Rubem Valentim's Afro-Brazilian Abstraction at MAM Rio

Curators Raquel Barreto and Phelipe Rezende discuss the exhibition 'Rubem Valentim: a ordem do sensível' at Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio de Janeiro, on view until 2 August 2026. The show traces Valentim's four-decade career across Salvador, Rio, Rome, and Brasília, highlighting his geometric abstraction rooted in Afro-Brazilian cosmologies, Candomblé, and Umbanda. Valentim rejected labels like 'concrete' or 'constructivist,' instead developing a unique visual language synthesizing African and Indigenous traditions with universal modernist concerns. The exhibition design uses color palettes and sparse hanging to evoke his 'sensitive order.' A centerpiece is 'Templo de Oxalá,' a sculptural installation first shown at the 14th São Paulo Biennial in 1977. Barreto and Rezende aim to counter reductive readings of Black artists as folkloric, presenting Valentim as a central figure in Brazilian modernism through his own theoretical propositions, including his 1976 Manifesto.