Vicente do Rego Monteiro

Vicente do Rego Monteiro

Recife, Brazil, 1899 – 1970

In 1908, Monteiro began his studies in Rio de Janeiro at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes. He traveled to France in 1911, where he attended the Colarossi, Julien and La Grande Chaumière academies. In 1915, he returned to Rio de Janeiro where he worked as a sculptor.

He held his first solo exhibition in 1918 at the Teatro Santa Isabel in Recife. Two years later exhibited his work in São Paulo, where he became part of Di Cavalcanti, Anita Malfatti, Pedro Alexandrino and Victor Brecheret group. In this same year, he began to take an interest in Brazilian themes. He returned to France, but left behind eight pieces to be exhibited at the Modern Art Week of 1922.

Inspired by indigenous culture and the ceramics of the island of Marajó, he illustrated Louis Duchartre’s books: Légendes, Croyances et Talismans des Indiens de l´Amazone. He brought the exhibition A Escola de Paris to Brazil in 1930, with works by Picasso, Léger, Braque, Macoussis and Lhote. He was the co-founder of the Salon des Surindépendants in 1930, and of the Salon d'Avant Garde in 1940.

He settled in Recife in 1932, and spent alternating periods between Brazil and France until 1950. He taught at the Pernambuco Federal University’s School of Fine Arts and the University of Brasilia. His works were shown at such events as the Mostra do Redescobrimento (Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, 2000), Século 20: Arte do Brasil (Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon), 30 Mestres da Pintura no Brasil (São Paulo Museum of Art, 2001), and Brazil: Body and Soul (Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2001).

Submitted by Dan Galeria