Manuel Graciano

Born in 1926, in Santana do Cariri, Ceará. He moved with his family to Juazeiro do Norte, in the same state, in 1929. He began to work with wood at the age of 10, “learning from nature” to make pestles, troughs and toys … Married with three children, he began making Christmas Cribs and ex-votos. The woodcutter Abrão Batista was who encouraged him to go from the landing work to sculpture. Manuel Graciano composes groups with several characters that form a true sculptural ensemble. The artist has a vein of humor that can grow into the most flaming expressionism in many of his works.

Manuel Graciano prepares his paints with aniline mixed with pitch and alcohol, before applying them to the imburana of cambão or masonry in which he sculpts.When carving with masonry wood he prefers animal forms to the figure, painting them with differentiated brushstrokes, always with total harmony. Francisco Cardoso and Francisco Edinaldo from his family, continue his work.He made part of the group show Redescobrimento at Bienal de São Paulo, in 2000 and has works in Rio de Janeiro’s Museu do Folclore and João  Pessoa’s Centro Cultural São Francisco  as in private collections in Brazil and abroad. His work is in the collection of the Museum of Folklore Edilson Carneiro, Rio de Janeiro, and the Exhibition of Popular Art of the Cultural Center of São Francisco, João Pessoa, Paraíba. Its trajectory is in the “Little Dictionary of the Art of the Brazilian People, Century XX”, of Lélia Coelho Frota. He passed away in 2014.