This text by sociologist Roger Bastide discusses drawings by Carybé, an Argentine artist who lived in the city of Salvador, Brazil. Bastide underscores the faithfulness of the iconography in Carybé’s illustrations and the connections between his drawings and traditional Brazilian popular culture, especially Afro-Brazilian Candomblé rites. A close friend of the artist, Bastide remarks on the enormous difference between the more expressionistic drawings Carybé made in Argentina and his production from Brazil, which is both freer and more economic in its use of the line. In Bastide’s view, the style of Carybé’s drawing changes radically according to the theme he is representing.

Argentine sculptor, painter, printmaker, and draftsman Héctor Julio Páride Bernabó (1911–97) —known as Carybé— first traveled to the city of Salvador, in Bahia, in the forties; he settled there in 1950. Along with local artists like Mário Cravo Jr., Carlos Bastos, and Genaro de Carvalho, he was part of the “modernist” movement to renew the art scene. From the time he moved to Brazil, his work revolved around detailed depictions of the culture of the Bahia region, and its role in Yoruba and Afro-Brazilian religious culture.

In this text, French sociologist Roger Bastide places emphasis on the iconographic importance of Carybé’s art, but particularly of his graphic production. Bastide first traveled to Brazil to replace anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss as the professor of the Sociology 1 course to be given at the Departamento de Ciências Sociais of the Universidade de São Paulo, which had recently been founded (1934). He ended up staying in Brazil into the eighties. Bastide’s work revolved around Afro-Brazilian religions, particularly Candomblé.

[For further reading, see in the ICAA digital archive by Raul Lody the “Coleção Arthur Ramos” (doc. no. 1110525); “Coleção culto afro-brasileiro: um documento do candomblé na cidade do Salvador” (doc. no. 1110527); “Coleção culto afro-brasileiro: um testemunho do Xangô pernambucano” (doc. no. 1110526); “Dezoito esculturas antropomorfas de orixás” (doc. no. 1110529); “Símbolo do mando” (doc. no. 1110531); and “Yorubá: um estudo etno-tecnológico de 50 peças da coleção arte africana do Museu Nacional de Belas-Artes” (doc. no. 1110532). In addition, see by Abelardo Duarte “Catálogo ilustrado da Coleção Perseverança” (doc. no. 1110522); by Carlos Eugênio Marcondes de Moura “Religiosidade africana no Brasil; Arte afro-brasilidade” (doc. no. 1110519); by Maria Lúcia Montes “Cosmologias e altares” (doc. no. 1110528); by Luiz Felipe de Alencastro “Geopolítica da mestiçagem” (doc. no. 1111371); from the Museu Histórico Nacional “Para nunca esquecer. Negras memórias. Memórias de negros” (doc. no. 1110530); by Jocélio Teles dos Santos “Catálogo do Museu Afro Brasileiro = Catalogue of the Afro-Brazilian Museum” (doc. no. 1110521); by Vagner Gonçalves da Silva “Arte religiosa afro-brasileira. As múltiplas estéticas da devoção brasileira” (doc. no. 1110520); by Oneyda Alvarenga “Catálogo ilustrado do Museu Folclórico” (doc. no. 1110523); and by Rita Amaral “A coleção etnográfica de cultura religiosa afro-brasileira do Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia da Universidade de São Paulo” (doc. no. 1110533)].