo, SP, 1991)

Rubem Valentim was a sculptor, painter, engraver, and teacher, beginning his career in the visual arts as a self-taught artist in the 1940s. Between 1946 and 1947, he was part of the movement to revive the visual arts in Bahia, alongside artists such as Mario Cravo Júnior and Carlos Bastos. In 1953, he graduated in journalism from the University of Bahia and began publishing articles on art, demonstrating his interest not only in artistic production but also in critical reflection. Between 1957 and 1963, he lived in Rio de Janeiro, where he served as an assistant professor to Carlos Cavalcanti in the art history program at the Institute of Fine Arts.

From 1963 to 1966, Rubem Valentim resided in Rome, after winning the international travel award at the National Salon of Modern Art. In 1966, he participated in the World Festival of Black Arts, held in Dakar, Senegal, an event that deepened his connection with African culture and its artistic influences. Returning to Brazil, he settled in Brasília, teaching painting at the Free Studio of the Institute of Arts of the University of Brasília. In 1972, he created his first public work, a marble mural for the Novacap headquarters in Brasília.

In 1974, critic Frederico Morais produced the audiovisual piece *The Art of Rubem Valentim*, highlighting his importance in the national art scene. In 1979, he created the exposed concrete sculpture "Syncretic Landmark of Afro-Brazilian Culture," installed in Praça da Sé in São Paulo, and was chosen by a committee of critics to create five medallions in gold, silver, and bronze for the Brazilian Mint, in which he recreated Afro-Brazilian symbols. In 1998, the Bahia Museum of Modern Art opened the Rubem Valentim Special Room in its Sculpture Park, recognizing his unique contribution to Brazilian art and the strengthening of Afro-Brazilian roots in the artistic field.

Critical Commentary

Rubem Valentim began his work as a self-taught painter in the 1940s. From the beginning of his work, a strong interest in the popular traditions of the Northeast, such as ceramics from the Bahian Recôncavo region, is evident.

From the 1950s onward, the artist took as his reference the religious universe, particularly that related to Candomblé or Umbanda, with their cult tools, altar structures, and symbols of the gods. These signs or emblems are originally geometric. In his work, they are reorganized by an even more rigorous geometry, formed by horizontal and vertical lines, triangles, circles, and squares, as art historian Giulio Carlo Argan points out. In this way, the artist builds a personal repertoire that, combined with the creative use of color, opens up a variety of formal possibilities.

In addition to painting, in the late 1960s he began creating murals, reliefs, and monumental wooden sculptures, always maintaining a constant poetic style. In 1977, at the 16th São Paulo International Biennial, he presented the Temple of Oxalá, featuring reliefs and emblematic white objects. Because of his reference to the symbolic universe, some scholars compare his work to that of other Latin American abstract artists, such as the Uruguayan Joaquín Torres-García (1874-1949).

Criticism

"He departed, indifferent to the spells of the surrounding nature, which the eyes devour, from a more abstract cultural anthropological plane, that is, that of intuitive collective creation itself. Dominated by the symbolic charge of the magical signs of the black liturgy amid which he had grown up, he transfigured them into abstract pictorial forms; geometrically beautiful in themselves, and turgid. Greedy and poor, he proceeded by appropriation in an almost obsessive instinct of possession. There is something anthropophagic in his art in the Oswaldian sense—being the product of cultural swallowing. By transmuting fetishes into images and liturgical signs into abstract plastic signs, Valentim uproots them from their terreiro and, charging them with more and more of their own semantics, takes them to the field of representation, so to speak, emblematic, or in a heraldry, as Professor Giulio Carlo Argan put it. In this representation, the signs gain significant universality what they lose in original magical-mythical charge. The artist projects himself, also abandoning the fatality of the canvas, organizes his signs in space, carved as emblems, coats of arms, bucklers, banners, and large banners of an unusual procession, a procession perhaps of a religious mysticism without a church, without dogmas other than the eternal belief of oppressed races and peoples in the advent of the millennium, in the fraternity of races, in the ascension of man."
Mário Pedrosa
PEDROSA, Mário. The contemporaneity of Rubem Valentim. In: VALENTIM, Rubem. 31 emblematic objects and emblematic reliefs. Rio de Janeiro: MAM, 1970.

