Exhibition News & Blog

Charge Mestra Brings Together Three Masters of Brazilian Political Cartooning

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Charge Mestra exhibition featuring Edgar Vasques, Santiago and Celso Schröder — Charge Mestra brings together Brazilian cartoonists Edgar Vasques, Santiago and Celso Schröder in Porto Alegre.

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Three prominent names in Brazilian graphic humor — Edgar Vasques, Santiago and Celso Schröder — have come together in a new exhibition in Porto Alegre.

Charge Mestra – Para Abrir Cabeças opened on August 20 at the Centro Histórico e Cultural da Santa Casa and runs through September 27. Curated by Margarete Moraes and André Venzon, the exhibition draws on nearly five decades of work by the three artists, including cartoons, drawings, publications and other material from their careers.

The exhibition also looks at how their work was made and how political cartoons became part of the public conversation around Brazilian politics and society.

Its title uses the Portuguese word charge, generally applied in Brazil to topical or political cartoons. Cartum, another term frequently used in the country, has a broader meaning and does not necessarily refer to current events. Both forms are represented in the exhibition.

Edgar Vasques has worked as a cartoonist, illustrator and comics artist since the late 1960s. He is best known for Rango, a character created in 1974 during Brazil’s military dictatorship. Through Rango, Vasques addressed hunger, poverty and social inequality, and the character later reached readers across Brazil through publications including O Pasquim. Vasques also collaborated with writer Luis Fernando Verissimo on Analista de Bagé.

Santiago is the pen name of Neltair Abreu, who began working professionally in 1975. His cartoons have appeared in publications including O Pasquim, O Estado de S. Paulo and Le Monde Diplomatique Brasil. His work has also been widely recognized outside Brazil: he won the Grand Prix of the Yomiuri Shimbun international cartoon competition in Japan and is a five-time winner at the International Humor Exhibition of Piracicaba.

Celso Schröder came to cartooning through journalism. He worked for Correio do Povo and contributed to Brazil’s alternative press from the 1970s onward. He is also one of the editors of the humor newspaper Grifo and has held leadership positions in journalists’ organizations in Brazil and Latin America.

Together, the material in Charge Mestra traces careers that began during a period when censorship and military rule shaped Brazilian public life and continued through the country’s later political and social changes.

The exhibition is accompanied by a program of events involving the three artists. On September 8, the venue will also host the Porto Alegre screening of Santiago, a 52-minute documentary directed by Henrique de Freitas Lima about the life and work of Neltair Abreu.

Charge Mestra – Para Abrir Cabeças remains on view at the Centro Histórico e Cultural da Santa Casa in Porto Alegre through September 27. Admission is free.