A highlight at CASACOR Brasília, Rubem Valentim built a singular language by uniting geometry, spirituality and symbols of Afro-Brazilian culture
Submitted at Oct 28, 2026, 4:00 PM
(Reprodução/Acervo MASP/Divulgação)
Among geometric shapes, intense colors, and references to religions of African origin, Rubem Valentim built an artistic language that transformed ancestry into contemporary expression. Painter, sculptor, and engraver, the Bahian artist with a striking presence at CASACOR Brasília 2026 found in geometry a way to represent symbols, beliefs, and identities that did not always find space in the traditional narratives of Brazilian art.
(Reprodução/Instituto Rubem Valentim/Divulgação)
Born in Salvador, Rubem Valentim (1922–1991) began painting as a self-taught artist in the 1940s. He graduated in dentistry and journalism, but found in the visual arts his main field of creation. He took part in the artistic renewal movement in Bahia, alongside figures such as Mário Cravo Júnior and Carlos Bastos. His career gained international recognition through participation in exhibitions, including the 1962 Venice Biennale and the World Festival of Black Arts, in Dakar, in 1966.
(Reprodução/Instituto Rubem Valentim/Divulgação)
After living in Rio de Janeiro and Rome, he settled in Brasília, in 1967, where he worked as a professor at the University of Brasília. The federal capital played a decisive role in his production: it was there that he expanded his three-dimensional research, developing reliefs, objects, and sculptures that went beyond the limits of painting. The city's architecture and the relationship between art and public space dialogued directly with his investigations.
(Tiago Nunes/Divulgação)
Although his compositions dialogue with concretism and constructivism, Rubem Valentim's art has its own identity. Circles, triangles, arrows, and symmetrical shapes do not appear only as aesthetic devices: many are reinterpretations of symbols linked to Candomblé and Umbanda, such as Xangô's double axe and Oxóssi's bow and arrow.
(Reprodução/Instituto Rubem Valentim/Divulgação)
His color palette, often marked by reds, blues, yellows, and greens, reinforces the visual strength of these compositions. Each emblem functions as a kind of symbolic writing, in which spirituality, memory, and geometric organization coexist. The artist called his search for an authentically Brazilian language “riscadura brasileira,” a concept presented in the Manifesto ainda que tardio, from 1976.
Obras de Rubem Valentim - 35 Bienal de São Paulo (Cristina Bava/Divulgação)
Among his most prominent works is the series Emblems and Poetic Logos of Afro-Brazilian Culture, in which religious signs are rearranged in rigorous compositions, both in paintings and in engravings. These creations synthesize the research that made his style immediately recognizable.
(Reprodução/Bienal de São Paulo/Divulgação)
Another important work is Templo de Oxalá (1977), an installation presented at the 14th São Paulo Biennial, composed of twenty white sculptures and ten reliefs, which brings the exhibition space closer to the idea of a place of contemplation. The color white refers to Oxalá, the orixá that inspires the ensemble. The Marco Sincrético da Cultura Afro-Brasileira (1979), a sculpture installed in Praça da Sé, in São Paulo, takes this symbolic language into the public space.
(Eraldo Fonseca/Divulgação)
In Brasília, he also left his mark with a marble mural created in 1972 for the Novacap headquarters, considered his first public work. The piece highlights how his research dialogued with modern architecture, without abandoning the cultural references that sustained his production.
Rubem Valentim na Mendes Wood - Art Basel Miami 2021. (Divulgação/Divulgação)
Valentim's work broke the false opposition between modern abstraction and popular tradition. By placing Afro-Brazilian culture at the center of a geometric language, he demonstrated that ancestral symbols could also build a contemporary, original, and Brazilian aesthetic.
(Reprodução/Instituto Rubem Valentim/Divulgação)
This dialogue remains relevant to architecture and interior design, especially in projects that value identity, memory, and national art. Works by Rubem Valentim were also present at CASACOR Brasília 2026, bringing his visual repertoire closer to new spaces and audiences. More than ornamenting projects, his creations invite us to look at the stories and meanings that each form can carry.
This text was developed with the assistance of CASACOR Publisher, an exclusive content agent developed by the CASACOR Technology team based on the knowledge base of casacor.com.br. The generated content was subsequently edited by Yeska Coelho.
