São Paulo exhibition honors Suassuna’s 50-year-old Armorial Movement

A recurring character in the work of Brazilian playwright, professor, painter, and writer Ariano Suassuna (1927–2014), Onça Caetana—or jarguar Caetana—welcomes visitors to exhibition Movimento Armorial 50 Anos, at São Paulo’s Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (CCBB). The exhibition is free of charge and runs until September 26.

A symbol of death, the jaguar was represented in various ways by the writer himself. In one of his illuminated engravings, a technique combines illumination (the decoration of capital letters) with paper embossing. In one of the plates of album Dez Sonetos com Mote Alheio, Suassuna drew jaguar Caetana with a yellow body, red polka dots, and huge wings. This is the form chosen by Minas Gerais puppet makers Agnaldo Pinho, Carla Grossi, Lia Moreira, and Pedro Rolim, who turned it into an enormous and beautiful sculpture on display in CCBB’s entrance hall.

Exibition Movimento Armorial 50 Anos, at CCBB São Paulo, by Rovena Rosa / Agência Brasil

Jaguar Caetana and the illuminated engravings are part of the Armorial Movement, started by Suassuna in 1970 in the city of Recife, Pernambuco state, with the aim of producing Brazilian art linked to the roots of popular culture featuring scholarly and universal elements. The movement has taken several directions: painting, music, theater, dance, and literature, combining literatura de cordel, viola music, woodcuts, maracatu, cavalhada, and reisado.

Curated by Denise Mattar and coordinated by Regina Rosa de Godoy, the exhibition has visited Belo Horizonte and Rio de Janeiro, featuring 140 pieces, some of which had never left Recife, where Suassuna lived most of his life. In addition to Suassuna, there are also works by his wife Zélia Suassuna, Francisco Brennand, Gilvan Samico, Aluísio Braga, and Lourdes Magalhães.

More information on the exhibition can be found on the CCBB website.