Brazilian Artist, Antonio Dias of After Utopia, Dies- (1944-2018)
O Meu Retrato (My Portrait), 1966
Electromechanical object, photograph on paper (via Walker Art Center)
Brazilian artist Antonio Dias, whose paintings and sculptures viscerally challenged the authoritarian regime that ruled his country for over two decades, has died at age seventy-four. While 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 an abstraction that was less overtly political.
“Our Lives Are Shaped by the Quality of Our Attention” – Antonio Dias
Looking back at looking back, What Drives Me –
Confronting the double-bind,
Growing up in a predicament we get past incredulity or we take refuge in madness.
Antonio Dias and Tropicalia . (Ken Li blogged)