Organised by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (FCG), at the Modern Art Centre (CAM), this was the first great retrospective exhibition on António Dacosta (Angra do Heroísmo, Azores, Portugal, 1914 - Paris, France, 1990) and included 120 pieces by the Portuguese painter that had not been seen or widely seen before.
A singular artist, António Dacosta's artistic career is divided into two parts by Portuguese art historiography, interrupted by an interval, a long period of silence when his production was limited and infrequent.
The first part, between 1940 and 1948-49, was defined by a particular socio-political context and a generational split with other artists working at that time: (...) The uncertainty imposed by the wars surrounding his country, first the Spanish Civil War, immediately followed by the Second World War, is clearly reflected in António Dacosta's painting, drawing and illustration at the start of the 1940s, in a surrealism that is a theatre of discomfort, a Portuguese Antithesis of Calm in which the conscious and the subconscious go hand in hand (Porfírio, José Luís, A Antítese e a Calma, António Dacosta. Catálogo Raisonné [Online]. Lisbon: FCG-CAM. [Consulted on 18.03.2016]. Available at: http://dacosta.gulbenkian.pt/textos/18-depoimentos/91-jose-luis-porfirio.html)
Fernando Rosa Dias also says about the painter's initial career that another curious thing to remember about Dacosta's first period is his placement with regard to the treasured generations of Portuguese art. Dacosta was born in the mid-1910s, too late to belong to the second modernism but too early for the following generation, born in the 1920s, which would deal with neorealism, surrealism and abstraction in the 1940s. We can therefore see in him a mediator between this generational divide (the clearest in modern Portuguese art history) (Dias, Fernando Rosa, António Dacosta - A Tentação Mítica, António Dacosta. Catálogo Raisonné [Online]. Lisbon: FCG-CAM. [Consulted on 22.03.2016]. Available at: http://dacosta.gulbenkian.pt/textos/17-ensaios/86-fernando-rosa-dias.html).
The second period began with his re-emergence in 1983-1984, when Dacosta began to produce again. He devoted himself to new painting and a clear gaze at simpler things, organised into thematic series or extravagant single pieces, a period of artistic and critical enshrinement like this 1988 exhibition, organised by the FCG and, in 1983, the National Award for Visual Arts from the International Association of Art Critics.
The exhibition comprised roughly 120 pieces made between the 1940s and 1980s, with many works that had never been seen or rarely seen before, as in the case of O Passarinheiro that, according to Rui Mário Gonçalves, revealed certain characteristics of ugliness and cruelty (Dacosta, 1988). Furthermore, some complementary material was displayed in cases, including books, brochures and manuscripts, documenting the exuberance of the artist's productive period (Azevedo, Diário de Notícias, 7 Mar. 1988).
The Department of Artistic Creation and Art Education (ACARTE) organised several guided tours during the exhibition, run by Sílvia Chicó, João Pinharanda and José Luís Porfírio, among others who it has not been possible to identify at this time.
After the event in Lisbon, the exhibition opened in Porto at the Casa de Serralves Secretariado da Cultura.
Organised by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (FCG), at the Modern Art Centre (CAM), this was the first great retrospective exhibition on António Dacosta (Angra do Heroísmo, Azores, Portugal, 1914 - Paris, France, 1990) and included 120 pieces by the Portuguese painter that had not been seen or widely seen before.
A singular artist, António Dacosta's artistic career is divided into two parts by Portuguese art historiography, interrupted by an interval, a long period of silence when his production was limited and infrequent.
The first part, between 1940 and 1948-49, was defined by a particular socio-political context and a generational split with other artists working at that time: (...) The uncertainty imposed by the wars surrounding his country, first the Spanish Civil War, immediately followed by the Second World War, is clearly reflected in António Dacosta's painting, drawing and illustration at the start of the 1940s, in a surrealism that is a theatre of discomfort, a Portuguese Antithesis of Calm in which the conscious and the subconscious go hand in hand (Porfírio, José Luís, A Antítese e a Calma, António Dacosta. Catálogo Raisonné [Online]. Lisbon: FCG-CAM. [Consulted on 18.03.2016]. Available at: http://dacosta.gulbenkian.pt/textos/18-depoimentos/91-jose-luis-porfirio.html)
Fernando Rosa Dias also says about the painter's initial career that another curious thing to remember about Dacosta's first period is his placement with regard to the treasured generations of Portuguese art. Dacosta was born in the mid-1910s, too late to belong to the second modernism but too early for the following generation, born in the 1920s, which would deal with neorealism, surrealism and abstraction in the 1940s. We can therefore see in him a mediator between this generational divide (the clearest in modern Portuguese art history) (Dias, Fernando Rosa, António Dacosta - A Tentação Mítica, António Dacosta. Catálogo Raisonné [Online]. Lisbon: FCG-CAM. [Consulted on 22.03.2016]. Available at: http://dacosta.gulbenkian.pt/textos/17-ensaios/86-fernando-rosa-dias.html).
The second period began with his re-emergence in 1983-1984, when Dacosta began to produce again. He devoted himself to new painting and a clear gaze at simpler things, organised into thematic series or extravagant single pieces, a period of artistic and critical enshrinement like this 1988 exhibition, organised by the FCG and, in 1983, the National Award for Visual Arts from the International Association of Art Critics.
The exhibition comprised roughly 120 pieces made between the 1940s and 1980s, with many works that had never been seen or rarely seen before, as in the case of O Passarinheiro that, according to Rui Mário Gonçalves, revealed certain characteristics of ugliness and cruelty (Dacosta, 1988). Furthermore, some complementary material was displayed in cases, including books, brochures and manuscripts, documenting the exuberance of the artist's productive period (Azevedo, Diário de Notícias, 7 Mar. 1988).
The Department of Artistic Creation and Art Education (ACARTE) organised several guided tours during the exhibition, run by Sílvia Chicó, João Pinharanda and José Luís Porfírio, among others who it has not been possible to identify at this time.
After the event in Lisbon, the exhibition opened in Porto at the Casa de Serralves Secretariado da Cultura.