Dionísio del Santo (Colina ES 1925 - Vitória ES 1999)
Dionísio del Santo was a painter, draftsman, engraver and serigrapher. He studied at the São Francisco de Assis Seminary, in Santa Teresa, Espírito Santo, between 1932 and 1939. In the early 1940s, he made his first drawings. In 1946, he moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he began his career in painting. In the capital of Rio de Janeiro, he attended classes of live model and color theory at the Brazilian Design Association (ABD) and also worked in the areas of advertising and graphic arts.
From 1952, he started to work with woodcuts and serigraphy, a technique in which it developed an expressive production. From the late 1950s to the middle of the following decade, his work approached the principles of the concrete movement, although he remained away from the discussions between concrete and neoconcrete. Between 1964 and 1966, he produced gouache works that combined geometric and figurative elements.
He held his first solo exhibition in 1965, at Galeria Relevo, in Rio de Janeiro. Since the mid-1960s, he has dedicated himself to abstract art, with a main focus on serigraphy works. In 1967, he received the Acquisition Award at the 9th International Biennial of São Paulo. In the 1970s, he stood out with the Cordéis series, in which the influence of kinetic art is perceptible. In 1975, he was awarded the award for Best Engraving Exhibition of the Year, granted by the São Paulo Association of Art Critics (APCA). Rio de Janeiro, and at the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art (MAM/SP). In 1998, another retrospective was held at the Espírito Santo Museum of Art (MAES), which today houses more than 70 works by the artist, including serigraphs and woodcuts. Dionisio del Santo is situated between geometry and figuration. In the early 1950s, he made figurative woodcuts, which refer to the artist's rural origin. begins to present more formal simplification and the interest in geometry in his paintings. They are from this phase screens in red, white and black, or just white, in which they build the pictorial space with few lines.
In serigraphs from the late 1950s and the beginning of the next, it creates geometric shapes through lines that run through the entire The engraved surface, exploring the opposition between full and empty or positive and negative. From these purely linear compositions, as noted by art critic Reynaldo Roels Jr., different versions begin to appear, in which the treatment of lines or the chromatic game is changed. The artist works several times the same formal structures, diversifying the techniques used, such as drawing, painting or painted relief. In some works carried out in the 1970s, he inserts ropes or strings on the surface of the composition. These works, which are found between the relief and the painting, represent an important point in his research linked to kinetic art, revealing an affinity with the production of Venezuelan artists Jesús Rafael Soto and Cruz-Diez.
His activity in the field of screen printing is so Special, as Roels notes, which deserves a particular highlight in its trajectory. The artist explores the technique with great refinement and also uses it as an experimental field for his productions. He teaches several courses in which he encourages the use of serigraphy, at the Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro - MAM/RJ and at the School of Visual Arts of Parque Lage - EAV/Parque Lage. In the 1990s, Del Santo began to work with more complex forms and intense use of color.
Criticism
"Dionísio del Santo (...) approached concretism in the 1960s. way of a puzzle, he sets up fanciful worlds using geometric shapes distributed with precision in space. They merge with them balanced dosages of contrasting color. However, it was mainly through an exhaustive work in the serigraphy, explored in their intrinsic availabilities, which del Santo has achieved repercussions for his work".
Walter Zanini
ZANINI, Walter, org. General History of Art in Brazil. Presentation by Walther Moreira Salles. São Paulo: Instituto Walther Moreira Salles, Djalma Guimarães Foundation, 1983.
