Terceiro Ato: Sortilégio
Terceiro Ato: Sortilégio is named after the play Sortilégio by Abdias Nascimento, which had been censored twice before it was staged for the first time in 1951.
View of the exhibition Third Act: Sortilégio (2023) by Tiago NunesInhotim
The exhibition is part of the Abdias Nascimento Program Exhibition and the Black Art Museum (2021-2024) at Inhotim.
Abdias in National Congress (1982) by Elisa Larkin NascimentoInhotim
Abdias Nascimento
As an artist, playwright, Pan-Africanist, politician, activist, poet, curator, professor, and painter, Abdias Nascimento (1914–2011) played many roles through which he contributed greatly to Brazilian art and culture.
Abdias Nascimento holding the Exu instrument in the staging of Sortilégio Photo: José Medeiros (1957) by Ana Clara MartinsInhotim
Divided into four acts, the program organizes the production of Abdias according to the main movements of his trajectory. Terceiro Ato: Sortilégio shows the moment when, exiled from Brazil due to the Military Dictatorship, the artist get closer to Afro-diasporic traditions.
Bengala de Abdias, princesa da África oriental, pré-1968. Collection IPEAFRO . by Ana Clara MartinsInhotim
Since 2021, Instituto Inhotim, in partnership with Instituto de Pesquisas e Estudos Afro-Brasileiros – IPEAFRO, has presented various aspects of Nascimento’s artistic work through the program Abdias Nascimento e o Museu de Arte Negra.
View of the exhibition Third Act: Sortilégio by Ana Clara MartinsInhotim
Terceiro Ato: Sortilégio
The tittle is named after the play Sortilégio [Spell] by Abdias Nascimento, which had been censored twice before it was staged for the first time in 1957. The story of the play is based on the experience of racism in Brazil, highlighting elements of Candomblé.
Abdias Nascimento, "Exu Black Power n. 2 (Homenagem a Rubens Gerchman)" (1969)Inhotim
The trajectory of Abdias Nascimento merges with the characteristics of Eshu, the Orisha of communication and guardian of the paths, as an artist who played a key role in the dissemination of Brazilian Black art abroad and who contributed to expanding the understanding of Candomblé as a conception of life and philosophy of the universe.
"Exu Rei Abdias Nascimento" (2017) by Barbara VentoInhotim
EXU REI - ABDIAS NASCIMENTO.
Direção: Barbara Vento. Produção: Ethel Oliveira.
Brasil, 2017.
Nascimento combines the symbols and languages of Candomblé with the influence of the landscapes and scenes from the United States and Nigeria, where he lived from 1968 to 1981, intensifying his painting production and becoming a reference for Brazilian Black art abroad. His works and the proposal for the Museu de Arte Negra gain strength, relevance, and recognition.
The five thematic cores of Third Act: Spell help us understand the context, research, and relationships as well as the deepening of Nascimento’s Pan-Africanist thought during his exile.
Abdias Nascimento, "Tributo a Aguinaldo Camargo" (1988) by Ana Clara MartinsInhotim
View of the exhibition Third Act: Sortilégio by Ana Clara MartinsInhotim
Contemporary Ritualistic Symbols
" What is important to me in my paintings is the mental world and the cultural difference of the Black person who feels African but is in the Americas." – Abdias Nascimento
Abdias Nascimento researches Afro-diasporic cultures and religiosities and understands his art as an instrument of communication and knowledge that connects social and political struggle with ancestry. From his first visits to the African continent, Abdias Nascimento deepens his relationship with signs characteristic of African cultures, incorporating ideograms and symbolsinto his paintings.
New York, Beginning of Exile
The journey of Abdias Nascimento to the United States in 1968 was intended to put him in contact with Black American art, culture, and political organizations.
Nascimento was already dedicated to producing his first paintings in Brazil, but a return to his homeland became unfeasible due to the establishment of a military regime. Other artists followed suit. Amilcar de Castro, Rubens Gerchman, Hélio Oiticica, Regina Vater, Anna Maria Maiolino, and Anna Bella Geiger were also transiting the US art scene. They are part of Third Act: Spell.
View of the exhibition Third Act: Sortilégio (2023) by Daniel MansurInhotim
University Professor
In his early years in the United States, Abdias Nascimento witnessed the growing interest in African American issues among academic communities.
It was at this time that he traveled across the country and communicated distinctive aspects of Brazilian reality. After being a visiting researcher at Wesleyan University, he was invited to be a professor of “Black Cultures in the Americas” at the State University of New York, Buffalo, where he met Elisa Larkin, his translator, interpreter, and partner with whom he founded the Instituto de Pesquisas e Estudos Afro-Brasileiros – IPEAFRO, in 1981.
Abdias Nascimento and Elisa Larkin, Sem Data by Ana Clara MartinsInhotim
In 1968, when he began producing his own paintings, Nascimento turned to signs from the worship of the Orishas, symbols of the resistance and the spiritual vitality of the Black presence in Brazil. When he publishes a manifesto for his exhibition at El Taller Boricua, Nascimento brings together artists who are also connected to their African origins, such as Rubem Valentim, Mestre Didi, Emanoel Araujo, and others.
View of the exhibition Third Act: Sortilégio by Ana Clara MartinsInhotim
Afro-Brazilian Artists
The Museu de Arte Negra – MAN emerged as a project in the 1950s, out of a desire to highlight artists connected with the African legacy.
View of the exhibition Third Act: Sortilégio by Tiago NunesInhotim
Orishas: Conception of Life and Philosophy of the Universe
"It is in the scratched and sung points that my art is born. That’s the basis of everything. At the crossroads, in this thing that comes and goes, the contradictions of life make sense and our portrait takes shape." – Abdias Nascimento
Through the performances of Teatro Experimental do Negro – TEN, as well as in his intellectual production and artistic work, Abdias Nascimento honors elements of Afro-Brazilian religiosity as fundamental counterpoints to the hegemony of Eurocentric and Christian values. The Orishas are present in the paintings of Abdias Nascimento as forces of the present, bearing the names of people close to him and honoring people who were in the ongoing struggle for resistance and freedom.
Visit Instituto Inhotim and learn about the work and legacy of Abdias Nascimento in the temporary exhibitions that occupy the Museu de Arte Negra at Inhotim until 2024.
Terceiro Ato: Sortilégio was curated by Instituto Inhotim and Ipeafro (2023).
Virtual exhibition resulting from the show of the same name, on display at Galeria Mata do Inhotim since March 18, 2023.
Technical Specification:
Image capture and production: Ana Clara Martins
Photos: Ana Clara Martins, Tiago Nunes, Daniel Mansur, Daniella Paoliello, Elisa Larkin Nascimento
Screenplay: Nina Rocha
Editing: Ana Clara Martins, Danielle Pinto and Thiago Pacheco
Review: Regina Stocklen
Translation: Juan Carlos Urbina
Coordination: Lorena Vicini and Ricardo Lopes
Curatorship: Inhotim and Ipeafro
