Carlos Bastos (Salvador BA 1925 - Idem 2004)
Pintor, illustrator, scenographer.
Carlos Frederico Bastos Starts his artistic training At the School of Fine Arts at the University of Bahia, where he joined in 1944 and attends classes by João Mendonça Filho, Raymundo Aguiar and Alberto Valença. That year, he participates, alongside Mario Cravo Júnior and Genaro, in the 1st Exhibition of Modern Art of Bahia. He moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1946 and completed his studies at the National School of Fine Arts - ENBA. He also studies at the Brazilian Society of Fine Arts and at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation - FGV, a student from Santa Rosa, Iberê Camargo and Carlos Oswald. At the same time, he takes private courses with Candido Portinari and scenography classes with Martim Gonçalves. In 1947, back in Salvador, he organized his first individual in the Public Library. That same year, he specializes in the Arts Students League, New York. He goes to Paris, in 1949, where he takes courses in mural painting and fresco at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts and drawing classes at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. Back in Brazil, in 1951, he participated in the 1st Salon of Modern Art, 1952, and the Black and White Salon, 1954, among others. After a new period in Paris, from 1957 to 1958, he sets up his studio at Solar da Jaqueira in Salvador, settling in the city. In 1962, an accident keeps him in a wheelchair for a long period. Edita Santos and Anjos da Bahia, with a preface by Jorge Amado, in 1965, when a paralysis takes him to a new period in a wheelchair. It illustrates several books in the 1970s and 1980s.
Critical Comment
The scenario of Carlos Bastos' work is Bahia, which he represents with a realistic attitude. Using a meticulous and strong colorful design, its canvases explain commitment to the region's record and culture. In this sense, his production dialogues with that of other artists working in Bahia such as Carybé, Genaro, Mario Cravo Júnior and Jenner Augusto. The portraits occupy a prominent place in the 1940s (Self-portrait, 1943, Portrait of Wallace Michael, 1948, and Woman with Cat, 1948), remaining an important vein in the mature work (Portrait of Nair and Genaro, 1961, and Portrait of Maria Emília, 1971). The festivities - another highly explored thematic axis - provide new possibilities for the expression of color and local life (A Procession, 1947, Civic Festival, 1958, Procession of Senhor Bom Jesus dos Navegantes, 1973/1975, and Festa de São Pedro in Praia do Forte, 1995). Also the popular figures, blacks, abandoned boys, players, etc. They are often summoned to compose exuberant color screens and/or extensive panels. The religious, Catholic and Afro-Brazilian universe, occupies a prominent place within this thematic range.
If painting is one of the great expressions of Bastos, its name is linked to the murals and panels it makes for public buildings that aim to figure the mystical soul of the people, their symbols and beliefs. Although attentive to the social dimension, its main concern is shapes, bodies, lines and colors, which leads several critics to underline the "sensuality" of these works. In Roger Bastide's terms: "What impresses the spectator, first of all, is the sensuality that is not like in German expressionism, for example, a revolt against bourgeois morality, but that is spontaneous, natural. Do not fear decorativism."
Criticism
"Bahia by origin and conviction, remains behind all his painting this magical atmosphere of a city full of history, legends and luminosity. Significant are the angels of Carlos Bastos, his blacks and blacks, his abandoned boys, his amorous nuns, their doors opening to worlds of sad orgies, their windows hiding treacherous alcoves, their winged candles sliding through the Blue Sea of Bahia, taking dream boats with pigeons and statues".
Roberto Pontual
PONTUAL, Roberto. In: Gerot-Gallery. Carlos Bastos: Recent paintings: Catalog. São Paulo, 1983.
"Carlos Bastos dispenses with the landscape to face the most serious problem of the plastic organization. Therefore, instead of indicating the poeticity of its paintings, I prefer to point out the plasticity, which is the decisive of his current and exuberant painting".
Clarival of the Prado Valladares
Valladares, Clarival do Prado. In: Gerot-Gallery. Carlos Bastos: Recent paintings: Catalog. São Paulo, 1983.
"Carlos Bastos, the first modern painter from Bahia to individually expose to an audience dominated by the deep tradition of four centuries of academic art and as such capable of repeating, without any originality, the same typical reaction in the face of the change of guidelines so ingrained and the introduction of new patterns and values of art. The rejection was prompt and natural, the discussion was exacerbated and the exaltation reached the highest point of violence, even reaching the destruction of some exposed canvases. Modernist were cut, leaving an eloquent proof of how modern the then young painter Carlos Bastos was in the 1940s".
