Francisco Domingos da Silva, known as Chico da Silva, was born in Alto Tejo, in the Brazilian state of Acre, the son of a Peruvian Indian and a woman from the state of Ceará. The year of his birth, based on research from different sources, is inconclusive, but it is estimated that the artist was born in 1910 (Fundação Bienal de São Paulo) or 1922 (Catalog of his first solo show in Fortaleza, 1961; Estrigas, 1988). Chico da Silva, from a very young age, traveled throughout the north and northeast of Brazil before settling in Fortaleza, Ceará.
In the early 1940s, he began drawing with charcoal and chalk on the walls of the cottages in Praia Formosa [Formosa Beach]. In 1943, Chico met the Swiss painter Jean-Pierre Chabloz (1910-1984), who introduced him to the local art circuit. In the same year, he participated in the collective exhibition Salão de Abril [April Saloon], followed by the 3rd Salão Cearense de Belas Artes, in 1944. Barboza Leite, referring to Chico's early production in his book "Esquema da Pintura no Ceará [Painting Scheme in Ceará]"(1949), described it as follows "[...] the imprecise, nebulous forms, but dosed with a poetic intensity to the whole surface, of F. Silva's paintings".
In 1945, Chabloz exhibited paintings by Chico da Silva alongside Antonio Bandeira (1922-1967) and Inimá de Paula (1918-1999) at Galeria Askanasy in Rio de Janeiro. Over the next three years, the Swiss artist made occasional trips to Europe, returning to the continent permanently in 1948. Chabloz dedicated himself to promoting Chico's work, staging his first solo show at the Galerie Pour L'Art, Lausanne, in 1952. In December of the same year, he published the article "Un Indien brésilien ré-invente la Peinture [A Brazilian Indian reinvents painting]" in the prestigious art magazine Cahiers D'Art, managed by Christian Zervos.
The departure of his friend and mentor had a great impact on Chico da Silva's production, and during Chabloz's stay in Europe, he held a small number of exhibitions in Brazil. Continuing his representation abroad, he participated in 1956 in the exhibition Arts primitifs et modernes brésiliens at the Musée d'ethnographie de Neuchâtel, Switzerland. The beginning of the 1960s marked Chabloz's return to Brazil for a short period – the Swiss returned to Europe in July 1960, where he stayed for two years – which facilitated Chico's reintegration into the group of artists from Fortaleza.
On April 10th, 1961, Chico da Silva opened his first solo show in Brazil, which took place at the Sede dos Diários Associados, in Fortaleza, where he presented ten works. According to the text of the catalog presented by the then Governor Parsifal Barroso, his "mysterious stories of the jungles, where animals and accidents of nature interfere as if they were human creatures [...] represent the best phase of the painter, especially for the coloring, imagination, and movement of the themes".
In 1959, Chico da Silva was hired by UFC – The Federal University of Ceará to develop the activities of MAUC – Art Museum of the Federal University of Ceará. His participation at the University lasted until 1963, when he exhibited at Galeria Relevo, in Rio de Janeiro, through the intermediation of Jean Boghici (1928-2015). In the same year, he approached Henrique Bluhm, who began the process of commercializing his work. It was during this period that Chico da Silva established his image as the Mestre da Escola do Pirambu [Master of the Pirambu School], working closely with young artists interested in learning the craft of painting. In 1965, he participated in the exhibition 8 peintres naïfs brèsiliens at Galerie Jacques Massol in Paris.
In 1966, through the efforts of Clarival do Prado Valadares, owner of Galeria Goeldi, Chico was included in the delegation that represented Brazil at the 33rd Venice Biennale, where he received an Honorable Mention. In the exhibition catalog, his work is described based on a meticulous technique that "whether in detail or in color, brings together a sophistication of the physical and subjective medium of painting". In a letter written to Haroldo Juaçaba, Clarival described the Venice experience as follows: "I fought hard for Chico. After seeing the four paintings (panels) exhibited, Jacques Lanaipre came to me secretly and asked me to show to five members of the jury the works by Chico that were not exhibited: exactly those twelve gouaches from the Art Museum of the Federal University of Ceará. It was a revelation. They said that if Brazil had made a room for the Indian, the result would be different".
The late 1960s are marked by episodes in which different apprentices claimed authorship of his works, causing Chico da Silva's mental and physical health to deteriorate. In 1972, he was included in the show Arte/Brasil/Hoje: 50 Anos Depois, at the Collectio Gallery, in São Paulo, followed by his participation in the 1st Latin American Biennial of São Paulo, at the Fundação Bienal, in 1978. In the last phase of his career, Chico continued to hold solo and group exhibitions in different Brazilian states, including Recife, Brasília, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro.
In 1983, due to thrombosis, his health was completely debilitated. Chico da Silva died in Fortaleza in 1985. Since his death, he is considered a "primitivist genius" in Brazil, and his work fuses popular cosmologies from the north and northeast of the country. His concern with the exaltation of Brazilian fauna and flora is evident not only as a decorative element but as a formal expression of the organic subjectivity of the Amazon region and its complexities.