Chico da Silva: Amazônian Legend
Past exhibition
Overview
BANK is proud to present Chico da Silva: Amazônian Legend, the first solo exhibition of this seminal Indigenous Brazilian artist in Asia. This historic show focuses on three of this late, self-taught master’s signature themes— fish, birds, and dragons.
Chico da Silva (also known as Francisco da Silva, 1910-1985) was born to an indigenous Peruvian father and a Brazilian mother and grew up in the Northwestern state of Acre, where his childhood was shaped by the dense Amazonian rainforest as well as the catechizing agendas of the area’s European missions. Following his father’s death by snake bite in 1935, Chico and his mother moved to Fortaleza, where he lived until his death. Here, he started his artistic production by spontaneously drawing and painting on the walls of fishermen’s houses. In the gouaches and paintings shown in this exhibition, da Silva represents the creatures of the forest, such as Amazon birds and fish, as well as the fanciful figures of dragons and spirits. His artworks give form to stories and mythologies from the oral tradition of Northern Brazilian culture in compositions marked by rich kaleidoscopic colors and sharp graphic lines.
After catching the attention of Swiss art critic Jean-Pierre Chabloz, Chico’s work was capitulated into the international art world, facilitating widespread recognition throughout South America and Europe that would culminate with Chico representing Brazil in the 33rd Venice Biennale in 1966 and participating in the 1967 São Paulo Biennial. Chico brought his international success back to his community, where he established a cooperative studio, the Pirambu School, an informal workshop in which local artists and curious neighbors learned Chico’s techniques, worked as paid collaborators, and, with his support, developed their own bodies of work.
Reconsidered today, Chico’s carnivalesque paintings have a prophetic, otherworldly mystique. Both environmental havoc and collective consciousness echo in his graphic representations of the beasts and flora of his native Brazil. The exaggerated extremities of his characters are at once combative and seductive. Elongated claws, tongues, and beaks entangle, entice, and attack, showing nature as the continuous fluctuation of ferocious death and angelic procreation. Wild concentric patterning and other elements connect the surreal aspect of nature to humanity, situating all of life within a broad cosmology of the artist’s own making. His work is also sharply relevant in a world plagued by imminent environmental demise, with these frenzied pictures acting like an uneasy rebuttal of the natural world. As the falling of the Amazon has created global repercussions, the spirits and fauna of Chico’s universe seem to unleash shamanistic prophesies. As the artist once noted, “These worlds that I paint are not memories from the time I was a boy. This is called imagination, occult sciences, astronomy...”
Chico's recent exhibitions include solo shows at Museu de Arte Sacra, São Paulo (2022) and Pinacoteca de São Paulo, São Paulo (2023), David Kordansky Gallery, New York (2023). Public collections of Chico’s work include the Museo del Barrio, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Pinacoteca de São Paulo; and Tate Modern, London, etc.
About the Curator
In 2022 Simon Watson curated 'Chico da Silva: Sacred Connection, Global Vision' for Museu de Arte Sacra de São Paulo, marking the very first Chico da Silva solo exhibition to be mounted in twenty years. Born in Canada and raised in England and the United States, Watson is an independent curator and art advisor based in New York and São Paulo. A veteran of the cultural scene on three continents, Watson has, over the past four decades, curated and organized more than 350 art exhibitions for galleries and museums. Watson's area of curatorial expertise is in spotting visual artists with outstanding potential, many of whom are now seen internationally in the blue chip category and represented by some of the most established galleries in the world.
Chico da Silva (also known as Francisco da Silva, 1910-1985) was born to an indigenous Peruvian father and a Brazilian mother and grew up in the Northwestern state of Acre, where his childhood was shaped by the dense Amazonian rainforest as well as the catechizing agendas of the area’s European missions. Following his father’s death by snake bite in 1935, Chico and his mother moved to Fortaleza, where he lived until his death. Here, he started his artistic production by spontaneously drawing and painting on the walls of fishermen’s houses. In the gouaches and paintings shown in this exhibition, da Silva represents the creatures of the forest, such as Amazon birds and fish, as well as the fanciful figures of dragons and spirits. His artworks give form to stories and mythologies from the oral tradition of Northern Brazilian culture in compositions marked by rich kaleidoscopic colors and sharp graphic lines.
After catching the attention of Swiss art critic Jean-Pierre Chabloz, Chico’s work was capitulated into the international art world, facilitating widespread recognition throughout South America and Europe that would culminate with Chico representing Brazil in the 33rd Venice Biennale in 1966 and participating in the 1967 São Paulo Biennial. Chico brought his international success back to his community, where he established a cooperative studio, the Pirambu School, an informal workshop in which local artists and curious neighbors learned Chico’s techniques, worked as paid collaborators, and, with his support, developed their own bodies of work.
Reconsidered today, Chico’s carnivalesque paintings have a prophetic, otherworldly mystique. Both environmental havoc and collective consciousness echo in his graphic representations of the beasts and flora of his native Brazil. The exaggerated extremities of his characters are at once combative and seductive. Elongated claws, tongues, and beaks entangle, entice, and attack, showing nature as the continuous fluctuation of ferocious death and angelic procreation. Wild concentric patterning and other elements connect the surreal aspect of nature to humanity, situating all of life within a broad cosmology of the artist’s own making. His work is also sharply relevant in a world plagued by imminent environmental demise, with these frenzied pictures acting like an uneasy rebuttal of the natural world. As the falling of the Amazon has created global repercussions, the spirits and fauna of Chico’s universe seem to unleash shamanistic prophesies. As the artist once noted, “These worlds that I paint are not memories from the time I was a boy. This is called imagination, occult sciences, astronomy...”
Chico's recent exhibitions include solo shows at Museu de Arte Sacra, São Paulo (2022) and Pinacoteca de São Paulo, São Paulo (2023), David Kordansky Gallery, New York (2023). Public collections of Chico’s work include the Museo del Barrio, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Pinacoteca de São Paulo; and Tate Modern, London, etc.
About the Curator
In 2022 Simon Watson curated 'Chico da Silva: Sacred Connection, Global Vision' for Museu de Arte Sacra de São Paulo, marking the very first Chico da Silva solo exhibition to be mounted in twenty years. Born in Canada and raised in England and the United States, Watson is an independent curator and art advisor based in New York and São Paulo. A veteran of the cultural scene on three continents, Watson has, over the past four decades, curated and organized more than 350 art exhibitions for galleries and museums. Watson's area of curatorial expertise is in spotting visual artists with outstanding potential, many of whom are now seen internationally in the blue chip category and represented by some of the most established galleries in the world.
Installation Views
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