Enciclopédia Negra
The exhibition is composed of works commissioned by 36 artists to portray more than 100 personalities mapped by the homonymous book.
Pedro Valentim (2020) by Bruno BaptistelliPinacoteca de São Paulo
Pedro Valentim, 2020
acrylic and gouache on paper
In 1831, Rio de Janeiro’s Police Intendant ordered his arrest on the charge that he was in contact with two Black men who had just disembarked from Haiti.
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Miguel Quilombo (2020) by Bruno BaptistelliPinacoteca de São Paulo
Miguel Quilombo, 2020
acrylic and gouache on paper
Between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, enslaved people crossed the Guiana border in Grão-Pará, modern-day Amapá, and formed quilombos.
Miguel was an enslaved African man who escaped and lived in hiding in the border region.
Madalena (2020) by DesaliPinacoteca de São Paulo
Madalena, 2020
acrylic on wood
About twenty Black people were killed, many others were injured and the Queens of the mocambo, Hilária and Madalena, were imprisoned.
Hilária (2020) by DesaliPinacoteca de São Paulo
Hilária, 2020
acrylic on wood
When questioned, they revealed the existence of commercial and solidarity networks created by the fugitives, linking Belém to the region’s various rivers and villages.
Miguel Quilombolas (2020) by Michel Cena7Pinacoteca de São Paulo
Miguel Quilombolas, 2020
acrylic and spray paint on canvas
Curukango (2020) by Michel Cena7Pinacoteca de São Paulo
Curukango, 2020
acrylic and spray paint on canvas
The Curukango quilombo was located northeast of Macaé, in the Northern region of the Captaincy of Rio de Janeiro, close to the Deitado River’s headwaters.
He was led by a captive also named Curukango, of “Mozambican” origin, who was said to have killed his master, headed to the woods and formed a mocambo with about other two hundred Black people.
Ganga Zumba (2020) by MulamböPinacoteca de São Paulo
Ganga Zumba, 2020
acrylic on cardboard
When the governor of Pernambuco opened negotiations to accept Palmares’ autonomy and allow trade to be conducted in the region, Ganga-Zumba agreed to surrender the captives not born in the mocambos.
Quindomba (2020) by MulamböPinacoteca de São Paulo
Quindomba, 2020
acrylic on cardboard
The name of Quindomba appears in 1813, when colonial records refer to quilombolas from the Mariana region, in Minas Gerais, who were headed by an African man considered the “terror of these inhabitants.”
Panmela Castro
Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 1981
Felipa Maria Aranha (2020) by Panmela CastroPinacoteca de São Paulo
Filipa Maria Aranha, 2020
oil on canvas
Coming from the Mina Coast, Filipa was enslaved and taken to Belém, in Grão-Pará, from whence she went to work on a sugarcane plantation in Cametá.
She fled in 1750 and created a quilombo, which she headed with political, social and military organization.
Lourenca Correia by Panmela CastroPinacoteca de São Paulo
Lourença Correia, 2020
oil on canvas
Lourença Correia da Lapa was enslaved to Sergeant Major Antônio de Figueira e Almeida and was forced to have sex with him.
The sergeant’s wife, Isabel, used to punish her, in addition to trying to convince her husband to marry Lourença to a “Black man from the house.”
Rufino Alufá (2020) by Rodrigo BuenoPinacoteca de São Paulo
Rufino, Alufá
Rufino, Alufá, Religious Leader, Century: 18-19th, Bahia, Rio Grande do Sul, Rio de Janeiro and Recife (Alufá Rufino), 2020
oil on jacarandá veneer
Abuncare by name, Rufino José Maria was a Muslim Yoruba born in the kingdom of Oyo, modern-day Nigeria. He was enslaved and sold to be brought to Brazil, arriving in Salvador in 1822.
In 1831, he was traded to Porto Alegre, where he worked until he gained his freedom, in 1835.
Rosa (2020) by Rodrigo BuenoPinacoteca de São Paulo
ROSA (Sabará, século XVIII), 2020
oil on jacarandá veneer
Originally from the Cassange nation, Rosa was enslaved to Brigadier Jacinto Pinto Teixeira and his wife, Maria do Carmo Pinto Teixeira, who lived in Sabará, Minas Gerais.
In 1856, together with Peregrina, Luísa, Tecla, Balbina, Quitéria and Jesuína, all also enslaved women, Rosa murdered Maria do Carmo with axe and pestle blows.
