Bispo do Rosário News
Bispo do Rosário: All Existing Materials on Earth, the first U.S. solo exhibition of the genius outsider artist; is at Americas Society in the Upper East Side; from Wednesday, January 25 – May 20, 2023. FREE! as-coa.org 🇧🇷
Bispo do Rosário Was a Genius Brazilian Outsider Artist
Bispo do Rosario (1909-1989) was a Brazilian outsider artist.
Today, the first thing most art collectors ask is where the artist studied. Outsider art (Art Brut or folk art) is made by self-taught artists who did not come up through the art industrial complex. Children are natural outsider artists. Some of the best outsider artists worked in mental institutions.
After being diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1938, Bispo lived in a Rio de Janeiro psychiatric institution for 50 years.
There he made art from found objects and his own divine inspiration, or the voices in his head. People make similar folk art all over the world. But Bispo had a particular genius. He planned to wear his Manto da apresentaçao garment on Judgement Day.
When Bispo’s work was shown at the 1995 Venice Biennale, critics said he was ahead of his time and compared his art to the Marcel Duchamp readymades such as the iconic “Fountain” (R. Mutt, 1917).
Americas Society understands that you can’t look at American art the same way you look at European art. It’s created from entirely different world views, but art is art.
Notable Works
Manto da apresentação (Judgment Day garment), ca. 1943.