"The thematic choice that lies at the root of Rubem Valentim's painting results from the artist's own statements: his signs are deduced from the magical symbolism transmitted through the popular traditions of the Black people of Bahia. The evocation of these symbolic-magical signs, however, has nothing folkloristic about it, as evidenced by the successive states they pass through before constituting themselves as pictorial images. It is necessary to expose them, before they suddenly appear immunized, deprived of their own original, evocative, or provocative virtues: the artist elaborates them until the threatening obscurity of the fetish clarifies itself in the clear form of myth. He decomposes them and geometrizes them, ripping them from their original iconographic seed; then he reorganizes them according to rigorous symmetries, reducing them to the essentiality of a primary geometry, made of verticals, horizontals, triangles, circles, squares, rectangles; in short, he makes them macroscopically manifest with accurate, deep coloristic zones, among which he seeks precise metric, proportional relationships, difficult equivalences between signs and background."
Giulio Carlo Argan
VALENTIM, Rubem. 31 emblematic objects and emblematic reliefs. Rio de Janeiro: MAM, 1970.

"There is, moreover, something very specific in Valentim's geometry, which springs from the sources from which it draws and distinguishes him from all other geometric artists: religiosity. Speaking of his relationship with the Concretist movement—since, over time, the flourishing of Concretism and Valentim's abstract language coincided, and the similarities were being investigated—he was categorical: 'I was never Concrete. I became aware of Concretism through personal friendships with some of its members. But I soon realized, at least among the Paulistas, that the ultimate goal of their work was optical games, and that didn't interest me. My problem was always content-related (mystical impregnation, the awareness of our cultural values, of our people, of the Brazilian feeling).' Perhaps it is possible to think, today, that Valentim overly reduced the scope of the Concretists; but that doesn't matter at the moment; what matters is that 'mystical impregnation' is the first of the contents cited".
Olívio Tavares de Araújo
ARAÚJO, Olívio Tavares de. Penetrating love and magic. In: VALENTIM, Rubem. Emblematic altars of Rubem Valentim. São Paulo: Pinacoteca do Estado, 1993.

Testimonials

"My art has an intrinsic monumental meaning. It comes from ritual, from celebration. It seeks its roots and could rediscover them in space, as a kind of resocialization of art, belonging to the people. It's the same monumentality as totems, a reference point for the entire tribe. My reliefs and objects fundamentally require space. I would like to integrate them into urban, architectural, and landscape spaces.

My thinking has always been the result of an awareness of the land, of the people. I have been preaching for many years against cultural colonialism, against the passive acceptance, without any critical analysis, of formulas that come to us from abroad—in magazines, biennials, etc. I favor a path focused on the depths of the Brazilian being, its roots, its feeling. Art is not the prerogative of any people; it is a vital biological product."
Rubem Valentim
VALENTIM, Rubem. Rubem Valentim: Artist of Light. São Paulo: Pinacoteca, 2001. p. 30.

Collections

Itaú ​​Bank S.A. Collection - São Paulo SP
Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection - MAM/RJ - Rio de Janeiro RJ
Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo - MAC/USP - São Paulo SP
Museum of Modern Art of Bahia - MAM/BA - Salvador BA
National Museum of Fine Arts - MNBA - Rio de Janeiro RJ
São Paulo State Art Gallery - PESP - São Paulo SP