Carlos Eduardo da Rocha
Rocha, Carlos Eduardo da. In: Gerot-Gallery. Carlos Bastos: Recent paintings: Catalog. São Paulo, 1983.
"Extraordinary designer, with a complete mastery over an exuberant but precise lineation, its design is the most baroque of those who made artists their patricians and contemporaries. intense movement and the dense poetics of its wealth, the provocative sensuality of its set of human forms, the complete interconnection of its fruits, and its leaves, the magical unity of the complex of apparently disconnected things, the strange freedom of what was studied in depth and resolved with enhanced resourcefulness. He did it like no one else, his works in this field are exquisite. It is always a pleasure to look at his interpretation of the simple architectures of the old colonial houses, always animated with a deep detail of humanity, a nothingness of grace that gives them a whole life of evocation (...) the soul And the atmosphere of Bahia is prisoners of its oils idealized with the same love and the same tenderness, but as if it did not exist, in fact, and the true one was in his work as a painter. No one can stop swearing that the city of the Savior, the one he idealized geographically wrong, but perhaps plastically and even sentimentally right." Sylvia Menezes de Athayde Salvador: Desenbanco Arts Center, 1985.
"(...) Is it possible to speak in a Bahian style? Bahia, strictly speaking with its strongly colorful houses, its folklore, its palm beaches and its shining gold churches, is a trap for the artist. So many models and so many enchantments can make you a prisoner of reality. It is necessary to think about Bahia again and not copy it: it is necessary to look for your soul, or, more precisely, it is necessary to acquire a Bahian soul for later, whatever the subject chosen, a portrait of a teenager, a simple set of lines or a painted plate, bring to the canvas all the sensuality and all the mysticism of the city of all sins. In this sense, it seems to me possible to say of the painting by Carlos Bastos that he is from Bahia, even when he paints the skyscrapers of New York or the beasts of a zoo, because his sensitivity is a tropical sensitivity. What impresses the spectator, above all, is the sensuality that is not like in German expressionism, for example, a revolt against bourgeois morality, but that is spontaneous, natural. Color sensuality, which leads him not to fear decorativism".
Roger Bastide
Carlos Bastos: 40 years of painting. Presentation by Sylvia Menezes de Athayde. Salvador: Desenbanco Arts Center, 1985.
Individual exhibitions
1947- Salvador BA - Individual, at the Municipal Public Library
1948 - New York (United States) - individual, Norlyst Gallery
1949 - Salvador BA - Individual, at the Municipal Public Library
1951 - Salvador BA - Individual, at the Anjo Azul bar
1953 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at the Copacabana Palace Hotel
1954 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at the Art Gallery
1955 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at the Exclusividades store
1955 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at Galeria Vimarte
1955 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at the Copacabana Palace Hotel
1956 - Salvador BA - Individual, at Galeria Oxumaré
1960 - Salvador BA - Individual, at Bar Anjo Azul
1961 - Salvador BA - Individual, at the GEAD Gallery
1961 - Salvador BA - Individual, at the inauguration of the Velick Building
1962 - Salvador BA - Individual, at the Manoel Querino Gallery
1963 - Salvador BA - Carlos Bastos: Drawings, in the Galeria Manoel Querino
1964 - Salvador BA - Individual, at Galeria Manoel Querino
1965 - Salvador BA - Individual, at Galeria Convivium
1965 - Salvador BA - Individual, at Galeria Manoel Querino
1965 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at Galeria Atrium
1966 - Salvador BA - Individual, at Atrium Art Gallery
1966 - Salvador BA - Individual, at Galeria Convivium
1966 - Salvador BA - Individual, at the Socila Club.
1968 - Feira de Santana BA - Individual, at the Regional Museum of Art
1968 - Salvador BA - Individual, at Solar da Jaqueira.
