Arthur Timótheo da Costa (Rio de Janeiro RJ 1882 - Idem 1922)
Arthur Timótheo da Costa was a painter, designer, set designer, carver and decorator. He began his studies at the Casa da Moeda, where he attended the drawing course and had contact with the process of recording images, following the printing of coins and stamps. In 1894, encouraged by the director of the institution, Enes de Souza, he enrolled, together with his brother João Timótheo da Costa, at the National School of Fine Arts (ENBA), attending the classes of Bérard, Zeferino da Costa, Rodolfo Amoedo and Henrique Bernardelli. Between 1895 and 1900, he informally learned scenography techniques with the Italian Oreste Coliva. He participated in several editions of the General Exhibition of Fine Arts, receiving the award for travel abroad in 1907. The following year, he left for Paris, where he remained for about two years. In 1911, he traveled to Italy as a member of the group of artists responsible for the decoration of the Brazilian pavilion at the Turin International Exhibition. In 1919, he founded, with other artists, the Brazilian Society of Fine Arts, in Rio de Janeiro, and proposed, in 1920, the free participation of artists affiliated in the General Exhibition of Fine Arts. That same year, he executed with his brother the decoration of the Salão Nobre of Fluminense Futebol Clube. In 1921, he participated for the last time in the General Exhibition of Fine Arts. He died the following year, as an intern at the hospice of the alienated in Rio de Janeiro.
Critical Comment
The painter Arthur Timótheo da Costa has a humble childhood. Very young, he becomes an apprentice at the Casa da Moeda in Rio de Janeiro, where he begins to have drawing lessons. There, the artist also comes into contact with the processes of recording images by following the printing of stamps and coins. With the encouragement of the director of the institution, Enes de Souza, Arthur Timótheo da Costa, he is sent, in 1894, together with his brother, João Timótheo da Costa (1879 - 1930), to the National School of Fine Arts - ENBA, and is Student of Bérard (1846 - 1910), Zeferino da Costa (1840 - 1915), Rodolfo Amoedo (1857 - 1941) and Henrique Bernardelli (1858 - 1936). In addition to dedicating himself to formal studies at ENBA, he informally learns scenography, working as an assistant to the Italian Oreste Coliva, from 1895 to 1900.
In 1905, the artist makes his debut at the General Exhibition of Belas Arts, showing two paintings: in front of the model and rebuke, but is not very successful. He was most successful in 1907, when he won the overseas travel award, which led him to move to Paris the following year. After the Parisian season, he travels through Italy and Spain. During the European stay, his painting changes considerably, to the point that the critic José Roberto Teixeira Leite said that the "Arthur Timótheo da Costa who returns from Paris after two years of absence is not the same as he had followed there so little". impressionists, the line stops structuring the painting, the shapes are not restricted to the rigidity of the contour, the volumes are modeled in the brush stroke, which becomes more open and more marked.
After returning to Brazil, in 1910, Arthur Timótheo da Costa performs one of the most exemplary paintings of his relationship with the avant-garde painting: The Forge (1911). According to sociologist Gilda de Mello e Souza, this work would have anticipated modern painting in Brazil, both in the theme, of the harsh toil of industrial work, and in the treatment, which erases the design and structure of the shapes through apparent and vigorous brushstrokes.2 In 1911, The artist goes to Italy, invited to decorate the Brazilian pavilion at the international exhibition in Turin. He carries out this endeavor together with João Timótheo da Costa, Carlos Chambelland (1884 - 1950) and Rodolfo Chambelland (1879 - 1967). He does another decoration work in 1920, together with his brother João Timótheo da Costa, at the headquarters of Fluminense Futebol Clube. 1913, 1919 and 1920. His work, in general, continues to appear traditional themes of academic painting, especially the landscape, but deepens the elements of an approach linked to Impressionism. The brushstrokes are more marked and with faster movements. In his self-portrait (1919), the image is quite defined, but the work with the brush shapes the entire body portrayed. The effects of depth are maintained, but they are not affected by the traditional resources of light and shadow.
The last landscapes of Timótheo da Costa radicalize in the modeling by the brushstroke and give up the contour. In works such as Cais Pharux, Sol and Mercado Velho do Rio de Janeiro (1918) the design disappears under the paint marks. The brushstroke is more expressive and sometimes the artist scratches the color that had been applied to the canvas. The dynamics of colors are more prominent than the definition of the figures. Gradually, the artist stops painting. His mental illness irremediably aggravates. Hospitalized, he died on October 5, 1922.
Notes
1 LEITE, José Roberto Teixeira. eight hundred black painters. São Paulo: MWM-IFK, 1988.
2 SOUZA, Gilda de Mello e Souza. Contemporary Brazilian painting: the precursors. The Four Arts Ball. São Paulo: Livraria Dois Cidades, 1980. p. 223-247.
Criticism
"At the beginning of his artistic career, Arthur Timótheo da Costa worked for five years with the Italian scenographer Oreste Coliva, developing a peculiar skill in the execution of Theater scenarios. This characteristic, added to the charms of outdoor painting, revealed by Impressionism, and the application in technical treatment, is present in most of the artist's compositions. of striking and rigorous design, anatomically outlined details, in addition to spontaneous pasty invoice in the illuminated parts. sober of colors admirably combined".
Abbia Caparelli and others
the National Museum of Fine Arts. Preface by Alcidio Mafra de Souza. Edited by Alcidio Mafra de Souza. Texts by Abbadia Caparelli et al. São Paulo: Banco Safra, 1985.
