---
title: "Cockfight (1983), Chico da Silva, painting"
description: "Cockfight (1983), Chico da Silva. Acrylic on canvas, 50 x 70 cm. Painting in the João Cunha Collection."
canonical: https://chicodasilva.org/en/paintings/cockfight-1983-030/
lang: en
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
translations:
  en: https://chicodasilva.org/en/paintings/cockfight-1983-030/
  es: https://chicodasilva.org/es/pinturas/rina-de-gallos-1983-030/
  fr: https://chicodasilva.org/fr/peintures/combat-de-coqs-1983-030/
  pt: https://chicodasilva.org/pt/pinturas/galos-de-briga-1983-030/
  ar: https://chicodasilva.org/ar/%D9%84%D9%88%D8%AD%D8%A7%D8%AA/%D8%B5%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%B9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%83-1983-030/
  zh-Hans: https://chicodasilva.cn/%E4%BD%9C%E5%93%81/%E6%96%97%E9%B8%A1-1983-030/
---

# Cockfight

![Two roosters facing each other, with spiky crests and sweeping feathers on a black ground. Cockfight, Chico da Silva, 1983, acrylic on canvas.](https://img.chicodasilva.org/jcc-030/chico-da-silva-cockfight-1983-acrylic-on-canvas-50x70cm-joao-cunha-collection-jcc-030-chicodasilva.org-640.jpg)

[Download image](https://img.chicodasilva.org/jcc-030/chico-da-silva-cockfight-1983-acrylic-on-canvas-50x70cm-joao-cunha-collection-jcc-030-chicodasilva.org-3200.jpg)

Description for blind and low-vision visitors

Two large stylised roosters face each other against a deep black background, divided by a thin green stalk rising between them. Each has a tall spiky crest in orange and blue, a big round outlined eye, and a body filled with dense fine hatched lines in purple, red, brown, teal and white. Broad leaf- and feather-shaped forms fan out from their sides in red, orange and green, with curling plumes sweeping along the lower edge. The dense linework and flat black field are typical of the naïve folk style, with a painted signature at the lower center.

- **Artist:** [Chico da Silva](https://chicodasilva.org/en/biography/)
- **Year:** 1983
- **Technique:** Acrylic on canvas
- **Support:** Canvas
- **Dimensions:** 50 x 70 cm
- **Motif:** [Roosters](https://chicodasilva.org/en/motifs/roosters/)
- **Collection:** [João Cunha Collection](https://chicodasilva.org/en/about/)
- **Signature:** FOZILVA, lower center (reversed D and S)
- **Photo:** Eric Keki
- **Inventory no.:** [JCC-030](https://chicodasilva.org/id/jcc-030)
- **Article:** [The Final Years](https://chicodasilva.org/en/articles/final-years/)

## The signature

![Detail of the painted signature: «FOZILVA»](https://img.chicodasilva.org/signatures/chico-da-silva-signature-1983-jcc-030-chicodasilva.org-640.jpg)

*The canvas is signed “FOZILVA”, at the center of the lower edge. The D and the S are reversed, so it reads as the artist's usual signature, “F. D. Silva”.*

## Provenance

1.  The artist, Fortaleza, 1983
2.  Private collection
3.  João Cunha Collection

## How to credit

[Photographs free to reuse, with credit (CC BY 4.0)](https://chicodasilva.org/en/about/#license)

Chico da Silva, “Cockfight” (1983). Photo: Eric Keki, João Cunha Collection, CC BY 4.0. https://chicodasilva.org/id/jcc-030

The license covers the photograph, not the painting.

## Also on Wikimedia

-   [Wikidata item](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q140751152)
-   [File on Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chico_da_Silva_-_1983_-_Cockfight_-_Acrylic_on_canvas_-_50x70_cm_-_Jo%C3%A3o_Cunha_Collection.jpg)

## For IIIF viewers

-   [IIIF manifest](https://chicodasilva.org/iiif/jcc-030/manifest.json)