In his youth, Mario Cravo Jr. was accepted at Syracuse University in the United States, where he can perfect his aptitude for sculpture. After living and working in New York, he returned to Salvador in 1949 and participated actively in the artistic life of the city. Doctor in Fine Arts, he was a professor at the School of Fine Arts of the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) and directed the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia.

 

  In the Bahia capital, icons, the monuments designed by the artist for decades are incorporated into the architecture of the city. The same happens in metropolises like Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Brasilia. Other pieces of different sizes are distributed by museums and cultural centers in Germany, Russia, the United States, and Israel.

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Drawings, canvases, and sculptures by Mario Cravo Jr. present traits and forms in harmony with nature, free from austere conceptions. They are interpretations motivated by Afro-Brazilian representations and by the typically regional cultural inheritance, still resulting from the miscegenation in the Country. This is a very particular re-reading of an artist deeply connected with his land and his people, a condition that also allows the rescue and perpetuation of narratives and oral traditions.

 

   In this way, keeping the legacy of Mario Cravo Jr. alive contributes to the preservation of manifestations linked to popular culture, as well as reaffirming the importance of his work in the context of the rich Brazilian artistic patrimony.