Mestre Didi: Spiritual Form
Organized by El Museo del Barrio, Mestre Didi: Spiritual Form is a landmark monographic exhibition exploring the work of the late Afro-Brazilian sculptor, writer, cultural advocate and spiritual leader Mestre Didi (Salvador, 1917-2013). As the first major U.S. museum exhibition of Didi鈥檚 work in 25 years, the survey unites over 30 of his sculptures and offers a rare view of his far-reaching spiritual and artistic legacy.
Over the course of his career, from the 1960s until the 2010s, Mestre Didi was a visionary emissary for Candombl茅. He was perhaps the first artist to reimagine Candombl茅 ritual objects as artworks in their own right.
El Museo鈥檚 exhibition will foreground Mestre Didi鈥檚 spiritually evocative and formally imaginative sculptures and present new interpretations of his symbolic repertoire. His distinctive artworks combine the traditional materials, shapes, and symbols of the orishas, the Candombl茅 deities, to create a modern sculptural language.
Mestre Didi: Spiritual Form also contextualizes Didi鈥檚 practice by including key works by his artistic peers and by contemporary practitioners. In addition to Mestre Didi, the exhibition includes works by Emanoel Ara煤jo, Jorge dos Anjos, Agnaldo Manoel dos Santos, Aurelino dos Santos, Ayrson Her谩clito, Goya Lopes, Antonio Oloxed锚, Abdias Nascimento, Arlete Soares, N谩dia Taquary, and Rubem Valentim. The influence of these artists鈥� shared interest in African visual languages ranges from 20th century modernisms to the continued innovation of Black diasporic aesthetics today.
The exhibition is accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue featuring contributions from the curators and newly commissioned scholarly essays by art historians Roberto Conduru and Abigail Lapin Dardashti and biographer Joselia Aguiar. It will also include selected reprints of the artist鈥檚 own writings, made available in English for the first time. Mestre Didi: Spiritual Form is curated by Rodrigo Moura, chief curator and guest curator Ayrson Her谩clito with Chlo毛 Courtney, curatorial fellow.
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Organized by El Museo del Barrio, Mestre Didi: Spiritual Form is a landmark monographic exhibition exploring the work of the late Afro-Brazilian sculptor, writer, cultural advocate and spiritual leader Mestre Didi (Salvador, 1917-2013). As the first major U.S. museum exhibition of Didi鈥檚 work in 25 years, the survey unites over 30 of his sculptures and offers a rare view of his far-reaching spiritual and artistic legacy.
Over the course of his career, from the 1960s until the 2010s, Mestre Didi was a visionary emissary for Candombl茅. He was perhaps the first artist to reimagine Candombl茅 ritual objects as artworks in their own right.
El Museo鈥檚 exhibition will foreground Mestre Didi鈥檚 spiritually evocative and formally imaginative sculptures and present new interpretations of his symbolic repertoire. His distinctive artworks combine the traditional materials, shapes, and symbols of the orishas, the Candombl茅 deities, to create a modern sculptural language.
Mestre Didi: Spiritual Form also contextualizes Didi鈥檚 practice by including key works by his artistic peers and by contemporary practitioners. In addition to Mestre Didi, the exhibition includes works by Emanoel Ara煤jo, Jorge dos Anjos, Agnaldo Manoel dos Santos, Aurelino dos Santos, Ayrson Her谩clito, Goya Lopes, Antonio Oloxed锚, Abdias Nascimento, Arlete Soares, N谩dia Taquary, and Rubem Valentim. The influence of these artists鈥� shared interest in African visual languages ranges from 20th century modernisms to the continued innovation of Black diasporic aesthetics today.
The exhibition is accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue featuring contributions from the curators and newly commissioned scholarly essays by art historians Roberto Conduru and Abigail Lapin Dardashti and biographer Joselia Aguiar. It will also include selected reprints of the artist鈥檚 own writings, made available in English for the first time. Mestre Didi: Spiritual Form is curated by Rodrigo Moura, chief curator and guest curator Ayrson Her谩clito with Chlo毛 Courtney, curatorial fellow.
Artists on show
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This spring, it鈥檚 Paris calling. The French capital鈥檚 recent art history is the subject of two monumental surveys鈥攐ne at the Centre Pompidou, the other at the Singaporean National Gallery of Art鈥攖hat respectively focus on Black and Asian 茅migr茅s who took up residence in France.
El Museo del Barrio in New York presents the exhibition 鈥淢estre Didi: Spiritual Form,鈥� which will take place from March 13 to July 13, 2025.
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