Arthur Bispo do Rosario never intended to become an artist. But he’s now recognized as a pioneering force in Latin American art. After experiencing hallucinations at the age of 29, he was checked in to a psychiatric institution where he spent the rest of his life. While there, he heard voices that told him to recreate all existing materials on earth. It’s from this idea that Americas Society drew the name for its exhibition, Bispo do Rosario: All Existing Materials on Earth. In this episode, we hear a conversation with the four curators exploring Bispo’s life, art, influence, and first U.S. solo show.
Arthur Bispo do Rosario never intended to become an artist. But he’s now recognized as a pioneering force in Latin American art. After experiencing hallucinations at the age of 29, he was checked in to a psychiatric institution where he spent the rest of his life. While there, he heard voices that told him to recreate all existing materials on earth. It’s from this idea that Americas Society drew the name for its exhibition, Bispo do Rosario: All Existing Materials on Earth. In this episode, we hear a conversation with the four curators exploring Bispo’s life, art, influence, and first U.S. solo show.
The show is open in New York City at Americas Society through May 20. See images, videos, and a pocket book about the exhibition at: www.as-coa.org/bispo
The music in this podcast was "Sexteto Místico" by Heitor Villa-Lobos, performed at Americas Society. Find out about upcoming concerts at musicoftheamericas.org
The voice of Bispo do Rosario you hear in this episode comes from the documentary O Prisioneiro da Passagem, by Hugo Denizart. You can watch the film on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/8MzFTaOvsCQ
Check out other episodes at: www.as-coa.org/podcast
We’d love your feedback! Write us at latamfocus@as-coa.org with comments, questions, and ideas.
Carin Zissis (00:25):
Hi, this is Carin Zissis with AS/COA Online. He was in a psychiatric hospital for most of his life and never considered himself an artist, nor did he aspire to have his work shown in a museum. Still, Bispo do Rosario is considered one of the greatest influencers of Latin American art in the 20th century. Bispo, an Afro-Brazilian artist believed that the 1000 pieces he produced were a mandate of God that fulfilled a mission to recreate the universe, stemming from hallucinations he had at the age of 29, when he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and then institutionalized.
(01:12):
An Art and America Society exhibition, the first solo show of bebo Rosario in the United States tells the story of the man and his work through a selection of iconic artworks, hand embroidered textiles, mixed-media sculptures, and an “Annunciation Garment, his most famous piece that took a lifetime to produce in which he intended to wear on Judgment Day.
(01:39):
My colleague Luisa Leme spoke with the four curators of the exhibition: Aimé Iglesias Lukin, Ricardo Resende, Javier Téllez, and Tie Jojima. They explained why the Afro-Brazilian artists work so important, how it influenced others and why Bispo do Rosario can make us expand our idea of what art is.
(02:21):
Bispo do Rosario: All Existing Materials on Earth is open in New York City at Americas Society through May 20. If you can’t make it in person, you can learn more and see the artwork by visiting as-coa.org/bispo or check the podcast notes for the link. Thank you for joining us.
Show Opening (02:24):
You are listening to Latin America in Focus
Luisa Leme (02:29):
Latinoamerica in Foco
Speaker 2 (02:38):
América Latina em Foco, a podcast by America Society/Council of the Americas on politics, economics, and culture in the region.
Luisa Leme (02:52):
Arthur Bispo do Rosario was born in Sergipe in the northeast of Brazil, in 1909. He was a strong man, who worked as a volcanizer at Rio de Janeiro's utility Company, as a family servant, he joined the Brazilian Navy, and was even a professional boxer for a while. But one night, when he was 29, everything changed.
Aimé Iglesis Lukin (03:19):
So, Bispo do Rosario's story is that he presented himself at a young age of 29 years old to a church, claiming that he thought he was the new Messiah. That is when he is taken by the police into the mental health institution where he lived on and off for the rest of his life. He hear voices that he felt were telling him to recreate all the existing materials on Earth. That is why we have that title for the show, which is a sentence that he said in interview himself,
Luisa Leme (04:11):
Director and chief curator at Art at America Society, as well as one of the all existing materials of nerve exhibition curators. She explained to me that BI is considered an outsider artist. A term used to refer to people who are either self-taught or the creator their art. In a special context, Bibo made more than a thousand pieces to recreate the universe all while he was at the colonial Juliana Mota psychiatric institution in Rio de Janeiro. He spent 50 years of his life hospitalized, and today the Colonial Juliano Mota houses the museum.
Aimé Iglesis Lukin (04:55):
In order to do that, he collected objects from all over the colonial to categorize them, and he also reproduce objects by recreating them with thread and other materials. And he also represented them in the embroideries that he does in the st, but also in the garments that he creates. This was all part for him of this mission, this mission to catalog the world, and in a way, he was trying to create an encyclopedia to present God with everything that he had created and to show him what was going on earth. So it was a very beautiful I important mission that allowed him to really take upon this [inaudible] and this creative responsibility so seriously. Over so many years,
Luisa Leme (05:54):
When visitors enter the gallery in America society, the first thing to see is be post cloak. The most famous piece in the show. It's embroidered with drawings of boats, vehicles, animals and objects, words. It has tassels, braids, and on the inside one can see owed names all over the garment. It is breathtaking.
