An profusely embroidered garment known as the mantle, or “Annunciation Garment”, stands in the middle of the first hall of the Society of the Americas exhibit Bispo do Rosario: all the existing materials on Earth. The manto, which the artist wore, is sewn with intricate patterns, images and names of women. With the manto and other wearable textiles, documentary photographs of the artist and his hospital records, the exhibition places Arthur Bispo do Rosario (1909-1989) at the center of a world in which the viewer is on the point to enter.
This solo presentation is the artist’s first in the United States and the third exhibition by an artist of African descent at the Americas Society in New York. Arthur Bispo do Rosario was born in the early 1900s in Japaratuba, Brazil. He was an apprentice sailor in the Brazilian Navy, where he became a signaller, and later was also a boxer and servant to a wealthy family. In 1938 he had a vision that he was Jesus Christ. He believed he had received a mandate from God to replicate the entire world in preparation for the Last Judgment. Subsequently, Bispo was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and was committed to Colonia Juliano Moreira in Rio de Janeiro, an institution for the mentally ill where he spent the rest of his life. Since settling, he has created over 1,000 works of art, including embroidered textiles and sculptures, 71 of which are featured in this exhibit alongside a plethora of found objects.
“Three times marginalized as a poor African descendant with mental illness, Bispo do Rosario, like many other visionary artists, felt the need to reorganize the world and create his own artistic language after experiencing an epiphany that changed his life.” -curator Javier Téllez said Hyperallergic in an interview. “The obsessive creation of textile works and the accumulation of objects led him from chaos to order and helped him survive the harsh conditions of the mental institution.”
Embodying this mandate are the standards, or embroidered hanging banners. Their surfaces are filled with images related to Bispo’s life, including battleships, a detailed map of the country of Brazil, hospital buildings, and various national flags. To create these objects, Bispo used materials available to him, including sheets and yarn he obtained by unraveling hospital uniforms. A heavy consumer of newspapers, he combined this knowledge with his personal memories, such as the names of other people he met in the establishment. The density of names on the surface of the banner approximates the cold anonymity of the institutional ledger, a system that would have been familiar to him from the Navy as well as the hospital. While the standards have a pseudo-encyclopedic function, they also document Bispo’s particular time and place, and emphasize the specificity of his personal history, marking his presence in the world erased by institutionalization.
Other small sculptures wrapped in faded blue thread reproduce everyday objects such as scissors, a hammer and chess pieces. He also created miniatures and showcases, array-like groupings of everyday objects such as spoons, combs, and Brazilian Havaianas. The close arrangement of these works and the half-painted walls of the exhibition, similar to those of a psychiatric hospital, simulate the way Bispo arranged these objects in his cell.
Bispo’s incredibly intricate and painstakingly crafted works encode the oppressive languages of the institution in which he was held, while emphasizing his personal story. Although they evoke the idea of a universal and all-encompassing taxonomy, they also cannot be considered separately from Bispo’s spiritual mission. This exhibition is a rare opportunity, not only to see Bispo’s works outside of Brazil, but also to access his various forms of expression and better understand the vision that motivated him throughout his life.
Bispo do Rosario: all the existing materials on Earth continues at the Americas Society (680 Park Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan) through May 20. The exhibition was co-organized by Aimé Iglesias Lukin, Ricardo Resende and Javier Téllez, with Tie Jojima.
