Chronology
by Valério Campos*

1956/57
Eduardo Vieira da Cunha was born in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, in 1956. He is the youngest of four children of Jenny Conceição Figueiredo and Liberato Salzano Vieira da Cunha. Neither Jenny or Liberato came from the capital, but from Cachoeira do Sul, 190 kilometers from Porto Alegre. Liberato Salzano Vieira da Cunha was a State Deputy and the State Education Secretary, and was previously the mayor of Cachoeira. When Eduardo was only one year old his parents died in a plane crash in Bagé. He remembers having made doodles on a wall of his grandparents house four years later, of objects hanging from strings. Decades later this would seem to offer a possibility of working with loss through representation: "A step in the search for recuperation of the visual image of parents I would have only through old photographs". This effect of this accident would, according to Jean Lancri, always be present in Eduardo's visual work, in the form of reconstruction in which "the time of the appearance of the elements of painting attempted to impose itself on the time of the disappearance of the image, the time of the lost image"
1958/67
He lives in Porto Alegre, with his grandparents and siblings in his parents' apartment. In his father's library, and influenced by his brother, the writer Liberato Vieira da Cunha, he comes into contact with classic works of literature. He is fascinated by the illustrations and covers of Livraria da Globo publications, by artists like João Fahrion and Nelson Boeira Fäedrich. The passion for books is also a characteristic of both his sisters: Miriam, the eldest studies librarianship, and in the 1970s moves to Paris to do her doctorate. And Maria Bernadete, also a writer, is engaged in cultural journalism, going on to work for several newspapers and magazines in Rio de Janeiro, like Última Hora and O Globo.
1968/69
He studies at Colégio Nossa Senhora das Dores, in Porto Alegre. It is a religious school run by the Order of La Salle. During this period he surprises teachers with his drawing ability.
He goes to study at Colégio Anchieta, also in Porto Alegre and also a religious school, but run by Jesuits. At this school he is stimulated by starting to study art history and philosophy. He begins to show his drawings in school exhibitions.
1972/79
He draws cartoon stories He spends long holiday periods in Cachoeira do Sul, sometimes devoting himself to photography, sometimes to music, with other poets and musicians.
1974
He enters the Fine Art course at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul., He starts working as a photojournalist for the newspapers Folha da Manhã and Folha da Tarde. He attends the studio of the painter Ado Malagoli, a friend of his father. In 1956, when Liberato Salzano, was State Education Secretary he and Malagoli had the initial idea for the Museu de Arte do Rio Grande do Sul (MARGS).
1975
He decides to study Oceanography in Rio Grande, RS. While there he draws specimens of sea creatures for the Oceanographic Museum in the same city.
1978
His first exhibition is of some crayon drawings in a group show at the Galeria Açorianos, Porto Alegre. He starts work as a photojournalist in the southern branch of the Rio de Janeiro newspaper, O Globo. He works in painting and drawing workshops with patients from the São Pedro Psychiatric Hospital, and inmates from the State Central Prison, organised by the Museu de Arte.
1979
He takes part in the III Salão de Arte de Pelotas. Alice Soares, the judge, hails him as "the drawing revelation of the state of Rio Grande do Sul". As a photojournalist he travels to Uruguay and Argentina, in the middle of the "years of lead" of the military dictatorships. He also covers the first "Sem Terra" (landless) movements in the districts of Ronda Alta, Sarandi and Passo Fundo, in Rio Grande do Sul.
1980/90
Alongside his work as a photoournailst he continues to make drawings with Alice Soares. The first drawings of isolated figures, animals and the human figure emerge: the Sem Terras, the encampments. Line accompanies the forms in a succession of rhythms, in shades of black and white. It is an exercise that the artist will later classify as a "beginning of painting" in which the combinations of grey tones correspond to the tones of the black and white photographs and old glass negatives in his grandfather's collection in Cachoeira do Sul. His Grandfather, Achylles Figueiredo, was an agricultural equipment dealer who introduced mechanised cultivation to Rio Grande do Sul. He was an amateur photographer and compiled a collection of images of the economic and social activities of the central region of the state from the1920s.
This passion for the archive of images which would appear in Eduardo as a dialogue between photography and other artistic languages, firstly drawing, then painting, characterises the artist's work in a kind of continual exchange of influences.
1982
He shows drawings in the I Salão Jovem Arte Sul-América, in the Museu de Arte do Rio Grande do Sul, and is a prizewinner in the VI Salão de Arte Universitária, at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, also in the drawing category.
He returns to the Fazenda Anoni region, in Ronda Alta, to cover the Sem Terra encampments for O Globo. There is another series of crayon drawings about the encampments from this period.
1983
He takes part in the I Prêmio Pirelli de Arte, in the Museu de Arte de São Paulo, and the group show of 15 artists from Rio Grande do Sul in the I Encontro Nacional de Artistas Plásticos, at the Museu de Arte do Rio Grande do Sul. He travels to the coast of Rio Grande do Sul, between Mostardas and Chuí. The drawings and photos made during this period will serve as references for the South Atlantic Stories series of paintings produced later while he is living in New York.
1984
He takes part in the 40° Salão Paranaense, in Curitiba, PR. He remains interested in the south coast of the state, flora and fauna, and the solitary lighthouses in the region of Albardão, Solidão and Mostardas, which are seen in drawings and notes.
