This article discusses what is meant by the term “Afro-Brazilian art.” The anthropologist Marta Heloísa Leuba Salum describes it as an abstract place where Africa and Brazil commingle in an imaginary universe. She stresses that Afro-Brazilian art is, above all, a contemporary phenomenon, since it wasn’t until the twentieth century that it began to be referred to by that name, once it started being recognized as both a visual and a plastic form of expression that, on the one hand embraced African aesthetics and religiosity and, on the other, documented socio-cultural aspects of black life in Brazil. It is an umbrella term that covers the material culture of black populations in Brazil, works of art that are representative of a popular culture with African roots, and a reinterpretation of traditional African art produced in Brazil. The anthropologist Leuba Salum identifies connections between the painters Heitor dos Prazeres and Pedro Paulo Leal; the sculptors Mestre Didi, Agnaldo dos Santos, and Emanoel Araújo; and the visual artists Rubem Valentim and Niobe Xandó, who create a language based on graphic symbolism; she also sees connections between the installation works of Rosana Paulino and Ronaldo Rego.

This essay explores how the concept of “Afro-Brazilian art” took shape over the course of the twentieth century. It was published in Arte afro-brasileira, the catalogue for the exhibition of the same name that addressed various aspects of the African presence in Brazil, an integral part of a series of exhibitions organized in the city of São Paulo on the occasion of the celebration of the Fifth Centenary of the Discovery of Brazil. The exhibition focused on Brazilian cultures from pre-Columbian times up to the present. In addition to the essay by Leuba Salum, the Arte afro-brasileira catalogue included essays by the Belgian curators François Neyt and Catherine Vanderhaeghe, and by the curator of the Brazilian section of the exhibit, the anthropologist Kabengele Munanga.     

Raul Lody (b. 1952), the anthropologist and specialist in Afro-Brazilian religions, published a number of studies on this subject, including Vinte e um bastões cerimoniais [21 ceremonial scepters] (Rio de Janeiro: Museu Nacional, 1990); “Dezoito esculturas antropomorfas de orixás”[see doc. no. 1110529]; and others that were more focused on the theme such as “Yorubá: um estudo etno-tecnológico de 50 peças da coleção arte africana do Museu Nacional de Belas-Artes” [doc. no. 1110532]; and “Coleção Arthur Ramos” [doc. no. 1110525].

Other published articles and studies on this subject by noted specialists that have already been filed in the ICAA digital archive include: Catálogo ilustrado do Museu Folclórico, by Oneyda Alvarenga [doc. no. 1110523]; Cosmologias e altares, by Maria Lúcia Montes [doc. no. 1110528]; Para nunca esquecer. Negras memórias. Memórias de negros,published by the Museu Histórico Nacional [doc. no. 1110530]; and Catálogo do Museu Afro Brasileiro, by Jocélio Teles dos Santos [doc. no. 1110521].

There are several articles that complement this document, including Arte e religiosidade afro-brasileira, by Vagner Gonçalves da Silva (São Paulo: Câmara Brasileira do Livro, 2008); the one by the medical doctor and ethnologist [Raimundo] Nina Rodrigues (1862–1906), “As bellas-artes nos colonos pretos do Brazil: a esculptura” [doc. no. 1110427], that addresses the presence of sculptures brought from Africa or produced by African slaves and their descendants in Brazil; another is “Religiosidade africana no Brasil; Arte afro-brasilidade” [doc. no. 1110519], jointly written by the sociologist Marcondes de Moura and the artist Emanoel de Araújo; and, finally, “Esboço histórico: o elemento negro nas artes plásticas” [doc. no. 1110463], by the anthropologist Marianno Carneiro da Cunha.