Santa Rosa (João Pessoa PB 1909 - New Delhi India 1956)
Illustrator, graphic artist, set designer, painter, decorator, costume designer, printmaker, teacher and critic.
After completing his studies at the Liceu Paraibano, Tomás Santa Rosa Junior moved to Salvador in 1931 and worked as an accountant for Banco do Brasil. In 1932, he moved to Rio de Janeiro and assisted Candido Portinari (1903 - 1962) in executing several murals. In 1933, he began working as an illustrator, contributing to the periodicals Sua Revista and Rio Magazine. The following year, he began illustrating publications for the Editora José Olympio publishing house. In this role, which he held until 1954, he produced covers and illustrations for many books. Turning to the performing arts, he created set designs for productions staged by the Cia. de Comédias Jaime Costa and, in 1938, founded the group Os Comediantes. In 1945, he founded the newspaper A Manhã with Jorge Lacerda. In this newspaper, he illustrated and wrote articles for the supplement Letras e Artes. The following year, he coordinated the drawing and graphic arts course at Fundação Getúlio Vargas. In 1949, he became responsible for the theater section of the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro - MAM/RJ, where he later taught structural drawing. In 1950, he coordinated the Theatrical Decoration Studio at the Escola Nacional de Teatro. In 1952, he joined the Comissão Nacional de Artes Plásticas and, two years later, directed the Conservatório Nacional de Teatro. In 1956, he took part in the International Theater Conference held in Bombay and, as an observer, was a member of the Brazilian delegation sent to the General Conference of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in New Delhi. He died suddenly in that city. In 1957, the Instituto de Previdência e Assistência dos Servidores do Estado - Ipase acquired his private collection to found the Museu Santa Rosa, which closed in 1977.
Critical Commentary
Tomás Santa Rosa, born in João Pessoa, settled in Rio de Janeiro in 1932, when he assisted Candido Portinari (1903 - 1962) in finishing several mural paintings. He worked as a book illustrator, an activity to which he devoted himself throughout his life. In 1945, he helped found the newspaper A Manhã, for which he wrote articles and created illustrations for the supplement Letras e Artes. At that time, he contributed to the Diário de Notícias as an art critic.
Santa Rosa became known mainly for his work as a set designer. In 1938, he founded the theater group Os Comediantes, in which he served as artistic director. From 1941, the group worked with the Polish theater director Ziembinski, responsible for productions that are part of the history of Brazilian drama. Until then, set design was done with painted backdrops and furniture lent by local shops. Santa Rosa innovated by conceiving the stage space in three dimensions and by using light as a complement to the theatrical action. Among the group's plays with sets by Santa Rosa, the 1943 production of Vestido de Noiva [The Wedding Dress], by Nelson Rodrigues, stands out. For this production, Santa Rosa created a stage space on two levels, matching the play's planes of action: reality and memory or hallucination. According to researcher Cássio Emmanuel Barsante, the fragmentation of the scenes and the non-chronological sequence of events are linked by this concept, which orders the performance.
In 1944, the set designer worked with the group Teatro Experimental do Negro, which carried out pioneering work in training and launching Black performers, and, in 1952, with the Companhia Dramática Nacional - CDN, linked to the Serviço Nacional do Teatro - SNT. In the sets for Nelson Rodrigues's play A Falecida [The Deceased Woman], staged in 1953, Santa Rosa used an abstract set concept that merely indicated the places of the action. He used few stage elements, which made quick scene changes possible without breaking narrative continuity, as the playwright required.
Santa Rosa devoted himself to painting sporadically, combining it with his many other activities. His paintings show references to the work of Pablo Picasso and Portinari, his affinity with the latter being expressed in the social concern revealed in his themes and in the formal conception of paintings such as Baianas [Bahian Women] or Pescadores [Fishermen], both from 1943, and As Três Meninas [The Three Girls], undated. Some canvases reveal his admiration for metaphysical painting, as in Paisagem Metafísica [Metaphysical Landscape], 1937.
As an illustrator, he produced work for more than 200 publications by the publisher José Olympio, including the cover of Menino de Engenho [Plantation Boy], by José Lins do Rego. Santa Rosa showed an interest in the art of the book itself, attending to its formal finish and thus taking care of the pagination and layout of many publications. An intellectual involved in multiple cultural and artistic activities, Santa Rosa played an important role in the field of graphic arts as a pioneer in teaching layout in Brazil. His work is considered decisive for the graphic renewal of Brazilian newspapers and magazines.
