Kennedy Bahia (Chile 1929, Bahia 2005)
Known nationally and internationally, Kennedy Bahia was one of the pioneers in the expansion of the visual arts in the state and became known for his cheerful, colorful tapestries, as well as for his paintings and prints of beautiful mixed-race women.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Kennedy Bahia, a close friend of the writer Jorge Amado and of the visual artist Carybé, was considered the greatest tapestry artist in Brazil, and his collection Fauna e Flora da Bahia [Fauna and Flora of Bahia], from 1973, was admired by collectors all over the world.
The artist also contributed to spreading Bahian culture, even adopting the name of the state and sharing information about Bahia in every country he traveled to with his works.
Born Patrick Maderos Kennedy Dito in 1929 in Valparaíso, Chile, Kennedy Bahia was a mining engineer in his home country. He first came into contact with the exoticism of Brazilian fauna and flora when he went to work in the Amazon region, first in gold prospecting in the Bolivian jungle and then, already in Brazilian territory, in the upper Tapajós - Amazonas.
While convalescing from malaria, the Chilean engineer began working as a tapestry maker. The impressions of the jungle, however, never left his mind, and his works are characterized by the use of Amazonian fauna and flora. When he moved to Bahia in the 1960s, he also began to include folk motifs from Afro-Bahian culture in his works.
Source: Instituto Internacional de Arte Naif
