The Brooklyn Rail Highlights the "Complexity and Depth" of Americas Society's Exhibit

Bispo Do Rosário: All Existing Materials on Earth is not the unruly display the exhibition’s title would have you believe. Born in Brazil in 1909, Arthur Bispo do Rosário spent much of his life confined to mental institutions after being diagnosed with schizophrenia. At the age of 29, he had a vision that God chose him to create a comprehensive catalog of the world, including all its inhabitants and their possessions, as a way of preserving the universe and its people for Judgement Day.

This vision inspired his life's work and shaped the distinct style and content of his art. More than simply a survey of the artist’s extensive output, the Americas Society’s exhibition lays out a narrative that elucidates the artist's personal history, hybrid spiritual beliefs, and expansive worldview. Opening the exhibition, Bispo’s hand-embroidered “Roupas (garments),” which he referred to as “uniforms,” reveal the everyday modes he used to negotiate and express his ambitious mandate from God.

His most emblematic piece, Untitled [Manto da apresentação (Annunciation garment)] (n.d.), which he intended to wear on Judgement Day, is embroidered with everyday objects and abstract designs that manifest his acute attention to detail, while the inside displays the names of people he encountered during his life, including doctors, nurses, patients, and friends. It is flanked by two regalia jackets embellished with stitched sashes, service stripes, stars, and other insignia. On the star-studded Untitled [“Eu vi Cristo” (I saw Christ)] (n.d.), he detailed the story, date, and time of his 1938 mission that heralded the start of his 50-year “encyclopedic endeavor.

These uniforms recall the time he spent in the Brazilian navy, but more affectingly disclose Bispo’s regimental mandate to carry out his project like some form of dutiful charge, an idea present in his precise linework. [...]

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