Alcides [Alcides Pereira dos Santos]

1932, Rui Barbosa | BA - Brazil

2007, São Paulo | SP - Brazil

Born in Bahia, and when he was 18 years old, in 1950, moved to Mato Grosso, and again to São Paulo in 1992 where he worked until his death in 2007. Coming from an exhausting farm work, he tried his hand at the crafts on shoemaker, barber and stonemason, before taking up painting. Aline Figueiredo says (1977) that in 1951, when he was 19 years old, he “achieved the greatest revelations in his life: religion and painting”.

He was evangelical and believed that art is a gift from God. His painting, consequently, reflects nature’s life-giving properties, with men cultivating the earth and livestock farming, in their mutual relations. The symbolic representation of Alcides is not restricted to man’s use of the divine gifts of the land. Technology and city life must also give praise for the Creation through everyday acts, with not one sign of proselytism or explicit representation of the supernatural. And so he paints the series of the creation of the world in seven days, incorporating bible stories in his work: “And God said: Let there be dry land, let there be grass, trees, and flowers.” And so the serenity of his landscapes of the 1970s remained unchanged in the 1980s and 1990s. But they were accentuated by the graphics and geometry of his work, in which the human being – as in the 1970s – is a small figure in the composition, since the subject of interest is the entire landscape as a macrocreation.

He took part in numerous exhibitions in Brazil, one of the most important Arte popular, Mostra do Redescobrimento, 500 anos, at the São Paulo Biennial Foundation in 2000. His last solo exhibition it was at Galeria Estação, opening in 5th July 2007, some days before his death.  His work is encountered in the collection of the Popular Art Museum of São Francisco Cultural Center, in João Pessoa, capital of Paraíba State, at Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, Paris, France.

Source: Little Dictionary of the Brazilian People’s Art – 20th Century, by anthropologist and poet Lélia Coelho Frota

Individual Exhibitions:

2013 Alcides' poetic machines, Galeria Estação, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2007 Alcides: means of transport and other stories, Galeria Estação, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

1979 Alcides Pereira dos Santos, Museu de Arte e de Cultura Popular, Cuiabá, Mato Grosso

1973 Alcides, Augusto Rodrigues’ studio, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

Collective Exhibitions:

2020 Outsider Art Fair, online, Paris, França

2018 Leda Catunda and Alcides: “Where we are and where are we going to”, Galeria Estação, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2014 Tatu: Football, Adversity and Culture of the Caatinga, Art Museum of Rio - Mar, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

2014 Almost figure, almost shape, Galeria Estação, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2014 Vivid Memories, Foundation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris, France

2014 Portraits of Brazil, Museu de Arte Brasileira (MAP-FAAP), São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2013 Crossed Worlds: Art and Popular Imaginary, MAM, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

2013 Brazilian Customs Snafu, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, USA

2012 - 2013 Janete Costa “A Look”, Janete Costa Museum, Niterói, RJ, Brazil

2012 Stories of Seeing, Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, Paris, France

2010 Pure Mixtures Exhibition, Brazilian Cultures Pavilion, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2010 Brazilian art: Beyond the System, Galeria Estação, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2009 Art Madrid Fair, Pabellón de Cristal, Madrid, Spain

2006 Imaginary Brazil, Galeria Estação, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2006 Wings of the Imaginary, Galeria Brasiliana, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2006 Live Culture Live the Brazilian People, Museu Afro Brasil, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2005 Brazilian, Brazilians, Afro Brasil Museum, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2004-2005 Form, Color and Expression: a collection of Brazilian art, Galeria Estação, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2002 Folk Art of Brazil, Caixa Cultura São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2002 Pop Brazil - Popular Art and the Popular in Art, Banco do Brasil Cultural Center, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2001 Brazil + 500 Rediscovery Exhibition, Mercês Convent, São Luís, MA, Brazil

