António Dacosta

After completing a degree in painting at the Fine Arts School in Lisbon, he entered the Portuguese arts scene in 1940, together with António Pedro and Pamela Boden, thanks to a small exhibition they had in Lisbon. This exhibition already showed a strong surrealist tendency in his early work and constituted an aesthetical option diametrically opposed to the official one of the nationalistic, celebratory Exposição do Mundo Português (Exhibition of the Portuguese World). ¶ António Dacosta introduced in the Portuguese painting circle the possible combination between a surrealist, dream-like state and a particular interpretation of the myths from the islands of his origin (the Azores archipelago). Such a combination is visible in works such as Diálogo (Dialogue, 1939), Antítese da Calma (The Antithesis of Calm, 1940), Serenata Açoriana (Azores' Serenate, 1940) and A Festa (The Festival, 1942). The incommunicability and the sheer absurdity of the images of strange beings triggered an extraordinary poetic reordering, at surprising figurative levels. This is also the case in Amor Jacente (Leaning Love, 1941) or the enigmatic Episódio Com um Cão (Episode with a Dog, 1940) which reveal an uncanny explosion of the imagination that reaches a solid surreal atmosphere. ¶ The artist, who moved to Paris in 1946, overcame the formal quality and "convulsive" boldness of the few surrealist adventures ever attempted among Portuguese artists, becoming a central reference for the young people at the Lisbon Surrealist Group, during the second half of the 40s. ¶ After being well-established in Paris, and working as an art critic and a correspondent for several newspapers, such as O Estado de São Paulo (Brazil), Acção e Diário Popular (both Portuguese), the artist would develop, between 1947 and 49, abstract paintings, paintings that did not relinquish the dynamics of chance of the surreal tradition, sustaining with it a thin line of kinship via the titles, as in the case of, for instance, Cuidado com os Filhos (Beware of the Children, 1948). After 1949, Dacosta abandoned all artistic activity. ¶ After a 25 year gap, Dacosta returned to painting in 1975, opening up his work to a somewhat Matisse-like lyricism, cast by soft chromatic composition values that arrive at a very intense poetic expression, branding his work until the end of his days. In the last few years, especially from 1980 onwards, he turned to poetry, reaching a level of labour as dense as that of his pictorial practice. The poems would be published only posthumously, in 1993, in A Cal dos Muros (The Lime on the Walls).

• 
• 
• 
•