Povinho de Santiago, RS, 1914 – Campo Grande, MS, 1984
Conceição dos Bugres, as Conceição Freitas da Silva became known, was an artist whose sculptures reveal a deep connection with nature and her indigenous origins. Her practice is marked by objectivity and formal rigor, resulting in anthropomorphic figures sculpted in single blocks of wood – and, on rare occasions, in stone –, characterized by straight heads and minimalist features. Over decades of production, the artist developed a style of her own, with an equal balance of economic gestures and the infusion of subtle variations, which give her sculptures a strong kinship while each “bugre” carries a unique personality. With her pieces, finished with beeswax baths and black paint details – denoting hair, eyebrows, eyes and nose –, Conceição dos Bugres transforms wood into mystical and expressive beings. These are testimonies to the power of repetition and similarity in differences, so that their forms’ simplicity reveals a universal matrix that melds the particularities of each creation to a greater whole, in harmony with the natural and spiritual cycle of life.