Who: Artur Pereira, Brazilian folkloric sculptor (1920–2003).
What: Wooden sculptures of animals from major Brazilian collections, organized and curated by Rodrigo Naves and Ricardo Homen.
Where: Instituto Moreiro Salles, R. Marqûes São Vicente 476, Gávea, Rio de Janeiro.
When: 8 October–6 December 2009.
About the exhibit: The exhibit is installed in the Instituto’s newest space, situated on the hill above the main building. Unlike the main building, which was built in classic mid-century modernism with subtle details and textures provided by different materials (stone and wood parquets, Portuguese wall tiles, etc.), the new space is the bare, white box with concrete floor that is commonly used in contemporary galleries.
After spending much of his life doing manual labor, Artur Pereira began creating wood sculptures in his forties. He carved animals and birds, both as freestanding individual sculptures and as figural elements in complex spiral towers and hunting scenes. These complex multi-figure compositions followed the natural shape of the trunk or boughs of the tree that he chose to carve. He often hollowed out the trunk, then stood within it to carve from the inside out. His animals are a fantastic amalgam of species and have faces with very human expressions and emotions imposed on the beastly features. Unlike many other folkloric artists of his era, “Mr. Artur,” as he was known, did not rely on traditional themes and subjects, but rather followed his own imagination and observation of animals in the countryside around him.
Pereira’s tree trunk tower compositions mix the form of Tower of Babel images with the stylizing of Peaceable Kingdom paintings of American folk art. His beasts, especially the lions, with their quizzical and humanized expressions, are individuals in their own right. Their aura of personality would absolutely establish a living presence in one’s home, far beyond the merely decorative effect of a well-placed sculpture.
