At the crossroads of visual arts, samba, fashion, and macumba, Heitor dos Prazeres (1898-1966) was present in the streets of Rio de Janeiro’s “Little Africa” and around XI Square during the first half of the 20th century until his death in 1966. A multifaceted artist, he worked in figurative painting, composed samba songs and terreiro chants, and also designed costumes for shows and performances, such as the Ballet do IV Centenário de São Paulo, in 1954.¹

Festivities. Samba circles. Bar tables. Neighborhood games. Daily life. His works invite us to gaze upon the vibrant life of the Black population in Rio de Janeiro at the time, both in rural contexts and urban centers. Using oil and gouache on canvas, the artist depicts the presence of Black people in various daily situations, combining a diverse color palette with well-defined lines full of movement. “Mano Heitor” [brother Heitor], as he was sometimes called, created images of great symbolism and expressive power.

A born composer of samba lyrics and Carnival marches, Heitor was also involved in the founding of iconic Rio de Janeiro samba schools such as Estácio de Sá, Mangueira, and Portela. He used his intellectual knowledge of music to develop a unique visual identity in his paintings. The energetic gestures present in his work, like the figures depicted with their heads held high and in colorful garments, enabled him to showcase three pieces at the 1st Bienal de São Paulo in 1951.

“My painting is about things that passed through me, and I passed through them,” Heitor dos Prazeres declared. Through well-defined brushstrokes, the artist affirms the Black experience in its fullness of life. His sensitivity to his surroundings made him a key agent in Afro-diasporic art. His painting breaks away from the archive of slavery, challenging the colonial iconography created about Black people, whether by 19th-century European artists or by modernist painters in the Brazilian post-abolition period, after 1888.

From a radical Black perspective, Heitor dos Prazeres’s artistic and musical works project an art that was not circumscribed by coloniality and other racial exclusion norms. In dialogue with writer Saidiya Hartman, we understand that the artist narrates a counter-History, an endeavor that “has always been inseparable from writing a history of present.”² In his time, Heitor was a multi-artist who anticipated the debates of our contemporary world, critically reflecting on the past and imagining the future.