London
will be more colourful this summer
The art of Clóvis Júnior,
in exhibition at the Gallery 32, Brazilian Embassy in
London, excites and enchants Brazilians in love with
their native land.
By Georgia Martins*
This article was originally published in the newspaper
Brazilian News, London, on June 18th 2004 by www.BrazilianArtists.net.
A loud sigh and joyful surprise were my first reactions
on seeing the colourful paintings of Clóvis Júnior
at Gallery 32 at the Brazilian Embassy in London.
A fine artist for 20 years, Clóvis Júnior,
the poet of the canvases, receives us with the same
beauty and simplicity that we see in his paintings.
Both a follower and a Brazilian exponent of naïve
art, he is used to exhibiting internationally, especially
after receiving first prize in the National Billboard
Competition promoted by the UN in 1993, making his work
known in over 150 countries. His last exhibitions passed
through Portugal, Germany, Milan, New York and Paris,
among other places. In London, his Magic Paintings exhibition
ended on June 26th, when it transferred to the Brazilian
Embassy in Berlin.
The explosion of colours that characterize his work
portrays, to use his own definition, a colourful Cordel.
Being a native of Paraíba and a resident of João
Pessoa, he has a lot to show of our culture from the
North-East. In conversation below, for example, he mentions
Lampião, the famous outlaw of the region whose
heyday was in the 1920s and 1930s.
The Naïve School had its origins in France with
the brushes of Rousseau, then registering the first
trademarks of an ingenuous, primitive, natural art.
Other characteristic features of naïve painting
are to paint the fauna, environment and folk traditions
while including social material in their midst.
Below you can read an exclusive interview given by Clóvis
Júnior to www.BrazilianArtists.net for the newspaper
Brazilian News:
BA: Jorge Amado said the following of naïve painting:
“ I am one of those who think that the only Brazilian
painting that has a really national character and which
expresses itself in accordance with our multiracial
culture is naïve painting, painting that is ingenuous,
primitive - each of us chooses how to best describe
it”. After Jorge Amado, the master of words from
the North-East, I would like to hear what you think.
Naïve art is not an art with Brazilian origins,
but could we call it the most Brazilian of arts?
Clóvis: I consider it the most Brazilian of arts
because we see our culture in it. Naïve painting
represents very well our people, our habits, our folkloric
festivals, I mean, it has both a great identity and
strength because it directly represents the movements
that happen in the country and the painter is a classic
reporter, he reproduces what he sees so other people
can see it too.
BA: We can then say that it is a popular art with folkloric
tendencies. Do you believe this is a general characteristic
of naïve painting or is painting the folklore essentially
a Brazilian contribution to this kind of art?
Clóvis: Folklore is also a source of inspiration
for naïve painting, not that it is obliged to paint
only that, naïve art is free. I, for instance,
prefer to paint the good side of life, the joy, the
harmony, our well being. There is enough violence on
television. Obviously an artist can show what he wants,
but I prefer to paint the good side of life, I think
that is the spirit.
BA: What about the question of social criticism present
in your paintings, how would you describe that?
Clóvis: Once I painted a dragon falling on Congress
in Brasilia and a politician from my town was shocked
when he saw the painting because he did not understand
the message and I did not want to tell him what it was.
The message is in what you think it is, isn’t
it? Another time I painted a picture of Lampião’s
gang arriving at Congress with corrupt politicians behind
them. So the painting was not exactly aggressive, but
it also had a political message that was not direct,
it was surreal. My work has a lot of that, of that surrealism,
something half fantastic, like an illusion, something
imaginary. I am not directly linked to the traditional
naïve painting of people from the countryside,
I also enjoy working with the surrealism of breaking
up subjects as well. For instance, I once created a
Lampião mounted on a sea horse. If I had chosen
a normal horse it would have been yet another one on
canvas, but I made him come in a different form, in
a different shape. In my imagination that is how he
went to Brasilia, with a great party behind him.
BA: The Brazilian historian Jose Pierre affirms that
the naïve artist is always a “primitive from
future times”. Do you agree? What is the future
of naïve Brazilian painting?
Clóvis: Brazilians have been so colonized, globalized
that our self-esteem was very low, always looking elsewhere,
never valuing native artists. Naïve painting also
suffered a lot with that, this rejection for being a
simple form of painting that did not follow a pattern
of academic quality. At the beginning, for example,
I suffered much criticism from some artists of other
schools for being a primitive painter but even then
I carried on and today I am here, doing my work, the
result is here. As with all other artistic tendencies,
there will always be someone to give it continuity.
Naïve painting is not fashionable, everything passes
ahead of it and yet it carries on moving with its particular
characteristics. It does not matter which epoch we are
in, it is natural, it has its place in art.
BA: The Brazilians that visit your exhibition manage
to identify an entire social dimension portrayed in
your paintings because these are aspects of our culture.
And the Europeans, how do they react to your work?
Clóvis: Unfortunately, Europeans are more interested
in our painting than the Brazilians themselves. It is
funny that when they see my work they only have a notion
of what Brazil is, they see that Brazil is a country
yet to be discovered, they do not know the country’s
potential, the joy of a people that is always smiling
despite any crisis, happiness is not a question of being
rich or poor. Once I had an exhibition in Buenos Aires
and someone asked me: “Why do you all only smile
if you earn so little?” I was shocked by that
question. At the time Argentina was doing well and I
said “but why do you all earn so much and look
so sad?”
BA: I noticed that you have also exhibited some etchings.
Is there any Cordel influence there?
Clóvis: Those are actually colour cordéis,
the characteristics of etching are all there but it
is pure cordel. Cordel art was born from a need to express
oneself, it is yet another type of painting combined
with poetry. I do etchings too, it is a very particular
kind of work, like a kind of magic. You only need paper,
a craft knife, a pencil and cardboard for an etching,
something which is magic for its simplicity. For my
work, the bonus of etching is that it interrupts my
use of colour.
BA: Your exhibition is called Magic Paintings. Why "magic"?
Clóvis: Because each painting gives you the possibility
of creating magic. I can say that this painting is this
and you can imagine something else, it gives you the
possibility of making a journey, of being a part of
it as well. That is the magic of my paintings, to make
people feel at ease with them.
The exhibition was at Gallery 32 at the Brazilian Embassy
in London from 10th to 26th June 2004.
* Georgia Martins is a poet and is studying journalism
at PUC-SP. Currently living in London, she is part of
the www.BrazilianArtists.net network. What about you?
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