Celeida Tostes (Rio de Janeiro RJ 1929 - idem 1995)
Sculptor and teacher.
Celeida Moraes Tostes graduated from the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes (Enba) [National School of Fine Arts] in 1955. She won a scholarship from the US government and went to the University of Southern California, where she expanded her knowledge of industrial ceramic techniques between 1958 and 1959. In 1973, she attended the cultural anthropology course at the School of Education of the Universidade Federal Fluminense - UFF. In 1975, she studied at the School of Arts of Cardiff College, in Wales, with a scholarship from the British Consulate, joining artists in experiments with recycling materials. In 1980, she taught a vocational utilitarian ceramics course at the Women's Penitentiary of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. Between 1980 and 1995, she coordinated the project Formação de Centros de Cerâmica Utilitária [Formation of Utilitarian Ceramics Centers] in the urban periphery communities of Morro do Chapéu Mangueira, in Rio de Janeiro. In 1986, she was honored at the 1st Bienal del Barro [Clay Biennial] in Puerto Rico. Alongside her artistic work, she pursued academic activities as a teacher in the 3D department of the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage - EAV/Parque Lage from 1975, and at Enba/UFRJ, where she obtained the livre-docência degree in 1987.
Critical Commentary
Celeida Tostes chose clay as the raw material par excellence of her work. Her production takes ceramics beyond functionality, placing it as a form of experimental practice within contemporary art research. The theme of femininity is a common thread in her work, accompanied by related themes: fertility, sexuality, motherhood, fragility and resistance, birth and death, the body. In Tostes's work, we perceive an organic link between the chosen themes and the chosen raw material. This link is expressed, for example, in the series of Vênus [Venuses], Ovos [Eggs], Ferramentas [Tools] or Bolas [Balls]. In a statement, the artist reveals: "My work is birth. It was born as I myself was born - from a relationship. A relationship with the earth, with the organic, the inorganic, the animal, the vegetable. Mixing the most diverse and opposite materials. I entered the intimacy of these materials, which turned into ceramic bodies. Balls began to appear. Balls with holes, with slits, with ruptures that suggested vaginas, passages to me. I then felt an immense need to mix myself with my working material. To feel the clay on my body, to be part of it, to be inside it." This need gave rise to the work Rito de Passagem [Rite of Passage], in which, with the help of two assistants, Tostes covered herself in clay, forming an amphora around herself, then sliding out of this symbolic womb and being reborn.
Critiques
"It is difficult, among us, to elaborate a language of the feminine in contemporary visuality. Women seek their own idioms in the spaces recently opened to them. And Celeida formulates the feminine in a technique that, perhaps because it is a traditional women's craft, has been slow to gain validity as art of great scope: ceramics.
Nothing more natural than the choice of clay paste for the feminine voice of artistic making: it is soft, flexible, undulating. (...)
The representation of fertility is evident in the four hundred spheres (1982), in the ten thousand clay eggs she has already exhibited as a promise of realized energy, so that they may equally be appreciated as multiples, desacralizing the notion of the artwork as a unique, rare thing".
Lélia Coelho Frota
FROTA, Lélia Coelho. A fala feminina do fazer. In: TOSTES, Celeida. Celeida Tostes: escultura. n. p.
"Celeida is an artist of a single phase: ever farther, ever deeper. Moving away from the conventional surface, her raw material, ancestral clay, slowly sheds visual rhyme to feverishly seek the sensuality of the hand wallowing in unctuous softness.
Pots. Closed pots, chaste, jealous, hermetic promises. One day the balls crack, lubricious vaginas appear, offering the inner void that waits and cries out. Matrix void, kiln, womb. It is the crisis. Life and art merge. In a rite of passage, Celeida takes refuge in a womb of clay and, when it breaks, fertile, she expels the offspring and the placenta into a new life, dirty and forgiven. Through the openings of the balls, once empty, fetuses peer at us, already sexed, future continuers of the species".
Henri V. Stahl
STAHL, Henri V. Celeida Tostes. Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, 21., 1991. Catálogo geral. p. 195-196.
"Following mythology, Celeida's name, like her body of work, means 'the one who opens a path through CLAY'. A more than open work, it nonetheless has very well-defined definitions and parameters. Both biographical and aesthetic, without any labels or fads.
A rooted work, it rhymes with the soul of clay. The first impression is that its appearance carries the rawness of the earth's topology and the vitality of the clayey nature of the soil. Totemic magic and fertility of Tempo de Trabalho [Working Time]: Celeida's pictographic gathering..."
