Calasans Neto (1932 - 2006)
Calasans Neto was a painter, printmaker, illustrator, draftsman, woodcarver and set designer. He began his artistic career as a painter in the studio of Genaro de Carvalho, but soon gave up painting in favor of printmaking. At the Escola de Belas Artes of the Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA), he studied intaglio printmaking with Mário Cravo Júnior. He became known in Brazil for his skill in woodcut, specializing in the relationship between printmaking and popular culture, especially cordel.
In Salvador, he was one of the founders of the Jogralesca (a form of staged poetry reading), of the magazine Mapa and of the publishing house Editora Macunaíma. Between 1956 and 1965, he created sets for films such as Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol [Black God, White Devil], by Glauber Rocha, and Eles Não Usam Black-Tie [They Don't Wear Black Tie], by Gianfrancesco Guarnieri. He also illustrated several novels, such as Tereza Batista Cansada de Guerra [Tereza Batista: Home from the Wars] and Tieta do Agreste, by Jorge Amado.
In the 1980s, Calasans also began devoting himself to painting, returning to his initial artistic practice. He took an active part in the cultural movement of his generation, creating sets for films by Glauber Rocha and Ruy Guerra, and contributing to the founding of the magazine Mapa, aimed at Bahian intellectuals of the 1950s, and of Editora Macunaíma, specializing in illustrated books in limited editions.
Using his prints, he produced several albums, some entirely his own and others with Brazilian publishers. He made covers and illustrations for renowned books, including Tereza Batista Cansada de Guerra and Tieta do Agreste, by Jorge Amado, and História Natural de Pablo Neruda, by Vinícius de Moraes.
His career includes intense professional activity, with many exhibitions in Brazil and abroad, and his participation in the 18th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, in 1985, and the 2nd Havana Biennial, in 1986.
Calasans the Printmaker
"The spiritual insecurity of our time, which favors the degradation of the human being, endangers the supremacy of culture and stifles today's aesthetic thought. Today's artist lives in the search for the present and the confrontation with modernity - that word in search of a meaning, according to Octavio Paz.
The best summary of Calasans Neto's vast and magnificent graphic work might perhaps be the recent series of his exceptional metal prints. He who, in his early and obstinate work of a whole lifetime, resisting for so long the tedious mediocrity of an academic milieu, always seemed a definitive devotee of woodcut. A conscious and predestined artist, Calasans obeys the laws of matter and reveals a rare creative power, which gives his hidden abstraction a figural sense of telluric character. His visual language is a poetic process of great richness of signs.
In conclusion, Calasans Neto is like a bard of antiquity worshipping mythological animals, our gentle animals. Virgil's goats lend a bucolic mood to his imagery, peopling the sweetness of his graphic universe. We stand before an artist and his symbols of high contemporary and universal meaning"
Wilson Rocha
Critiques
"Calasans Neto, like some of his Bahian companions who began with the master Mário Cravo, shows himself master of the new possibilities of woodcut, which hold a whole other vocabulary that gives the handling of wood a range it seemed impossible to attain. The modulations are achieved by the author of Das Cabras with resources that only the assurance and passion of the craft can allow. Tonal modulations that for a long time seemed restricted to resources that greatly particularized the effects, already well conventionalized in the technique of wood engraving, and that the various burins and the different gouge widths delivered when handled with due skill.
Calasans Neto offers us a woodcut rich in tonal values that brilliantly personalize his work, ensuring it a just measure of creation. Without departing from a simplicity in engraving or in the use of the gouge and burin, a whole texture exuberant in expressions drawn from the engraved material itself is achieved for the greater significance of a formal context that seems to us absolutely valid both visually and graphically. Surfaces at different depths affect the printing (impression), ensuring an invaluable range of new effects, which is to say new visual meanings for modern woodcut".
Quirino Campofiorito
CALASANS NETO. Gravuras. Texto Glauber Rocha, Fernando da Rocha Peres, Carlos Drummond de Andrade. Salvador : Casa da Palavra, 1998, p. 38-39.
"(...) in Calasans Neto, there is no recourse to the composition of figures for a concerted action. Taken up again by modern art, at least since Gauguin, arrangements by juxtaposition are seen in Calasans's goats and whales, a procedure that enhances the rhythmic sense imparted to the figures, sometimes arranged processionally. (...) Rhythm in Calasans presupposes an iteration in which, even when uniformly inked, the figures rise up, utterly weightless. As an illustrator, Calasans comes much closer to cordel in Jorge Amado's Tereza Batista, through humor. The figures, relieved of scenery, are juxtaposed in non-concerted action, which makes the figures extremely visible and the action extremely clear at the same time. More than close to cordel, the Tereza Batista prints imitate it, which is made blatant in the texts engraved by Calasans Neto, who even simulates its spelling mistakes".
