Torquato Bassi (Ferrara, Itália 1880 - São Paulo SP 1967)
Painter, sculptor and decorator.
His family moved to Brazil in 1893. He studied painting at the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios in São Paulo with the Italian-Brazilian painter Aladino Divani (1878 - 1928). He held his first solo exhibition in 1907, at the Casa Bevilacqua in São Paulo. The following year, he was awarded the gold medal at the Exposição Geral de Belas Artes (EGBA) in Rio de Janeiro. In 1911, he organized the 1st Brazilian Fine Arts Exhibition at the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios, showing 14 landscapes. In 1913, he moved to France, where he studied at the Académie Julian with the French painter Jean-Paul Laurens (1838 - 1921) and attended the studio of Henri-Joseph Harpignies (1819 - 1916). He supported himself by painting stage sets. A year and a half later, he returned to Brazil, traveled through the South and Northeast of the country exhibiting his work, and continued his activities as a promoter of culture. He created the Grupo Almeida Júnior [Almeida Júnior Group] to energize and unite the art scene, and organized two exhibitions: the first at the Teatro Municipal in 1928 and the second at the Palácio das Arcadas in 1929, both in São Paulo. He was one of the founders of the Associação Paulista de Belas-Artes in 1942 and of the Prêmio Álvares Penteado in 1960. In the 1930s and 1940s, he exhibited several times at the Sindicato de Artistas Plásticos, even though it mainly brought together artists of the modern wing. In 1956, he received the medal of honor from the artists of the Associação Paulista de Belas-Artes and, in 1961, he was granted the title of Citizen of São Paulo.
Critical Commentary
Torquato Bassi worked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was one of the São Paulo painters who were forerunners of modernism. He devoted himself to landscapes and still lifes. He was seldom interested in the human figure and, when it appears, it is integrated into the natural setting and small in scale. In this period there was a tension between the tradition of European painting and the search for a national painting inspired by Brazilian landscapes, colors and themes. Torquato Bassi stands between the European-oriented current represented by Pedro Américo (1843 - 1905) and the regionalist nationalism of Almeida Júnior (1850 - 1899). According to the researcher Ruth Sprung Tarasantchi, Torquato Bassi belongs to the group of artists whose main subject is light, alongside painters such as Valle Júnior (1889 - 1958), Campos Ayres (1881 - 1944) and Mugnaini (1895 - 1975), among others. Because of the harmony of the colors and tones of his paintings, Bassi became known as "the poet of dusk": he captures the reddish sky of sunset and renders it with thick, heavy brushstrokes, rarely using pure colors. He mixes them with white, which gives them a "grayish, milky and consequently poetic"¹ tone. Torquato is also known for his role as a cultural agitator, taking part in organizing exhibitions, associations and the well-known Grupo Almeida Júnior.
Notes
¹ TARASANTCHI, Ruth Sprung. Pintores paisagistas: São Paulo. 1890 a 1920. São Paulo: Edusp: Imprensa Oficial, 2002, p. 219.
Critiques
"In Bassi's landscapes nothing is outlined. Trunks and trees, green masses, sky, water: everything merges. When he paints dusk, the reflected reddish sky is rendered with thick brushstrokes and a lot of paint. The melancholy that emanates from his works is due to the colors he uses, which are rarely pure. The painter mixed them with many others, sometimes using white, which gave them a grayish, milky and consequently poetic tone. Since the artist did not usually varnish his paintings, the lack of sheen also contributed to these effects. This is a very personal trait that lets us recognize his work at once".
Ruth Sprung Tarasantchi
TORQUATO Bassi. Apresentação de Ruth Sprung Tarasantchi. São Paulo: Centro Cultural São Paulo, 1988.
Solo Exhibitions
1907 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Casa Bevilácqua
1913 - Campinas SP - Solo, at Salão Nobre do Centro de Ciências
1922 - Recife PE - Solo
1941 - Curitiba PR - Solo
Group Exhibitions
1906 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 13th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1908 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - National Salon of Fine Arts - gold medal
1911 - São Paulo SP - First Brazilian Fine Arts Exhibition, at Liceu de Artes e Ofícios
1912 - São Paulo SP - Second Brazilian Fine Arts Exhibition, at Liceu de Artes e Ofícios
1916 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 23rd General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1918 - São Paulo SP - Exhibits with Oscar Pereira da Silva, at São Paulo Club
1919 - Pelotas RS - Group show
1919 - Porto Alegre RS - Group show
1920 - São Paulo SP - Exhibition, at Sede do Circolo Italiano
1928 - São Paulo SP - Muse Italiche group show, at Palácio das Indústrias
1928 - São Paulo SP - Almeida Júnior Group, at Palácio das Arcadas
1929 - São Paulo SP - Almeida Júnior Group, at Teatro Municipal
1934 - Santos SP - 1st Samples Fair - gold medal
1934 - São Paulo SP - 1st São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Rua 11 de Agosto
1935 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - National Salon of Fine Arts - large gold medal
1935 - São Paulo SP - 2nd São Paulo Fine Arts Salon
1935 - São Paulo SP - 3rd São Paulo Fine Arts Salon
1936 - São Paulo SP - 4th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon
1937 - São Paulo SP - Almeida Júnior Group, at Palácio das Arcadas
1937 - São Paulo SP - 5th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon
1938 - São Paulo SP - São Paulo Fine Arts Salon - small silver medal
1939 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - National Salon of Fine Arts - silver medal
1939 - São Paulo SP - 6th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon - São Paulo City Hall Prize
1940 - São Paulo SP - 7th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Salão de Arte Almeida Júnior da Prefeitura Municipal
1941 - São Paulo SP - São Paulo Fine Arts Salon - large silver medal
1942 - São Paulo SP - 7th Salon of the Visual Artists' Union, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1942 - São Paulo SP - 8th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1943 - São Paulo SP - 9th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1944 - São Paulo SP - 9th Salon of the Visual Artists' Union, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1945 - São Paulo SP - 11th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1946 - São Paulo SP - 12th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1947 - São Paulo SP - 13th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1948 - São Paulo SP - 14th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1949 - São Paulo SP - 15th São Paulo Fine Arts Salon, at Galeria Prestes Maia
Posthumous Exhibitions
1982 - São Paulo SP - Seascapes and Riverscapes, at Museu Lasar Segall
1982 - São Paulo SP - Italian Painters in Brazil, at MAM/SP
1986 - São Paulo SP - Dezenovevinte: A Turn of the Century, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1988 - São Paulo SP - Brasiliana: Man and the Land, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1988 - São Paulo SP - Retrospective, at Centro Cultural São Paulo
1993 - São Paulo SP - O Olhar Italiano sobre São Paulo [The Italian Gaze on São Paulo], at Pinacoteca do Estado
1996 - Osasco SP - 4th Art Show, at Fundação Instituto de Ensino para Osasco, FIEO
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Seascapes in Major São Paulo Collections, at Museu Naval e Oceanográfico
1998 - São Paulo SP - São Paulo Iconography in Private Collections, at Museu da Casa Brasileira
1998 - São Paulo SP - Seascapes in Major São Paulo Collections, at Sociarte
Source: Itaú Cultural
