This essay examines the life and work of the Afro-Brazilian activist, politician, and artist Abdias do Nascimento in 1968–70, when he lived in New York City. I argue that, in this new space, Nascimento employed painting as both a vehicle...
moreThis essay examines the life and work of the Afro-Brazilian activist, politician, and artist Abdias do Nascimento in 1968–70, when he lived in New York City. I argue that, in this new space, Nascimento employed painting as both a vehicle to address his migratory experience and a tool to continue his anti-racism activism. Engaging with African American art both from the 1930s Harlem Renaissance and the 1960s Black Power movement, Nascimento produced images representing transnational Black solidarity within a cultural space that operated beyond national confines. Ultimately, Nascimento’s work unsettles dominant modes of Brazilian and US representation at the time, employing elements from pop art to interrogate the art world’s exclusion of the Black experience.
