Matarazzo Hospital Mural

The black and white mural, painted on the Arched Wall, features elements from Northeastern Brazilian folk culture, particularly the woodcut illustrations of popular “cordel” literature. Even today, these cheap booklets can be found hanging from lines of string at fairs throughout the region. The mural also identifies with the proposals of the Terra Project, which has seen the artist paint murals on house fronts in the backlands of Bahia state. The project kicked off in 1980 with the aim of turning the vast, monochrome hinterlands into an open-air museum through painting and installations. For the art critic Rubens Alves Pereira, “the work of Juraci Dórea spreads like a standard over backland life. It celebrates the spirit of a simple, humble people and elevates myriad references to popular culture. Above all, his is an oeuvre wrought of the brash strokes of contemporary art, which it enriches with its own peculiarities. A poet of backland life, Juraci Dórea depicts multiplicity, from which he draws his manifold themes and peoples, gestures and acts, voices, textures, critters and stars”.