Félix (2020) by Hariel RevignetPinacoteca de São Paulo
Felix (Felix José Rodrigues), 2020
acrylic, sisal stitching and raffia straw on canvas
Félix José Rodrigues was a quilombola who took part in the Paraguayan War. A known fugitive, he surrendered himself to his owner fearing that his son, Simeão, would be forced to serve in the Brazilian army.
During the war, he gained his freedom and prestige as a brave fighter. He was rewarded in 1871 with a plot of land in the hinterland of Tocantins.
Prata Preta (2020) by Hariel RevignetPinacoteca de São Paulo
Prata Preta, 2020
acrylic, sisal stitching and raffia straw on canvas
One of the biggest urban uprisings of the beginning of the twentieth century was led by Horácio José da Silva. In the well-known Vaccine Revolt, in November 1904, the city of Rio de Janeiro was besieged by hundreds of rebels.
The revolt was a protest against the public authorities’ intolerance. Known by the nickname of Prata Preta (Black Silver), Horácio was a thirty-year old dockworker and famous capoeirista.
To Remember the Curse, To Feel the Prophecy (2020) by Castiel Vitorino BrasileiroPinacoteca de São Paulo
Daniel (de Viana) (2020) by Dalton PaulaPinacoteca de São Paulo
Daniel (de Viana), 2020
oil and gold foil on canvas
Leader of a quilombola revolt in Maranhão in the nineteenth century, Daniel Antônio Araújo was around 30 years old when he fled Virgílio de Araújo’s farm and settled in São Benedito do Céu, in the municipality of Viana.
In 1867, he organized the invasion of the Santa Bárbara farm and then that of the Vila Nova de Anadia.
Ana de Jesus (2020) by Jackeline RomioPinacoteca de São Paulo
Ana de Jesus, 2020
acrylic, gold foil and varnish on canvas
Like many other enslaved persons of her time, Ana de Jesus must have won her freedom with the savings she accumulated by finding alluvial gold in the rivers of Vila Rica.
Although it is not known how she made a living, we know that she prospered to the point of also buying some slaves, as was common for many freedpersons who lived in Minas Gerais in the last decades of the seventeenth century.
Greetings to Reis Malunguinho (Reis Malunguinho) (2020) by Micaela CyrinoPinacoteca de São Paulo
Greetings to Reis Malunguinho (Reis Malunguinho), 2020
acrylic on canvas
In an insurgent and anti-colonial Brazilian Northeast, the number of fugitives and quilombos increased, while the quilombos’ main leader gained fame. He was João Batista, nicknamed Malunguinho, and lived in Catucá forest, Zona da Mata, near Recife.
The problem is that there were both “real” and “legendary” Malunguinhos at the time. “Malungo” was the term used by enslaved Africans to refer to their slave-ship companions, and this symbolic kinship was also probably extended to those who fled together.
Pemba (2020) by Mônica VenturaPinacoteca de São Paulo
Pemba (Narciso Sociedade Pemba), 2020
digital photograph, digital print on cotton paper
At the end of 1860, the municipality of Itapemirim, Espírito Santo, was shaken by a “planned slave uprising” allegedly organized by a secret association, the Pemba Society, which congregated enslaved and freed African men from various farms.
The group was denounced, but there was no proof of any crime, only religious rituals performed to “tame the whites.” Narciso Mina, known as Tata Abranda Mundo, was the “chief of Pemba".
Queen Marta (2020) by Mariana RodriguesPinacoteca de São Paulo
Queen Marta, 2020
acrylic and oily pastel on canvas
Quilombos were formed since the beginning of the nineteenth century on the banks of rivers and streams, especially on the Iguaçu and Sarapuí rivers around Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro, and remained in existence until the eve of Abolition in 1888.
Queen Marta was identified as one of the leaders of the Iguaçu quilombos.
This is just room 1.
A Exposição Enciclopédia Negra esteve em cartaz entre 1/05/21 a 8/11/21 e foi realizada pela Pinacoteca de São Paulo em parceria com a Cia das Letras e Inst. Ibirapitanga e apresentada pelo Ministério do Turismo por meio da Secretaria da Cultura e Economia Criativa do Governo do Estado de São Paulo. Teve como patrocinadores Vivo, BNY Mellon, Mattos Filho, Allergan e Havaianas.
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