Individual exhibitions
1965 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at Galeria Relivo
1973 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at MAM/RJ
1974 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at the Art Scholarship
1976 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at MNBA
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Individual, at Petite Galerie
1987 - São Paulo SP - Retrospective, at Galeria Paulo Figueiredo
1988 - Curitiba PR - Individual, at the Documenta Gallery of Art
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Retrospective, at Paço Imperial
1990 - São Paulo SP - Retrospective, at MAM/SP
1998 - Vitória ES - Retrospective - Espírito Santo Art Museum
Collective exhibitions
1965 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Esso Salon of Young Artists, at MAM/RJ
1965 - São Paulo SP - 1st Esso Salon of Young Artists, at MAC/USP
1966 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Opinion 66, at MAM/RJ
1967 - São Paulo SP - 9th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal - Itamarati Acquisition
1968 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 17th National Art Salon Moderna, at MAM/RJ - Jury Exemption Award
1972 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Serigraphy Exhibition, at MMBA
1973 - Belo Horizonte MG - 5th Belo Horizonte Art Salon - Acquisition Award
1977 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Construction project in art, at MAM/RJ
1977 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian constructive project in art: 1950-1962, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1980 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Shows, at Galeria Saramenha
1981 - Belo Horizonte MG - Highlights Hilton Engraving, at Palácio das Artes
1981 - Brasília DF - Hilton Highlights of Engraving, at ECT Galeria de Art
1981 - Curitiba PR - Highlights Hilton Engraving, at Casa da Engraving Solar do Barão
1981 - Florianópolis SC - Highlights Hilton Engraving, at the Museum of Art of Santa Catarina
1981 - Porto Alegre RS - Hilton Highlights of Engraving, at Margs
1981 - Recife PE - Hilton Highlights of Engraving, at MAM/PE
1981 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Hilton Highlights of Engraving, at MAM/RJ
1981 - Salvador BA - Hilton Highlights of Engraving, at the Castro Alves Theater
1981 - São Paulo SP - Hilton Highlights Engraving, at MAM/SP
1982 - Penápolis SP - 5th Northwest Plastic Arts Hall, at the Penápolis Educational Foundation. Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters of Penápolis
1984 - Curitiba PR - 6th A woodcut in the history of Brazilian art, at Casa Romário Martins
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The woodcut in history of Brazilian Art, at Funarte. Sérgio Milliet Gallery
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Recent donations 82-84, at the MNBA  
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Acting Brazilian painting, at Espaço Petrobras
1984 - São Paulo SP - Tradition and Rupture: Synthesis of Brazilian Art and Culture, at the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Christian Dior Exhibition of Contemporary Art: Painting, at the Paço Imperial
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Seven decades of the Italian presence in Brazilian art, in the Imperial Palace
1988 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Geometric abstraction 2, at Funarte. Arts Center
1988 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The eternal is ephemeral, at Petite Galerie
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Geometry without manifesto, at the Cleide Art Office Wanderley
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian engraving: 4 themes, at EAV/Parque Lage
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Rio Hoje, no mam/rj
1992 - Curitiba PR - 10th Engraving Exhibition City of Curitiba/Mostra América, at the Engraving Museum
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - on the way to Niterói: João Sattamini Collection, at the Paço Imperial
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Engraving of Art in Brazil: Proposal for a mapping, at the CCBB
1993 - João Pessoa PB - Xylograph: From Cordel to the Gallery, at the Espaço Cultural da Paraíba Foundation
1993 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Emblems of the Body: The Nu in Brazilian Modern Art, at CCBB 
1994 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Brasil Século XX, at the Bienal Foundation
1994 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Brasil 20th Century, at the Fundação Bienal   SESI
1994 - São Paulo SP - Woodcut: From Cordel to the Gallery, in the company of the Metropolitano de São Paulo
1995 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Graphic Image - School of Visual Arts of Parque Lage
1995 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Graphic Image - Galeria Cândido Portinari
1996 - Petrópolis RJ - 1st Sesc Engraving Hall. Dionísio del Santo, at SESC
1996 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 4 Brazilian engraving masters - SESC Copacabana
1997 - Barra Mansa RJ - Contemporary Traits: Homage The Brazilian engraving, at the Centro Universitário de Barra Mansa
1997 - Porto Alegre RS - Exhibition of the Caixa Collection, at the Caixa Cultural Complex
1997 - Porto Alegre RS - Parallel Exhibition, at the Caixa Econômica Federal Museum
1997 - São Paulo SP - Exhibition of the Caixa Collection, at the Caixa Cultural Complex
1998 - Curitiba PR - Exhibition of the Caixa Collection, at the Caixa Cultural Complex
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Exhibition of the Caixa Collection, at the Caixa Cultural Complex 
1998 - São Paulo SP - Constructive Art in Brazil: Adolpho Leirner Collection, at the Museum of Modern Art
1998 - São Paulo SP - The Modern and the Contemporary in Brazilian Art: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection - MAM/RJ MASP
1998 - São Paulo SP - The Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo - Banco Safra
1998 - São Paulo SP - The Collectors - Guita and José Mindlin: Matrices and Engravings, at  Galeria de Arte do SESI
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Constructive Art in Brazil: Adolpho Leirner Collection, at MAM/RJ
Postombious exhibitions
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Rio Exhibit engraving. Brazilian modern engraving: Collection National Museum of Fine Arts, in the MNBA
1999 - Salvador BA - 60 years of Brazilian art, in the cultural space of Caixa Econômica Federal
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Caminhos do Contemporâneo 1952-2002, at Paço Imperial
2002 - Niterói RJ - Sattamini Collection: modern and contemporary, at MAC/Niterói
2002 - São Paulo SP - Map of the Now: Recent Brazilian Art in João Sattamini Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Niterói, at the Instituto Tomie Ohtake
2002 - Niterói RJ - Paper Collection, at MAC/Niterói
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Treasures of Caixa: Brazilian modern art in the Caixa collection, in the Caixa Cultural Complex
Source: Itaú Cultural
