Jenner Augusto

He began painting posters for the cinema in Lagarto, in the Sergipe interior. In 1949 he moved to Salvador and took part, with Mário Cravo, Lygia Sampaio and Rubem Valentim, in the contentious exhibition Novos Artistas Baianos — the opening gesture of modern painting in Bahia.

He was commissioned to paint the fresco Evolução do Homem for the Carneiro Ribeiro educational centre, between 1953 and 1954. In Rio he met Portinari and Pancetti, who commended him to the critics. Through the 1960s he returned obsessively to the Alagados district and the landscapes of Salvador, the subject that became his signature.

He travelled through Europe in 1967, meeting Paul Delvaux, and gathered his travel notes into an album published in 1970. He illustrated Jorge Amado’s Tenda dos Milagres. He is the grandfather of Zeca Fernandes, who founded the gallery.