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Jesuys Crystiano seems to have spent his adult life wandering the streets of Ilheus (Bahia) until 2010, when a German hotelier - who had noticed his wall drawings - took him in and provided him with material to put his surrealist worlds on paper, thus saving him from being hospitalized in a psychiatric institution. During his last 5 years of life, Jesuys was able to produce hundreds of drawings, populated with vultures, soccer players, overturned chairs and tables, characters with interlocking faces, drawn with colored pencil and charcoal, often enhanced with collages and annotations.

Jesuys Crystiano - © © Thilo Scheuermann, christian berst — art brut
Date 1950 — 2015
Country Brazil

Much uncertainty surrounds the biography of Jesuys Crystiano. A court arbitrarily established the year of his birth as 1950. It is believed that he spent his childhood in Buerarema, in the state of Bahia, and attended school there, and he later moved to Rio de Janeiro as a youth. Crystiano’s life and work are documented only as of 2010. During this time, he was living in the streets of Ilhéus, Bahia, and was cared for by his neighbors. His life changed when a German hotel owner living in the region became interested in the murals that he had drawn on abandoned buildings. This wealthy mansupported Crystiano’s art production and cared for him until Crystiano’s death in 2015. Crystiano created hundreds of drawings in R charcoal and pencil—some in a large format—as well as collages made of photographs from newspapers, books, and found objects, in which formal encounters between the elements present in the photographs and his own drawings seem to have triggered the creation of unreal worlds populated with composite beings and objects (e.g., crowned vultures). Their vertical dimension refers to elevation but also to falling (e.g., overturned tables, uprooted tree trunks), presaging a catastrophe.

Artworks
Please contact us to inquire about the available works.
untitled, 2012
23.23 x 16.54 in
untitled, both sides, 2013
23.23 x 16.54 in
untitled, 2014
16.54 x 10.63 in
untitled, 2014
23.23 x 16.54 in
untitled, 2013
26.38 x 16.14 in
untitled, 2014
23.23 x 16.54 in
Catalog
jesuys crystiano a contrario
Jesuys Crystiano : a contrario - © christian berst — art brut

Texts : Thilo Scheuermann, Manuel Anceau
Forewords : Christian Berst
Catalog published to mark the exhibition jesuys crystiano : a contrario, from June 8 to July 17, 2022.

Exhibitions
variations d’hiver
#1. From December 12, 2024 to January 18, 2025.
over 50 brut artists in l’esprit singulier
Curator: Martine Lusardy, halle saint-pierre. From March 12 to August 14, 2024.
Portreto de la animo
collection Treger Saint-Silvestre, Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis, Porto, Portugal. From July 13 to November 12, 2023.
jesuys crystiano :
a contrario. From June 8 to July 17, 2022.
anachronism :
unveiling hidden works, the bridge. From June 8 to July 17, 2022.
View more
do the write thing :
read between the lines #3, main gallery. From April 2 to May 22, 2022.
exhibition view of *do the write thing : read between the lines #3*, christian berst art brut, Paris, 2022 - © christian berst — art brut
Jesuys Crystiano - © © Thilo Scheuermann, christian berst — art brut
Jesuys Crystiano - © © Thilo Scheuermann, christian berst — art brut
Jesuys Crystiano - © © Thilo Scheuermann, christian berst — art brut
Press review
the art brut revolution, essay by christian berst
António Saint Silvestre, Christian Berst, Umbigo. February 7, 2024.
the art brut revolution, artists’ dossier
António Saint Silvestre, Christian Berst, Umbigo. February 7, 2024.
jesuys crystiano : a contrario
La Rédaction, Artforum. June 8, 2022.
Agenda des vernissages de la semaine du 2 juin
La Rédaction, Toute La Culture.. June 3, 2022.
Collections
Antoine Frérot collection
France
abcd / Bruno Decharme collection
France
Treger Saint Silvestre collection
Portugal
Emmanuelle and Guy Delcourt collection
France
Jesuys Crystiano

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