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VNTG FOLK WOODBLOCK PRINT MARACATU BRAZIL JOSE FRANCISO BORGES - $95 (Kingsland)
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Signed by artist at lower right, as shown. Professionally matted and framed. 20" x 27". In very good vintage condition. Cash only. Local pick-up is at the Dollar General parking lot, just off I-95, GA exit 7.
José Francisco Borges (4 August 1935 – 26 July 2024), best known as J. Borges, was a Brazilian folk poet and woodcut artist. He was considered the greatest woodcut artist in northeastern Brazil, and "the most celebrated master of the art." His work was exhibited around the world, including at the Louvre and the Smithsonian. It is in the permanent collection of the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe. Borges was a proponent of Cordel literature.
Borges was born in Bezerros, in the state of Pernambuco, and only attended one year of school, leaving at age 12. As a young man, he worked as a bricklayer, farmhand, herb seller, carpenter and potter. He began selling, and then writing and selling, the leaflets known as "cordel literature," containing epic poems illustrated with woodcut prints in a small format that the sellers would hang on strings, or cordeis. He began to illustrate them with his own woodcuts, eventually producing hundreds of different cordels or folhetos (leaflets, or chapbooks).At his workshop in Bezerros, he mentored other woodcut artists including his brother Amaro, cousin Joel, son Ivan, nephews, and adopted son José Miguel da Silva.
Starting in the 1960s, Borges began producing large-format woodcuts as well as smaller cordel illustrations. The large prints, eventually produced in color as well as the traditional black and white, are sold in galleries throughout the world. In addition to traditional scenes of life in the northeast, and folktale illustrations, he responded to the market in producing series including zodiac signs, and fruits of Brazil. His work was exhibited throughout Brazil, as well as in Paris, Zurich, Buenos Aires and in Germany and the United States.
Borges was awarded the Order of Cultural Merit by Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso. In 2002, he received a UNESCO award, and was chosen to illustrate the United Nations annual calendar. In 2005, he received a Living Heritage award from the Brazilian state of Pernambuco] In 2018, the samba school from the neighborhood of Rocinha devoted their Carnival performance in Rio de Janeiro to a tribute to Borges, cordel literature, and the northeast.
Borges died on 26 July 2024, aged 88, in the house he lived in for his entire life, in Bezerros.
This piece is from our large art collection, assembled over a more than 50-year time span. The collection consists of original paintings lithographs, photographs, drawings, etchings, and other types of prints, as well as some mixed media pieces, all of which we'll eventually be listing on Craigslist Marketplace. As our main concern is finding new, appreciative homes for the pieces, we're pricing them to sell, at prices well below fair market value. Thank you for visiting our listings, and please don't hesitate to message us if we may be of further help.