Unfolding Afro-Brazilian art since the 1980s: Dos Anjos, Gomes, and Neves

In the last two decades of the twentieth century, in the context of Minas Gerais, in southeastern Brazil, three African descent artists began to constitute singular works that, experimenting with different media and dealing in various ways with topics of art and the African diaspora, have opened new paths in what is meant by “Afro-Brazilian art.” Sculpturally and graphically unfolding constructivism, having as reference the works of Amilcar de Castro (Paraisópolis, 1920 - Belo Horizonte, 2002) and Rubem Valentim (Salvador, 1922 - São Paulo, 1991), Jorge dos Anjos (Ouro Preto, 1957) sought atavistic African persistence derived from his African descent in the confluence and fusion of geometries from certain European and African contexts. Intervening physically and chemically in the photographic process, as well as appropriating other images, Eustáquio Neves (Juatuba, 1955) manipulated iconic records of people, objects, places and rituals to compose symbolic images that allude to the memory and history of African descendants in the diaspora. Self-taught, using fabrics, threads and other scrap materials, Sonia Gomes (Caetanopolis, 1948) manufactured non-utilitarian objects that occupy an undefined territory between and outside art and craft, exploring possibilities of subjective expression amidst the needs and mishaps proper to the marginalized condition of black women in the Brazilian society. The obvious differences between these works and even in them allow us to reflect on some characteristics of the art related to Africa in Brazil: discontinuity, reinvention and mixture.