Emblem 34

Self-taught Brazilian painter Rubem Valentim’s work is unmistakable. Inspired by geometric abstraction and elements of the Afro-Brazilian liturgy, this artist from Bahia developed a unique poetics that vindicated African identity in the mid-fifties, years before other artists did. His work brings together the rhythm of concrete painting and the compositional logic of altars; simple geometric shapes and the attributes of Umbanda and Candomblé visions of the universe; and the full colors and clean lines characteristic of woodcut, a media Valentim also explored. Both Pintura VI and Emblema 34 evidence the particular syntax of cutout forms against a color background with which Valentim constructs not only a language, but also a contemporary narrative for those Afro-Brazilian traditions: “The substrate comes from the earth,” he said, regarding his art. “With the weight of Bahia on me (lived culture), with Black blood in my veins (atavism), with eyes open to what is made in the world (the contemporary), I create my own sign-symbols to turn the enchanted, magic, and probably mystical world that flows within me into visual language.”