José Valladares writes about the bar “Anjo Azul” in the city of Salvador (capital of the state of Bahia), which he considers a center for culture and the creation of art. He describes the mural paintings there and the decorative objects that characterize the place, acknowledging the “Baroque roots” of the frescoes painted by Carlos Bastos.

Opened in Salvador in 1949, the bar “Anjo Azul” became a meeting place for the local intelligentsia and artists who represented a revival of the art sphere in the state of Bahia: Carlos Bastos, Genaro de Carvalho, Mário Cravo Jr. and Jenner Augusto. Given the lack of exhibition space in the city, the artists turned the bar into a Modern art gallery.

With his background in the study of museum organization, the journalist/critic José [Antonio do Prado] Valladares (1917–59) was named director of the Museu do Estado da Bahia (1939–43). He also taught Aesthetics courses at the Universidade da Bahia (founded in 1946), subsequently renamed the Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBa). At the same time, he wrote art criticism in the local press; in some cases, he was the first to consider the work of young artists who were the ones to introduce Modernist values into the art world of that region. 

[In the ICAA digital archive, see the following writings by José Valladares: “Arte moderna na Bahia” (doc. no. 1110845), “Movimento artístico bahiano” (doc. no. 1110700), “O salão bahiano I: visitantes e instalação” (doc. no. 1110847), “Realismo e abstracionismo” (doc. no. 1110848), “A exposição de Carlos Bastos” (doc. no. 1110695), regarding Mário Cravo Jr., “Surge um escultor” (doc. no. 1110701), and on Poty Lazzarotto, “As gravuras de Poty” (doc. no. 1110846)].