Leon Kossovitch e Mayra Laudanna
GRAVURA: arte brasileira do século XX. Apresentação Ricardo Ribenboim; texto Leon Kossovitch, Mayra Laudanna, Ricardo Resende São Paulo: Itaú Cultural : Cosac & Naify, 2000. p. 28.
Solo Exhibitions
1956 - Porto Alegre RS - Prints and Monotypes, at Galeria Dariano
1956 - Caxias do Sul RS - Prints, at Associação de Cultura Franco-Brasileira
1958 - Belo Horizonte MG - Woodcuts, at Galeria Interiores
1958 - Salvador BA - Sails Series, at Galeria Domus
1959 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Pequena Galeria da Biblioteca Pública
1960 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at MAP
1960 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Macunaíma
1962 - Salvador BA - Solo, at MAM/BA
1964 - Salvador BA - Taigara Series, at Galeria Querino
1965 - Salvador BA - Woodcuts, at Galeria Convivium
1966 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Woodcut Matrices, at Galeria Bonino
1966 - Salvador BA - Matrices, at Galeria Convivium
1968 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Prints from the Album das Cabras [Goats], at Galeria Bonino
1968 - São Paulo SP - Matrices, at A Galeria
1969 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Print Matrices, at Galeria da Praça
1973 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Prints from the Book Tereza Batista, at Galeria da Editora Europa América
1974 - London (England) - 30 Wood-Engravings by Calasans Neto, at Kendal & Dent Ltda.
1974 - Washington (United States) - Prints from the Book Tereza Batista, at The Library of Congress, Hispanic Society Room
1975 - Salvador BA - Prints from the Album Do Jazz and 10 Monotypes on the Theme, at Galeria ACBEU
1976 - Washington (United States) - Art Gallery of Brazilian, at Brazilian American Cultural Institute
1978 - Natal RN - Eleven Prints for the Book Tieta do Agreste, at Teatro Alberto Maranhão
1978 - California (United States) - Solo, at California State University
1978 - Fortaleza CE - Solo, at Museu da Universidade do Ceará
1978 - Resende RJ - Woodcut, at MAM/Resende
1978 - Goiânia GO - Matrices, at Casa Grande Galeria de Arte
1978 - Brasília DF - Matrices, at Marchant Marlene Gastal
1978 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Woodcut, at Biblioteca Nacional de Lisboa
1979 - Salvador BA - Monotypes, at Shopping Center Iguatemi
1980 - Quebec (Canada) - Prints, at Université Laval Cité Universitaire
1981 - California (United States) - Solo, at California State University
1981 - Washington (United States) - Paintings and Monoprints, at Washington World Gallery
1981 - Fortaleza CE - Prints from the Albums Tereza Batista Cansada de Guerra and Itapuã, at Museu da Universidade do Ceará
1981 - New York (United States) - Color US Brazilian, at W & J Sloane
1981 - Dakar (Senegal) - Semaine Culturelle de Bahia au Théâtre Daniel Sorano
1982 - Salvador BA - Prints from the Album Itapuã Sol, at Livraria Civilização Brasileira
1982 - Paris (France) - Solo, at Hotel Inter Continental
1982 - Estoril (Portugal) - Prints from the Album Atlantis, at Galeria do Cassino Estoril
1983 - Porto Alegre RS - Paintings, at Galeria Modus Vivendi
1983 - Salvador BA - Night Birds of Abaeté, at Art Boulevard Galeria
1984 - Salvador BA - Monotypes for the Book A Lenda do Pássaro que Roubou o Fogo [The Legend of the Bird Who Stole Fire], at Núcleo de Arte do Desenbanco
1984 - Feira de Santana BA - Monotypes for the Book A Lenda do Pássaro que Roubou o Fogo [The Legend of the Bird Who Stole Fire], at Museu Regional de Feira de Santana
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Antonio Bandeira
1984 - Luanda (Angola) - Paintings, at União de Artistas Plásticos
1985 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Escritório de Arte da Bahia
1986 - Maceió AL - Monotypes, at Fundação Pierre Chalita
1986 - João Pessoa PB - Monotypes, at Galeria Gamela de Arte Ltda.