Solo Exhibitions

1954 - Salvador, Bahia - Solo exhibition at the Oxumaré Gallery
1954 - Salvador, Bahia - Solo exhibition at the Rio Branco Palace
1961 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Solo exhibition at the Petite Galerie
1961 - São Paulo, SP - Solo exhibition at the MAM/SP
1962 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Solo exhibition at the Relevo Gallery - Critics' Award for Best Exhibition of the Year - ABCA
1965 - Rome, Italy - Solo exhibition at the Galeria d'Arte della Casa do Brasil
1967 - Brasília, DF - Solo exhibition at the Hotel Nacional
1967 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Solo exhibition at the Bonino Gallery
1970 - Brasília, DF - 31 Emblematic Objects and Relief-Emblems by Rubem Valentim, at the Cultural Foundation of the District Federal
1970 - Rio de Janeiro - 31 Emblematic Objects and Relief-Emblems by Rubem Valentim, at MAM/RJ
1971 - São Paulo SP - Solo exhibition, at Documenta Art Gallery
1973 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo exhibition, at Ipanema Art Gallery
1974 - Brasília DF - Solo exhibition, at Porta do Sol Gallery
1975 - Brasília DF - Panorama of Rubem Valentim's Art, at the Federal District Cultural Foundation
1975 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo exhibition, at Bolsa de Arte
1978 - Brasília DF - Myth and Magic in the Art of Rubem Valentim, at the Federal District Cultural Foundation
1978 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Myth and Magic in the Art of Rubem Valentim, at the Bonino Gallery
1980 - Brasília DF - Visual Meta-Signical Variations by Rubem Valentim, at the Federal District Cultural Foundation Federal
1988 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Rubem Valentim: emblematic paintings, at the Versailles Art Gallery
1990 - São Paulo SP - Solo exhibition, at Galeria Letra Viva
1990 - São Paulo SP - Solo exhibition, at Miragem Escritório de Arte
1991 - Washington (United States) - Solo exhibition, at the Brazilian-American Cultural Institute

