Brazilian School Of Naive Art

Curious Gouache on paper representing: Geese and GoslingsWork of the artist Isabelle De JesusDated 1971Naïve Art Brazilian School Isabel de Jesus (1938)She was born in 1938, in Capo Verde, Brazil. Initially a novice in a religious community, she became a nurse, then worked as a domestic for several wealthy families. Completely self-taught, she practiced painting alone. In 1964, she was hired by the great Brazilian naïve artist Iracema; she noticed her work, encouraged her, and helped her obtain the recognition that her remarkable work deserved.Isabel de Jesus paints in an intuitive, almost automatic way. Her painting is that of an unknown world, which only the artist has explored, and of which she becomes the ambassador; through her work, she explores the depths of the unconscious, hers and ours. Her work recalls the embroideries she produced before devoting herself to painting: an infinity of meticulous details, a liveliness and density of colors and shapes, interwoven with each other as if they feared not all having the space to appear. Isabel de Jesus' work is the setting for a fantastical bestiary: in Bicharada, they are cats, some of which stare proudly at us. They are enclosed in inextricable meanders of vegetation; it is not always easy to distinguish the animal from the plant, because some leaves seem to blink. A clawed paw appears at the end of a tail, fish slip between the paws, the fur transforms into scales. The enigmatic work of Isabel de Jesus, by turns joyful and disturbing, never ceases to question. Isabel de Jesus (1938)Born in 1938 in Cape Verde, Brazil. She initially wanted to follow a religious vocation, then become a nurse by going to São Paulo. Working with the artist Iracema, she began to take an interest in painting in 1964 and two years later, she held her first solo exhibition at the Galerie Vernon, in Rio de Janeiro. In 1972, she went to France with Iracema, who introduced her to the Parisian art scene, and where she exhibited individually at the Galerie Séraphine. On this occasion, she received a commendation from the world expert in Naïve Art, Anatole Jakowsky. Awarded on several occasions, Isabel de Jesus has held solo exhibitions at the Jean-Jacques Gallery (1985), in Rio de Janeiro and at the Jacques Ardiès Gallery, in São Paulo (1980, 1983, 1989, 1993, 2001, 2014) and has participated in a significant number of group exhibitions in Brazil and abroad. Isabel de Jesus' art is unique. She masters like few others the technique of gouache on paper. At first, she wets the paper and throws the colors to obtain a colored background; then she draws with a fine brush and dark colors her fantastic world, letting herself be guided by her imagination free from any imposition or formal rules. The result is an intimate, spontaneous and inventive art. Her work is cited in several art books, such as that of the well-known art critic Jacob Klintowitz: Masters of Brazilian Drawing (1983) which includes Isabel de Jesus among the 27 most famous Brazilian modernists such as Aldemir Martins, Cícero Dias, Volpi, Di Cavalcanti, among others.