This is the first document specifically about the work of Ronaldo Rego: his objects, wooden sculpture, forged iron, concrete, and installations transport us to the symbolic realm of Candomblé and Umbanda. The Brazilian visual artist was initiated into those rites, which represented a dramatic break with the elitist lifestyle of his conservative, white, Catholic family. His sculpture (which he calls “tableau-objets” [pictorial objects]) expresses a three-dimensional view of “underlined dots” made of forged iron. They are a sort of ideogram drawn on the floor, a direct reference to the cosmogonies of old cults in the Congo, Central Africa, the home base of the “navíos negreros” [slave ships] that brought slavery to Brazil in the sixteenth century. Rego’s work was installed at the Frankfurter Kunstverein [Frankfurt Art Union], as part of the 46e Buchmasse, the Book Fair of 1994.
[As complementary reading, see the following articles in the ICAA digital archive: by Raul Lody, “Coleção Arthur Ramos” (doc. no. 1110525); “Coleção culto afro-Brasileiro: um documento do candomblé na cidade do Salvador” (doc. no. 1110527); “Coleção culto afro-brasileiro: um testemunho do Xangô pernambucano” (doc. no. 1110526); “Dezoito esculturas antropomorfas de orixás” (doc. no. 1110529); “Símbolo do mando” (doc. no. 1110531); “Yorubá: um estudo etno-tecnológico de 50 peças da coleção arte africana do Museu Nacional de Belas-Artes” (doc. no. 1110532). See also the articles by Abelardo Duarte, “Catálogo ilustrado da Coleção Perseverança” (doc. no. 1110522); “Religiosidade africana no Brasil; Arte afro-brasilidade” (doc. no. 1110519); by Maria Lúcia Montes, “Cosmologias e altares” (doc. no. 1110528) and “Geopolítica da mestiçagem” (doc. no. 1111371); by the Museu Histórico Nacional “Para nunca esquecer. Negras memórias. Memórias de negros” (doc. no. 1110530); by Jocélio Teles dos Santos, “Catálogo do Museu Afro Brasileiro” (doc. no. 1110521); by Vagner Gonçalves da Silva, “Arte religiosa afro-brasileira. As múltiplas estéticas da devoção brasileira” (doc. no. 1110520); by Oneyda Alvarenga, “Catálogo ilustrado do Museu Folclórico” (doc. no. 1110523); by Rita Amaral, “A coleção etnográfica de cultura religiosa afro-brasileira do Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia da Universidade de São Paulo” (doc. no. 1110533); and “Candomblé,” by José Medeiros (doc. no. 1110536)].