Joseph died Vilhena, the satyr cartoonist of the Open Cage – publico

                 

                         
                     

                         
                     

                 

 
                         

cartoonist, humorist, writer and painter. Four interrelated conditions in life and work of a man who, since the 1950s, was dedicated to satirize and spare no one, from the powerful to the oppressed people, the political and social reality of the country of his birth. Before the April Revolution lived with censorship leg almost uninterrupted, or had signed nearly six dozen books, all censored, all sold to its faithful public under the table at tobacconists.

 

Eleven days after the April 25, 1974, began to make his chronology of the revolution in Open Cage , its most famous title. “ One man show ” worker truly independent who was responsible alone for the entire development and production process of its books and magazines, José Vilhena, unavoidable name Portuguese humor, in line with a Bordallo Pinheiro, yet contemporary sexual liberation of the decades of 1960-70 (and noticed a lot, or not for the female body constant presence in his work), died on Saturday at age 88, victim of “disease prolonged, “as we read in the site The incorrigible and Sly Vilhena ( www.vilhena.me ), managed by his nephew Luis Vilhena. Found himself hospitalized at Hospital São Francisco Xavier.

The title site above is a direct reference to one of the many reports of dedicated New state censorship committee of its publications. It issued in 1965, read: “The incorrigible and Sly ‘Vilhena’ did not help end this year 1965 without resorting to public another of its deleterious productions by occult arts always circulate despite the prohibitions about them focus . Put on sale today, I believe “- writes the author of the report -” I do not find in this book a single page that can be allowable. Therefore, I propose a strict ban “

Of himself, Vilhena claimed to be.” A kind of trapeze artist “:” The guys bought my books because I thought that the next day I was arrested. ” And three times in 1962, 1964 and 1966. The very purpose, Rui Zink recalls the PUBLIC the definition of censorship that heard the José Vilhena: “Censorship is the technique of separating the wheat from the chaff in order publishing the chaff “ – ” also applies to newspapers today, “adds

Zink, who closely deprived with. José Vilhena, describes it as “a diamond in the middle of withered sheep,” someone who, following the maxim of Groucho Marx, refused to belong to any club. “The Aquilino Ribeiro got to try to get him to a club to the Portuguese Writers Association, but he declined shyly saying it was not a writer.” The diverse activities of Vilhena, says Rui Zink, born, moreover, the lack of popular writers of humor in Portugal. “What he liked was to draw, but given that fact, turned out to be a cartoonist, writer, editor, distributor.”

Born on July 7, 1927 in Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo, José Vilhena He attended the School of Fine Arts of Porto, inserted in the course of architecture that would not reach the conclusion, labor’s fault that had begun to do for Lisbon diary , Smiley Face and The World Ri , which co-founded in the 1950s.

He worked the mood in different ways, using literary writing, the illustration, the cartoon or photomontage. The latter creative expression was worth even an unusual international prominence when in the early 1980s José Vilhena is the subject of a case brought by Caroline of Monaco, following a photomontage in which, parodying the announcement of a brandy brand, put Princess “to warm your glass in a unique way,” recalled in 2003 to Morning Post .

Among its bora, stand out before April 25, works like History of the Human Pulhice (1961), The Son of the Mother (1970) or Snow White and the 700 Dwarves (1962) this included in the Prohibited Books series published with the PUBLIC. That is when José Vilhena more shine, considers Rui Zink. “The pictures that made him warm Portugal Salazar are wonderful. After April 25, people gained courage and appeared younger competitors more suited to the time, more agile, more to the left. There is always a bastard who enjoys more freedom than we do when there is no risk to run, “he quips. During the dictatorship, José Vilhena was “a lone star to do that kind of humor, and even people who did not read his books knew the stories of his books,” recalls Zink. According to the writer, “was the great cross humorist before April 25 and had the importance of Herman [Joseph] and the Stinky Cats together.”