Arthur Bispo do Rosário (May 14, 1909 or March 16, 1911 – July 5, 1989) was a Brazilian

outsider art Outsider art is Fine art, art made by Autodidacticism, self-taught individuals who are untrained and untutored in the traditional arts with typically little or no contact with the Convention (norm), conventions of the art worlds. The term ''ou ...

ist. Diagnosed with

schizophrenia Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...

, he lived in a psychiatric institution in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

for 50 years, where he created works of art with

found object A found object (a calque from the French ''objet trouvé''), or found art, is art created from undisguised, but often modified, items or products that are not normally considered materials from which art is made, often because they already hav ...

s, as part of a "divine mission". His works gained recognition among art critics when they were first displayed at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

in 1995.

Biography

Born in Japaratuba, in the state of Sergipe, Bispo do Rosário joined the Navy in 1925 and later worked as a boxer and handyman. Between 1933 and 1937, he worked at the

Light Light, visible light, or visible radiation is electromagnetic radiation that can be visual perception, perceived by the human eye. Visible light spans the visible spectrum and is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400– ...

Department of Trams in the city of Rio de Janeiro and as a domestic worker for the Leoni family in the neighborhood of Botafogo. On the night of December 22, 1938, Bispo do Rosário experienced hallucinations that led him to visit his employer, the lawyer Humberto Magalhães Leoni, to whom he said that he would present himself to the

Candelária Church The Candelária Church (, ) is an important historical Roman Catholic church in the city of Rio de Janeiro, in southeastern Brazil. It was built and decorated during a long period, from 1775 to the late 19th century. The church combines a Portu ...

. After wandering the streets of Rio, he eventually headed to the

Mosteiro de São Bento Mosteiro, Portuguese for ''monastery'', may refer to the following places in Portugal: * Mosteiro (Lajes das Flores), a civil parish in the municipality of Lajes das Flores, Azores * Mosteiró (Santa Maria da Feira), a parish in the municipality of ...

, where he announced to a group of monks that he was

Jesus Christ Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

, sent by God to be in charge of judging the living and the dead. Two days later he was arrested by police, recorded as an indigent and committed to the Hospício Pedro II, the first official mental institution in Brazil. A month after his hospitalization, he was transferred to another mental institution, Colônia Juliano Moreira, located in the suburb of

Jacarepaguá Jacarepaguá (), with a land area of , is a neighborhood situated in the West Zone of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In 2010, it had a population of 157,326. The name comes from the indigenous name of the location, "shallow pond of caymans", yakaré (c ...

, under the diagnosis of "schizophrenic-paranoid." Here he received the patient number 01662, and was to remain for over 50 years. During his stay at Colônia Juliano Moreira, Bispo do Rosário began to fashion works of art from different types of materials found around the institution. These works were intended to mark the passing of God on Earth, rather than as art for its own sake: his best known work is the Manto da Presentação (Presentation Cloak), which he intended to wear on the

Day of Judgement The Last Judgment is a concept found across the Abrahamic religions and the '' Frashokereti'' of Zoroastrianism. Christianity considers the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to entail the final judgment by God of all people who have ever lived, res ...

. Bispo do Rosário said of his art "The voices tell me to do this way". Common themes in his work included ships (a recurring theme due to his relationship with the Navy in his youth), banners, and household objects. Bispo do Rosário died on July 5, 1989, at the Colônia Juliano Moreira, after experiencing a heart attack. His work was later discovered and praised by art critics, who classified it as avant-garde and compared it to the ready-mades by

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, ; ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, Futurism and conceptual art. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Pica ...

. His life inspired a short story by psychiatrist and author Daniel Mason entitled ″A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth″ published by Little, Brown and Company in 2020.Personal observation

References

External links

''Raw Vision'', Beate Echols, Issue 47The curators of the Afro-Brazilian artist's first solo exhibition in the United States comment on his influence on art today.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bispo do Rosario, Arthur Outsider artists 20th-century Brazilian male artists Artists with disabilities People with schizophrenia People from Sergipe 20th-century births 1989 deaths Year of birth uncertain Self-taught artists 20th-century Brazilian artists