"And whoever is tailored to be a great artist is his disciple, Mr. Arthur Timótheo da Costa, who shows us his ardent talent from day to day and his great ability to Composer. Before D'Alleluia (painted with matte ink, by process like the one Mr. Bernardelli painted the decorations of Portuguese benefit, and which, around, it was called Encalca) is a busy canvas, with many groupings and unfortunately not finished. It is done, but it is enough to tell us of the value of this young artist, extremely sympathetic for his audacity and greatly skilled."
Gonzaga Duque
Duque, Gonzaga. Salon of 1907. In: ______. Contemporaries: painters and sculptors. Rio de Janeiro: Bendicto de Souza, 1929. p. 165.
"Of all the genres of painting, however, what attracted him the most was the portrait. technique that characterized him so much. There were many admirable portraits that his brushes outlined; among them, however, it is fair to highlight the painter and eculturist Eduardo Sá, offered by the same to the National Museum of Fine Arts. by Arthur Timótheo da Costa, he painted it with true passion, with disused affection."
Francisco Acquarone
ACQUARONE, Francisco; VIEIRA, Adão de Queiroz. primors of painting in Brazil - I. 2.ed. [Rio de Janeiro]: [s.n.], 1942. [145] P.
"Arthur Timótheo da Costa is part of that generation of painters located in what is conventionally called the transition, that is, at the turn of the century. This, in fact, implies a duplicity of procedures, oscillating already between the academic norms and the new European trends that emerged with Impressionism. Like the other artists of the time, Timótheo da Costa will try to break with the usual teachings of the academy without, however, completely freeing itself from its influences. There are no examples, in Brazil at the time, of works well-resolved plastically within the impressionist concepts. Timótheo da Costa will already reveal some understanding of the moderns that were contemporary to him. His work is no longer a mere pictorial transcription of the apparent world. color an awareness of that perception. It is now the value of color a constitutive unity of the painting's own space". Bienal Brasil 20th Century: Catalog Presentation Edemar Cid Ferreira; Text José Roberto Teixeira Leite, Annateresa Fabris, Tadeu Chiarelli, Maria Alice Milliet, Walter Zanini, Agnaldo Farias; Curated by Nelson Aguilar, José Roberto Teixeira Leite, Annateresa Fabris, Tadeu Chiarelli, Maria Alice Milliet, Walter Zanini, Cacilda Teixeira da Costa, Agnaldo Farias. São Paulo: Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, 1994. p. 63.
Individual exhibitions
1912 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at the Trade Employees Association
Collective exhibitions
1905 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 12th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1906 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 13th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at ENBA - Honorable Mention of 1st Degree
1907 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 14th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, NA ENBA - Exterior Travel Award
1911 - São Paulo SP - First Brazilian Exhibition of Fine Arts, at the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios
1911 - Turin (Italy) - International Exhibition of Turin
1912 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 19th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at ENBA
1913 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 20th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, NA ENBA - small silver medal
1914 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 21st General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1918 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 25th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1919 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 26th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, NA ENBA - Great Silver Medal
1919 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Carioca Exhibition of Engraving and Strong Water
1920 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 27th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, NA ENBA - Great Gold Medal
1921 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 28th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at ENBA
Posthetic exhibitions
1923 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 30th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1940 - São Paulo SP - Retrospective Exhibition: Works of the Great Masters of Painting and His Disciples
1950 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - A Century of Brazilian Painting: 1850-1950, at MNBA
1976 - São Paulo SP - The portrait in the collection of the Pinacoteca, in the Pinacoteca do Estado
1980 - São Paulo SP - The Brazilian landscape: 1650-1976, in the Paço das Arts
1981 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Carnival universe: images and reflections, at the Art Collection
1984 - São Paulo SP - Tradition and rupture: synthesis of Brazilian art and culture, at the Fundação Bienal
1986 - São Paulo SP - nineteenth century: a turn in the century, at the state's Pinacoteca
1987 - São Paulo SP - Brazil painted by national and foreign masters: 18th - 20th centuries, at Masp
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Rio de Janeiro by Machado de Assis, at the CCBB
1993 - São Paulo SP - 19th century black painters, at the Pinacoteca do Estado
1994 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Brasil Século 20th, at the Bienal
1994 - São Paulo SP - A critical look at the 19th century collection, at the state's Pinacoteca
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Negotiated Images: Portraits of the Brazilian Elite, at CCBB
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Marines in large São Paulo collections, at the Naval and Oceanographic Museum
2000 - Porto Alegre RS - from Frans Post to Eliseu Visconti: Collection National Museum of Fine Arts - RJ Margs
2000 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazil + 500 Rediscovery Show. Negro de Corpo e Alma, at Fundação Casa França-Brasil
2000 - São Paulo SP - Brazil + 500 Rediscovery Exhibition, at Fundação Bienal
2001 - São Paulo SP - Trajectory of Light in Brazilian Art, at Itaú Cultural
2002 - Brasília DF - Barão do Rio Branco: his work and his time, in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Palácio do Itamaraty
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian art in the Fadel collection: from the restlessness of the modern to the autonomy of language, in the CCBB
2002 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian art in the Fadel collection: from the restlessness From the modern to the autonomy of language, in the CCBB
2003 - Brasília DF - Brazilian art in the Fadel collection: from the restlessness of the modern to the autonomy of language, in the CCBB
2004 - São Paulo SP - The price of seduction: Corset for Silicone, at Itaú Cultural
2012 - São Paulo SP - The two brothers João and Arthur Timótheo da Costa: Brazilian pre-modernists, Afro Brasil Museum
Source: Itaú Cultural