2000 Brazil + 500 Rediscovery Exhibition, Bienal Pavilion, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

1995 Heirs of the Night, Belo Horizonte Culture Center, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil

1995 Heirs of the Night, Espaço Cultural 508 - Sul, Brasília, DF, Brazil

1994 Heirs of the Night, Pinacoteca do Estado, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

1989 Moments of the Republic of Mato-Grossense Art, Museum of Art and Popular Culture at UFMT Cuiabá, MT, Brazil

1988 Black Sensitivity, Museum of Art and Popular Culture, UFMT, Cuiabá, MT, Brazil

1988 Pantanal references in Painting in Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul, Solar Grandjean de Montigny, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

1988 Pantanal references in painting in Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul, Paço das Artes, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

1987 6th Salon of Fine Arts of Mato Grosso do Sul, Cultural Center - 3rd prize, Campo Grande, MS, Brazil

1985 17º Salon of Contemporary Art of Belo Horizonte, Museu de Arte da Pampulha (MAP), Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais

1985 The mothers and the Flower in the Vision of 33 Painters, Ranulpho Galeria de Arte, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

1983 6th National Salon of Fine Arts, MAM, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

1982 Popular Painting, Brasiliana Gallery, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

1981 Brazil / Cuiabá: Cabocla Painting, Cultural Foundation of Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brazil

1981 Brazil / Cuiabá: Cabocla Painting, MAM, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

1981 Brazil / Cuiabá: Cabocla Painting, MAM, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

1980 Primitives of Mato Grosso, MASP, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

1979 Vision/Art Mato- Grossense, Museu de Arte e de Cultura Popular, Cuiabá, Mato Grosso

1979 36º Paranaense Salon, Teatro Guaíra, Curitiba, PR, Brazil

1979 4º Young Art Salon from Mato-Grossense, Fundação Cultural de Mato Grosso - grand prize, Cuiabá, MT, Brazil

1978 3rd Young Art Salon from Mato-Grossense, Fundação Cultural de Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, MT, Brazil

1978 Mato-Grossense Art, Museum of Art and Popular Culture, UFMT, Cuiabá, MT, Brazil

1978 Iº Latin American Biennial, Biennial Foundation, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

1978 The Circus, Paço das Artes, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

1977 Saints Imaginaries, Paço das Artes, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

1974 Brazil Senegal Contemporary Art Exhibition, MAM, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

1974 Four Artists from Pernambuco in Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brazil

1973 Fransciscana, Ranulpho Gallery, Recife, PE, Brazil

1972 The Creative Spirit of the Brazilian People, Itamaraty Palace, Brasília, DF, Brazil

1972 Salon of Young Artists MAC (3rd Prize), Olinda, PE, Brazil

Public Collections: 

MAM - Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

Afro Brasil Museum, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

Nemirovsky Foundation, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Selected Publications:

2018 Leda Catunda e Alcides: “Where we are and where we are going.”, Galeria Estação, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2014 Almost figure, almost shape, Galeria Estação, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2013 Alcides’ poetic machines, Galeria Estação, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2012 Janete Costa “Um Olhar”, Janete Costa Museum, Niterói, RJ, Brazil

2007 Viva a Cultura Viva do Povo Brasileiro, Afro Brasil Museum, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2007 Alcides: meios de transporte e outras histórias, Galeria Estação, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2005 Brazilian, Brazilians - Afro Brasil Museum, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2002 POP Brazil | Popular art and popular in the art, Banco do Brasil Cultural Center, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2000 Rediscovery Exhibition - Brazil 500 years | Popular Art, Takano Editora, Brazil

1995 Os Herdeiros da Noite: fragments of the black imaginary: 300 years of Zumbi, Ministry of Culture, Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

1984 Tradition and Rupture, synthesis of Brazilian art and culture, Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

1974 7 Brasileiros e seu universo | artes ofícios origens permanências, national government publication, Brasília, DF, Brazil