Jorge Selarón (1947 – January 10, 2013) was a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

and

ceramist Ceramic art is art made from ceramic materials, including clay. It may take varied forms, including artistic pottery, including tableware, tiles, figurines and other sculpture. As one of the plastic arts, ceramic art is a visual art. While ...

. He is perhaps best known for his work on the

Escadaria Selarón Escadaria Selarón, locally known as the 'Lapa Steps' (Escadaria da Lapa) for being situated at the "Lapa" neighborhood, is a set of world-famous steps in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. They are the work of Chilean-born artist Jorge Selarón who clai ...

, a world-famous set of

ceramic tile Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, walls, edges, or ot ...

-covered stairs located in the

Lapa Lapa may refer to: People * Bruno Lapa (born 1997), a Brazilian football player * Fernanda Lapa (1943–2020), a Portuguese actress * Serhiy Lapa (born 1992), a Ukrainian football player Places * Lapa, Paraná, a town near Curitiba, in the sta ...

and Santa Teresa neighborhoods of

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 ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Biography

Selarón moved to the Lapa neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro in the 1980s, settling in a house next to the stairs. In 1990, he began decorating the 215 stairs leading up to the Convent of Santa Teresa with ceramic tiles. His artistic transformation of the stairs, using tiles and

porcelain Porcelain (), also called china, is a ceramic material made by heating Industrial mineral, raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The greater strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to oth ...

donated by friends and supporters, took twenty years to complete. His stairs, which were declared a city landmark in 2005, were featured in Rio de Janeiro's bid for the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

. Jorge Selarón was found dead on the Escadaria Selarón near his home on January 10, 2013, at the age of 65. His body was found burned on the aforementioned stairs in question. Later in 2013, police has said the main line of investigation was suicide, considering allegations from friends that he was depressed.

References

1947 births 2013 deaths Artists from Rio de Janeiro (city) Brazilian ceramists Brazilian painters Chilean emigrants to Brazil People from Quillota Province {{Brazil-painter-stub 2013 suicides Suicides by self-immolation