“All World Art Comes from the Black”: Wilson Tibério, Black Artist and Internationalist Activist in the Era of Africa’s Decolonization

Abstract

Drawing from the long-lasting invisibility imposed on twentieth-century Black Brazilian artists, this article explores how Wilson Tibério defied the inherent racism of the Brazilian artistic scene. A Black artist, Tibério was active in Brazil, France, and West Africa during the twentieth century. Relying on scholarship in Portuguese, English, and French, newspapers articles, photographs, and Tibério’s own artistic production, this article shows how he interwove art and anticolonial political activism during the end of European colonial rule in Africa and the rise of the Cold War era. By doing so, this article aims to contribute to the small but growing scholarship on twentieth-century Brazilian Black artists and intellectuals by showing the international anticolonial and antiracist dimensions of their activities. The article also aims to highlight the contribution of Black artists of Rio Grande do Sul, a state that despite its marginal position in the Brazilian national context, also has a long history of international artistic production and Black activism.