Carlos Bastos (Salvador BA 1925 - idem 2004)
Painter, illustrator, set designer.
Carlos Frederico Bastos begins his artistic training at the Escola de Belas-Artes of the Universidade da Bahia, which he enters in 1944, attending classes by João Mendonça Filho, Raymundo Aguiar and Alberto Valença. That year, alongside Mario Cravo Júnior and Genaro, he takes part in the 1st Bahia Modern Art Show. He moves to Rio de Janeiro in 1946 and completes his studies at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes - Enba. He also studies at the Sociedade Brasileira de Belas Artes and at the Fundação Getúlio Vargas - FGV, as a student of Santa Rosa, Iberê Camargo and Carlos Oswald. At the same time, he takes private lessons with Candido Portinari and set design classes with Martim Gonçalves. In 1947, back in Salvador, he holds his first solo show at the Biblioteca Pública. That same year, he pursues further studies at the Art Students League in New York. In 1949 he goes to Paris, 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 takes part in the 1st Salon of Modern Art, 1952, and the Black and White Salon, 1954, among others. After another period in Paris, from 1957 to 1958, he sets up his studio at the Solar da Jaqueira in Salvador, settling in the city. In 1962, an accident confines him to a wheelchair for a long period. In 1965 he publishes Santos e Anjos da Bahia [Saints and Angels of Bahia], with a preface by Jorge Amado, at a time when paralysis once again confines him to a wheelchair. He illustrates several books in the 1970s and 1980s.
Critical Commentary
The setting of Carlos Bastos's work is Bahia, which he depicts with an openly realist approach. Using meticulous drawing and strong color, his canvases reveal a commitment to recording the region and its culture. In this sense, his output is in dialogue with that of other artists active in Bahia, such as Carybé, Genaro, Mario Cravo Júnior and Jenner Augusto. Portraits hold a prominent place in the 1940s (Auto-Retrato [Self-Portrait], 1943, Retrato de Wallace Michael [Portrait of Wallace Michael], 1948, and Mulher com Gato [Woman with Cat], 1948), and remain an important vein in his mature work (Retrato de Nair e Genaro [Portrait of Nair and Genaro], 1961, and Retrato de Maria Emília [Portrait of Maria Emília], 1971). Festivities - another theme he explores extensively - offer new possibilities for expressing color and local life (A Procissão [The Procession], 1947, Festa Cívica [Civic Festival], 1958, Procissão do Senhor Bom Jesus dos Navegantes [Procession of Senhor Bom Jesus dos Navegantes], 1973/1975, and Festa de São Pedro em Praia do Forte [Feast of Saint Peter in Praia do Forte], 1995). Popular figures, black people, abandoned children, players, etc. are also frequently called upon to make up canvases of exuberant color and/or large panels. The religious universe, both Catholic and Afro-Brazilian, holds a prominent place within this range of themes.
While painting is one of Bastos's great forms of expression, his name is linked to the murals and panels he makes for public buildings, which seek to portray the mystical soul of the people, its symbols and beliefs. Although attentive to the social dimension, his main concern is with forms, bodies, lines and colors, which leads several critics to emphasize the "sensuality" of these works. In the words of Roger Bastide: "What strikes the viewer, first of all, is the sensuality, which is not, as in German expressionism, for example, a revolt against bourgeois morality, but is spontaneous, natural. A sensuality of color, which leads him not to fear decorativism".
Critiques
"Bahian by origin and conviction, behind all his painting there remains this magical atmosphere of a city laden with history, legends and luminosity. As Di Cavalcanti said, significant are Carlos Bastos's angels, his black women and men, his abandoned boys, his amorous nuns, his doors opening onto worlds of sad orgies, his windows hiding treacherous alcoves, his winged sails gliding over the blue sea of Bahia, carrying dream boats with doves and statues."
Roberto Pontual
PONTUAL, Roberto. In: GEROT-GALERIA. Carlos Bastos: pinturas recentes: catálogo. São Paulo, 1983.
