João Sebastião Francisco da Costa (Cuiabá MT 1949)
Painter, draftsman, costume designer and teacher.
He began studying painting with Bartira de Mendonça in 1965, in Cuiabá. In 1966 and 1967, he came into contact with artists representing modern tendencies in Rio de Janeiro. Around 1969, he began frequenting the studio of Humberto Espíndola (1943) in Campo Grande. From 1973, he developed artistic activities at the Museu de Arte e Cultura Popular of the Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso - UFMT, in Cuiabá.
Critiques
"João Sebastião's painting brings together the diversity of our culture. His subject matter, starting from a regional concern, addresses our religious syncretism, linking man, saint, animal and fruit. By overvaluing these elements he suggests the telluric forces of this great green area at the center of South America. Men-animals-saints form a mystical Trinity involved in the cult of the Divine Holy Spirit, the light that illuminates their heads. A Trinity that unites the mysteries of the forest and of the riverside towns. (...) In this work of vibrant forms and colors, the artist does not approach the jaguar as the image one has of Mato Grosso. His anthropomorphic jaguars transcend the bucolic and achieve the personification of the forces of nature. It is the autochthonous culture, the 'natura sapiens' that watches over everything and transforms it in its own likeness. With the same meaning, though tending more toward enchantment, he emphasizes the cashew, the wealth of the cerrado, the fruit of friendship (...). João Sebastião has the audacity to take an approach that runs the risk of seeming folkloric or kitsch. But it must be stressed that the whole strength of his subject lies precisely in that risk and in the irony of that approach. (...)"
Aline Figueiredo
SEBASTIÃO, João. João Sebastião: coração caipira em terra morena. Campo Grande: Fundação Cultural de Mato Grosso, 1977.
"Among the youngest artists from Mato Grosso, João Sebastião Francisco da Costa stands out as one of the most promising. In him, the Mato Grosso movement meets the new painting of Guanabara, where he worked for some time. João Sebastião makes up-to-date figurative painting, drawing on the results of the so-called Brazilian New Figuration, so different from European New Figuration, as well as those of the New Objectivity and more recent developments. Though extremely young, he already shows some very marked personal characteristics. He reveals his vocation as a painter through the essential way he uses color. Despite the importance of drawing in his works, they are truly paintings because in them color is not an auxiliary element of graphic communication. It creates the basic atmosphere of the canvases, into which the other elements are integrated. João Sebastião tends toward a symbolic art, perhaps with a magical note. Even in the canvases where the link to everyday reality is greatest, there is a kind of transfiguration that creates a special atmosphere of magical suggestion (...)."
Mário Schenberg
FIGUEIREDO, Aline. Artes plásticas no Centro-Oeste. Cuiabá: UFMT/MACP, 1979.
Solo Exhibitions
1975 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Guiomar
1977 - Cuiabá MT - Solo, at Museu de Arte e de Cultura Popular da UFMT
1977 - Campo Grande MS - Solo, at Fundação Cultural do Mato Grosso
1984 - Cuiabá MT - Solo, at Teatro Universitário da UFMT
1986 - São Paulo SP - João Sebastião da Costa: A Fábula do Real [João Sebastião da Costa: The Fable of the Real], at Chroma Galeria de Arte
1988 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Chroma Galeria de Arte
Group Exhibitions
1968 - Cuiabá MT - Mostra Grupo Jovem Mato-Grossense [Young Mato Grosso Group Show], organized by the Associação Mato-Grossense de Artes
1970 - Campo Grande MS - 1st Campo Grande Visual Arts Panorama, at Associação Mato-Grossense de Arte
1970 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 4 Artistas de Mato Grosso [4 Artists from Mato Grosso], at Galeria Goeldi