Clóvis Brigagão
BRIGAGÃO, Clóvis. Celeida Tostes. In: TOSTES, Celeida. Celeida Tostes: mó e bastões. n. p.
Solo Exhibitions
1959 - Los Angeles (United States) - Solo, at University of Southern California
1990 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Armadilhas Indígenas [Indigenous Traps], at Funarte
1990 - São Paulo SP - Armadilhas Indígenas [Indigenous Traps], at Masp
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Saramenha
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Retrospectiva [Retrospective], at Paço Imperial
Group Exhibitions
1953 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Exposição Anual da Enba [Enba Annual Exhibition] - printmaking prize
1955 - Belo Horizonte MG - 2º Salão Nacional [2nd National Salon] - bronze medal in drawing - honorable mention in printmaking, awarded by the Organização Nacional dos Estudantes de Arte
1955 - Denmark - Exposição Coletiva de Artistas Brasileiros [Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists]
1955 - Netherlands - Exposição Coletiva de Artistas Brasileiros [Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists]
1955 - Hungary - Exposição Coletiva de Artistas Brasileiros [Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists]
1955 - Poland - Exposição Coletiva de Artistas Brasileiros [Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists]
1955 - Russia - Exposição Coletiva de Artistas Brasileiros [Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists]
1955 - Sweden - Exposição Coletiva de Artistas Brasileiros [Group Exhibition of Brazilian Artists]
1959 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 8º Salão Nacional de Arte Moderna [8th National Salon of Modern Art], at Museu de Arte Moderna
1960 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 9º Salão Nacional de Arte Moderna [9th National Salon of Modern Art], at Museu de Arte Moderna
1979 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Escultores Brasileiros [Brazilian Sculptors], at Galeria Aktuell
1980 - Curitiba PR - 1º Salão Paranaense de Cerâmica [1st Paraná Ceramics Salon], at Museu Alfredo Andersen
1980 - Curitiba PR - 37º Salão Paranaense [37th Paraná Salon], at Teatro Guaíra
1980 - São Paulo SP - 1º Salão Paulista de Artes Plásticas e Visuais [1st São Paulo Salon of Plastic and Visual Arts], at Fundação Bienal - special jury mention and participation prize
1981 - Belém PA - Exposição Itinerante do Projeto Arco-Íris [Traveling Exhibition of the Rainbow Project]
1981 - Brasília DF - Exposição Itinerante do Projeto Arco-Íris [Traveling Exhibition of the Rainbow Project]
1981 - Cuiabá MT - Exposição Itinerante do Projeto Arco-Íris [Traveling Exhibition of the Rainbow Project]
1981 - Fortaleza CE - Exposição Itinerante do Projeto Arco-Íris [Traveling Exhibition of the Rainbow Project]
1981 - Manaus AM - Exposição Itinerante do Projeto Arco-Íris [Traveling Exhibition of the Rainbow Project]
1981 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 4º Salão Nacional de Artes Plásticas [4th National Visual Arts Salon], at Museu de Arte Moderna - special jury mention
1981 - São Luís MA - Exposição Itinerante do Projeto Arco-Íris [Traveling Exhibition of the Rainbow Project]
1981 - São Paulo SP - HMST: 4 instalações e 4 artistas [HMST: 4 Installations and 4 Artists], at Paço das Artes
1982 - Curitiba PR - 3º Salão Paranaense de Cerâmica [3rd Paraná Ceramics Salon], at Museu Alfredo Andersen
1982 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Arquitetura da Terra [Earth Architecture], at Solar Grandjean de Montigny
1982 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 5º Salão Nacional de Artes Plásticas [5th National Visual Arts Salon], at Museu de Arte Moderna - Gustavo Capanema special prize
1982 - São Paulo SP - 1º Salão Paulista de Arte Contemporânea [1st São Paulo Contemporary Art Salon], at Fundação Bienal
1983 - Niterói RJ - Cerâmicas [Ceramics], at Galeria de Arte UFF
1983 - São Paulo SP - 17ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo [17th São Paulo International Biennial], at Fundação Bienal
1983 - São Paulo SP - Oficina de Artes de Fogo [Fire Arts Workshop], at Galeria Babelidus
1983 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Oficina de Artes de Fogo [Fire Arts Workshop], at Galeria Babelidus
1984 - Paris (France) - Arquitetura da Terra ou o Futuro de uma Tradição Milenar [Earth Architecture or the Future of a Millennial Tradition], organized by the Centre Georges Pompidou, at Museu de Arte Moderna - guest artist
1985 - São Paulo SP - 16º Panorama de Arte Atual Brasileira [16th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art], at Museu de Arte Moderna
1986 - Niterói RJ - Pela Própria Natureza [By Its Very Nature], at Galeria da UFF
