DIAS, ANTONIO (1944-2018)

"The Secret Life" (1968)
screenprint, ed. 24/26
49.5 x 61cm
signed lower right
*private collection, Sydney
 
Dias is a famous Brazilian artist and printmaker. He began working as a draftsman and graphic designer, eventually visiting the studio of modernist artist and engraver Oswaldo Goeldi at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes. His work as a graphic artist included designing an album cover for Gilberto Gil, a musician who was part of the Tropicália movement, for whom Dias was an important figure. Dias then resettled in Europe in 1966, one year after he won the painting award at the Paris Biennale and displayed work in the group exhibition “Opinião 65” (Opinion 65), held at Rio de Janeiro’s Museu de Arte Moderna.Dias’s early canvases mingled Nova Figuração (New Figuration) with graffiti and comic book influences to address urban violence, censorship, war, and Brazil’s former military dictatorship, his later works moved toward a style of abstraction that was less overtly political.Dias’s work was included in Tate Modern’s 2015 exhibition “The World Goes Pop,” which provided an alternative history of the Pop art movement. His works are represented in many large National Gallery Collections all over the world.