"Carlos Bastos dispenses with landscape to tackle the more serious problem of plastic organization. For this reason, rather than pointing to the poetic quality of his pictures, I prefer to point out their plasticity, which is the decisive character of his current, exuberant painting."
Clarival do Prado Valladares
VALLADARES, Clarival do Prado. In: GEROT-GALERIA. Carlos Bastos: pinturas recentes: catálogo. São Paulo, 1983.
"Carlos Bastos, the first modern painter in Bahia to hold a solo exhibition for a public dominated by the deep tradition of four centuries of academic art, and as such capable of repeating, without any originality, the same typical reaction to the change of such deep-rooted standards and to the introduction of new patterns and values in art. The rejection was swift and natural, the debate was heated, and the excitement reached the highest pitch of violence, even leading to the destruction of some of the canvases on display. The young modernist's paintings were slashed, leaving all too 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-GALERIA. Carlos Bastos: pinturas recentes: catálogo. São Paulo, 1983.
"An extraordinary draftsman, with complete command of an exuberant yet precise line, his drawing is the most baroque of all those made by his fellow countrymen and contemporaries. No one has managed as he has to capture the intense movement and dense poetics of its richness, the provocative sensuality of its ensemble of human forms, the complete interweaving of its fruits and leaves, the magical unity of a complex of apparently unconnected things, the strange freedom of what had been studied in depth and resolved with refined ease. He did it like no one else; his works in this field are superb. It is always a pleasure to look at his interpretation of the simple architecture of old colonial houses, always enlivened by a detail of deep humanity, a touch of grace that gives them a whole life of evocation (...). The soul and atmosphere of Bahia are held captive in his oils, idealized with the same love and tenderness, but as if it did not really exist and the true one were in his work as a painter. No one can help swearing that the city of Salvador is the one he idealized, geographically wrong, but perhaps plastically and even sentimentally right."
Antônio Celestino
CARLOS Bastos: 40 anos de pintura. Apresentação de Sylvia Menezes de Athayde. Salvador: Núcleo de Artes do Desenbanco, 1985.
"(...) Is it possible to speak of a Bahian style? Bahia, strictly speaking, with its brightly colored houses, its folklore, its palm-lined beaches and its churches glittering with gold, is a trap for the artist. So many models and so many enchantments can make him a prisoner of reality. One must rethink Bahia and not copy it: one must seek its soul, or, more precisely, one must acquire a Bahian soul and then, whatever the chosen subject - a portrait of an adolescent, a simple play 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 possible to me to say of Carlos Bastos's painting that it is Bahian, even when he paints the skyscrapers of New York or the wild animals of a zoo, because his sensibility is a tropical sensibility. What strikes the viewer, first of all, is the sensuality, which is not, as in German expressionism, for example, a revolt against bourgeois morality, but is spontaneous, natural. A sensuality of color, which leads him not to fear decorativism."
Roger Bastide
CARLOS Bastos: 40 anos de pintura. Apresentação de Sylvia Menezes de Athayde. Salvador: Núcleo de Artes do Desenbanco, 1985.