Group Exhibitions

1949 - Salvador, BA - 1st Bahia Fine Arts Salon, Hotel Bahia
1950 - Salvador, BA - New Bahian Artists, Museum of the Geographic and Historical Institute
1955 - Salvador, BA - 5th Bahia Fine Arts Salon, Belvedere da Sé - University of Bahia Prize
1955 - São Paulo, SP - 3rd São Paulo International Biennial, Pavilhão das Nações
1956 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - 5th National Salon of Modern Art
1956 - Salvador, BA - Modern Artists of Bahia, Oxumaré Gallery
1957 - São Paulo, SP - Artists from Bahia, MAM/SP
1958 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Eight Contemporary Artists, Funarte, Macunaíma Gallery
1959 - São Paulo, SP - 5th São Paulo International Biennial, Ciccilo Matarazzo Sobrinho Pavilion
1960 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - 9th National Salon of Modern Art, MAM/RJ - Acquisition Prize
1961 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Petite Galerie Art Salon, Petite Galerie - 1st Prize
1961 - São Paulo, SP - 6th São Paulo International Biennial, Ciccilo Matarazzo Sobrinho Pavilion
1962 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - 11th National Salon of Modern Art - Travel Abroad Prize
1962 - São Paulo, SP - 11th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, Prestes Maia Gallery - Gold Medal and Travel Abroad Prize
1962 - Venice, Italy - 31st Venice Biennale
1963 - São Paulo, SP - 7th São Paulo International Biennial, Bienal Foundation
1964 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - 2nd Face and the Work, Ibeu Copacabana Gallery
1965 - L'Aquila, Italy - Alternative Attuali/2: Painting, Sculpture, and Graphic Arts Exhibition
1966 - Dakar, Senegal - Contemporary Art Exhibition: Trends and Confrontations
1966 - Salvador, BA - 1st National Biennial of Visual Arts - Prize for Contribution to Brazilian Painting
1967 - Brasília, DF - 4th Modern Art Salon of the Federal District, National Theatre
1967 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Geometric Abstract Artists, Funarte, Macunaíma Gallery
1967 - São Paulo, SP - 9th São Paulo International Biennial, Bienal Foundation - Itamaraty Acquisition Prize
1968 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - 6th JB Art Summary
1969 - Nuremberg, Germany - 1st Nuremberg International Biennial of Constructive Art
1969 - São Paulo, SP - 10th São Paulo International Biennial, Bienal Foundation
1969 - São Paulo, SP - 1st Panorama of Contemporary Brazilian Art, MAM/SP - Invited Artist
1970 - Brasília, DF - Visual Artists of Brasília, British Council
1970 - Medellín, Colombia - 2nd Medellín Art Biennial, Museo de Antioquia
1971 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - 9th JB Art Summary, MAM/RJ
1971 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Multiples Exhibition, Petite Galerie
1972 - Santiago, Chile - 1st International Contemporary Painting Exhibition, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes
1972 - São Paulo, SP - Arte/Brasil/Hoje: 50 Years Later, Collectio Gallery
1973 - Brasília, DF - 1st Global Spring Salon - Travel Abroad Prize
1973 - São Paulo, SP - 12th São Paulo International Biennial, Bienal Foundation - Itamaraty Acquisition Prize
1975 - São Paulo, SP - 2nd Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition, São Paulo State Legislative Assembly
1975 - São Paulo, SP - 7th Panorama of Contemporary Brazilian Art, MAM/SP - 1st Prize
1976 - Campinas, SP - 10th Contemporary Art Salon of Campinas, MACC
1976 - São Paulo, SP - 1976 National Biennial, Bienal Foundation
1977 - Lagos, Nigeria - 2nd World Festival of Black Art
1977 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - 2nd Arte Agora: Vision of the Land, MAM/RJ
