Dorian Gray (Natal RN 1930)
Draftsman, sculptor, ceramist, tapestry maker, poet and essayist.
Together with Newton Navarro, he is one of the artists who contributed to the modernization of the visual arts in his state. Between 1967 and 1974, he served as an adviser to the Secretaria de Educação e Cultura of Rio Grande do Norte, as a board member of the Fundação José Augusto and as director of the Teatro Alberto Maranhão and the Escolinha de Arte Cândido Portinari. In 1983, he published the book Feiras e Feirantes [Fairs and Fair Vendors] and, in 1989, Artes Plásticas do Rio Grande do Norte - 1920/1989 [Visual Arts of Rio Grande do Norte - 1920/1989].
Critiques
"It is understandable that Dorian Gray, a painter and draftsman confronting composition, should have a pictorial vocation for Brazilian reality, unable to deform or mutilate it under the pretext of personal interpretation. These feelings, deep, obscure, rooted in mental permanence, rise in the irresistible impulse of spontaneity, forming an anticline, a collective figure, vibrant and logical, in the artist's personality (THE CREATOR OF BEAUTIFUL THINGS). Emotion doubles the themes of impressionist modeling in a diplegia that generates images of wonder and truth".
Luís da Câmara Cascudo
CAVALCANTI, Carlos; AYALA, Walmir, org. Dicionário brasileiro de artistas plásticos. Apresentação de Maria Alice Barroso. Brasília: MEC/INL, 1973-1980. (Dicionários especializados, 5).
"An artist of national standing, Dorian Gray Caldas produces painting of very good quality and effectiveness, at a level perfectly competitive with what is being produced, and with the advantage of being anchored in the genuine, which many others have lost sight of out of a desire for internationalization. Dorian Gray uses technical resources largely acquired as a self-taught artist, but, through time and well-grounded practice, he pursues an artistic creation that refers to the local, yet in terms of the universal painting of the learned man".
Clarival do Prado Valladares
CAVALCANTI, Carlos; AYALA, Walmir, org. Dicionário brasileiro de artistas plásticos. Apresentação de Maria Alice Barroso. Brasília: MEC/INL, 1973-1980. (Dicionários especializados, 5).
Solo Exhibitions
1952 - Brasília DF - Solo, sponsored by the magazine Letras
1956 - Brasília DF - Solo, at Loja Maçônica 21 de Março
1967 - Olinda PE - Solo, at Galeria Sobrado 7
1967 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Goeldi
1968 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Azulão
1969 - Brasília DF - Solo, at Galeria do Hotel Nacional Mezzanino, sponsored by the Fundação Cultural do Distrito Federal
1969 - Olinda PE - Solo, at MAC/Olinda
1970 - Natal RN - Solo, at Biblioteca Pública do Estado
1982 - Brasília DF - Solo, at Hotel Nacional/Fundação Cultural do Distrito Federal
1985 - João Pessoa PB - Solo, at Galeria Archedi Picado
Group Exhibitions
1950 - Natal RN - Modern Art Salon, at the former headquarters of the Cruz Vermelha (considered the landmark of the modernization of the visual arts in the state)
1952 - Natal RN - Modern Art Salon, at the former headquarters of the Cruz Vermelha
1955 - Natal RN - Modern Art Salon, at the former headquarters of the Cruz Vermelha
1958 - Natal RN - Group show, at Sociedade Brasil-Estados Unidos
1958 - Natal RN - Permanent Art Salon of Rio Grande do Norte
1964 - Natal RN - Exhibition, at Salão Nobre do Palácio do Governo
1973 - Natal RN - Exhibition, at UFRN
1973 - João Pessoa PB - Exhibition, at UFPB
1973 - Washington (United States) - Exhibition, at Inter-American Development Bank of Washington
1975 - Natal RN - Retrospective: 25 Years of Painting, at Sesc
1980 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - El Arte de La Tapiçaria en Brasil, at Museu Nacional de Arte Decorativa
1987 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Painters from Rio Grande do Norte, at ABL
Source: Itaú Cultural