1985
He receives the Drawing Award in the Rede Brasil-Sul de Comunicações 14° Salão do Jovem Artista. He passes in first place in the public examination to be a lecturer in the Instituto de Artes do Rio Grande do Sul.
1986
He has a one-person exhibition of photographs at the Instituto Cultural Brasileiro Norte-Americano, in Porto Alegre. He photographs the series Gaúcho Authors, a profile of some of the principal writers of Rio Grande do Sul, like Luiz Fernando Veríssimo, Mário Quintana, Lya Luft, Guilhermino César, Moacyr Scliar and Cyro Martins for the Rio Grande do Sul State Book Institute. He also returns to the Ronda Alta district, to photograph the Sem Terras.
1987
He takes part in the Fotografia Contemporânea Gaúcha exhibition, in the Sala Miguel Bakun, Curitiba, PR. He also takes part in Registros, in the Galeria Arte e Fato, Porto Alegre. He goes to Nova York.
1988
He studies in the photography area for two and a half years on the MFA (Master of Fine Arts) course at Brooklyn College, City University, with a CAPES bursary. Discovering painting through his friend the painter Fernando Baril, who was also living in New York, Eduardo starts to devote himself systematically to the medium under the guidance of Phillip Pearlstein, who was lecturing at Brooklyn College at the time. Joseph Groell, who was also a lecturer at Brooklyn College, refers to the "particular and extremely poetic universe" of Eduardo's paintings.
1989
He receives the “Bernard Shaw" award for work developed in painting, from City University, NY. He shows his drawings in the Students' Gallery, Brooklyn College, in Brooklyn, NY.
1990
He is honoured with the "Brooklyn College Foundation" award, which offers an exhibition in a New York gallery, and has a one person exhibition in the Westbeth Gallery, in the East Village. He finishes his MFA in Painting. He meets the Brazilian journalist Paulo Francis and accepts an invitation to illustrate his weekly columns in Diário da Corte, which are also published by the Zero Hora, newspaper in Porto Alegre.
1991
He returns to Porto Alegre. He has a one person exhibition of the South Atlantic Stories paintings, at the Galeria Bolsa de Arte.
1992
He takes part in the América 500 anos exhibition, at MASP, and the 30 anos de Zero Hora group exhibition, curated by Jacob Klintowitz, in the Galeria Agência de Arte, Porto Alegre.
The next year he has a one person exhibition in the Galeria Bolsa de Arte. He is the invited artist for the 17° Salão da Associação Francisco Lisboa, in Porto Alegre. He is selected for the FUNARTE 13° Salão Nacional de Artes Plásticas in Rio de Janeiro. He is invited for the Projeto Presença, in MARGS. He also takes part in the group shows Paradoxos Artificiais, in the Museu de Arte Contemporânea do RS, and O Espírito Pop, in the Casa de Cultura Mário Quintana, in Porto Alegre.
1994/96
During this period he takes part in the group show, Águas de Março, in the Museu de Arte Contemporânea do RS; he is selected for the IV Salão Internacional de Desenho para a Imprensa, in Porto Alegre with illustrations for the Diário da Corte column; he also exhibits in the group show A Arte vê a Moda, an exhibition touring to several cities in Rio Grande do Sul, and has a one person show in the César Prestes gallery, in Porto Alegre. He also takes part in the group exhibition Artistas Brasileiros, in the Plaza Fabini Exhibition Centre, Montevideo, Uruguay. He meets the architect Daniela Cidade, with whom he lives.
1997
He shows a series of drawings, collages and paintings made for the Diário da Corte column in the Galeria Gestual in memory of the journalist Paulo Francis, who had died the previous year. He travels to Paris with a CAPES bursary to study for his doctorate at the Université de Paris-I.
He studies at the St. Charles school with Jean Lancri, his supervisor, in 1998, and sets up his studio in Paris where he develops his work in painting.
The following year he has a one person exhibition in the Galerie Leonardo, in Paris.
In 2000, he has a one person exhibition 'Room of Miracles', in the Garagem de Arte gallery, in Porto Alegre.
2001
Presents the doctoral thesis at the Sorbonne University.
2002
He exhibits with Brazilian and Argentinian artists in "Plástica Brasileña y Argentina Contemporânea" organized by the Instituto Universitário Nacional Del Arte, Argentina at the Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires. He also takes part in the Porto 230 show, celebrating the anniversary of Porto Alegre. He takes part in the Artistas Professores, exhibition which opens the UFRGS Museu Universitário.
2003
He exhibits in the group exhibition Vida, Povo, Fome, Trabalho, Religião, during the 3rd World Social Forum in the Garagem de Arte gallery, Porto Alegre, and in the exhibition celebrating 95 years of the UFRGS Instituto de Artes. He has a one person exhibition in the Museu de Arte do Rio Grande do Sul.
2004
One person exhibition at the Museu Brasileiro da Escultura, in São Paulo, and in Nana Botelho Art Gallery, at Rio de Janeiro.
2005
Solo exhibition: “O Laboratório transparente” at Galeria Gestual, Porto Alegre.
“Mix 2005”, Pinacoteca Enio Pinalli- Montenegro- RS.
2006
Solo exhibition at the Arte Quadro Gallery, em Caxias do Sul, RS. He takes part in “Pares” show, at the Porto Alegre’s City Hall.
2007
Solo exhibition at Galerie Ficher-Rohr, in Basel, Switzerland.

*Valério Campos is a journalist and a writter