Rubem Valentim and the Constitution of a ‘Signographic’ Language - Selected Texts & Press

Aug 29, 2026

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A critical text examines how Rubem Valentim constructed a “signographic” visual language rooted in Afro-Brazilian mysticism, lived Bahia culture, and a personal alphabet of sign-symbols. It traces the 1960s development of signograms centered on Oxalá’s sacred symbolism, linking objects, orishas, and Candomblé traditions to a broader poetics of geometry, transcendence, and cultural intersection. The essay also highlights public-space works and three-dimensional totems as an invitation to read his oeuvre as a coherent visual text.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

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Pages20

Reading Time31 min

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RUBEM VALENTIM AND THE CONSTITUTION OF A ‘SIGNOGRAPHIC’ LANGUAGE

Sign-symbols and the foundations of a signographic alphabet

Geometry, transcendence, and the absence of a single artistic movement

Public-space works and the shift toward reliefs and altar-objects

Visual theology and the reading of an exhibition as a “sentence”

Selected Press and Texts Rubem Valentim Mendes Wood DM Rubem Valentim Selected Texts & Press RUBEM VALENTIM AND THE CONSTITUTION OF A ‘SIGNOGRAPHIC’ LANGUAGE Text by Marilia Panitz My plastic-visual-signographic language is linked to the profound mystic values of Afro-Brazilian culture (mestizo-animist-fetishist). With the weight of Bahia on my shoulders —a lived culture; with Black blood coursing through my veins —atavism; with eyes wide open, observing what happens in the world—the contemporary; creating my sign-symbols, I seek to turn an enchanted, magic, mystical world that continuously flows inside me into a visual language. The substrate comes from the earth (…) Plastic-verbal-visual-sound language. Multi-sensorial language. The Brazilian feel. Rubem Valentim, Manifesto ainda que Tardio, 1976 In the 1960s, Rubem Valentim set up the basis for his ‘signograms’: an alphabet made of fifteen sign-symbols centered on Oxalá’s holy grail, which contains the key to the artist’s poetics. It consists of a symbolism founded on objects used by orishas, Candomblé entities, such as‘abebês [hand fans with Oxum and Iemanjá mirrors], paxorós [Oxalá’s cane], oxés [Xangô’saxe], and ofás [Oxóssi’s arch] ...’ The discipline of the invention reflects a desire to establish a‘Brazilian line-marking’ [in Portuguese riscadura]: a term Valentim uses in his manifesto to replace the widely-used Anglicized word ‘design’, and that is essential to understanding his body of work. The artist began his career under the blessings of Lady Mother from terreiro [Candomblé house] Axé Opô Afonjá, where he played an active role as obá . Brazilian popular culture was the basis of his poetics. However, geometry was the foundation of his aesthetic choices. It was in the pendulum of rationalization and transcendence (he used to say that his geometry was of a sensible nature) that Valentim developed his work: between the study of constructive modernity and tradition passed on from generation to generation via people’s knowledge. Therefore, there is no single movement that can be attached to Valentim’s production. He navigated his time experimenting with what was on offer but, at the same time, he remained faithful to his theme, his vocabulary, his personal alphabet. From a mystical point of view, drawing on his African heritage, he investigated several schools of transcendental thought around the world to come up with a structural intersection that fed his primordial source as a language that crossed cultures. His career led him to leave Bahia for Rio de Janeiro, which was a necessary step for artists of his generation. He then lived in Italy, place of the great renaissance artists. From there, he moved to Brasília—the modernist city—that absorbed and nurtured his work. His desire was to occupy the public space1 (...’my art seeks the Space: the street, the road, the square— architectural-urban complexes. I’m still for the synthesis in art: the path to the humanization of communities”) . However, the open-air museum-city almost did not benefit from such possibility. There are, of course, two large-scale works. One was produced shortly after his arrival: the mural at the Novacap building (the company charged with the city’s construction); and the second, a large relief mural, white on white, at Palácio do Itamaraty [Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs], which is part of his Oxalá Temple, created for the 16th São Paulo Biennial (however, the installation with totems was only set up once, in the 1990s, by artist, curator and researcher Bené Fonteles, Valentim’s friend and one of the greatest proponents of his work) . Another example of a major occupation of public space is located at Praça da Sé, in São Paulo: an enormous reinforced-concrete totem titled Marco Sincrético da Cultura Afro-Brasileira [Syncretic Landmark of Afro-Brazilian Culture] that was incorporated into Rubem Valentim Selected Texts & Press RUBEM VALENTIM AND THE CONSTITUTION O

FAQs

What is a “signographic” language in Rubem Valentim’s work?

It is a visual language built from sign-symbols that function like an alphabet, expressing symbolic structures connected to Afro-Brazilian mystic values and sacred references.

How did Valentim develop his signograms?

In the 1960s he established signograms as fifteen sign-symbols centered on Oxalá’s holy grail, drawing on symbolism from objects used in Candomblé and orishas’ traditions.

Why are geometry and transcendence central to Valentim’s poetics?

His geometry shaped his aesthetic choices while balancing rationalization and transcendence; it is presented as sensible and connected to a method for approaching the sacred through geometric symbols.

How does Valentim extend his alphabet into public space and sculpture?

He created large-scale works, murals, reliefs, and totems that occupy streets, squares, and museum-city landscapes, linking light, shadow, and white surfaces to invite viewers to read his production as a whole.

Aug 29, 2026

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