Critiques
"(...) As for style, Santa Rosa followed several paths. An admirer of Italian Renaissance painting, the succession of planes can be noticed in his first creations, which in a way betrays his aptitude for set design. In his first phase, he was also strongly influenced by Beardsley, through his taste for melodious lines. He then entered an allegorical phase, with a dense atmosphere and smooth brushstrokes (indeed, allegory almost never left him). Even when he reached the realist phase of family memories of his childhood in Paraíba - fishermen, women with water jars on their heads - allegory, absent gazes (often blurred faces) and pure reason invaded his canvases. Some are clearly metaphysical. Gradually, these same motifs were broken down by the cubist vision and reached abstraction. (Both abstraction and surrealism never went beyond the field of Santa Rosa's pictorial research - a way of mastering feelings through technique.) Strictly speaking, like Portinari, figuration was always his greatest concern and the very reason for his existence as a painter. At his death, Santa Rosa was equipped like very few Brazilian painters to launch into a synthesis of all these styles carefully worked out over many years. Perhaps his canvases O PENSADOR [The Thinker] and O CRUCIFICADO [The Crucified] were the beginning of this new venture. Death took him in full creative flight".
Cássio Emmanuel Barsante
BARSANTE, Cássio Emmanuel. Santa Rosa em cena. Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional de Artes Cênicas, 1982. (Memória, 2).
Collections
Coleção de Artes Visuais do Instituto de Estudos Brasileiros da Universidade de São Paulo - IEB/USP
Museu Nacional de Belas Artes - MNBA - Rio de Janeiro RJ
Solo Exhibitions
1943 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo
1955 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Dezon
Group Exhibitions
1933 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 3rd Pró-Arte Salon
1934 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 4th Pró-Arte Salon
1935 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Social Art Exhibition, at Clube de Cultura Moderna
1936 - São Paulo SP - Small Paintings Exhibition, at Palácio das Arcadas
1937 - São Paulo SP - 1st Salão de Maio, at Esplanada Hotel de São Paulo
1938 - São Paulo SP - 2nd Salão de Maio, at Esplanada Hotel de São Paulo
1941 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - National Salon of Fine Arts - silver medal
1941 - São Paulo SP - 1st Art Salon of the National Industries Fair, at Parque da Água Branca
1944 - Belo Horizonte MG - Modern Art Exhibition, at Edifício Mariana
1944 - London (England) - Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, at Royal Academy of Arts
1944 - Norwich (England) - Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, at Norwich Castle and Museum
1944 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 50th National Salon of Fine Arts, at MNBA
1945 - Bath (England) - Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, at Victory Art Gallery
1945 - Bristol (England) - Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, at Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery
1945 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - 20 Artistas Brasileños, at Salas Nacionales de Exposición
1945 - Edinburgh (Scotland) - Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, at National Gallery
1945 - Glasgow (Scotland) - Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, at Kelvingrove Art Gallery
1945 - La Plata (Argentina) - 20 Artistas Brasileños, at Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes
1945 - Manchester (England) - Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, at Manchester Art Gallery
1945 - Montevideo (Uruguay) - 20 Artistas Brasileños, at Comisión Municipal de Cultura
1945 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Visual Artists of the Communist Party, at Casa do Estudante
1946 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Painters Go to the People's School, at Enba
1950 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - A Century of Brazilian Painting: 1850-1950, at MNBA
1952 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st National Salon of Modern Art, at MAM/RJ
1952 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Exhibition of Brazilian Artists, at MAM/RJ
1953 - Petrópolis RJ - 1st National Exhibition of Abstract Art, at Hotel Quitandinha
1954 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Black and White Salon at the 3rd National Salon of Modern Art
1955 - Lugano (Switzerland) - Incisioni e Disegni Brasiliani, at Museu da Villa Ciani
1955 - Neuchâtel (Switzerland) - Arts Primitifs et Modernes Brésiliennes, at Museu de Etnografia de Neuchâtel
1955 - Paris (France) - Exhibition, at Galeria Mirador
1956 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 5th National Salon of Modern Art
Posthumous Exhibitions
1957 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Modern Art in Brazil
1957 - Lima (Peru) - Modern Art in Brazil