1987 - Fortaleza CE - Metamorphosis, at Imperial Othon Palace
1987 - Brasília DF - Duality of Metamorphosis, at Galeria JBR
1987 - Salvador BA - Duality of Metamorphosis, at Galeria Anarte
1988 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Symbology of Metamorphosis, at Galeria Bonino
1988 - Brasília DF - Monotypes, at Casa Thomas Jefferson
1989 - Salvador BA - Monotypes, at Galeria Canizares
1990 - Salvador BA - Urban Fragments, at Ada Galeria de Arte
1991 - Salvador BA - Chronicle in Eight Times, at ACBEU
1992 - Salvador BA - Monotypes for the Book Os Deuses Lares [The Household Gods], at Núcleo de Arte do Desenbanco
1992 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Monotypes, at Lojas Quintão
1992 - Zurich (Switzerland) - Metamorphosis, at Wellenberg Hotel
1992 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Roberto Alban Galeria de Arte
1992 - Salvador BA - 25 Monotypes: Tereza Batista and Tieta. Exhibition Celebrating Jorge Amado's 80th Birthday, at Fundação Casa de Jorge Amado
1993 - Salvador BA - Paintings, at Galeria Prova do Artista/Hotel Sofitel
1994 - Salvador BA - Monotypes, at Galeria Companhia das Índias
1995 - Fortaleza CE - Drypoint and Burin Prints, at Galeria Jorge Amado da Aliança Francesa
1995 - Campos do Jordão SP - Prints, at Casa da Xilogravura
1996 - Salvador BA - Prints from the Book História Natural de Pablo Neruda, by Vinicius de Moraes, at MAM/BA
1997 - Salvador BA - Drypoint and Burin Prints, at ACBEU
1997 - Salvador BA - Paintings, at Espaço Calasans Neto
1997 - Bagé RS - Prints, at Museu da Gravura Brasileira
1997 - Cachoeira BA - Solo, at Fundação Museu Hansen Bahia
1997 - Brasília DF - Drypoint and Burin Prints, at Casa Thomas Jefferson
1998 - Salvador BA - Fruit Stand. Monotypes, at Associação Cultural Dante Alighieri
1998 - Salvador BA - Monotypes, at Galeria da Fundação Casa de Jorge Amado
1998 - Salvador BA - Lagoon and Sea, at MAM/BA
1999 - Feira de Santana BA - Calasans Neto: Paintings, at Galeria de Arte Carlo Barbosa
2000 - Salvador BA - Solo, at MAM/BA
Group Exhibitions
1952 - Feira de Santana BA - 1st Feira de Santana Modern Art Exhibition, at Banco Econômico
1956 - Salvador BA - Modern Artists of Bahia, at Galeria Oxumaré
1958 - Belo Horizonte MG - Brazilian Printmaking, at MAP
1958 - Salvador BA - Paintings, at Forte de Monte Serrat
1959 - Salvador BA - Opening of the Museu de Arte e História da Bahia
1960 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 9th National Art Salon
1960 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - New Artists from Bahia, at Galeria do Ibeu
1960 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Three Bahian Artists, at Galeria Macunaíma
1960 - Salvador BA - Seven Modern Artists from Bahia, at MAM/BA
1960 - São Paulo SP - 9th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1962 - Paris (France) - 2nd International Exhibition of Contemporary Film Posters
1962 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - New Artists from Bahia, at Galeria do Ibeu
1963 - Paris (France) - Young Brazilian Printmakers, at Casa do Brasil
1963 - Salvador BA - Artists from the Northeast, at Museu de Arte Popular do Unhão
1964 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Artists from Bahia, at Copacabana Palace
1964 - Salvador BA - Abstract Artists from Bahia, at Instituto de Cultura Brasil-Alemanha
1965 - Salvador BA - Printmaking from Bahia, at Galeria Convivium
1966 - Madrid and Barcelona (Spain) - Artists from Bahia, at Instituto de Cultura Hispânica
1966 - Salvador BA - 1st National Biennial of Visual Arts - special room
1966 - Washington D. C. and Philadelphia (United States) - Bahian Artists
1967 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Art Study Cycle, at Galeria Macunaíma
1967 - São Paulo SP - Artists from Bahia, at A Galeria
1968 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - International Film Posters, at MAM/RJ
1968 - Salvador BA - Great Auction, at Galeria Renot
1969 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Greats of Bahia, at Galeria Irlandini
1970 - São Paulo SP - Artists from Bahia, at A Galeria
1970 - São Paulo SP - Art Fair, at A Galeria
1971 - Fortaleza CE - Artists from Bahia, at Galeria Vila Rica
1971 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Seven Printmakers Print Album, at Mini Gallery
