Manuel Cardoso

Manuel Cardoso 1930 - 2006

Born in 1930 in the village of Vigia, at the mouth of the Amazon River, Raimundo Saraiva Cardoso is one of the greatest Brazilian ceramists of the 20th century. Trained by his mother, a descendent of one of the last Marajoara tribes, he discovered early on the techniques of his ancestors, natural pigments and the various precious clays found in the Amazon forest. In the early 1970s, Cardoso quit his job to devote himself to the traditional ceramics of the Marajoara people. After studying the collections of the Goeldi Museum, he obtained permission to reproduce 50 pieces of pottery using the same techniques and materials as his ancestors. The clay was extracted from the river on full moon nights, during religious ceremonies in which the forest spirits were called upon to give their permission. To work this clay, one of the purest in the world, the Amazon people added sawdust from roots and crushed ceramics. Exploring themes of Amazonian flora and fauna, the pieces were decorated with a mixture of liquid clay and natural colour pigments applied before firing. The 50 pieces produced by Cardoso reached such a level of perfection and precision that the experts at the Goeldi Museum included them in their collections. Marajoara replicas made and signed by Cardoso are now part of many primitive art collections around the world.