1970 - São Paulo SP - São Paulo Pre-Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1971 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 5 Artistas de Mato Grosso [5 Artists from Mato Grosso], at Galeria Ibeu Copacabana
1974 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Nacional 74 [National Biennial 74], at Fundação Bienal
1975 - Belo Horizonte MG - 7th Belo Horizonte National Art Salon - City Hall prize
1975 - Cuiabá MT - Mato Grosso Visual Arts Panorama, at Museu de Arte e de Cultura Popular
1975 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 24th National Salon of Modern Art
1975 - Santo André SP - 8th Santo André Contemporary Art Salon, at Paço Municipal - City Council prize
1976 - Goiânia GO - 3rd Caixa Econômica do Estado de Goiás (Caixego) National Visual Arts Competition - acquisition prize
1976 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Arte/Agora/Brasil/70-75 [Art/Now/Brazil/70-75] - acquisition prize
1977 - Goiânia GO - 4th Caixa Econômica do Estado de Goiás (Caixego) National Visual Arts Competition - acquisition prize
1978 - São Paulo SP - 1st São Paulo Latin American Biennial - Special Room Myths and Magic
1979 - São Paulo SP - 11th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1980 - Curitiba PR - 37th Paraná Salon, at Teatro Guaíra
1980 - São Paulo SP - Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1981 - Brasília DF - Mostra Brasil/Cuiabá: Pintura Cabocla [Brazil/Cuiabá Show: Caboclo Painting], at Fundação Cultural do Distrito Federal
1981 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 4th National Visual Arts Salon, at MAM/RJ - award winner
1981 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brasil-Cuiabá: pintura cabocla [Brazil-Cuiabá: Caboclo Painting], at MAM/RJ
1981 - São Paulo SP - Brasil-Cuiabá: pintura cabocla [Brazil-Cuiabá: Caboclo Painting], at MAM/SP
1982 - Bauru SP - 80 Anos de Arte Brasileira [80 Years of Brazilian Art]
1982 - Marília SP - 80 Anos de Arte Brasileira [80 Years of Brazilian Art]
1982 - São Paulo SP - 80 Anos de Arte Brasileira [80 Years of Brazilian Art], at MAB/Faap
1983 - Belo Horizonte MG - 80 Anos de Arte Brasileira [80 Years of Brazilian Art], at Fundação Clóvis Salgado. Palácio das Artes
1983 - Campinas SP - 80 Anos de Arte Brasileira [80 Years of Brazilian Art], at MACC
1983 - Curitiba PR - 80 Anos de Arte Brasileira [80 Years of Brazilian Art], at MAC/PR
1983 - Ribeirão Preto SP - 80 Anos de Arte Brasileira [80 Years of Brazilian Art]
1983 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 6th National Visual Arts Salon, at MAM/RJ
1983 - Santo André SP - 80 Anos de Arte Brasileira [80 Years of Brazilian Art], at Prefeitura Municipal de Santo André
1983 - São Paulo SP - 14th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1985 - São Paulo SP - 3rd São Paulo Contemporary Art Salon, at Fundação Bienal
1988 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Referências Pantaneiras na Pintura de Mato Grosso e de Mato Grosso do Sul [Pantanal References in the Painting of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul], at Solar Grandjean de Montigny
1988 - São Paulo SP - Referências Pantaneiras na Pintura de Mato Grosso e de Mato Grosso do Sul [Pantanal References in the Painting of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul], at Paço das Artes
1989 - São Paulo SP - Surrealismo no Brasil [Surrealism in Brazil], at Pinacoteca do Estado
1993 - Santo André SP - 21st Santo André Contemporary Art Salon, at Paço Municipal
1996 - Osasco SP - Expo FIEO: doação Luiz Ernesto Kawall [Expo FIEO: Luiz Ernesto Kawall Donation], at Centro Universitário Fieo
1996 - São Paulo SP - Desexplosignição: Homenagem à Exposição Nacional de Arte Concreta [Desexplosignição: Tribute to the National Concrete Art Exhibition], at Casa das Rosas
1997 - São Paulo SP - Arte Suporte Computador [Art Medium Computer], at Casa das Rosas
Source: Itaú Cultural
