GREAT NAMES OF NAÏF ART

The MIAN has acknowledge the fact many of the great Brazilian naïf artists, some of them with an extensive curriculum abroad, are not always well enough known by young art. Thus for, MIAN decided to fill out this gap systematically assuring a place to show the art of the GREAT NAMES NAÏF ART, an event consisting of individual exhibits by these artists.

The GREAT NAMES OF NAÏF ART Event first took place in October 1997 when MIAN celebrated two years since its opening to the public. The new idea of promoting and appreciating Brazilian naïf art started with one of the first of our naïf painter still active, Rosina Becker do Valle. The exhibit happened from October 22^nd to December 22^nd 1997, consisting of an actual retrospective where older pictures from her own collection and others belonging to collectors, along with more recent ones with religious motifs, were shown.

The Event's second exhibit depicted the suave and diaphanous colors of Elza O. S. (Elza de Oliveira Souza) from Pernambuco, at the exhibition "An artist of the Soul", from September 23^rd 1999 to January 9^th 2000.

The third artist invited to take part GREAT NAMES OF NAÏF ART event is Waldomiro de Deus (Waldomiro de Jesus Souza) from Bahia. Although he is an artist with an extensive curriculum abroad (he's lived in France, Italy and Israel), he has not lost his profound ties with his Brazilian Northeastern roots Nowadays, he spends time in Osasco, São Paulo and Goiânia, Goiás just to solidify his name as one of the greatest Brazilian naïf artists. He has even become the reason for a book, Os pincéis de Deus, Vida e obra do pintor naïf Waldomiro de Deus (The brushes of God, Life and works of the naïf painter Waldomiro de Deus), written by Oscar D'Ambrosio and published by UNESP.

Waldomiro de Jesus Souza was born in 1944, in the city of Itajibá, hinterlands of Bahia. He was the third son among nine children. He had a tough childhood: food was meager and his father was a drunk and abusive man, spanking his children every time he come home. Waldomiro used to get upset with this situation and tried to get away from that.

Finally, he left home in 1956, at the age of 12, after having a serious argument with his father. Inside his hand bag he carried his first pair of pants and leather boots with rubber sole, which he bought with the small money he earned working in the plantations near his house, Then, Waldomiro hitchhiked to Nanuque, Minas Gerais.

He stayed in Minas Gerais for two years polishing shoes and working in a local bakery. After that, he headed to São Paulo. There he met a guard who offered him shelter in his house in Osasco.

Later, at the age of 17, he got a job working as a gardener at the house of an Italian immigrant. Inside the garage, he found gouache, brushes and cardboard cutouts. Suddenly, he began painting not even knowing the reason why.

Waldomiro was then consumed by a "painting fever" spending night after night holding a brush, trying to depict every bit of a scene he would recall from his childhood. Not chance, his first work depicted a funeral. His boss, in the beginning supportive to his talents, ended up firing Waldomiro. After all, he had hired a gardener, not an artist who would sleep during daytime in order to paint at night.

Despite of the situation, he didn't give up. He gathered all his works and lied them on the sidewalk, at Viaduto do Chá in downtown of São Paulo. Soon, he sold two of his paintings to an American man who was passing by. With the money he got from the sale, Waldomiro found a place spend the night.

His paintings have caused some impact and conquered admirers since the beginning of his career as a naïf artist. This way, he was invited to exhibit his paintings at the First Fair of Typical Brazilian, in Água Branca, in 1962. During this event, Waldomiro met the marquee Terry Della Stuffa who immediately recognized his talents. Della Stuffa acquired tem of Waldomiro's drawings, took him to live in his house and bought him some paint, canvas and brushes.

Soon after, Waldomiro filled out the palace's walls strong, yet naive scenes on his paintings. Della Stuffa was a famous decorator. He would call his friends to meet the birth of a naïf artist, and also to buy his canvas.

One of these Della Stuffa's friends was Mario Schemberg, a physicist and an art critic, who soon became supportive to the young artist. This new friendship helped to expand Waldomiro's career to an international extent: he had exhibits in Paris, Bologna and Eastern Europe.