1968 - São Paulo SP - Individual, in Atrium
1969 - Belo Horizonte MG - Individual, at the Guignard Gallery
1969 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at the Portal Art Gallery
1970 - Porto Alegre RS - Individual, at Margs
1971 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at Galeria Marte 21
1971 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at Terrace Club
1971 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at the Documenta Galeria de Art
1972 - Salvador BA - Individual, At Galeria Círculo
1975 - Salvador BA - Carlos Bastos: Retrospective, at Teatro Castro Alves
1976 - Porto Alegre RS - Individual, in the Art Gallery of the Shopping Center
1977 - Porto Alegre RS - Individual, IAB/RS
1977 - Salvador BA - Individual, at Shopping Iguatemi
1978 - Joinville SC - Individual, at Galeria Lascaux
1978 - Salvador BA - Individual, at the Art Museum Sacra
1979 - Salvador BA - Individual, at the easel gallery of art
1979 - Salvador BA - Individual, at Centro Empresarial Iguatemi
1979 - Salvador BA - Individual, on the Advisory Board of Cocoa Producers
1980 - Recife PE - Individual, at the Officina Gallery
1981 - Salvador BA - Individual, at the Kattya Art Gallery
1981 - Salvador BA - Individual, at the Genaro de Carvalho Gallery
1983 - Salvador BA - Individual, at the time Art Gallery
1983 - São Paulo SP - Carlos Bastos: Recent Paintings, at Gerot Galeria
1984 - Porto Alegre RS - Individual, at Masson Galeria de Arte
1985 - Salvador BA - Carlos Bastos: 1945/1985, 40 years of painting, at the Downtown Arts Center
1985 - Salvador BA - Individual, at O Easelle Art Gallery
1987 - Salvador BA - Individual, at Anarte Gallery
1988 - Washington (United States) - Individual, at the Museum of Modern Art Latin, at the OAS
1989 - Salvador BA - Individual, at the Artist Prova Gallery
1989 - Salvador BA - Individual, at Paulo Darzé Galeria de Art
1990 - Salvador BA - Individual, at Galeria Prova do Artista
1992 - Salvador BA - Individual, at the Hotel Sofitel Quatro Rodas
1992 - Salvador BA - Individual, at Praia do Forte Resort Hotel
1993 - Lauro de Freitas BA - Individual, at the Portão Tourist Terminal
1994 - Salvador BA - Carlos Bastos: Paintings, in the artist's test Gallery of Art
1994 - Salvador BA - Artist's Test, at the Rio Vermelho Gallery
1996 - Salvador BA - Individual, at the Portal Art Gallery
1996 - Salvador BA - Individual, at the Arcada das Artes Galeria
1997 - Salvador BA - Individual, at Anarte Galeria
1998 - Salvador BA - Individual, at the gallery of the Brazil-United States Cultural Association
1998 - Feira de Santana BA - Individual, at the Carlo Barbosa Art Gallery
1998 - Salvador BA - Individual, at the Hispanic Culture Center Caballeros de Santiago
1999 - Frankfurt (Germany) - Individual, at the Hotel Maritin
2000 - Salvador BA - Individual, at the Museum of Modern Art - MAM
Collective exhibitions
1944 - Salvador BA - 1st Art Salon Americana, at the Cultural Association Brazil United States - ACBEU
1946 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Eisaburo Nagasawa and Carlos Bastos, at the Brazilian Press Association - ABI
1947 - Salvador BA - Mario Cravo Júnior and Carlos Bastos, at the Gallery of the Brazil-United States Cultural Association
1949 - Salvador BA - 1st Baiano Salão de Belas Artes, at the Hotel Bahia - Bronze Medal
1952 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st National Salon of Modern Art, MAM/RJ
1952 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Annual Arts Hall of the Ministry of Education and Culture
1952 - Salvador BA - 4th Bahia Salon of Fine Arts
1953 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 2nd National Salon of Modern Art, at MNBA
1953 - Salvador BA - 5th Bahia Fine Arts Hall
1953 - Salvador BA - Collective, at Galeria Oxumarê
1953 - Salvador BA - Poty, Carlos Bastos Raimundo Oliveira, at Galeria Oxumaré
1953 - São Paulo SP - 2nd São Paulo International Biennial
1953 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 2nd National Salon of Modern Art
1954 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 3rd National Salon of Modern Art
1954 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Artists, at the Museum of the National Faculty of Architecture
