Abdias Nascimento: Interpreter of Brazil

Abdias Nascimento (Brazil, 1914–2011) was an artist, playwright, intellectual, and Pan-African activist whose multidisciplinary work across art and politics articulated a sustained vision of a more just Brazil. Interpreter of Brazil is the first US-based survey to comprehensively examine the full range of his work, positioning him as a key figure in modern and contemporary art global narratives. Working first in Brazil through theater and activism, and later in exile in the US—where his painting practice fully flourished—Nascimento developed a visual language rooted in Afro-Brazilian spiritual traditions and expanded through engagement with Pan-African thought and Black diasporic artistic networks. He mobilized painting as a vehicle for cultural affirmation, historical reclamation, and resistance to racial oppression. Interpreter of Brazil traces this trajectory through a broad selection of paintings—many rarely or never before seen in the US—alongside ephemera, photographs, and artworks from his Teatro Experimental do Negro (Black Experimental Theater) and Museu de Arte Negra (Black Art Museum), as well as a depth of archival material. Rosario Güiraldes, Curator, Visual Arts, Walker Art Center; with Elisa Larkin Nascimento, Julio Menezes Silva, and Clícea Miranda, IPEAFRO; curatorial support by Laurel Rand-Lewis, Curatorial Fellow, Visual Arts, Walker Art Center Dr. Molefi Kete Asante, President, Molefi Kete Asante Institute, Philadelphia; Amanda Carneiro, Curator, MASP – Museu de Arte de São Paulo; Keyna Eleison, Director, Bienal das Amazônias, Belém, Brazil; Abigail Lapin Dardashti, Assistant Professor, University of California, Irvine; Marta Moreno Vega, Artist, Filmmaker, Scholar, Puerto Rico and New York For more information about accessibility at the Walker, visit our accessibility page. For questions about accessibility or to request additional accommodations, call 612-375-7564 or email [email protected].