MASP Receives Over 10,000 Items from Rubem Valentim Archive in Major Donation

The newly created Instituto Rubem Valentim has donated an archive of more than 10,000 items belonging to the Bahian artist Rubem Valentim (1922-1991) to the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (MASP). The collection, comprising mostly rare or unpublished manuscripts, typescripts, letters, photographs, and drawings, will be stored at the museum's Research Center. MASP previously hosted the exhibition 'Rubem Valentim: Construções Afro-atlânticas' between 2018 and 2019. According to curator Fernando Oliva, the donation fulfills a long-held dream of the artist to consolidate the majority of his personal documents and archives in a single location, making them accessible to researchers from Brazil and worldwide. Oliva notes the material could shed new light on Valentim's work and its relationship with Afro-Brazilian and African art. The artist developed a highly personal language blending elements of Constructivist art with a symbolic universe linked to Candomblé, Umbanda, and Afro-Brazilian culture. He sought, in his own words, 'a universal language, but of a Brazilian character,' without affiliating with any foreign or national artistic movements or currents.