Newton Mesquita (São Paulo SP 1949)
Newton Mesquita is a painter, draftsman, graphic artist, printmaker, set designer, photographer and sculptor. He graduated in architecture from the Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo Brás Cubas, in Mogi das Cruzes (SP), in 1977. That same year, he began teaching at the School of Architecture of the Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie. His first exhibition took place in 1972, during the Temporada de Arte e Cultura [Art and Culture Season] in Guarulhos (SP). Since then, he has held solo exhibitions in several Brazilian cities and taken part in group shows in Brazil and abroad.
In 1976 and 1977, he received the Incentive Prize at the Salão de Arte Jovem de Santos. At the same time, he produced graphic work for the publishers Cia. Melhoramentos de São Paulo, in 1980, and Brasiliense, in 1981, and created sets for the Record and Bandeirantes television networks.
He is the author of an exterior panel at the Centro Paulista de Tênis, made in 1978, and of the wooden relief at the Museu de Arte Brasileira – MAB/FAAP, completed in 1983. In the 1980s, he produced illustrations for magazines such as Nova, Veja, Claudia and Playboy. He directed the Museu da Imagem e do Som de São Paulo (MIS/SP) from 1991 to 1992 and, that same year, served as coordinator of cultural action at the São Paulo State Secretariat of Culture.
Critical Commentary
Newton Mesquita's work stems from his training as a graphic artist, illustrator and architect. The predominant role of drawing, the systematic use of acrylic paint, the smooth surfaces (glossy or matte), the plays of color and mirroring give the works the look of posters and billboards. Not only the techniques and materials used but also the chosen repertoire place this output within the urban universe, the world of media and advertising. Symbols and clichés of the contemporary world are explored in most of the works, which cover a wide range of themes and situations.
Large Brazilian cities are represented through broad views of avenues, viaducts and buildings - Paulista and Indo pro Paraíso [Going to Paradise], 2002 - and through close-up views of traffic lights, neon signs, lanes and buses - as in Anhangabaú, 2002. Figures appear at work, as laborers, shoeshine boys and waiters, and at moments of rest, such as elderly people reading newspapers on park benches, cyclists, passersby caught in front of a shop window. Female bodies are another important thematic vein: kisses, gestures and poses carry a strong erotic charge, sometimes bordering on pornography - Muito Romântico [Very Romantic], 1993. The cities, too, at times colorful and illuminated, turn into landscapes of lyrical tone through shading.
It is hard not to notice the affinities of Newton Mesquita's painting with photography and with the hyperrealism of David Hockney. Some speak of affinities with Roy Lichtenstein's Pop Art. The artist stresses the importance of Carlos Scliar to his work.
Critiques
"(...) In this young architect, visual designer and visual artist there is a contemporary vision that could only exist in a generation for which comics and television have played, and still play, a predominant role. Cinema, for example, does not influence this vision. It is much more closely linked to billboards and to halftone screens, both those of advertisements and those of comics. Yet it is dissociated from the Pop content of a Lichtenstein or a Warhol. Unlike those artists, who gave the halftone screen a merely graphic function, Mesquita uses it not as an effect but as an indispensable element in the visual and aesthetic development of the composition. However, the screen he obtains with small rubber rollers is not the most important thing in his work. It is just a resource. A well-handled one. What matters is his drawing, his conception of space, the subtlety with which he handles color, and even the visual cropping with which he frames his compositions. Using the hyperrealists' projection technique, though he has nothing to do with that school, Mesquita elaborates, creates and develops a new image from a photographic reference. (...)"
Carlos Von Schmidt
MESQUITA, Newton. Newton Mesquita. Apresentação Carlos von Schmidt. São Paulo: MAB, 1978.
"One of the tendencies that most characterize the disoriented Brazilian art of the young generation is realism, the relationship between the painter and reality. Without alluding to the 'historical realism' that had Courbet as its protagonist in France, everything indicates that reality is increasingly interesting the makers of art. Some, naturally, fall into illustration and into the reproductive habits of the old, fierce academic crowd; but those with stamina stand out. Everything depends on the possibility and on how much ingenuity is mixed into the colors. To cite an example: Caravaggio.
Moving from History to Chronicle, this chronicler notes the presence of Mesquita, who in this exhibition presents sea and harbor scenes reduced to a projection system, a rapid communication of flat signs, sometimes appearing in tiny prefabricated halftone dots that stand out, figurations of elementary flavor, quickly perceptible symbols that give an idea of the whole."
Pietro Maria Bardi
MESQUITA, Newton. Newton Mesquita. Apresentação Pietro Maria Bardi. São Paulo: Paulo Prado Galeria de Arte, 1980.
"It is true that he [the artist] cannot always change everything. But would that really be necessary to create a work of art?
This seems to be what Newton Mesquita wants to say at this moment, offering us, without fanfare, with rigor and coherence, a clear gesture of love for Painting."
