Antonio Piedade da Cruz

Antonio Piedade da Cruz (22 August 1895 – 1982) was a 20th-century Indian painter and sculptor.^[1]

Early life and background

Antonio Piedade da Cruz was born on 22 August 1895 in the village of

Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy School of Art in 1916. Cruz studied under Gladstone Salomon, M. V. Dhurandhar and Agoskar, and graduated in 1920. He went on to study in Europe, applied to the Berlin University of the Arts and won a scholarship and the status of "Master Student" (Meisterschüler). He studied there from 1922 under Arthur Kampf

, Ferdinand Spiegel and Paul Plontke.

Career

Cruzo caught the attention of the Portuguese Ambassador in Berlin when he, after a German newspaper described him as "Portuguese from India", asked the paper to rectify, insisting that he was "pure Indian". With the support of the Ambassador, Cruzo held his first solo exhibition in Lisbon in October 1925. He returned to India following a request by the Maharaja of Travancore.

Cruzo settled in Bombay and became well known as a sculptor and

Purshottamdas Thakurdas

.

His "Cruzo Studio" in

allegories and nudes

.

A meeting with

partition and later the Bangladesh Liberation War and the Vietnam War. Cruzo died in 1982 but remains one of Goa's most notable artists.^[2]^[3]^[4]

After years of oblivion, Cruzo's work is being rediscovered. In 2016, Ranjit Hoskote curated an exhibition of 16 oil paintings by Cruzo at the Sunaparanta, Goa Centre for the Arts^[5] and a website was set up to gather existing media and information about the artist.

References

ISBN 9788170226192

^ Vamona A.S. Navelkar, The Flowering of Goan Art The Navhind Times, 7 September 2008,

^ The Flowering of Goan Art, Asian Art Newspaper, April 2012, http://www.asianartnewspaper.com/article/flowering-goan-art Archived 2 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine

^ Needing "no special introduction to art lovers" according to Naguesh Rao Sardessai, p.22, Viva Goa Magazine, May 2011, http://issuu.com/vivagoaonline/docs/may_2011

^ Ranjit Hoskote, The Quest for Cruzo, http://scroll.in/article/810483/the-quest-for-cruzo-remembering-a-bombay-artist-who-painted-the-rich-but-identified-with-the-poor

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[1] ISBN 9788170226192

[2] Vamona A.S. Navelkar, The Flowering of Goan Art The Navhind Times, 7 September 2008,

[3] The Flowering of Goan Art, Asian Art Newspaper, April 2012, http://www.asianartnewspaper.com/article/flowering-goan-art Archived 2 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine

[4] Needing "no special introduction to art lovers" according to Naguesh Rao Sardessai, p.22, Viva Goa Magazine, May 2011, http://issuu.com/vivagoaonline/docs/may_2011

[5] Ranjit Hoskote, The Quest for Cruzo, http://scroll.in/article/810483/the-quest-for-cruzo-remembering-a-bombay-artist-who-painted-the-rich-but-identified-with-the-poor

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