1971 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Young Art from Bahia, at Galeria Voltaico
1971 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Visual Artists from Bahia, at Teatro Castro Alves
1971 - Salvador BA - Group show, at Banco Crefisul
1971 - São Paulo SP - 3rd Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1971 - São Paulo SP - Artists from Bahia, at A Galeria
1971 - São Paulo SP - Bahian Woodcarvers, at A Galeria
1972 - Belo Horizonte MG - Bahian Artists, at Galeria Ami
1972 - Belo Horizonte MG - Three Artists from Bahia, at Galeria Guignard
1972 - Milan (Italy) - Bahian Artists, at Galeria Chettini
1972 - Salvador BA - Homage to the Book Gente da Terra, by Antonio Celestino, at MAM/BA
1972 - Salvador BA and Recife PE - Bahia Art Today, at MAM/BA
1972 - São Paulo SP - 50 Years of Modern Art in Brazil since the Week of '22, at A Galeria
1972 - São Paulo SP - Artists from Bahia, at A Galeria
1972 - São Paulo SP - Printmakers, at A Galeria
1973 - Belo Horizonte MG - Jorge Amado and the Artists of Tereza Batista, at Galeria Ami
1973 - Brasília DF - 4 Bahians Exhibition, at Múltipla Galeria de Arte
1973 - Salvador BA - Didactic Exhibition of 22 Bahian Artists, at Fundação Patrimônio Cultural da Bahia
1973 - Salvador BA - Homage to Genaro de Carvalho, at Galeria Berlinda
1974 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Brazilian Film Poster, at MAM/RJ
1974 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - A Short History of Brazilian Painting, at Mini Gallery
1974 - São Paulo SP - Artists from Bahia, at A Galeria
1975 - New Orleans (United States) - Album Do Jazz, at New Orleans Jazz Museum
1975 - Salvador BA - Group show, at Galeria Tempo
1975 - Salvador BA - Bahia Art Festival, at Galeria Canizares
1975 - São Paulo SP - The Brazilian Mulata, at A Galeria
1975 - Washington D. C. (United States) - Four Artists from Bahia, at Art Gallery of the Brazilian American Cultural Institute
1976 - Cachoeira BA - 1st Cachoeira Winter Festival
1976 - Salvador BA - Collection of the Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia, at MAM/BA
1976 - Salvador BA - Group show, at Galeria Arco-Íris
1976 - Salvador BA - Group show, at Panorama Galeria Arte
1976 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at A Galeria
1977 - Natal RN - Group show, at Biblioteca Câmara Cascudo
1977 - Salvador BA - Printmaking in Bahia, at MAM/BA
1977 - Salvador BA - Centenary of the Escola de Belas Artes of the Universidade da Bahia, at MAM/BA
1977 - Salvador BA - Group show, at Galeria Grossman
1977 - Salvador BA - Group show, at Panorama Galeria Arte
1977 - São Paulo SP - 9th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1978 - Salvador BA - Bahia Art Version 78, at Eucatexpo
1978 - Salvador BA - Group show, at Galeria Grossman
1978 - Salvador BA - Exhibition of Green, at Centro de Turismo de Natal
1978 - Salvador BA - Brazilian Printmaking, at Galeria Grossman
1979 - Salvador BA - Group show, at the Citibank headquarters
1979 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at A Galeria
1980 - Estoril (Portugal) - Six Artists from Bahia, during the Bahia Week in Estoril
1980 - Fortaleza CE - 11 Artists from Bahia, at Museu de Arte da UFCE
1980 - Salvador BA - Group show, at Bistrô do Luiz
1980 - Salvador BA - Printmaking, a Major Art, at Museu Costa Pinto
1980 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Galeria Grossman
1981 - Salvador BA - 1st Salon of Veterans and Newcomers, at Vilas do Atlântico
1981 - Salvador BA - 5 Artists, at Hotel Le Meridien Bahia
1981 - Salvador BA - Group show, at Época Galeria
1981 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Galeria Grossman
1982 - Bilbao (Spain) - Artender 82. Muestra Internacional de Arte Gráfico [International Graphic Art Show]
1982 - Brasília DF - Three Artists from Bahia, at Casa Thomas Jefferson
1982 - London (England) - Brazilian Exhibition, at The Wraxall Gallery
1982 - Londrina PR - Group show, at Galeria Bahiarte
1982 - Maracaibo (Venezuela) - 2nd Bienal del Grabado de América, at Museu Municipal de Artes Gráficas
1982 - Salvador BA - Bahia as Seen by Its Artists, at Shopping Itaigara
1982 - Salvador BA - Contemporary Visual Artists at the 4th Latin American Monastic Meeting