Aimé Iglesis Lukin (06:22):
The manto is a key piece in baseball Rosas production because it is a garment that he created to wear on judgment day. He created for himself. He would wear it and he believed that making the manto was a way to be in better connection with God and to be able to be rightly evaluated. At the time of freshman day,
Luisa Leme (06:47):
A curator of the exhibition and of Rio described the clock called by creators the enunciation garment as almost an encyclopedia of be's work.
Ricardo Resende (07:02):
I described Bispo's ouvre as one single work made of 1000 pieces. We recently finished cataloging it, and the cloak is interesting because it is recataloging all of that. The cloak is sort of a Catalogue Raisonne of his ouvre, a comprehensive guide of his body of work.
Luisa Leme (07:23):
Cataloging happens in almost every piece in the exhibition. Nearly all works were embroidered with a reference. I noticed names of countries, Brazilian states and locations, descriptions of objects, occupations, flags and numbers. The curators told me much of the threads used for the embroidery came from hospital gowns be portrayed with the nurses at the colonial. He used sheets from the hospital beds to create his [inaudible] big embroidered fabric pieces where one can see scenes of boats, trains, lists, and patient bodily stains, all in one big story.
(08:22):
Javier Tellez, an Venezuelan artist who is also a creator of the exhibition, told me Beast's artwork always will reference one another as if his reproduction of everything on earth came with a map to be presented to God. Tellez explains that even though Bebo did all that with raw materials, isolated in the cell of a psychiatric hospital, he was not the only one to be producing art as an archive of the world at that time.
Javier Tellez (09:03):
I mean, a lot of the ideas, for instance, of Bispo, relate to contemporary and modern art, you know? You could see, for instance, the idea of cataloging or the idea of creating an archiv, what is being called the archived impulse, is very common practice in the 1960s and even before. I mean you have many artists like Christian Boltanski and Hanne Darboven. They were actually invested on this idea of making lists and making catalogs of things. And this is precisely what Bipo does.
(09:33):
So, this apparently distance between so-called outside and mainstream art, sometimes it's relative because you could see actually that we have the same occupations that other people have.
(09:43):
Tie Jojima:
Tie Jojima (09:46):
A lot of the times when we read about Bispo's works, he's categorized within the outsider art field or institutionalized artists. But I think that one very important thing that Bispo works invite us to do is to rethink about those categories themselves. Because art is something that we decide what art is, and throughout art history artists, especially in the modern times, artists have always been pushing what art is and Bispo's works are really inviting us to think how we define those things. Why do we need to put an adjective before his name saying that he's an outsider art? No, he's an artist. And what is the role of institutions in defining that? We need to also think about our biases. Is it because of racial and class issues that come also within, it's also part of his life and part of his practice? Whereas other artists that also had mental health issues, they are not considered as such because they are, I don't know, European or white or this and that. So I think those are important reminders.
Luisa Leme (11:06):
Jojima, assistant curator at America Society, also told me about business process as a reflection on consumer objects and Brazil's modernization throughout the 20th century.
Tie Jojima (11:26):
He allows us to think about art institutions that were created in this process of modernization, of mental health institutions that were also created as a result of this process, and also the materials themselves. You see combs and cups, and buttons, and sandals, and all of these consumer objects that he was reflecting on, or even for instance, ways of entertainment that are very much part of this modernizing process of the country.
Luisa Leme (11:58):
Bispo influenced many artists. At his time at the Colonial Hospita, he started to receive visits from established artists in Rio, but never wanted to participate in formal art workshops. When one of the main curators and art historians in Brazil encountered his work, it amazed the art circles. But Morais was only able to present a solo show of Bispo do Rosario, after the artist's staff in 1989. Here's Ricardo Resende again:
Ricardo Resende (12:34):
We see this impact on José Leonilson's work, perhaps the best known artist who was influenced. When he sees Bispo's work, in 1990, his own work changes. He starts embroidering, sewing, and using fabrics with more intention. He starts using old rags as canvas on the wall, and he gets this inspiration from Bispo's work.
Aimé Iglesis Lukin (13:16):
He really is an example of allowing us to expand what we think when we think about the art system and to be able to be more inclusive in the type of artist that we present in institutions. Right? It is interesting in that regard that this is an art institution, right? This is an exhibition space, and this also create his production in another type of institution. So institutions are spaces that allow a discourse, but there are also spaces that can limit the way that we think about a discourse with including an artist like Bispo. It allows us to expand that.
Carin Zissis (14:04):
Thanks for listening. I'm your host, Carin Zissis. This episode was produced by our executive producer, Luisa Leme. You can find links to see images, videos, and access a pocketbook about the exhibition "Bispo do Rosario: All Existing Materials on Earth" in the podcast notes. The show's open in New York City at 680 Park Avenue through May 20th.
(14:33):
The music in this podcast was "Sexteto Místico" by Heitor Villa-Lobos, performed at Americas Society. Find out about upcoming concerts at music of the americas.org. We hope you enjoyed this episode. You can help us spread the word: write us a review, give us five stars, or subscribe at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you.
This transcript was exported on May 04, 2023 - view latest version here.