1957 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at MNBA
1957 - Rosario (Argentina) - Modern Art in Brazil
1957 - Santiago (Chile) - Modern Art in Brazil
1958 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Exhibition of Graphic Arts by Tomás Santa Rosa, at Biblioteca Nacional
1958 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Work in Art, at MNBA
1959 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 30 Years of Brazilian Art, at Galeria Macunaíma
1962 - Casablanca (Morocco) - Exhibition of Brazilian Artists
1962 - Rabat (Morocco) - Exhibition of Brazilian Artists
1962 - Tangier (Morocco) - Exhibition of Brazilian Artists
1967 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at MNBA
1974 - São Paulo SP - Time of the Modernists, at Masp
1975 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Retrospective, at Teatro Municipal
1976 - São Paulo SP - The Salons: Família Artística Paulista, Salão de Maio and São Paulo Visual Artists Union, at Museu Lasar Segall
1981 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Retrospective, at Teatro João Caetano
1981 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Universe of Carnival: Images and Reflections, at Acervo Galeria de Arte
1982 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Brazil 60 Years of Modern Art: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, at Centro de Arte Moderna José de Azeredo Perdigão
1982 - London (England) - Brazil 60 Years of Modern Art: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, at Barbican Art Gallery
1982 - São Paulo SP - From Modernism to the Bienal, at MAM/SP
1983 - Recife PE - 50 Years of Casa-Grande & Senzala, at Fundação Joaquim Nabuco. Administração Central
1984 - Aracaju SE - 50 Years of Casa-Grande & Senzala
1984 - Brasília DF - 50 Years of Casa-Grande & Senzala
1984 - Lisbon (Portugal) - 50 Years of Casa-Grande & Senzala, at Museu Gulbenkian da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian
1984 - Salvador BA - 50 Years of Casa-Grande & Senzala
1984 - Vitória ES - 50 Years of Casa-Grande & Senzala
1985 - Porto Alegre RS - Iberê Camargo: Trajectory and Encounters, at Margs
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 8th National Visual Arts Salon, at MAM/RJ
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Six Decades of Modern Art: Roberto Marinho Collection, at Paço Imperial
1985 - São Paulo SP - Santa Rosa, Carnival and Costumes, at Funarte
1986 - Brasília DF - Iberê Camargo: Trajectory and Encounters, at Teatro Nacional Cláudio Santoro
1986 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Iberê Camargo: Trajectory and Encounters, at MAM/RJ
1986 - São Paulo SP - Iberê Camargo: Trajectory and Encounters, at Masp
1989 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Six Decades of Brazilian Modern Art: Roberto Marinho Collection, at Centro de Arte Moderna José de Azeredo Perdigão
1989 - São Paulo SP - 20th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Fundação Bienal
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Nature: Four Centuries of Art in Brazil, at CCBB
1993 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazil: 100 Years of Modern Art, at MNBA
1993 - São Paulo SP - 100 Masterpieces from the Mário de Andrade Collection: Painting and Sculpture, at IEB/USP
1993 - São Paulo SP - Modern Drawing in Brazil: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, at Galeria de Arte do Sesi
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Modern Drawing in Brazil: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, at MAM/RJ
1994 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Brasil Século XX, at Fundação Bienal
1996 - Barra Mansa RJ - 12 Names in Brazilian Painting, at Centro Universitário de Barra Mansa
1997 - Barra Mansa RJ - The Museum Visits the Gallery, at Centro Universitário de Barra Mansa
1998 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Fantasy: the Ballet of the 4th Centenary, at Sesc Belenzinho
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Rio Printmaking Show. Brazilian Modern Printmaking: Museu Nacional de Belas Artes Collection, at MNBA
1999 - São Paulo SP - On Paper, Graphite and India Ink, at Banco Cidade
2000 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Brasil-brasis: cousas notaveis e espantosas [Brazil-Brazils: Notable and Astonishing Things]. Modernist Views, at Museu do Chiado
2000 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - When Brazil Was Modern: Visual Arts in Rio de Janeiro from 1905 to 1960, at Paço Imperial
2000 - Valencia (Spain) - De la Antropofagia a Brasilia: Brasil 1920-1950, at IVAM. Centre Julio González
2001 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Watercolor, at Centro Cultural Light
2002 - Niterói RJ - Brazilian Art on Paper: 19th and 20th Centuries, at Solar do Jambeiro
2002 - São Paulo SP - From Anthropophagy to Brasília: Brazil 1920-1950, at MAB/Faap
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Order x Freedom, at MAM/RJ
2005 - Petrópolis RJ - Abstract Express, at Museu Imperial
Source: Itaú Cultural
