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/José Leonilson

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Introduction:
José Leonilson Bezerra Dias (b.1957 Fortaleza, Ceará  - d.1993 São Paulo, São Paulo), was a Brazilian artist working in both 2D as a painter and draughtsman and in 3D as textile worker and sculptor. He lived most of his life in Brazil where he created conceptual artworks focused on expressions of love and grief specifically from a queer-lens. Leonilson was diagnosed with HIV (AIDS) at the age of 34, and he died a few years later due to complications.

Career:
In 1961 Leonilson moved with his family to São Paulo, Brazil where he later started studying art education at Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado in 1977. While there, Leonilson studied under multiple artists and instructors who were fundamental to his introduction to contemporary forms of artwork. Julio Plaza (1938-2003) was an artist and scholar who focused on working in new mediums and the theory and concepts behind connecting them to the traditional forms. Additionally Leonilson studied under Nelson Leirner (1932-2020) who influenced him through his use of allegorical (and sometimes also erotic) artworks focused on political and social criticisms. Later, Leonilson studied under Dudi Maia Rosa (1946) at the Aster Art School where, again, the use of materials beyond paint and sculpture were emphasized in their importance in expressing universal themes through an alternative mode.

Leonilson briefly traveled in Europe, and in the early 1980’s he interacted with Transavantgarde – a form of neo-expressionism, originally from a group in Italy, that had a completely different focus than the conceptual art movement at that time in Brazil.

Leonilson returned to Brazil in 1982 where he continued creating artwork that was predominantly autobiographical of his adult life and experiences as a queer man. It had been recognized by many art critics at the time, such as Lisette Lagnado, that his artworks were so “raw” and “revealing” that they were almost like an “intimate letters in his diary”. The impact of his artwork was deeply felt as it became increasingly counter-cultural to Brazil’s military dictatorship and anti-LGBTQ+ Catholic teachings.

In 1989 Leonilson began including sewing in his artistic repertoire, much of which was nostalgic for him as his parents worked as cloth merchants. This shift to fabric use was also inspired by previous artists like Hélio Oiticica’s in their artwork Parangolé. This shift in his artwork style was reinforced in 1991 when he was diagnosed with HIV (AIDS). Physical complications affected his ability to continue painting and he fully turned his attention to different mediums such as textiles and embroidery. From this, Leonilson continued to produce art that spoke to his lived experiences –  with a famous 1993 installation conceived for Capela do Morumbi in São Paulo that spoke to the universal theme of life and its fragility and ephemerality. His artworks created during these last few years clearly spoke to the issues he faced as a queer man living with HIV: “beyond the evidence of his ailment, the marks of his resistance against the anguish of death”. This turmoil and grief was brought to life through Leonilson’s final artworks during this period.

Leonilson died of complications from HIV on March 28, 1993, in São Paulo. He was posthumously awarded in 1994 by the São Paulo Association of Art Critics for his artworks and contributions. Much of his artwork was recognized for its historical importance in chronicling and depicting the AIDs epidemic by museums and collections in the years following his death.

O Penelope (The Penelope), 1993, mixed fabrics, 222 x 83 cm, Tate Modern, London (Link to artwork)
Paradoxical as embroidery was a traditionally feminine and time-intensive medium (as he was a man who was close to death)

Following the tradition of feminist art of the 70's in resurrecting "domestic and feminine processes as aesthetic strategies for managing issues of mortality"

[Insert Physical Description]

[Insert Greek Mythology]

Looking at the original Portuguese title, O Penelope, Leonilson has deliberately combined the masculine article "O" with the feminine noun/name "Penelope". This subversion of gendered language and norms was a common motif in his artworks both to remove gender from the artform of needlework itself and to make social commentary of male/female distinctions (the gender-binary).

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34 with Scars, 1993, acrylic, embroidery thread, and plastic tacks on voile, 16 1/8 x 12 3/16" (41 x 31 cm), Museum of Modern Art, New York (Link to artwork) ====== [Insert Physical Description]

"As overtly portrayed in such works as Filho bastrado II, Varejäo treats the art surface as body-flesh, on which incisions, wounds and scars are rendered conspicuously visible. These open manifestations of personal disfigurement are reminiscent of Leonilson's self-portraits of stitched scars on cloth-such as 34 con scars of 1991-which served as allegorical representations of a diseased body, ravaged by AIDS and discriminated against by society. By exposing the inner body, both Leonilson and Varejäo lay bare the damages caused by private and public inequities"

Small, Irene V. "Close-Up: Negative Capability: Irene V. Small on Leonilson’s Ninguém, 1992.", Artforum International Vol.59 Iss. 5, March 2021.

Tafelski, Tanner. "Flouting Realism, Brazil’s LGBTQ Directors Establish an Exciting New Wave." The Village Voice, 25 July, 2018

Artworks and Exhibitions:
==== Artworks in the Museum of Modern Art Collection, New York: ==== -      The Japanese Woman, 1988, acrylic on canvas, 41 5/16 x 61" (105 x 155 cm)

-      Desire is a Blue Lake, 1989, watercolor and ink on paper, 12 1/2 x 9 3/8" (31.9 x 24 cm)

-      Men With Their Own Attentions, 1989, watercolor and ink on paper, 12 1/2 x 9 3/8" (32 x 24 cm)

-      To Make Your Soul Close to Me, 1989, watercolor and ink on paper, 12 1/2 x 9 3/8" (31.9 x 23.9 cm)

-      Sunset, Earthquake, Loneliness, 1990, ink and metallic color on paper, 11 7/8 x 8 7/8" (30.4 x 22.7 cm)

-      34 with Scars, 1991, acrylic, embroidery thread, and plastic tacks on voile, 16 1/8 x 12 3/16" (41 x 31 cm)

-      I Am Your Man, 1992, watercolor and ink on paper, 9 x 12" (22.8 x 30.5 cm)

Exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York:
-      1996 – “Projects 53: Oliver Herring/Leonilson” – (January 18 – March 12)

-      2004 –  “El Museo del Barrio” – (March 4 – July 25)

-      2006 – “Transforming Chronologies: An Atlas of Drawing, Part Two” – (May 10- October 2)

-      2008 – “New Perspectives in Latin American Art” – (November 21 – February 25)

-      2008-2009 – “Here Is Everything. Four Decades of Contemporary Art” – (September 10 – March 23)

-      2010-2011 – “Contemporary Art from the Collection” – (June 30 – Sep 19)

-      2011 – “I Am Still Alive: Politics and Everyday Life in Contemporary Drawing” – (March 23 – September 19)

Category:Brazil Category:Queer artists