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Território Ocupado [Occupied Territory], at Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage
1987 - New York (United States) - Meeting of Contemporary Ceramists of Latin America, at Everson Museum of Art
1987 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Oficina de Artes de Fogo [Fire Arts Workshop], at Galeria César Aché
1987 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Oficina de Artes de Fogo [Fire Arts Workshop], at Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage
1988 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1ª Bienal de Escultura do Rio de Janeiro [1st Rio de Janeiro Sculpture Biennial]
1988 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Panorama da Arte Tridimensional Brasileira [Panorama of Brazilian Three-Dimensional Art], at Museu de Arte Moderna
1988 - São Paulo SP - 19º Panorama de Arte Atual Brasileira [19th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art], at Museu de Arte Moderna
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - O Mestre e a Mostra [The Master and the Show], at Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage
1990 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Mostra de Aquisições [Acquisitions Exhibition], at MAM/RJ
1990 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Projetos Arqueos [Arqueos Projects], at Fundição Progresso
1991 - São Paulo SP - 21ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo [21st São Paulo International Biennial], at Fundação Bienal
1991 - São Paulo SP - 22º Panorama de Arte Atual Brasileira [22nd Panorama of Current Brazilian Art], at Museu de Arte Moderna
1992 - Caracas (Venezuela) - 1ª Bienal Barro de América [1st Clay of America Biennial], at Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas Sofía Imber
1993 - Niterói RJ - Uma Rosa É Uma Rosa É Uma Rosa [A Rose Is a Rose Is a Rose], at Galeria de Arte UFF
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Sob o Signo de Gêmeos [Under the Sign of Gemini], at Galeria Saramenha
Posthumous Exhibitions
1995 - Caracas (Venezuela) - 2ª Bienal Barro de América [2nd Clay of America Biennial], at Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas Sofía Imber
1995 - Lausanne (Switzerland) - Rio: mystères et frontières, at Musée de Pully
1995 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - A Infância Perversa: fábulas sobre a memória e o tempo [Perverse Childhood: Fables on Memory and Time], at Museu de Arte Moderna
1995 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Projeto Triângulo Celeida Tostes [Celeida Tostes Triangle Project], permanent installation of 50 of her pieces in the Parque da Cidade, on the initiative of the Municipal Department of Culture
1995 - Salvador BA - A Infância Perversa: fábulas sobre a memória e o tempo [Perverse Childhood: Fables on Memory and Time], at Museu de Arte Moderna
1996 - Belo Horizonte MG - Impressões Itinerantes [Traveling Impressions], at Palácio das Artes
1996 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Rio: mistérios e fronteiras [Rio: Mistérios e Fronteiras [Rio: Mysteries and Frontiers]], at Museu de Arte Moderna
1997 - São Paulo SP - Tridimensionalidade na Arte Brasileira do Século XX [Three-Dimensionality in 20th-Century Brazilian Art], at Itaú Cultural
1998 - Belo Horizonte MG - Tridimensionalidade na Arte Brasileira do Século XX [Three-Dimensionality in 20th-Century Brazilian Art], at Itaugaleria
1998 - Campinas SP - Tridimensionalidade na Arte Brasileira do Século XX [Three-Dimensionality in 20th-Century Brazilian Art], at Itaú Cultural
1998 - Penápolis SP - Tridimensionalidade na Arte Brasileira do Século XX [Three-Dimensionality in 20th-Century Brazilian Art], at Itaugaleria
1998 - Brasília DF - Tridimensionalidade na Arte Brasileira do Século XX [Three-Dimensionality in 20th-Century Brazilian Art], at Itaugaleria
2000 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brasilidades [Brazilianities], at Centro Cultural Light
2002 - Niterói RJ - A Recente Coleção do MAC [The MAC's Recent Collection], at Museu de Arte Contemporânea
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Caminhos do Contemporâneo 1952-2002 [Paths of the Contemporary 1952-2002], at Paço Imperial
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Fertilidade [Fertility], at Espaço Antonio Bernardo
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Arte do Fogo, do Sal e da Paixão [Art of Fire, Salt and Passion], at Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil
2005 - São Paulo SP - Homo Ludens: do faz-de-conta à vertigem [Homo Ludens: From Make-Believe to Vertigo], at Itaú Cultural
Source: Itaú Cultural
