The graphic artist and poet Fernando Lemos associates the decorative figures and arabesques painted on trucks with the graphic origin of “vignettes.” These anonymous repeated images are reminiscent of popular prints that can be seen in cities such as São Paulo. According to Lemos, they could be described as “expressions of solidarity;” lacking any form of objective communication, they are based purely on “insignificant and unlimited” hand crafted images that are used for ornamental purposes. This text is taken from Lemos’s book A vinheta–Da iluminura à carroçaria de caminhão [The Vignette: From Ancient Illuminations to Modern Urban Trucks], (São Paulo: Centro de Documentação e Informação sobre Arte Brasileira Contemporânea / IDART, s/f). The IDART (Departamento de Informação e Documentação Artística) is part of the Secretaria Municipal de Cultura de São Paulo. Lemos began his research project, which is described in his book, in 1976; his goal was to raise awareness of the graphic arts in terms of materials, techniques, and means of circulation.
Fernando Lemos [José Fernandes de Lemos] (b. 1926) is an artist, photographer, graphic designer, and professor at the FAU-USP (Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade de São Paulo). He was born in Lisbon, Portugal, and settled in São Paulo in 1953. He had four solo exhibitions in the 1950s, all of them at the MAM-SP (Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo). The first of these, organized shortly after his arrival in Brazil in 1953, was an exhibition of photographs that was also shown at the MAM-RJ (Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro). The others were presented in 1954 and 1956 (as documented in this flier), and 1958. During the 1950s, Lemos took part in the first Bienales de São Paulo—the second (1953), third (1955), fourth (1957), and fifth (1959)—at which he principally exhibited drawings.
[For more information on the work of this artist, see the following article in the ICAA digital archive by the journalist Fernando Cerqueira Lemos, “Desenhos Fernando Lemos” (doc. no. 1110826)].