The French art critic Maurice Raynal believes there is an innovative school of art in Brazil that is based on an intellectual aesthetic. The painter Vicente do Rego Monteiro is a member of that group. Raynal explains that Rego Monteiro, an artist from Pernambuco, disdains Latin American and academic tradition and instead seeks to express the Indian tradition that he thinks is what should inspire the work of every Brazilian artist. Since Indian art is of an intrinsically primitive nature, it is ideally suited to the task of contributing artistic refinement to a developing form of art; what is more, over the course of time its decorative function would lead to increasingly pure applications and more relevant expression. In Raynal’s opinion, Rego Monteiro’s compositions—which in his earlier period could have constituted vast murals—have as a result of his decades-long exposure to French art, evolved into genuinely artistic visual works. There is a feeling of compatibility between the rhythmic and the hierarchical aspects of his work that achieves a sense of harmony, taste, and lyricism in his forms. Bit by bit, Rego Monteiro has therefore been creating what Raynal calls “picturesque, attractive compositions.”       

This essay appeared in the catalogue for the first solo show of work by the painter, book illustrator, and Amazon Indian art researcher Vicente do Rego Monteiro (1899–1970). The exhibition was held at the Galerie Fabre in Paris, in 1925.

The French poet and art critic Maurice Raynal (1884–1954) is well known as a staunch supporter of Cubism, a style that will stand the test of time in his view. Although the art by this painter from Pernambuco is not strictly Cubist, Raynal sees a healthy tension in it, owing to the time Rego Monteiro spent in Paris, when he produced geometric works that were tinged with a sinuous sensuality that would have been inconceivable in any of the European styles that were in vogue in the 1920s.  

A good example of this is his work O atirador de arco [The Bowman, 1926], a painting that features a semicircular geometric line (drawn with a compass) inspired by a drawing of the same title depicting an Indian subject produced a century earlier (1826) by Jean-Baptiste Debret (1768–1848), whose valuable lithographs illustrated people and customs from the Brazilian colonial period. The works exhibited at the Paris gallery—all of which were painted during Rego Monteiro’s first visit to France—include A caçada [The Hunt, 1923], a wildlife scene; A mulher sentada [Seated Woman, 1924], with a rather exotic background of tropical birds; and an extraordinary painting whose graceful, impeccable lines are extremely modern: O urso [The Bear, 1925].

At that time, Rego Monteiro—who was born in Recife and lived in Paris in the 1920s and 1940s—had already illustrated a book, a project he was working on while he was studying the geometric drawings on ceramics produced by the Indians who lived on Marajó island (in the estuary of the Amazon River): Légendes, croyances et talismans des indiens de l’Amazone (Paris: Tolmer Éditeur, 1923). While he was in France, Rego Monteiro designed countless books and book covers at his own publishing house, La Presse à Bras.