This essay, which appeared in the catalogue produced with research support from Gilmar de Carvalho, introduced A Nova Gravura de Juazeiro do Norte, the exhibition curated by Dodora Guimarães at the Centro Cultural da Abolição in Recife (November–December 1999). Juazeiro do Norte is a destination site for pilgrimages, a place that has been influenced by a variety of religious faiths in the northeastern part of Brazil. The woodcut tradition of the local literatura de cordel [string literature] received a boost in the first decade of the twentieth century from the printing press and the arrival of the cordelistas [string literature writers] who wanted to illustrate their stories. The much anticipated catalogue of the exhibition of traditional works included information on the “string works” that were reminiscent of the range of exhibitions, albums, records, and other material published between 1989 and 1998. The author focuses on the evolution of traditional languages and the updating of the subjects addressed in “string literature” under the influence of stories told in paintings, movies, and television. He shows how computers influenced the transfer of drawings to wood, and drew attention to other influences from mass culture.

Literatura de cordel [String Literature] was representative of the resurgence and cultivation of traditional forms of art in the 1990s, which were ideally suited to the expression of certain political feelings and critical observations. These rudimentary publications, developed in northeastern Brazil, consisted of poems, stories, and songs printed on a few sheets of paper that were folded in half and hung on cordeles [strings] in markets, to be purchased by the general public. Publications of this kind were available long ago, in the Middle Ages in Europe; in Brazil, that ancient custom was fused with local traditions. The “books” are usually printed, with woodcut blocks, in black and white, and the covers are often made of colored paper. For more information about literatura de cordel see ICAA digital archive doc. no. 1110755.  

Professor Gilmar de Carvalho (b. 1949) is a noted expert on literatura de cordel. He has written more than thirty books on the subject, and has been recognized for his prizewinning work. He has been a professor of social communications at the Universidade Federal do Ceará (Fortaleza) since 1984, and has taught a course on social history at the same school since 2000. The books by the scholar describe how literatura de cordel has gradually evolved over the years; its heyday was in the 1940s, and it then significantly benefited from the works of Mestre Noza, Walderedo, Lino and José Caboclo, Stenio Diniz, and Abrahão Batista. La Nova Gravura [New Printmaking] was the name of the group of artists that contributed to a revival of this traditional form of woodcut art in Juazeiro in the late 1980s and early 1990s, inspired by José Lourenço’s album about the life of Padim Ciço. Father Cícero (1844–1934) was a Silesian priest whose ministry in the state of Ceará was famous for its miracles. For political reasons, he has never been canonized by the Catholic Church, but he is nonetheless considered a saint in northern Brazil.

On this subject, the author has also written A nova gravura de Juazeiro do Norte (Fortaleza, 1999) and the essay “Desenho Gráfico Popular. Catálogo de matrices xilográficas de Juazeiro do Norte–Ceará” in the IEB-USP notebooks. See also de Carvalho’s article on this subject: “Engenho e arte: a fala dos gravadores” (doc. no. 1110758">1110758); and on traditional graphic design (doc. no. 1110758">1110758).