Cícero Dias

Cicero dos Santos Dias (Escada, Pernambuco, 1907 - Paris, France, 2003) was a Brazilian painter, printmaker, draftsman, illustrator, scenographer, and teacher. He began his drawing studies in his hometown. In 1920, he moved to Rio de Janeiro, where in 1925, he enrolled in architecture and painting courses at the National School of Fine Arts (Enba), but did not complete them. He became involved with the modernist group and contributed to the Revista de Antropofagia in 1929.

In 1931, at the Revolutionary Salon at Enba, he exhibited the controversial panel "Eu Vi o Mundo... Ele Começava no Recife" (I Saw the World... It Began in Recife), noted for its size and theme. From 1932 in Recife, he taught drawing in his studio. In 1933, he illustrated "Casa Grande & Senzala" by Gilberto Freyre. In 1937, Dias was arrested in Recife during the declaration of the Estado Novo. Encouraged by Di Cavalcanti, he moved to Paris where he met and befriended notable artists like Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, Fernand Léger, and Pablo Picasso. In 1942, he was arrested by the Nazis and sent to Baden-Baden, Germany. Between 1943 and 1945, he lived in Lisbon as a Cultural Attaché at the Brazilian Embassy.

Returning to Paris, he joined the abstract group Espace. In 1948, he completed a mural for the Finance Secretariat building in Pernambuco, considered the first abstract mural of its kind in Latin America. In 1965, he was honored with a special room at the São Paulo International Biennial. In 1991, he inaugurated a 20-meter panel at the Brigadeiro Station of the São Paulo Metro. The Cicero Dias Room was opened at the National Museum of Fine Arts (MNBA) in Rio de Janeiro. In 1998, at the age of 91, he was awarded the National Order of Merit by the French government.

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Photo: http://www.gravura.art.br/artistas/cicero-dias-1779.html