António Dacosta. Pintor Europeu Das Ilhas

Produced by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation as part of António Dacosta's solo exhibition at Galeria 111 in Lisbon, in 1983, Tereza Martha films the artist António Dacosta at his home and studio in France. After nearly 30 years of almost total creative suspension, the paintings that Dacosta presents in this documentary mark his return to painting. Dacosta contextualises this new phase of his art: ‘The figures are just the vehicle of this desire to be alive in the world. (...) They come from the inside out and seem to celebrate what in the world has a certain mythical aura that interests me.’

Duration: 15’
Production year: 1984
Country: PT
Language: PT Subtitles: PT

Tereza Martha

Painter, poet and art critic, António Dacosta distinguished himself as one of the pioneers of the surrealist movement in Portugal. Born in the Azores, he came to Lisbon to study painting at the Lisbon School of Fine Arts, but never graduated. In 1940, he had his first exhibition, together with António Pedro (another artist who was a precursor of Portuguese surrealism) and Pamela Boden, at Casa Repe, in Lisbon. His paintings until the mid-1940s were characterised by their dramatic and, at times, violent and melancholic nature. In 1944, his studio and some of his works were destroyed by a fire and, three years later, he left for Paris. In 1949, he contributed with two works to the Surrealist Group of Lisbon exhibition, but that same year he abandoned painting to devote himself to journalism and art criticism, poetry and illustration. His break from painting lasted almost 30 years, and he only resumed creating in 1975, moving away from surrealism and embarking on an abstractionist path.

Original title: António Dacosta. Pintor Europeu Das Ilhas

Tereza Martha

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