Agnaldo [Agnaldo Manoel dos Santos]
1926, Ilha de Itaparica | BA - Brazil
1962, Salvador | BA - Brazil
Agnaldo was a descendent of Indians and Africans and started to work when He was ten years old. After a variety of employments, including a miner in a lime pit, in 1947 he worked as a wachtman in the Salvador city studio for the sculptor, engraver and draughtsman Mario Cravo Junior. Agnaldo was encouraged by this artist to begin sculpting in 1953. He traveled with Franco Terranova along São Francisco river, and this trip resulted in his recovering numerous old carranca (figureheads of riverboats). There he met the best 20th century carver of carrancas, master Francisco Biquiba Dy Lafuente Guarany, who, he said, taught him new ways of viewing the creative process.
His wood pieces were displayed in major collective and individual exhibitions, such as the 1957 São Paulo Biennial. Four years after his death, he was awarded the international prize for the sculpture Rei at the 1st World Festival OF Black Art and Culture, in Dakar, Senegal, in 1966. His work was studied by Clarival do Prado Valladares, who saw in it “the eternal expression his cultural ancestry”. Agnaldo’s work, focusing the representation of the African super-natural and cross-cultural imagination, mainly from Catholicism, emerged with absolute authenticity from his individual historic experience and knowledge of the great African arts, and it is one of the most original expressions of the 20th century Brazilian sculpture. His work is to be seen in the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, RJ, and major private collections.
Source: Little Dictionary of the Brazilian People’s Art – 20th Century, by anthropologist and poet Lélia Coelho Frota
Individual Exhibition:
2022 Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence and the Clube Mbari, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, EUA
2021 Agnaldo Manuel do Santos – The Conquest of Modernity, Almeida e Dale Galeria, São Paulo, Brazil
2019 Agnaldo dos Santos, Paulo Darzé Galeria, SP-Arte, São Paulo, Brazil
1992 Agnaldo dos Santos: the unconscious revealed, Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
1988 Agnaldo dos Santos: Sculptures, Núcleo de Artes do Desenbanco, Salvador
1966 Agnaldo, special room at 1° Biennale da Bahia, Salvador, Bahia
1961 Agnaldo’s Sculptures, Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia, Bahia, Brazil
1959 Galeria Ralf, Salvador, Bahia
1958 Galeria Gae, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
1958 Galeria Oxumaré, Salvador, Bahia
1956 Petite Galeria, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
Collective Exhibitions:
2022 Ray that breaks it: fiction of the modern in Brazil, SESC 24 de maio, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2021 They Were Already Here, Galeria Base, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2021 Earth and Temperature, Almeida e Dale, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2021 Memory is an invention, Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (MAM-RJ), Rio de Janeiro
2019 Between Aiyê and Orum, Caixa Cultural Salvador, Salvador, Bahia
2018 Exhibition Lina Bo Bardi Tupí or not tupí?, Fundación Juan March, , Madrid, Spain
2018 Afro-Atlantic History, MASP, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2016-2017 The Hand of the Brazilian People, 1969/2016, Assis Chateaubriand Art Museum of São Paulo, MASP, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2012 - 2013 Janete Costa “Um Olhar”, Janete Costa Museum, Niterói, RJ, Brazil
2012 Samba Session: Afro-Brasilian Art and Film, ArthurRoss Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, USA
2010 Elos da Lusofonia, National Historical Museum, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
2010 Elos da Lusofonia, Museu Afro Brasil, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2010 "AFRO MODERNISM - JOURNEYS THROUGH THE BLACK ATLANTIC", TATE Liverpool, England
2009 Occupying the Space, Museum of Brazilian Art | MAB - FAAP, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2007 Encuentro entre dos Mares- São Paulo Biennial- Valencia, Convento del Carmo, Valencia, Spain
2007 Of the Size of Brazil, SESC Paulista, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2006 SOMOS - the popular Brazilian creation, Santander Cultural Center, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
2006 - 2010 The Nemirovsky Foundation Collection: The Collector's Look, Estação Pinacoteca, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2006 Live the Living Culture of the Brazilian People, AfroBrasil Museum, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2005 Year of Brazil in France, Carreau du Temple, Marais district, Paris, France
2005 Never to Forget. Black Memories, Memories of Blacks, Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON), Curitiba, PR, Brazil
