Rego Monteiro, Vicente Do (1899–1970)

Vicente Do Rego Monteiro (b. 1899; d. 1970), Brazilian painter and poet. Born in Recife into a family of artists, Rego Monteiro manifested artistic talent at an early age. He began his training at the age of twelve at the Académie Julien in Paris. Two years later, in 1913, he exhibited in the Salon des Indépendants. In 1919, two years after returning to Brazil, he had his first exhibition. He returned to Paris in 1922. Before his departure, he left the poet and art critic Ronaldo de Carvalho with ten of his paintings for inclusion in the 1922 Semana de Arte Moderna (Modern Art Week).

Rego Monteiro's work remained virtually unknown in Brazil until the mid-1960s, because of his long absences from Brazil and a devastating fire in the late 1920s that destroyed most of his best works. When he returned to Brazil in 1964, he became closely identified with the modernist movement. National and biblical themes predominate in his paintings. At the same time, eclectic artistic influences punctuate his repertory: futurism, cubism, Japanese prints, black art, the School of Paris, Brazilian baroque, and especially Amerindian art from the island of Marajó.

In addition to painting, Rego Montiero devoted his talents to other cultural pursuits. In the 1950s he organized the First International Congress of Poetry in Paris and founded a literary magazine in Recife entitled Renovação.

See alsoArt: The Twentieth Century; Literature: Brazil.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arte no Brasil, vol. 2 (1979), p. 686.

Walmir Ayala, "Um precursor de modernismo," in Arte Brasileira Hoje, edited by Ferreira Gullar (1973), pp. 193-204.

Additional Bibliography

Atik, Maria Luiza Guarnieri. Vicente do Rego Monteiro: Um brasileiro de França. São Paulo: Editora Mackenzie, 2003.

Atik, Maria Luiza Guarnieri. "Vicente do Rego Monteiro: O percurso de um pintor-poeta." In Aquém e além mar: Relações culturais: Brasil e França, Sandra Nitrini, editor. São Paulo: Editora Hucitec, 2000.

Oiticica Filho, Francisco. Vincent Monteiro, poeta cordial: Marcas textuais de sociabilidade literária: Paris, 1946–1960. Maceió: Edufal, 2004.

Zanini, Walter. Vicente do Rego Monteiro: Artista e poeta. São Paulo: Empresa das Artes: Marigo Editora, 1997.

                                Caren A. Meghreblian