In Israel, he decided to stay longer, living in a kibbutz for two years. He visited the Holly Land, worked there and painted to a great extent. Also in Israel, Waldomiro believes to have got a call from God, something that pushed him to propagate his faith in a ranch in Goiânia. Brazil, "a special place, with a very positive energy", as he says.

Back to Brazil in 1976, he married Maria de Lourdes, in Osasco, where he had brought all his family from the Northeast. From this marriage, six children were born. All received Hebrew names, homage to the divine revelation he got in Israel.

Around that time, he was already famous for his paintings and also for his irreverent attitude. He had now adopted an artistic name, Waldomiro de Deus. His pictures showing Our Lady wearing mini skirts and Jesus on shorts and also approaching political themes had caught attention for his unique and spontaneous way of painting. He was a man from the poor hinterlands who had conquered the world with his brushes.

 Waldomiro de Deus gets wherever he wants to. That applies to painting, as well as his adventurous life, worthy of a romance. All the difficulties he had to face in life only contributed to assure and strengthen his beliefs, which took him to such an inventive and original art.

The art of Waldomiro de Deus gives us an immediate sensation of facing the power of nature that no one can stop or confine it. This extraordinary artists inflicts his images on us with a serene conviction characteristic to the shinning ones and at the same with the power of a bulldozer.

He was never easily satisfied. Since the beginning of his career as an artist, he claims for his space and shows his ambition. Not being satisfied with his surname, Waldomiro de Jesus (of Jesus) Souza, he changed it from the Holy Son to the Holy Father's name becoming Waldomiro de Deus (of God) Souza, later shortening it to Waldomiro de Deus. One could hardly wish more. In this simple detail we can detect a true ambition in this true artist who always wants more, seeks more and does more.

Waldomiro wants to represent everything in his works and he does it with great honesty. As any other authentic naïf artist, he follows his own impulses dedicating himself to the hardest themes with a unique audacity. He addresses them using a creative freedom and imagination that sees no boundaries.

Waldomiro's art reaches us like turmoil. It's impossible to contemplate it only on its surface; it takes us into the infinitive turnings of its interior, a true endless word. Even the hardest motifs always become beautiful. As beautiful as a tough storm or a justified cholera.

His fertile imagination can be detected in his approach to common facts as well as certain fantasies with unreal characteristics. By the incredible diversity in his work, Waldomiro became a narrator of the daily life, a sociologist ignoring himself . When he approaches a claim, politics or daily facts, his art arises directly form the depths of the people, which he comes from and represents with dignity.

As he lacks from pictorial knowledge, meaning he is a self-taught artist, Waldomiro had to improvise as a painter. As he ignores everything - a true naïf - he needed to reinvent art. Thus, he found the creative blow of an ancestral memory. His ties with art happened naturally. His paintings remind us of the panels made by naïf artists from the Middle Ages (also self-taught sculptors and constructors working in the cathedrals) whit those thick and clear lines, demarcating the contours in his drawings whit spaces of uniform colors.

At first glance, the color explosion and vibrant chromatic effect take our eyes. Then, the solidity of his compositions, the balance of his volumes and, above all, his grandiosity convince us of his immense artistic value, an illuminant of modern times.

Looking at some of his paintings, Waldomiro makes me thing sometimes of those ancient story tellers. The only difference is that, instead of telling a story, he paints it. Some of his works, filled with enclosed emotions, remind me of those naïf paintings, simple and full of faith, the Muslim produce on the walls of their houses after the cult in Mecca.

As any other great naïf artist who ignores almost everything that is academic but owns all the essence of something that cannot be taught, Waldomiro is a prototype of the true naïf painter in a raw condition. A true phenomenon that has surprised us with the amplitude of his artistry for thirty years and never peters out.

A long time pillar of the Brazilian naïf art, Waldomiro de Deus is an artist that have gone beyond the limits of national frontiers belonging to an international group of naïf artists.

Lucien Finkelstein

President-founder of MIAN