‘The Feast of Bonfim’ in Salvador, Bahia by Brazilian Folk Artist Alfredo Cruz
Oil on canvas, 21 x 31.5 w/o frame, 22.5 x 32.5 including frame, signed. Asking price $ 695.
The painting depicts the yearly Festa do Bonfim taking place in and around the church of Nosso Senhor do Bonfim in Salvador, the main city of the Bahia province in Brazil.
Born in 1927, Alfredo Cruz an artist of great merit is a retired city street sweeper and self-taught artist. As a young man, Cruz worked in the fields, planting and harvesting manioc, corn and beans. He now paints scenes from his memories and the daily life of the city. I the US his works have been shown in the exhibition:
‘Bandits & Heroes, Poets & Saints’ (Arranged by Con/Vita, Popular art of the Americas) which has been shown at several museums including the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit MI. Works by his hand were also shown at UCLA’s Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1998.