1982 - Salvador BA - Bahian Artists, at Galeria de Arte Alberto Bonfiglioli
1982 - Salvador BA - The Space of Culture, at Galeria de Arte Alberto Bonfiglioli
1982 - São Paulo SP - 15th Contemporary Art Exhibition, at Chapel Art Show
1983 - Porto Alegre RS - Landscape through Brazilian Artists, at Galeria Modus Vivendi
1983 - Salvador BA - The Influence of Candomblé on the Art of Bahia. Celebrating the 90th Birthday of Mãe Menininha do Gantois, at MAB
1983 - Salvador BA - Euclides da Cunha's Os Sertões, at MAM/BA
1983 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Chapel Art Show
1984 - Curitiba PR - 6th Curitiba City Printmaking Show - Woodcut in the History of Brazilian Art, at Casa Romário Martins
1984 - Dakar (Senegal) - Afro-Bahia Exhibition, at A Galeria Nationale
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Woodcut in the History of Brazilian Art, at Funarte. Galeria Sérgio Milliet
1984 - Salvador BA - 1st Sul América Show of Bahian Art, at Bahia Othon Palace
1984 - São Paulo SP - 15th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1984 - São Paulo SP - 17th Contemporary Art Exhibition, at Chapel Art Show
1985 - Costa Rica (Central America) - Afro-Bahian Art, at Temporales
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Group show, at Way Galeria de Arte
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 8th National Visual Arts Salon, at MAM/RJ
1985 - São Paulo SP - 18th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Fundação Bienal
1986 - Brasília DF - Bahians in Brasília, at Casa da Manchete
1986 - Havana (Cuba) - 2nd Havana Biennial
1986 - Salvador BA - Bahia of All Arts, IBM Latin American Convention, at Centro de Convenções da Bahia
1986 - Salvador BA - Reflections, at Art Boulevard Galeria
1987 - Itaparica BA - Group show, at Club Mediterranée
1987 - Itaparica BA - Group show, at Galeão Sacramento
1987 - Salvador BA - 12 Brazilian Artists, at Anarte Galeria
1987 - Salvador BA - Group show, at Galeria Rodin
1987 - São Paulo SP - 20th Contemporary Art Exhibition, at Chapel Art Show
1988 - Estoril (Portugal) - Exhibition Celebrating 50 Years of Writer Fernando Namora's Literary Life, at Cassino do Estoril
1988 - Porto Alegre RS - Group show, at Sala Aurora de Arte
1988 - Salvador BA - Group show, at Galeria da Câmara Municipal
1988 - Salvador BA - Group show, at Shopping Barra
1988 - Salvador BA - The Illustrators of Jorge Amado, at Fundação Casa de Jorge Amado
1988 - Salvador BA - Summer Project, at MAM/BA
1988 - São Paulo SP - Bahian Art Week, at Hotel Transamérica
1991 - Fortaleza CE - Bahians Honoring Floriano Teixeira, at Escritório de Arte do Ceará
1991 - Salvador BA - Rosa Ibarra and Calasans Neto, at ACBEU
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Eco Art, at MAM/RJ
1992 - Salvador BA - Interpreting America, at ACBEU
1992 - Salvador BA - Universo Amado [Amado's Universe], at Anarte Galeria
1993 - João Pessoa PB - Woodcut: From Cordel to the Gallery, at Funesc
1994 - São Paulo SP - Woodcut: From Cordel to the Gallery, at Metrô
1995 - Salvador BA - Contemporary Artists from Bahia, at Galeria Canizares
1995 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Printmakers at Tríade, at Clube da Gravura
1996 - Salvador BA - Homage to the President of Chile Eduardo Frei, at MAM/BA
1997 - Feira de Santana BA - Twelve Brazilian Artists, at Espaço Cultural de Feira de Santana
1997 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Fifteen Monotypes Bahia Week, at Hotel Intercontinental
1997 - Salvador BA - A Toast to Coffee, at Espaço Cafelier
1999 - Curitiba PR - Arte-Arte Salvador 450 Years, at Fundação Cultural de Curitiba. Solar do Barão
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Arte-Arte Salvador 450 Years, at Museu Histórico da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Mostra Rio Gravura. Brazilian Modern Printmaking: Museu Nacional de Belas Artes Collection, at MNBA
1999 - Salvador BA - 100 Visual Artists from Bahia, at Museu de Arte Sacra
1999 - Salvador BA - Arte-Arte Salvador 450 Years, at MAM/BA
2000 - São Paulo SP - Investigations. Brazilian Printmaking, at Itaú Cultural
2001 - Brasília DF - Investigations. Brazilian Printmaking, at Galeria Itaú Cultural
2001 - Penápolis SP - Investigations. Brazilian Printmaking, at Galeria Itaú Cultural
Source: Itaú Cultural
