Rubem Valentim De Oliveira

Place: Salvador

Born: 1922

Death: 1991

Biography:

Rubem Valentim de Oliveira was born in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil in 1922. He was a self-taught artist who started painting as a child. Valentim graduated in dentistry in 1946 and practiced the profession while continuing to paint. In 1948, he left dentistry to devote himself entirely to plastic arts. He studied Journalism and received his bachelor's degree from the School of Philosophy of Bahia in 1953. Valentim participated in the renovative movement in the arts, which began in Bahia in 1978-1948. He moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1957 and was awarded a fellowship for travel abroad in 1962 by the XI National Salon of Modern Art. He traveled to Europe for 3 years, expressing an interest in the art of primitive peoples. He eventually settled in Rome, working and holding exhibitions there. He visited the Venice Biennials of 1964 and 1966. He traveled to Senegal to participate in the First World Festival of Negro Art in Dakar, Senegal in 1966. He returned to Brazil in 1966, after accepting an invitation from the Central Institute of the Arts of the University of Brasilia. He was awarded a Special Prize for 'Contribution to Brazilian Painting'. Valentim's contributions to the art world as writer and essayist are documented in the archives of research institutes and museum libraries across the Americas. He authored and published the Manifesto ainda que tardio (“Manifesto, albeit belated“) in 1976. In the text, he proposes an anticolonial agenda in the arts. His work has received scholarly attention both in Brazil and abroad. In 2018, the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) organized a major career survey showcasing 99 artworks by Valentim, who is a key figure in the 20th-century Brazilian art. Valentim died in 1991.