Portraits of Groups of Artists in Brazil: The works of Arthur Timótheo da Costa and Angelo Bigi

Abstract

Despite the significant associational activity involving visual artists in Brazil, there are few representations of groups of artists in paintings. In this article we will study the paintings Alguns colegas [Some colleagues] (1921) by Arthur Timótheo da Costa and Artistas da SBAAP [Artists of the Antônio Parreiras Fine Arts Society] (1952) by Angelo Bigi. The research with group portraits requires that we analyze the relationships that were established by the authors of the paintings themselves, their models, and the public, but also the networks formed by the represented artists at the time of their creation. We will start with some basic questions: Who are they? What brought them together? What are the motivations for creating the artwork? Who is present or absent and why? How were they represented?