José Bernardo Cardoso Junior [ Cardosinho ]

1861, Coimbra - Portugal | 1947, Rio de Janeiro - RJ - Brazil

José Bernardo Cardoso Júnior, known as Cardosinho, was born in Coimbra, Portugal, in 1861. He arrived in Rio de Janeiro at the age of three, aboard a ship that sank during the journey, resulting in the deaths of his mother and two of his siblings. Cardosinho began painting around the age of 70, in the early 1930s, after retiring from a career of over four decades in education.

Between the ages of 14 and 16, Cardosinho studied at the Seminário São José, a traditional institution for theological and philosophical training in Rio de Janeiro. His studies continued at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy, where he likely studied between 1877 and the middle of the following decade, eventually earning a degree in philosophy. Upon returning to Brazil, and having distanced himself from ecclesiastical activities, Cardosinho began teaching Latin, Portuguese, and French at the Ateneu Mineiro in Juiz de Fora. In 1888, he became the inspector of the State Primary Education Headquarters of Rio de Janeiro, a position he held for 30 years. Later he also taught at the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios in Rio de Janeiro, among other institutions.

Cardosinho was, therefore, a man of great culture, also the author of three novels (including Almas Satânicas) and a book of poetry (Ideias e Telas). When he took up painting, his approach was self-taught, driven by a desire to practice constructing images based on engravings and photographs from books, newspapers, magazines, and postcards. As a result, some of his works exhibit a collage-like quality, where figures, objects, and spaces are combined in a seemingly disjointed manner, with variations in scale, source material, or execution. For example, in one painting, the figure of a bather, apparently drawn from an almanac illustration, is depicted seated on a rock in a landscape rendered with a strikingly realistic objectivity.

Cardosinho’s painting career spanned from 1931 to 1947. Though long classified as naïve, his work garnered enthusiastic recognition from numerous artists and intellectuals within Brazil’s modernist circles, including art critics Celso Kelly and Rubem Navarra, painter Candido Portinari, and writers Mário de Andrade and Rubem Braga. The Argentine art critic Jorge Romero Brest also commented on Cardosinho’s work, particularly on the blend of “childlike innocence” and eroticism in his paintings, as part of a broader analysis of Brazilian art in the first half of the 20th century. This analysis was published in the catalog for the 20 Artistas Brasileños exhibition at the La Plata Museum of Fine Arts in Argentina in 1945.

One of Cardosinho's paintings, titled Elas se Divertem (c. 1935-40), became part of the Tate Modern collection in England after being featured in a 1944 charity exhibition of "Brazilian Modern Painting" in London, organized by the British Royal Air Force during World War II (1939-1945). Additionally, his works are held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro (MAM-Rio), which houses the Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, and the Institute of Brazilian Studies at the University of São Paulo (IEB-USP), home to the Mário de Andrade Collection

Degrees

1885 Pontificial Gregorian University (Philosophy), Roma, Italy

Collective Exhibitions:

2024 Metamorphoses e Distances, Galeria Estação, São Paulo - SP, Brazil

2019 Lincoln Kirstein`s Modern, MoMA - The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

2018 Horizons – Landscapes in the Collections, MAM/RJ - Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro – RJ, Brazil

2016 Intergazing: Poems from the Brazilian Soul, Museu Afro Brasil Emanoel Araujo, São Paulo - SP, Brazil

2016/1969 The Hand of the Brazilian People, MASP - Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, São Paulo - SP, Brazil

2013 The Collector: brazilian and international art in Boghici Collection, MAR - Museu de Arte do Rio, Rio de Janeiro - RJ, Brazil

2011 Naïve Art: with sugar and affection, Araraquara - SP, Brazil

2011 Naïve Art: with sugar and affection, no MACC - Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Campinas, Campinas - SP, Brazil

2004 Brazilian Naïve - special room “Mistura fina: a arte da necessidade” - Sesc Piracicaba - SP, Brazil

2003 Brazilian Art in the Fadel Collection: from the restlessness of modernity to the autonomy of language, CCBB - Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Brasília - DF, Brazil. 

