Raimundo Cela (Sobral CE 1890 - Niterói RJ 1954)
Painter, printmaker, teacher.
He graduated in sciences and letters from the Liceu do Ceará. In 1910, he moved to Rio de Janeiro and enrolled as an auditing student at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes - Enba. He studied under Zeferino da Costa (1840 - 1915), Eliseu Visconti (1866 - 1944) and Baptista da Costa (1865 - 1926). During this period, he earned a degree in engineering from the Escola Politécnica. Between 1917 and 1922, he went to Paris to further his training. On returning to Brazil, for health reasons, he lived in Camocim, in the interior of Ceará, and worked as an engineer. In 1938, he created a panel on the abolition of slavery for the State Government Palace in Fortaleza. He returned more decisively to his career as a visual artist after 1940, when he moved to Niterói, in Rio de Janeiro. From then on, he taught intaglio printmaking at Enba. He held his first solo exhibition in 1945, at the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes - MNBA, in Rio de Janeiro. Constant themes in his work are landscapes, popular types and the labor of the cowherds and fishermen of his native region. His graphic work, which takes up the same themes, also stands out. After his death, the Casa Raimundo Cela, Centro de Artes Visuais, was created in Fortaleza, where in 1970 an exhibition of artists from Ceará was held along with the launch of a monograph on the artist. In 2004, the book Raimundo Cela: 1890-1954, by Estrigas, was published by Pinakotheke.
Critical Commentary
Raimundo Cela's work remained isolated, on the margins of modernism and other transformative movements in Brazilian art. It nevertheless reveals the landscape and popular figures of Ceará, with sensitivity and concern for the social issues of his time. Coastal landscapes and the work of cowherds, fishermen and raftsmen, painted with a light, luminous palette, recur throughout his output.
His graphic work also stands out, revealing technical mastery of intaglio printmaking. It addresses the recurring themes of his painting: landscapes, everyday scenes and popular types, using chiaroscuro in a controlled way.
Group Exhibitions
1916 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 23rd General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba - small silver medal
1917 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 24th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba - foreign travel prize
1918 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 25th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1919 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Rio Exhibition of Printmaking and Etching
1922 - Paris (France) - Salon des Artistes Français
1943 - Fortaleza CE - 1st Salão de Abril [April Salon]
1943 - São Paulo SP - 9th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia - small gold medal
1945 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 51st National Salon of Fine Arts, at MNBA - gold medal in painting
1947 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 53rd National Salon of Fine Arts, at MNBA - gold medal in printmaking
Posthumous Exhibitions
1964 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Special Room devoted to his work as a printmaker, at MNBA
1970 - Fortaleza CE - Group show of artists from Ceará, at Casa de Raimundo Cela
1978 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st National Visual Arts Salon, at MNBA
1989 - Fortaleza CE - 19th- and 20th-Century Brazilian Art in Ceará Collections: Paintings and Drawings, at Espaço Cultural da Unifor
1991 - Fortaleza CE - Scap: 50 Years, at Imperial Othon Palace Hotel
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Fine Art Printmaking in Brazil: A Proposal for Mapping, at CCBB
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Rio Printmaking Show. Brazilian Modern Printmaking: Museu Nacional de Belas Artes Collection, at MNBA
2003 - São Paulo SP - Art and Society: A Controversial Relationship, at Itaú Cultural
Source: Itaú Cultural
