XXXXXDa
Rosa creates human figures. They can be statuesque, but more
usually
they are twisted and contorted. They can indulge in athletics,
dance or struggle. Some of them are isolated and in anguish,
but
just as often they are joyful or in ecstasy. Only rarely do we
get the feeling of relation and a studio situation which
we find
so frequently in Matisse. Most striking is the fresh and unexpected
relation of silhouette to rectangle and a confrontational,
directness
of address. Always there is the idea of universal man, naked
but without any special sexual emphasis. Always there is
titanic passion
and energy. Like Picasso, da Rosa is a sculptor/draughtsman
par excellence. His color and textures can be daring and
aggressive,
but the picture is ultimately carried by a draughtsmanly idea.
And it is natural enough that da Rosa sometimes turns to
figure
sculpture or combines sculpture with his painting. His is adept
in both mediums and his sculptures are no less passionate
and
monumental than his painting. It should be noted though, that
his figures have their own distinct proportions with massive
legs
and hips and a diminished upper body.
.........The human figure, in the context of postwar painterly
abstraction, first appeared in the work of Jackson Pollock.
These
were large, sketchy figures which were more the product of gesture
than nature. Pollock’s example was soon followed by Willem
de Kooning, Robert Goodnough and others. But these developments
were submerged in the 60’s by Color Field Painting and
Minimalism, both of which were purely abstract. Only in the
late 70’s,
with figures like Julian Schnabel, Jean-Michel Basquiat, George
Baselitz and the Italians, Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente,
Enzo
Cucchi and Mimmo Paladino did painterly figuration again gain
center stage, now under the title of “Neo-Expressionism.”
Yet despite occasional successes, this tendency did not produce
a major figure, a single painter who can match Pollock. A member
of the New New group of painters, Lucy Baker did a brilliant
series of the gestural, figurative works in the middle 80’s,
but these remained an isolated phenomena, a lone fulfillment
of New-Expression’s
potential. With his work of the early 90’s, da Rosa’
took his place beside her. What is more, neo-figuration is far
more central to da Rosa’s art than it is to Bakers.
XXXXX Da Rosa was born in the town of Ponte do Sor in Alextejo,
Portugal, that province which has been the birth place of so many
artists and writers. His father, the owner of a small factory,
was a highly cultured man who instilled in him the love of the
arts. As a young man da Rosa moved to Lisbon and quickly fell
in with a group of artists and writers. First drawn to literature
and the theater, he published a book of poetry at age 18. Soon
thereafter, he attended the Society Belas Artes where he began
his study of painting. But the year was 1958 and Portugal was
under the dictatorship of Salazar. Da Rosa found the atmosphere
of the Society hyper conservative and stultifying. He soon left
and in 1960 he was able to visit Paris for four months. Now committed
to painting and the visual arts, his idol was Picasso even though
his temperament led him more to German Expressionism especially
the Blaue Reiter group and the work of Franz Marc.
..........Unable to secure a living in Paris, da Rosa
moved to Germany, settling in Dusseldorf for several years. Here
it was that he met Isable Oliveira, who was to become his life’s
companion and champion. Da Rosa likes to travel and visited many
places in Europe at this time. Also he applied to enter Canada
as a resident and, in 1962, after first moving to Brazil, he was
accepted for admission in Canada.
.
.........He first went to Montreal, but soon moved on to
Toronto. Here he briefly attended the Three Schools of Art and
had his first one-man exhibition in 1966 at a bookstore gallery.
After that he was represented by Roza Mezei of the R.M. Gallery
for several years. He continued to travel extensively visiting
California, New York, and other places in the United States and
Canada. In 1969-70 he spent a year in Mexico, first in San Miguel
de Allende and then in Mexico City. It was during his stay in
Mexico City that da Rosa had a “breakthrough” experience,
as he puts it, watching David Siqueiros working on the huge mural
“The March of Humankind” “Towards the Cosmos”.
Da Rosa had been drawn to the human being as his subject matter
ever since he began to paint, but Siqueiro’s work challenged
him by its grand ambition and prompted him to focus on the figure
more exclusively.
..........Da Rosa was admitted for residence in the United
States in 1987 as an “Artist of Merit” and he went
to live in Miami. This is where his art finally came to fruition.
Until now he had shown talent and promise, but his work remained
all too polite and familiar. Between 1988-1991 his pictures became
larger and underwent an eruptive development with the series “American
Dream”, 1989, “Urban Realities”, 1990; and a
huge 15.5x28 ft. magnum opus, “Joseph Beuys Sweeps Up Berlin”,
1991, which showed over life size figures both in painted relief
and three dimensions climbing over and gestulating before a wall.
The latter work extends some nine feet into the views space. (Da
Rosa later removed the pieces in the round because he found that
the painting and relief were more effective by themselves).
..........In 1991 he began to realize his figures with
heavy applications of white acrylic paste instead of the vivid
flesh tones he previously favored. This made the figures seem
skeletal and more abstract. They now loomed larger and da Rosa
began to distort them more boldly. His most recent pictures are
da Rosa’s most mature and personal works so far. He has
said that the large chromatic skies of South Florida have influenced
both his scale and his color. It may seem contradictory that Miami
has provided the environment for the flowering of such a raw northern
expressionist vision. But in this, da Rosa is more the rule than
the exception. Expressionism characterizes many of South Florida’s
leading figures: da Rosa, Carlos Alfonso, Arturo Rodriquez, José
Bedia and Norman Liebman. They seem to be reacting against the
sunny idyllicism of the area. In any event, da Rosa is one of
the most exciting artists working anywhere today. He applies the
European cultural tradition with a contemporary urgency. He offers
pathos without sentimentality. His is a fully modern humanism
with an eternal appeal.
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