1954 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Black and White Salon, at the Palácio da Cultura - Guest Artist
1954 - Salvador BA - 4th Bahia Salon of Fine Arts
1954 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Collective, at the Ministry of Education and Culture
1955 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 4th National Salon of Modern Art
1955 - Salvador BA - 5th Bahia Salon of Fine Arts
1956 - Salvador BA - Modern artists from Bahia, at Galeria Oxumaré
1956 - São Paulo SP - Bahian artists, at MAM/SP
1956 - Salvador BA - Bahian artists, at the Public Library of the State of Bahia
1957 - Madrid (Spain) - Brazilian modern artists
1958 - Salvador BA - 1st Bahian poetry and painting exhibition, Galeria Domus
1958 - Salvador BA - Collective, at the Monte Serrat Fort
1959 - Salvador BA - Modern Artists from Bahia, at the School of Dentistry
1959 - Salvador BA - Collective, at the Art and History of Bahia
1960 - Paris (France) - Brazilian modern art
1962 - Los Angeles (United States) - Bahian Artists, at Usis Gallery
1962 - Salvador BA - Artistas Baianos, Usis Gallery
1964 - Philadelphia (United States) - Brazilian Art Festival
1964 - Paris (France) - Salon Comparaisons, at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
1964 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 12 Bahian artists, at the Copacabana Palace Hotel
1965 - Hamburg (Germany) - Bahians in Hamburg
1965 - Los Angeles (United States) - 2nd Brazilian Art Contemporary
1965 - New Orleans (United States) - Brazilian Art Show, at New Orleans Public Library
1965 - New Orleans (United States) - Collective, at the Isaac Delgado Museum of Art
1966 - Porto Alegre RS - Arte Baiana, at Galeria Candido Portinari
1966 - Salvador BA - 1st National Arts Biennial Plastics - Special Room
1966 - Salvador BA - For the 154th anniversary of the foundation, at the Public Library of Salvador
1966 - Philadelphia (United States) - Collective, at the International Festival Ball
1967 - Salvador BA - Collective Exhibition de Natal, at Panorama Art Gallery
1967 - São Paulo SP - Artists from Bahia, at A Galeria
1968 - Salvador BA - 2nd National Biennial of Plastic Arts, at MAM/BA - Jury Exemption
1969 - Philadelphia (United States) - Bahia Week in Allentown, Harrisburg and Pittsbourgh
1969 - Pennsylvania (United States) - Bahia Week in Pennsylvania at USIS Gallery
1969 - São Paulo SP - Carybé, Carlos Bastos and Mario Cravo Jr., at the Portal Art Gallery
1969 - Salvador BA - Cyber Congress, at the Brazil Germany Cultural Institute - ICBA
1970 - New York (United States) - 14 Brazilian artists, at Iramar Gallery
1971 - São Paulo SP - Artists from Bahia, at A Galeria
1971 - São Paulo SP - Collective, at Documenta Galeria de Arte
1971 - São Paulo SP - Aves e Pássaros, at Sobrado Galeria de Arte
1971 - Washington (United States) - Collective, at the Brazilian American Cultural Institute
1972 - Milan (Italy) - Bahia in Milan, at Gallerie Schettini
1972 - Salvador BA - Collective, at the easel gallery of art
1972 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - O Cristo, at the Royal Art Gallery
1973 - Belo Horizonte MG - Artists of Tereza Batista Tired of Guerra, at the Ami
1973 - Salvador BA - Panorama da Arte Moderna, at MAM/BA
1974 - Salvador BA - Arte Bahia 74, at O Easel Galeria de Arte
1974 - São Paulo SP - Feira da Bahia, at the Anhembi Convention Palace
1974 - Salvador BA - Plastics of Engineering, at the Engineering Club
1976 - Cachoeira BA - 1st Cachoeira Arts Festival
1977 - BA Waterfall - 2nd Cachoeira Arts Festival
1977 - São Paulo SP - Art Exhibition, in the BBI Financial Group
1977 - Salvador BA - Collective, at the Grossman Gallery
1978 - Salvador BA - Centenary of the Foundation of the School of Fine Arts of Bahia
1978 - Salvador BA - Collective, at the Grossman Gallery
1980 - Dakar (Senegal) - Bahia Week
1980 - Fortaleza CE - 11 artists from Bahia, at the Federal University of Ceará
1980 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Bahia Week, at Casino Estoril
1980 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Bahians of today, at Maria Augusta Art Gallery
1980 - São Paulo SP - 13th Exhibition of Contemporary Art, at Chapel Art Show
