Milton Dacosta Retrospective at Galeria Almeida e Dale Celebrates Centenary

A retrospective of Milton Dacosta is on view at Galeria Almeida e Dale in São Paulo, honoring the centenary of his birth in 2015. The exhibition, which runs until 24 November 2018, presents a chronological survey beginning with works from the 1930s, including the 1938 painting 'Autorretrato'. Dacosta, who died in 1988, is noted for a fluid artistic journey that moved from figuration to abstraction, resisting stylistic labels. Artist Paulo Pasta, an admirer of Dacosta's work, describes his approach as a 'synthesis' rather than pure abstraction, highlighting a deliberate, ethical progression in his painting. The show reveals the influence of Italian metaphysical painting on Dacosta in the 1940s, with Pasta noting affinities more with Carlo Carrà than Giorgio de Chirico. Dacosta was married to painter Maria Leontina from the late 1940s, and they shared a studio in their São Paulo home during the 1960s. Their son, multi-artist Alexandre Dacosta, addresses rumors of artistic appropriation between them, arguing their styles were distinct. Dacosta participated in the Venice Biennale and won the national painting prize at the II Bienal de São Paulo in the subsequent decade. Both Alexandre Dacosta and Paulo Pasta acknowledge Dacosta's influence on their own work.