1977 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Brazilian Constructive Project in Art: 1950-1962, MAM/RJ
1977 - Rome, Italy - 14th Rome Quadriennale
1977 - São Paulo, SP - 14th São Paulo International Biennial, Bienal Foundation
1977 - São Paulo, SP - Brazilian Constructive Project in Art: 1950-1962, Pinacoteca do Estado
1978 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - 3rd Arte Agora: Latin America, Sensitive Geometry, MAM/RJ
1978 - São Paulo, SP - 10th Panorama of Contemporary Brazilian Art, MAM/SP
1978 - São Paulo, SP - The Object in Art: Brazil in the 60s, MAB/Faap
1979 - São Paulo, SP - 11th Panorama of Contemporary Brazilian Art, MAM/SP
1979 - São Paulo, SP - Theon Spanudis Collection, MAC/USP
1980 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Homage to Mário Pedrosa, Jean Boghici Gallery
1981 - São Paulo, SP - 13th Panorama of Contemporary Brazilian Art, MAM/SP
1981 - São Paulo, SP - Transcendent Art, MAM/SP
1983 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - 6th National Visual Arts Salon, MAM/RJ
1983 - São Paulo, SP - 14th Panorama of Contemporary Brazilian Art, MAM/SP
1984 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Wood, Matter of Art, MAM/RJ
1984 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Active Brazilian Painting, Espaço Petrobras
1984 - São Paulo, SP - Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection: Portrait and Self-Portrait of Brazilian Art, MAM/SP
1984 - São Paulo, SP - Tradition and Rupture: Synthesis of Brazilian Art and Culture, Bienal Foundation
1985 - São Paulo, SP - 16th Panorama of Contemporary Brazilian Art, MAM/SP
1985 - São Paulo, SP - 7 Painters of Contemporary Brazilian Art, Portal Art Gallery
1986 - Brasília, DF - Rubem Valentim and Athos Bulcão, Performance Art Gallery
1986 - Havana, Cuba - 2nd Havana Biennial
1986 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - JK and the 1950s: A View of Culture and Daily Life, Investiarte Gallery
1987 - Paris, France - Modernity: 20th Century Brazilian Art, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
1987 - São Paulo, SP - Working with the Medium: Painting, Cutting, and Object, Documenta Art Gallery
1988 - São Paulo, SP - 15 Years of Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition, Mokiti Okada Foundation
1988 - São Paulo, SP - 19th Panorama of Contemporary Brazilian Art, MAM/SP
1988 - São Paulo, SP - The Afro-Brazilian Hand, MAM/SP
1988 - São Paulo, SP - Contemporary Art from Brasília, MAB/Faap
1988 - São Paulo, SP - Modernity: 20th Century Brazilian Art, MAM/SP
1988 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - 2nd Geometric Abstraction, Funarte
1989 - Los Angeles, USA - Introspectives: Contemporary Art by Americans and Brazilians of African Descent, The California Afro-American Museum
1989 - São Paulo, SP - The Aesthetic of Candomblé, MAC/USP
1990 - Chicago, USA - Singular Expressions of Brazilian Art, Chicago Cultural Center
1990 - Chicago, USA - Brazil: Crossroads of Modern Art, Randolph Gallery
1990 - New York, USA - Introspectives: Contemporary Art by Americans and Brazilians of African Descent, The Bronx Museum
1991 - Belo Horizonte, MG - Two Portraits of Art, MAP
1991 - Brasília, DF - Two Portraits of Art, Historical and Diplomatic Museum - Itamaraty Palace
1991 - Curitiba, PR - Two Portraits of Art, Curitiba Cultural Foundation, Solar do Barão
1991 - Porto Alegre, RS - Two Portraits of Art, Margs
1991 - Recife, PE - Two Portraits of Art, State Museum of Pernambuco
1991 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Two Portraits of Art, MAM/RJ
1991 - Salvador, BA - Two Portraits of Art, Museum of Art of Bahia
1991 - São Paulo, SP - Two Portraits of Art, MAC/USP

