I work everything out in my head. I can see it all even with my eyes closed. I think of something, and if it has to be tacked then I start tacking, and then on top of that I stitch all the things that I have in my head. Really, it’s the needles that are doing the drawing.
– Madalena Santos Reinbolt, c. 1974–1975
I Can See It All Even With My Eyes Closed–A Virtual Seminar on the Life and Art of Madalena Santos Reinbolt, a day of talks and presentations held in both English and Portuguese, is the first large-scale program exploring the life, art, influences, and creative processes of Madalena Santos Reinbolt (Vitória da Conquista, Brazil, 1912–1976, Petrópolis, Brazil).
The program will focus on the trajectory of Santos Reinbolt, an Afro-Brazilian painter and embroiderer who migrated in search of employment from rural Northeastern Brazil, where she grew up, to the larger cities of Salvador, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Petrópolis in the second half of the 20th century. She chronicled local landscapes, people, and rituals from both her past and present while witnessing the rapid industrialization of her country in the second half of the 20th century. Looking at Santos Reinbolt’s vibrant depictions of her social, natural, and spiritual environment, speakers will contextualize her practice as an expression of creative freedom and resistance within the complex climate of post-war Brazil.
Organized in conjunction with the exhibition Madalena Santos Reinbolt: A Head Full of Planets, the first retrospective of the artist’s work–first on view at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand in 2022, and currently at the American Folk Art Museum), I Can See It All Even With My Eyes Closed will present new research on this overlooked but important figure of twentieth-century Brazilian art. The virtual seminar will bring together leading scholars, curators, and artists from Brazil and the US to explore modernisms, Latin American arts, textiles, craft, self-taught practices, and the Black diaspora. It will offer a rare opportunity for the audience to situate Santos Reinbolt’s artistic process in a broader historical, geographical, gendered, racial, and socio-economic context while examining the extent of the artist’s practice and singular vision.
The virtual seminar will be divided into two sessions. The first will begin with an introduction by exhibition curator Valérie Rousseau, followed by a panel discussion with Brazilian and American curators and scholars—Amanda Carneiro, André Mesquita, Amanda Reis Tavares Pereira, Mariana Arantes, and Dylan Blau Edelstein—who will present new scholarship on Santos Reinbolt. The second session will feature a conversation between American artist Kesiena Onosigho and American art historian Julia Bryan-Wilson on the politics and aesthetics of textiles, followed by closing remarks from Brazilian historian and anthropologist Lilia Moritz Schwarcz.
The full program will be announced soon; please check back here for further details.
This seminar is organized by Mathilde Walker-Billaud, AFAM Curator of Programs and Engagement
Credits
I Can See It All Even With My Eyes Closed–A Virtual Seminar on the Life and Art of Madalena Santos Reinbolt is co-presented with the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand and Brazil LAB at Princeton University.
The Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand – MASP, the first modern museum in Brazil, is a private, non-profit institution founded in 1947 by Brazilian businessman Assis Chateaubriand. Its building, designed by Lina Bo Bardi, is a landmark of 20th-century architecture. This year, MASP is expanding, transforming into a cultural complex with the most important collection of European art in the Southern Hemisphere. Its curatorial program is diverse, inclusive, and plural, celebrating the history of art.
The Brazil LAB is an original initiative at the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, gathering Princeton faculty and students working in and on Brazil and on subjects Brazil is helpful to think with. The LAB | Luso-Afro-Brazilian Studies | is a multi-disciplinary research and teaching hub for exploring the country’s history, politics and culture, along with its regional significance and international connections.
Accessibility:
This virtual program is free for all to attend. It will be recorded and shared at a later date on our website, Vimeo and YouTube pages.
All sessions feature closed captioning in English, and live interpretation in Portuguese.
For specific accommodation questions or needs, please contact us at least 10 days prior to the program at publicprograms@folkartmuseum.org.
Support
Lead Support for this program is provided by Leo Rabkin Foundation.
Additional support is provided by The Coby Foundation, the Madalena Santos Reinbolt Advisory Committee (Vilma Eid, Luciana Solano, Maria Fernanda Mazzuco), the Consulate-General of Brazil in New York / Instituto Guimarães Rosa, Citi, the Dorothea and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and the David Davies and Jack Weeden Fund for Exhibitions.
Images
Left: Attributed to Pedro Oswaldo Cruz and Cristina Oswaldo Cruz (Brazil), Madalena Santos Reinbolt
- 1974–1975, digital photograph © Lélia Coelho Frota, Mitopoética de 9 artistas brasileiros (Rio de Janeiro: Funarte, 1978)
Right: Madalena Santos Reinbolt, Untitled, 1965–1976, acrylic wool on burlap, 35 x 43 1/4 in. Collection Edmar Pinto Costa, São Paulo, Brazil
Registration
Space is limited; advance registration is required. Please consider making a donation when you register to support ongoing virtual programming.
Instructions for joining with a Zoom link and password will be provided by email upon registration confirmation under “Additional Information.”