2002 Pop Brazil: Popular Art is the Popular in Art, CCBB - Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, São Paulo - SP, Brazil

2002 Brazilian Art in the Fadel Collection: from the restlessness of modernity to the autonomy of language, CCBB - Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro - RJ, Brazil

2002 Brazilian Art in the Fadel Collection: from the restlessness of modernity to the autonomy of language, CCBB - Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, São Paulo - SP, Brazil

2000 When Brazil was Modern: Visual Arts in Rio de Janeiro from 1905 to 1960, Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro - RJ, Brazil

1995 Coleção Unibanco: commemorative exhibition for Unibanco's 70th Anniversary, MAM/RJ - Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro - RJ, Brazil

1994 Coleção Unibanco: commemorative exhibition for Unibanco's 70th Anniversary, Casa da Cultura de Poços de Caldas - MG, Brazil

1993  “Mário faz 100 Anos: 100 obras primas da Coleção Mário de Andrade: pintura e escultura”, IEB/USP - Instituto de Estudos Brasileiros, São Paulo – SP, Brazil

1993 Brazil: 100 yars of Modern Art, MNBA - Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Rio de Janeiro - RJ, Rio de Janeiro – RJ, Brazil

1992  Brazilian Modern Art: works by 51 Brazilian Visual Artists, Instituto Moreira Salles de Poços de Caldas - MG, Brazil

1992  Nature: Four Centuries of Art in Brazil, CCBB - Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro – RJ, Brazil

1987, Galeria de Arte Banerj, Rio de Janeiro – RJ, Brazil

1984 – 1985 Tradition and Ruptures: Syntheses of Brazilian Art and Cultures, Fundação Bienal de São Paulo – SP, Brazil

1984  7º Salão Nacional de Artes Plásticas em Fortaleza – CE, Brazil

1984  Salão de 31, Funarte, Rio de Janeiro – RJ, Brazil

1982  Brazil 60 years of Modern Art: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, CAM - Centro de Arte Moderna José de Azeredo Perdigão, Lisboa, Portugal

1982  Brazil 60 years of Modern Art: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, Barbican Art Gallery, London, UK

1975  Exhibition Series of Contemporary Brazilian Painting by SPAM and CAM, Museu Lasar Segall, São Paulo – SP, Brazil

1972  “Naïve Painting: A selection from the Museum Collection”, MoMA - The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

1971  “Ways of looking”, MoMA - The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

1960  Pan American Union, Washington, D.C. USA

1945 Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, Victory Art Gallery, Bath, UK

1945 Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery, Bristol, UK

1945 Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, UK

1945 Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, National Gallery, Edimburgh, UK

1945 Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, Kelingrove Art Gallery, Glasgow, UK

1945 “20 artistas brasileños", Salas Nacionais de Exposições de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina

1945 “20 artistas brasileños”, Museu Provincial de Belas Artes de La Plata, La Plata, Argentina

1945  “20 artistas brasileños”, Comissão Municipal de Cultura de Montevidéu, Montevidéu, Uruguay

1945  “Mostra de la pintura brasileña contemporanea”, Buenos Aires, Argentina

1945  “Mostra de la pintura brasileña contemporanea”, La Plata, Argentina

1944 Exhibition of modern brazilian paintings, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK

1944 Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, Norwich Castle and Museum, Norwich, UK

1943 The Latim-American Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, MoMA - The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

1936 Palace Hotel, Rio de Janeiro – RJ, Brazil

1933 2ª Exposição de Arte Moderna da Sociedade Pró-Arte Moderna (SPAM), Palacete Campinas, São Paulo – SP, Brazil

1931 XXXVIII Exposição Geral de Belas Artes, Escola Nacional de Belas Artes, Rio de Janeiro – RJ, Brazil

Public Collections

MoMA - The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

Tate Modern, Londres, Inglaterra

MAM/RJ - Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro – RJ, Brazil

Selected Publications

1953 Três Primitivos, Rubem Braga, Ministério da Educação e Cultura, Rio de Janeiro – RJ, Brazil

1975 Mitopoética de 9 artistas brasileiros, Lélia Coelho Frota, Rio de Janeiro – RJ, Brazil