1980 - Penápolis SP - 4th Northwest Visual Arts Salon
1981 - Camaçari BA - 1st Salon of veterans and new, in Vilas do Atlântico
1981 - Salvador BA - Collective, at the Draft Arts Center
1981 - Brasilia DF - Collective, at Galeria Vasp
1981 - Salvador BA - Collective, at the time Art Gallery
1982 - Penápolis SP - 5th Northwest Plastic Arts Salon, at the Penápolis Educational Foundation. Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters of Penápolis
1982 - Salvador BA - Bahian Artists, at the Alberto Bonfiglioli Art Gallery
1983 - Olinda PE - 2nd Exhibition of the Abelardo Rodrigues Collection of Plastic Arts, MAC/OLINDA
1983 - Salvador BA - Modernismo, at the Central Library of the State
1984 - Aracaju SE - Artistas Baianos, at J. Inácio Galeria de Arte
1984 - DACAR (Senegal) - Artists from Bahia, at the National Gallery
1984 - Fortaleza CE - Artists from Bahia, at the University of Fortaleza. Edson Queiroz Foundation
1984 - Salvador BA - 1st South America Exhibition of Bahian Art, at the Othon Palace Hotel
1984 - Salvador BA - Influence of mother girl from Gantois in Bahian culture, at the Art of Bahia
1984 - Aracaju SE - Collective, at J.Inácio Galeria
1985 - Penápolis SP - 6th Northwest Plastic Arts Hall, at the Educational Foundation of Penápolis. Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters of Penápolis
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 8th National Salon of Plastic Arts, at MAM/RJ
1985 - San José (Costa Rica) - Afro-Bahia, at the Art Gallery 2000
1985 - São Paulo SP - 100 works Itaú, at MASP
1986 - Brasília DF - Bahia in Brasília, at Casa da Manchete
1987 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Ao Collector: Homage to Gilberto Chateaubriand, at MAM/RJ
1987 - Salvador BA - twelve Brazilian artists, at Anarte Galeria
1987 - São Paulo SP - 20th Contemporary Art Exhibition, at Chapel Art Show
1987 - Itaperica BA - Collective, at Club Méditerranée
1988 - Salvador BA - Influence of African Culture on Visual Arts, at MAM/BA
1988 - Salvador BA - The illustrators of Jorge Amado, at Fundação Casa de Jorge Amado
1988 - Tunis (Tunisia) - Bahian artists
1988 - São Paulo SP - 21st Contemporary Art Exhibition, at Chapel Art Show
1989 - Salvador BA - Collective, at N.R Galeria
1989 - Petrolina PE - Expressions of Bahian Art: A Genaro de Carvalho, at Tenda Arte
1990 - Salvador BA - Collective, at Costa Verde Tênis Clube
1991 - Brasília DF - Retrospective of Art, at Caixa Econômica Federal - CEF
1991 - Salvador BA - Water Memory Center: Arte Natureza collection, at Shopping Barra
1991 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Rio welcomes Bahia, at Moviart Gallery
1992 - Salvador BA - Universo Amado: Tribute to the 80th anniversary of Jorge Amado, at Anarte Galeria
1993 - São Paulo SP - 25th Contemporary Art Exhibition, at the Chapel Art Show
1996 - Salvador BA - Art for Nature, MAM/BA
1996 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Collective, at the Germanic Society
1996 - Salvador BA - 2nd Pelourinho Visual Art Festival
1996 - Salvador BA - Art in Horto
1997 - Salvador BA - Salve o Saveiro, at Galeria Solar do Ferrão
1997 - Feira de Santana BA - 12 Brazilian artists: Homage to Carybé, at the Club of Shopkeepers
1997 - Salvador BA - Sesquicentenário de Castro Alves, at Teatro Castro Alves
1997 - Salvador BA - A toast to the café, at Espaço Cafelier
1997 - Salvador BA - Collective, at the Eliane Ceramics Revestimentos Cultural
1997 - Salvador BA - Collective, at Anarte Galeria
1998 - Salvador BA - Tropicália 30 years: 40 artists from Bahia, at MAM/BA
1999 - Curitiba PR - Arte-Arte Salvador 450 years, at the Cultural Foundation of Curitiba. Solar do Barão
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Arte-Arte Salvador 450 years old, at the Historical Museum of the City of Rio de Janeiro
1999 - Salvador BA - 100 plastic artists from Bahia, at the Museum of Sacred Art
1999 - Salvador BA - Arte-Arte Salvador 450 years old, at MAM/BA
1999 - Salvador BA - Collective, at Solar do Ferrão
1999 - Salvador BA - The city of Bahia in the eyes of artists, at the Museum of Art of Bahia
2000 - São Paulo SP - Os Anjos are back, at the Pinacoteca do Estado
Source: Itaú Cultural