Posthumous Exhibitions

1992 - Brasília DF - Forma e Cor Essencial, at Casa de Cultura da América Latina
1992 - Brasília DF - O Templo de Oxalá, at Palácio Itamaraty
1992 - Brasília DF - Os Guardadores de Símbolos e Axé na Praça da Sé, at MAB/DF
1992 - Brasília DF - Rubem Valentim: em memória, at Universidade Holística Internacional de Brasília, Espaço Cultural Rubem Valentim
1992 - Mexico City (Mexico) - Rubem Valentim: serigraphs, at Museo de La Estampa
1992 - Curitiba PR - 10th Curitiba City Print Exhibition / América Exhibition, at Museu da Gravura
1992 - Poços de Caldas MG - Brazilian Modern Art: MAC/USP Collection, at Casa de Cultura de Poços de Caldas
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st A Caminho de Niterói: João Sattamini Collection, at Paço Imperial
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Eco Art, at MAM/RJ
1992 - São Paulo SP - The Seduction of Volumes: the three-dimensional works of MAC, at MAC/USP
1992 - São Paulo SP - Emblematic Altars of Rubem Valentim, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1992 - São Paulo SP - Bahia: Emblems and Magic, at Memorial da América Latina
1992 - Zurich (Switzerland) - Brasilien: entdeckung und selbstentdeckung, at Kunsthaus
1993 - Brasília DF - Athos Bulcão, Rubem Valentim, Tomie Ohtake, at Centro Cultural 508
1993 - Brasília DF - Triângulo, at Espaço Cultural 508 Sul
1993 - Fortaleza CE - Rubem Valentim: serigraphs, at Museu de Arte da UFCE
1993 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazil: 100 Years of Modern Art, at MNBA
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Rubem Valentim: construction and symbol, at CCBB
1994 - São Paulo SP - Brazil Biennial 20th Century, at Fundação Bienal
1995 - Belo Horizonte MG - Heirs of the Night: fragments of the Black imagination, at Centro de Cultura de Belo Horizonte
1995 - Belo Horizonte MG - Rubem Valentim, at Palácio das Artes
1995 - Frankfurt (Germany) - Frankfurt Book Fair
1996 - Niterói RJ - Contemporary Brazilian Art in the João Sattamini Collection, at MAC/Niterói
1996 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Constructive Trends in the MAC/USP Collection: construction, measurement and proportion, at CCBB
1996 - São Paulo SP - 23rd São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1996 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Art: 50 years of history in the MAC/USP Collection: 1920-1970, at MAC/USP
1997 - Goiânia GO - Brazilianness: a collection of Brazilian artists, at Galeria de Arte Marina Potrich
1997 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Sculpture: profile of an identity, at Banco Safra
1997 - São Paulo SP - Three-dimensionality in 20th Century Brazilian Art, at Itaú Cultural
1997 - Washington DC (USA) - Brazilian Sculpture: profile of an identity, at BID Cultural Center
1998 - Belo Horizonte MG - Three-dimensionality in 20th Century Brazilian Art, at Itaú Cultural
1998 - Brasília DF - Three-dimensionality in 20th Century Brazilian Art, at Galeria Itaú Cultural
1998 - Niterói RJ - Mirror of the Biennial, at MAC/Niterói
1998 - Penápolis SP - Three-dimensionality in 20th Century Brazilian Art, at Galeria Itaú Cultural
1998 - São Paulo SP - Constructive Art in Brazil: Adolpho Leirner Collection, at MAM/SP
1998 - São Paulo SP - MAM Bahia Collection: paintings, at MAM/SP
1998 - São Paulo SP - Frontiers, at Itaú Cultural
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Constructive Art in Brazil: Adolpho Leirner Collection, at MAM/RJ
1999 - Salvador BA - 100 Visual Artists of Bahia, at Museu de Arte Sacra
2000 - Belo Horizonte MG - Ars Brasilis, at Galeria de Arte do Minas Tênis Clube
2000 - Brasília DF - Brazil-Europe Exhibition: encounters in the 20th century, at Conjunto Cultural da Caixa
2000 - Curitiba PR - 12th Curitiba Print Exhibition: Marks of the Body, Folds of the Soul
2000 - Lisbon (Portugal) - 20th Century: Brazilian Art, at Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Centro de Arte Moderna José de Azeredo Perdigão
2000 - São Paulo SP - Brazil + 500: Rediscovery Exhibition, at Fundação Bienal
2001 - Belo Horizonte MG - Rubem Valentim: artist of light, at MAP
2001 - Brasília DF - Rubem Valentim: retrospective exhibition, at Espaço Cultural Contemporâneo Venâncio
2001 - New York (USA) - Brazil: body and soul, at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
2001 - São Paulo SP - Rubem Valentim: artist of light, at Pinacoteca do Estado
2001 - São Paulo SP - Trajectory of Light in Brazilian Art, at Itaú Cultural
2002 - Brasília DF - Fragments to Your Magnet, at Espaço Cultural Contemporâneo Venâncio
2002 - Brasília DF - JK: An Aesthetic Adventure, at Conjunto Cultural da Caixa
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Art in the Fadel Collection: from the restlessness of modernity to the autonomy of language, at CCBB
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Paths of the Contemporary 1952-2002, at Paço Imperial
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Parallels: Brazilian art of the second half of the 20th century in context, Colección Cisneros, at MAM/RJ
2002 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Art in the Fadel Collection: from the restlessness of modernity to the autonomy of language, at CCBB
2002 - São Paulo SP - Modernism: from the 1922 Week to Sérgio Milliet's art section, at CCSP
2002 - São Paulo SP - Parallels: Brazilian art of the second half of the 20th century in context, Colección Cisneros, at MAM/SP
2003 - Brasília DF - Brazilian Art in the Fadel Collection: from the restlessness of modernity to the autonomy of language, at CCBB
2003 - São Paulo SP - Paper and Three-dimensional Works, at Arvani Arte
2003 - São Paulo SP - Tomie Ohtake in the Spiritual Fabric of Brazilian Art, at Instituto Tomie Ohtake
2004 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Tomie Ohtake in the Spiritual Fabric of Brazilian Art, at MNBA
2004 - São Paulo SP - Paper Cabinet, at CCSP
2004 - São Paulo SP - Collection Room, at Ricardo Camargo Galeria