Fragmentos de uma história de vida, o afro-paraibano Tomás Santa Rosa Jr. (1909-1956): entre vivências, intelectualidades, ditos e feitos artísticos

Abstract

This historical research analyzes the participation of an Afro-Brazilian (born in 1909, in Paraíba, and died in 1956, in New Delhi, India) in the political construction and artistic and cultural production of Brazil in the 20th century, through protagonism and the cultural legacy of the historical subject Tomás Santa Rosa Jr. The analyzed documentary corpus is formed by a series of writings of his authorship, published in newspapers, magazines and literary supplements, especially, of the artistic environment of the city of Rio de Janeiro, accessed from the Digital Newspaper Library of the National Library (BNDigital). Added to this is a set of interviews through reports that show his opinions as an artist, critic and teacher. His artistic achievements such as paintings and book covers are interpreted under the aegis of iconology, highlighting the aesthetic dimension of the historical culture he lived through. Upon arriving in Rio de Janeiro (1932), he entered the world of visual arts, where he excelled in the graphic craft (equivalent to what is meant by graphic designer) by carrying out dozens of visual book projects for almost all Rio publishers. In the “art of dressing books” he composed syntheses of images for a good part of the generation of novelists of the early 20th century. Its lines, shapes and colors paint the landscape of the editorial boom of the time. His images represent the way of seeing the literary world, but they also investigate part of the graphic history of the country. Art criticism is the mat to unveil his political and aesthetic thinking. His participation in two exponents of events, help in the understanding of the modernist intelligentsia of his time. His activism is evidenced as lines that sew a trajectory of life, of the black artist, lived in the post abolition. In this sense, the present research was carried out in the History and Regionalities Research Line, and proposes to disseminate studies on the performance of Afro-Brazilians in the post-abolition period, in the light of the Social History of Culture, thus contributing to the guidelines of Law 10.639/03.