Solo Exhibitions
1947 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Biblioteca Pública Municipal
1948 - New York (United States) - Solo, at Norlyst Gallery
1949 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Biblioteca Pública Municipal
1951 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Bar Anjo Azul
1953 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Hotel Copacabana Palace
1954 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria de Arte
1955 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Loja Exclusividades
1955 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Vimarte
1955 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Hotel Copacabana Palace
1956 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Galeria Oxumaré
1960 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Bar Anjo Azul
1961 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Galeria Gead
1961 - Salvador BA - Solo, at inauguração do Edifício Velrick
1962 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Galeria Manoel Querino
1963 - Salvador BA - Carlos Bastos: Drawings, at Galeria Manoel Querino
1964 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Galeria Manoel Querino
1965 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Galeria Convivium
1965 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Galeria Manoel Querino
1965 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Atrium
1966 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Atrium Galeria de Arte
1966 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Galeria Convivium
1966 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Socila Club
1968 - Feira de Santana BA - Solo, at Museu Regional de Arte
1968 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Solar da Jaqueira
1968 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Atrium
1969 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Galeria Guignard
1969 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria de Arte Portal
1970 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Margs
1971 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Marte 21
1971 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Terrace Club
1971 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Documenta Galeria de Arte
1972 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Galeria Círculo
1975 - Salvador BA - Carlos Bastos: Retrospective, at Teatro Castro Alves
1976 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Galeria de Arte do Centro Comercial
1977 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at IAB/RS
1977 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Shopping Iguatemi
1978 - Joinville SC - Solo, at Galeria Lascaux
1978 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Museu de Arte Sacra
1979 - Salvador BA - Solo, at O Cavalete Galeria de Arte
1979 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Centro Empresarial Iguatemi
1979 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Conselho Consultivo dos Produtores de Cacau
1980 - Recife PE - Solo, at Galeria Officina
1981 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Kattya Galeria de Arte
1981 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Galeria Genaro de Carvalho
1983 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Época Galeria de Arte
1983 - São Paulo SP - Carlos Bastos: Recent Paintings, at Gerot Galeria
1984 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Masson Galeria de Arte
1985 - Salvador BA - Carlos Bastos: 1945/1985, 40 Years of Painting, at Núcleo de Artes do Desenbanco
1985 - Salvador BA - Solo, at O Cavalete Galeria de Arte
1987 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Anarte Galeria
1988 - Washington (United States) - Solo, at Museu de Arte Moderna da América Latina, at OEA
1989 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Galeria Prova do Artista
1989 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Paulo Darzé Galeria de Arte
1990 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Galeria Prova do Artista
1992 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Hotel Sofitel Quatro Rodas
1992 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Praia do Forte Resort Hotel
1993 - Lauro de Freitas BA - Solo, at Terminal Turístico de Portão
1994 - Salvador BA - Carlos Bastos: Paintings, at Prova do Artista Galeria de Arte
1994 - Salvador BA - Artist's Proof, at Galeria Rio Vermelho
1996 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Galeria de Arte Portal
1996 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Galeria Arcada das Artes