Paulinho da Viola
MESQUITA, Newton. Quarenta e cinco: Newton Mesquita. São Paulo: Galeria Nara Roesler, 1994.
Solo Exhibitions
1977 - Brasília DF - Solo, at Oscar Seraphico Galeria de Arte
1977 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Paulo Prado Galeria de Arte
1978 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Memória Cooperativa de Arte
1978 - Guarujá SP - Solo, at Civitec Feira de Arte
1978 - Ribeirão Preto SP - Solo, at Casa da Cultura
1978 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Projecta Galeria de Arte
1978 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at MAB/Faap
1979 - Brasília DF - Solo, at Oscar Seraphico Galeria de Arte
1979 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Funarte. Galeria Sérgio Milliet
1979 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Paulo Figueiredo Galeria de Arte
1979 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Masp
1980 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Salamandra Galeria de Arte
1980 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Paulo Prado Galeria de Arte
1980 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Masp
1980 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Itaugaleria
1981 - Brasília DF - Solo, at Oscar Seraphico Galeria de Arte
1981 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Realidade Galeria de Arte
1981 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Fotogaleria
1981 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Alberto Bonfiglioli
1982 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Arte Aplicada
1983 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Masson Galeria de Arte
1983 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Suzanna Sassoun
1983 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Paulo Prado Galeria de Arte
1984 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Alberto Bonfiglioli
1985 - Recife PE - Solo, at Artespaço
1985 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Galeria O Cavalete
1985 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Suzanna Sassoun
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at AM Niemeyer Artinteriores (Gávea)
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at AM Niemeyer Artinteriores (Barra)
1986 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Escritório de Arte da Bahia
1988 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Arte Aplicada
1990 - Recife PE - Solo, at Artespaço
1990 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Escritório de Arte da Bahia
1991 - Salvador BA - Prova do Artista [Artist's Proof]
1992 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Montesanti Roesler
1993 - Ribeirão Preto SP - Jardim Contemporâneo [Contemporary Garden]
1994 - São Paulo SP - Quarenta e cinco [Forty-Five], at Galeria Nara Roesler
Group Exhibitions
1972 - Guarulhos SP - Temporada de Arte e Cultura [Art and Culture Season]
1973 - Mogi das Cruzes SP - Expo Fotográfica [Photo Expo], at Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade Brás Cubas
1974 - Guarulhos SP - Experiência em Conjunto [Joint Experience]
1975 - Embu SP - 12th Embu Visual Arts Salon - acquisition prize
1975 - São Bernardo do Campo SP - 18th São Bernardo do Campo Art Salon - large silver medal
1975 - São Caetano do Sul SP - 7th São Caetano do Sul Contemporary Art Salon
1975 - São Paulo SP - 6th São Paulo Contemporary Art Salon, at Fundação Bienal - special jury mention
1976 - Brasília DF - Group show, at Fundação Cultural do Distrito Federal
1976 - Santo André SP - 9th Santo André Contemporary Art Salon, at Paço Municipal
1976 - Santos SP - 4th Young Art Salon, at Centro Cultural Brasil Estados Unidos - incentive prize
1977 - Barcelona (Spain) - 16th Joan Miró Drawing Prize
1977 - Goiânia GO - 3rd National Visual Arts Competition, at Parthenon Center - acquisition prize
1977 - Porto Alegre RS - 4th UFRGS Visual Arts Salon, at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. Instituto de Artes. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Artes Visuais
1977 - Santos SP - 5th Young Art Salon, at Centro Cultural Brasil Estados Unidos - incentive prize
1978 - Barcelona (Spain) - 17th Joan Miró Drawing Prize
1978 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - 15 Young Artists from Brazil, at Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires
1978 - Montevideo (Uruguay) - Dez Artistas Jovens de São Paulo [Ten Young Artists from São Paulo]
1978 - Punta del Este (Uruguay) - Dez Artistas Jovens de São Paulo [Ten Young Artists from São Paulo]
1978 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 18th Art and Ecological Thought, at Biblioteca Euclides da Cunha
1978 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st National Visual Arts Salon, at MNBA - acquisition prize
1978 - São Paulo SP - 15 Young Artists from Brazil, at MAB/Faap
1979 - Atami (Japan) - 1st Brazilian Art Salon
1979 - Kyoto (Japan) - 1st Brazilian Art Salon
1979 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Brazilian Art Salon - acquisition prize
