- ANTONIO DIAS ARTWORK

- ANTONIO DIAS ARTIST

Antonio Manuel Lima Dias, commonly known as Antonio Dias , was a artist It is Brazilian graph. The artist was one of the leading exponents of thethe new figuration.

He was born in Campina Grande, in the state of Paraiba in Brazil, in 1944. 

In 1957 he moved with his family to Rio de Janeiro where he enrolled in the prestigious school Academy of Fine Arts and begins to frequent the artist's studio Oswaldo Goeldi.

In the mid-1960s, in open contrast to the military dictatorship established in his country, Antonio Dias went to Paris thanks to a scholarship and stayed there for about two years. Subsequently, starting in 1968, he decided to move for a short time to Milan, a city where he would often return on visits. In Milan forms strong friendships with artists such as Mario Schifano, Luciano Fabro, Alighieri Boetti It is Giulio Paolini and start experimenting with other languages by shooting, for example, super 8 films such as The Illustration of Art I from 1971, in which two bandages crossed the skin of a model, combining geometry, abstraction and body art.

He will make new trips that will take him to Germany, where he will reside in Cologne and to Berlin, the United States of America and Nepal, where he has the opportunity to make a special handmade paper that will allow him to carry out various experiments with colours.

In recent years, some art historians place the first works of Antonio Dias in the context of pop art, an approach to which the artist opposes a decisive refusal by declaring the following: "My art had nothing Pop about it. Art is a field of action that divides thoughts and forces you to take a stand. In my case it has always been an attempt at self-affirmation. Art in the ' 60 for me was like participating in the guerrilla."

Also in these years, his fame increases considerably and many important museums purchase his works: among these the MOMA Of New York, The Ludwig Museum Of Cologne, the Tate Gallery Of London, the Daros Collection Of Zurich and many foundations in Latin America. 

Antonio Dias died in 2018 in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.