1997 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Anarte Galeria
1998 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Galeria da Associação Cultural Brasil-Estados Unidos
1998 - Feira de Santana BA - Solo, at Galeria de Arte Carlo Barbosa
1998 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Centro de Cultura Hispânica Caballeros de Santiago
1999 - Frankfurt (Germany) - Solo, at Hotel Maritim
2000 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Museu de Arte Moderna - MAM
Group Exhibitions
1944 - Salvador BA - 1st American Art Salon, at Associação Cultural Brasil Estados Unidos - Acbeu
1946 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Eisaburo Nagasawa and Carlos Bastos, at Associação Brasileira de Imprensa - ABI
1947 - Salvador BA - Mario Cravo Júnior and Carlos Bastos, at Galeria da Associação Cultural Brasil-Estados Unidos
1949 - Salvador BA - 1st Bahia Fine Arts Salon, at Hotel Bahia - bronze medal
1952 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st National Salon of Modern Art, at MAM/RJ
1952 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Annual Arts Salon of the Ministry of Education and Culture
1952 - Salvador BA - 4th Bahia Fine Arts Salon
1953 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 2nd National Salon of Modern Art, at Mnba
1953 - Salvador BA - 5th Bahia Fine Arts Salon
1953 - Salvador BA - Group show, at Galeria Oxumaré
1953 - Salvador BA - Poty, Carlos Bastos and Raimundo Oliveira, at Galeria Oxumaré
1953 - São Paulo SP - 2nd Bienal Internacional de São Paulo
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 Museu da Faculdade Nacional de Arquitetura
1954 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Black and White Salon, at Palácio da Cultura - guest artist
1954 - Salvador BA - 4th Bahia Fine Arts Salon
1954 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Group show, at Ministério da Educação e Cultura
1955 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 4th National Salon of Modern Art
1955 - Salvador BA - 5th Bahia Fine Arts Salon
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 Biblioteca Pública do Estado da Bahia
1957 - Madrid (Spain) - Modern Brazilian Artists
1958 - Salvador BA - 1st Bahian Exhibition of Poetry and Painting, at Galeria Domus
1958 - Salvador BA - Group show, at Forte de Monte Serrat
1959 - Salvador BA - Modern Artists from Bahia, at Escola de Odontologia
1959 - Salvador BA - Group show, at Museu de Arte e História da Bahia
1960 - Paris (France) - Modern Brazilian Art
1962 - Los Angeles (United States) - Bahian Artists, at Usis Gallery
1962 - Salvador BA - Bahian Artists, at Galeria do Usis
1964 - Philadelphia (United States) - Brazilian Art Festival
1964 - Paris (France) - Salon Comparaisons, at Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
1964 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 12 Bahian Artists, at Hotel Copacabana Palace
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) - Group show, at Isaac Delgado Museum of Art
1966 - Porto Alegre RS - Bahian Art, at Galeria Candido Portinari
1966 - Salvador BA - 1st National Visual Arts Biennial - special gallery
1966 - Salvador BA - For the 154th Anniversary of Its Founding, at Biblioteca Pública de Salvador
1966 - Philadelphia (United States) - Group show, at International Festival Ball
1967 - Salvador BA - Christmas Group Exhibition, at Panorama Galeria de Arte
1967 - São Paulo SP - Artists from Bahia, at A Galeria
1968 - Salvador BA - 2nd National Visual Arts Biennial, at MAM/BA - jury exemption
1969 - Philadelphia (United States) - Bahia Week in Allentown, Harrisburg and Pittsburgh
1969 - Pennsylvania (United States) - Bahia Week in Pennsylvania, at Usis Gallery
1969 - São Paulo SP - Carybé, Carlos Bastos and Mario Cravo Jr., at Galeria de Arte Portal
1969 - Salvador BA - Cybernetic Congress, at Instituto Cultural Brasil Alemanha - 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 - Group show, at Documenta Galeria de Arte
1971 - São Paulo SP - Fowl and Birds, at Sobrado Galeria de Arte
1971 - Washington (United States) - Group show, at Brazilian American Cultural Institute
1972 - Milan (Italy) - Bahians in Milan, at Gallerie Schettini
1972 - Salvador BA - Group show, at O Cavalete Galeria de Arte
1972 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Christ, at Real Galeria de Arte
1973 - Belo Horizonte MG - Artists of Tereza Batista Cansada de Guerra [Tereza Batista: Home from the Wars], at Galeria de Arte Ami
1973 - Salvador BA - Panorama of Modern Art, at MAM/BA
1974 - Salvador BA - Arte Bahia 74, at O Cavalete Galeria de Arte
1974 - São Paulo SP - Bahia Fair, at Palácio de Convenções do Anhembi