1979 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 2nd National Visual Arts Salon, at MAM/RJ
1979 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Group show, at Galeria Sérgio Milliet/Funarte
1979 - São Paulo SP - 11th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1979 - São Paulo SP - 1st Brazilian Art Salon, at MAM/SP - acquisition prize
1979 - São Paulo SP - 8th Bunkyo Salon, at Sociedade Brasileira de Cultura Japonesa - silver medal
1979 - São Paulo SP - Desenho e Pintura [Drawing and Painting], at Masp
1979 - São Paulo SP - Drawing as an Instrument, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1979 - São Paulo SP - Papéis e Companhia [Papers and Company], at MIS/SP
1979 - Tokyo (Japan) - 1st Brazilian Art Salon
1980 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 3rd National Visual Arts Salon, at MNBA
1980 - São Paulo SP - 12th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1980 - São Paulo SP - 1st São Paulo Salon of Plastic and Visual Arts, at Fundação Bienal
1980 - São Paulo SP - 6º Raio [6th Ray], at Itaugaleria
1980 - São Paulo SP - 9th Bunkyo Salon - silver medal
1981 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 4th National Visual Arts Salon, at MAM/RJ
1981 - São Paulo SP - 2nd São Paulo Salon of Plastic and Visual Arts, at Paço das Artes
1982 - Bauru SP - 80 Years of Brazilian Art
1982 - Belo Horizonte MG - 14th Belo Horizonte National Contemporary Art Salon, at Museu de Arte da Pampulha
1982 - Marília SP - 80 Years of Brazilian Art
1982 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 5th National Visual Arts Salon, at MAM/RJ
1982 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Football: Interpretations, at Galeria de Arte Banerj
1982 - São Paulo SP - 3rd São Paulo Salon of Plastic and Visual Arts
1982 - São Paulo SP - 80 Years of Brazilian Art, at MAB/Faap
1982 - São Paulo SP - Futebol - Desenho e Pintura [Football - Drawing and Painting], at Galeria Paulo Figueiredo/Cristal
1983 - Atami (Japan) - 3rd Brazilian Art Salon
1983 - Belo Horizonte MG - 80 Years of Brazilian Art, at Fundação Clóvis Salgado. Palácio das Artes
1983 - Campinas SP - 80 Years of Brazilian Art, at MACC
1983 - Curitiba PR - 80 Years of Brazilian Art, at MAC/PR
1983 - Kyoto (Japan) - 3rd Brazilian Art Salon
1983 - Ribeirão Preto SP - 80 Years of Brazilian Art
1983 - Santo André SP - 80 Years of Brazilian Art, at Prefeitura Municipal de Santo André
1983 - São Paulo SP - 14th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1983 - São Paulo SP - 3rd Brazilian Art Salon
1983 - São Paulo SP - Avenida Paulista, at Galeria Sesc Paulista
1983 - São Paulo SP - Palm Tree, at Galeria Alberto Bonfiglioli
1983 - Tokyo (Japan) - 3rd Brazilian Art Salon
1984 - Ourinhos SP - Tribute to the Art of Printmaking in Brazil, at Itaugaleria
1984 - São Paulo SP - The Urban and Industrial Dimensions in São Paulo Figurative Painting, at Traço Galeria de Arte
1985 - Atami (Japan) - 7th Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition
1985 - Kyoto (Japan) - 7th Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 7th Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition
1985 - São Paulo SP - 7th Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition, at Fundação Brasil-Japão
1985 - Tokyo (Japan) - 7th Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition
1987 - Brasília DF - São Paulo Artists in Brasília, at Museu de Arte de Brasília
1987 - São Paulo SP - 20th Contemporary Art Exhibition, at Chapel Art Show
1988 - São Paulo SP - 15 Years of the Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Exhibition, at Fundação Mokiti Okada M.O.A.
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Eco Art, at MAM/RJ
1992 - Santo André SP - Lithography: Methods and Concepts, at Paço Municipal
1993 - Santos SP - 4th Santos National Biennial, at Centro Cultural Patrícia Galvão
1996 - São Paulo SP - 1st Off Bienal, at MuBE
1999 - São Paulo SP - Lithography: Fidelity and Memory, at Espaço de Artes Unicid
2000 - São Paulo SP - Almeida Júnior: An Artist Revisited, at Pinacoteca do Estado
2000 - São Paulo SP - Ars Erótica: Sexo e Erotismo na Arte Brasileira [Ars Erotica: Sex and Eroticism in Brazilian Art], at MAM/SP
2001 - São Paulo SP - Museu de Arte Brasileira: 40 Years, at MAB/Faap
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Caixa Treasures: Brazilian Modern Art in the Caixa Collection, at Caixa Cultural
2003 - São Paulo SP - Natureza Morta [Still Life], at Espaço Cultural BM&F
2004 - São Paulo SP - 450 X 45, at Nova André Galeria
2004 - São Paulo SP - Exhibition of Contemporary Artists, at Esporte Clube Sírio
2005 - São Paulo SP - Erotica: os sentidos na arte [Erotica: The Senses in Art], at CCBB
2005 - São Paulo SP - Small Great Works, at Cultural Blue Life
2006 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Erotica: os sentidos na arte [Erotica: The Senses in Art], at CCBB
2007 - São Paulo SP - Wall of Fame, at Nova André Galeria
Source: Itaú Cultural