2004 Form, Color and Expression, Galeria Estação, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2004 The Century of a Brazilian Man: Roberto Marinho Collection, Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
2002 Brazil Body and Soul, Guggenheim Museum, NY, USA
2002 Wild Mirror: Modern Art in Brazil in the first half of the 20th century / Nemirovsky Collection, MAM, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2002 Pop Brasil: Folk Art and the folk in the Art, Banco do Brasil Cultural Center, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2002 Brazilian Art in the Fadel Collection: from the restlessness of the modern to the autonomy of language, Banco do Brasil Cultural Center, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
2002 Brazilian Art in the Fadel Collection: from the restlessness of the modern to the autonomy of language, Banco do Brasil Cultural Center, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2000 Brasil + 500 Rediscovery Exhibition Biennial Pavilion, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1999 The Female Figure in the MAB Collection, Museum of Brazilian Art (MAB-FAAP), São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1995 The Heirs of the Night: fragments of the black imaginary, Pinacoteca of the State of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1995 The Heirs of the Night: fragments of the black imaginary, Belo Horizonte Cultural Center, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
1994 Afro-Brazilian Art and Religiosity, Frankfurt, Hessen, Germany
1992 Voices of the Diaspora, Pinacoteca of the State of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1988 The afro-brazilian mother, Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1984 Tradition and Rupture, synthesis of Brazilian art and culture, Biennial Pavillion, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1977 2° World Festival of Black Arts, Lagos, Nigéria
1974 Brazilians and their universe, Funart, Brasília, DF, Brazil
1966 National Biennial of Fine Arts, Our Lady of Carmo Convent, Salvador, BA, Brazil
1966 1° World Festival of Black Arts, Dakar, Senegal
1962 Agnaldo e Alberto Zaluar, Petite Galeria, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
1962 Brazilian Folk Art: yesterday and today, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Estados Unidos
1960 Agnaldo e Marques de Sá, Petite Galeria, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
1959 8° Nacional Salon of Modern Art Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
1958 Monte Serrat, Galeria Forte, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
1956 We and Folk arts, Galeria Oxumaré, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
1956 4° Biennale of São Paulo, Fundação Bienal, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1956 Modern Artist of Bahia, Galeria Oxumaré, Salvador, Bahia
1956 5° Salon Baiano, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
Public Collections:
MAM - Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
AfroBrasil Museum, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Nemirovsky Foundation, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Selected Publications:
2021 Agnaldo Manuel do Santos – the conquest of Modernity, text from Roberto Conduru and Thais Darzé, Almeida e Dale Galeria, São Paulo
2018 Brazilian popular art: contemporary views, WMF Martins Fontes Publisher, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2018 Afro-Atlantic Stories (vol. 1), Assis Chateaubriand Art Museum of São Paulo, MASP, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2012 Janete Costa “Um Olhar”, Janete Costa Museum, Niterói, RJ, Brazil
2012 Samba Session: Afro-Brasilian Art and Film, Arthur Ross Gallery and University of Pennsylvania, USA
2007 Live the Living Culture of the Brazilian People, AfroBrasil Museum, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2002 Pop Brasil: Folk Art and the folk in the Art, Banco do Brasil Cultural Center, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2000 Brasil + 500 Rediscovery Exhibition | Popular Art, Takano Publisher, Brazil
1995 The Heirs of the Night: fragments of the black imaginary: 300 years of Zumbi, Ministry of Culture, Pinacoteca of the State of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1988 The Afro-Brazilian Hand | Meaning of Artistic and Historical Contribution, AfroBrasil Museum, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1988 Agnaldo dos Santos: sculptures. Development Arts Center, Salvador, BA, Brazil
1984 Tradition and Rupture, synthesis of Brazilian art and culture, São Pauli Biennial Foundation, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1983 Agnaldo Manoel dos Santos: origin and revelation of a primitive sculptor, Afro-Asia, Salvador, BA, Brazil
1974 7 Brazilians and their universe | arts crafts origins permanencies, national government publication, Brasília, DF, Brazil