1974 - Salvador BA - Engineering Artists, at Clube de Engenharia
1976 - Cachoeira BA - 1st Cachoeira Arts Festival
1977 - Cachoeira BA - 2nd Cachoeira Arts Festival
1977 - São Paulo SP - Art Show, at Grupo Financeiro BBI
1977 - Salvador BA - Group show, at Galeria Grossman
1978 - Salvador BA - Centenary of the Founding of the Escola de Belas Artes da Bahia
1978 - Salvador BA - Group show, at Galeria Grossman
1980 - Dakar (Senegal) - Bahia Week
1980 - Fortaleza CE - 11 Artists from Bahia, at Universidade Federal do Ceará
1980 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Bahia Week, at Cassino Estoril
1980 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Bahians of Today, at Maria Augusta Galeria de Arte
1980 - São Paulo SP - 13th Contemporary Art Exhibition, at Chapel Art Show
1980 - Penápolis SP - 4th Northwest Visual Arts Salon
1981 - Camaçari BA - 1st Salon of Veterans and Newcomers, at Vilas do Atlântico
1981 - Salvador BA - Group show, at Núcleo de Artes do Desenbanco
1981 - Brasília DF - Group show, at Galeria Vasp
1981 - Salvador BA - Group show, at Época Galeria de Arte
1982 - Penápolis SP - 5th Northwest Visual Arts Salon, at Fundação Educacional de Penápolis. Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Penápolis
1982 - Salvador BA - Bahian Artists, at Galeria de Arte Alberto Bonfiglioli
1983 - Olinda PE - 2nd Exhibition of the Abelardo Rodrigues Visual Arts Collection, at MAC/Olinda
1983 - Salvador BA - Modernism, at Biblioteca Central do Estado
1984 - Aracaju SE - Bahian Artists, at J. Inácio Galeria de Arte
1984 - Dakar (Senegal) - Artists from Bahia, at Galeria Nacional
1984 - Fortaleza CE - Artists from Bahia, at Universidade de Fortaleza. Fundação Edson Queiroz
1984 - Salvador BA - 1st South America Show of Bahian Art, at Othon Palace Hotel
1984 - Salvador BA - Influence of Mãe Menininha do Gantois on Bahian Culture, at Museu de Arte da Bahia
1984 - Aracaju SE - Group show, at J. Inácio Galeria
1985 - Penápolis SP - 6th Northwest Visual Arts Salon, at Fundação Educacional de Penápolis. Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Penápolis
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 8th National Visual Arts Salon, at MAM/RJ
1985 - San José (Costa Rica) - Afro-Bahia, at Galeria de Arte 2000
1985 - São Paulo SP - 100 Itaú Works, at Masp
1986 - Brasília DF - Bahians in Brasília, at Casa da Manchete
1987 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - To the Collector: Tribute 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 - Itaparica BA - Group show, at Club Méditerranée
1988 - Salvador BA - Influence of African Culture on the Visual Arts, at MAM/BA
1988 - Salvador BA - The Illustrators of Jorge Amado, at Fundação Casa de Jorge Amado
1988 - Túnis (Tunisia) - Bahian Artists
1988 - São Paulo SP - 21st Contemporary Art Exhibition, at Chapel Art Show
1989 - Salvador BA - Group show, at N.R Galeria
1989 - Petrolina PE - Expressions of Bahian Art: To Genaro de Carvalho, at Tenda Arte
1990 - Salvador BA - Group show, at Costa Verde Tênis Clube
1991 - Brasília DF - Art Retrospective, at Caixa Econômica Federal - CEF
1991 - Salvador BA - Water Memory Center: Art Nature Collection, at Shopping Barra
1991 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Rio Welcomes Bahia, at Galeria Moviart
1992 - Salvador BA - Amado Universe: Tribute to Jorge Amado's 80th Birthday, at Anarte Galeria
1993 - São Paulo SP - 25th Contemporary Art Exhibition, at Chapel Art Show
1996 - Salvador BA - Art for Nature, at MAM/BA
1996 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Group show, at Sociedade Germânica
1996 - Salvador BA - 2nd Pelourinho Visual Art Festival
1996 - Salvador BA - Art at the Horto
1997 - Salvador BA - Save the Saveiro, at Galeria Solar do Ferrão
1997 - Feira de Santana BA - 12 Brazilian Artists: Tribute to Carybé, at Clube de Diretores Lojistas
1997 - Salvador BA - Castro Alves Sesquicentennial, at Teatro Castro Alves
1997 - Salvador BA - A Toast to Coffee, at Espaço Cafelier
1997 - Salvador BA - Group show, at Espaço Cultural Eliane Revestimentos Cerâmicos
1997 - Salvador BA - Group show, at Anarte Galeria
1998 - Salvador BA - Tropicália 30 Years: 40 Bahian Artists, at MAM/BA
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 - Salvador BA - 100 Visual Artists from Bahia, at Museu de Arte Sacra
1999 - Salvador BA - Arte-Arte Salvador 450 Years, at MAM/BA
1999 - Salvador BA - Group show, at Solar do Ferrão
1999 - Salvador BA - The City of Bahia through Artists' Eyes, at Museu de Arte da Bahia
2000 - São Paulo SP - The Angels Are Back, at Pinacoteca do Estado
Source: Itaú Cultural
