Armando BASTO (1889-1923)

Armando Basto was born in Oporto in 1889. He died in Guimarães in 1923.

In the mid 1910s, he participated in the “Humoristas”, “Fantasistas” and “Modernistas” groups by exhibiting caricatures and compositions. O Lindo Gesto da Revolução (The Lovely Gesture of Revolution), which portrays a civilian guarding a bank on the 5th of October, Day of the Republic, stands out from this group. Basto also participated with drawings and caricatures in newspapers and even published a set of satirical pages, for instance Lúcifer (Lucifer), O Escarrador (Spittoon), O Careca (Baldy) or A Folia (Gaiety). He signed these pages with the name Armando Pereira Bastos de Loureiro. Although Basto avoided their influence, he was an admirer of Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro, Celso Hermínio and the French and German Humourists. His first solo exhibition, held in Oporto, demonstrates his first steps: political attacks, local characters (the “tripeiros”), street vendors, scenes of misery, themes of revolt and anguish, and local commentary.

For Armando Basto, being a modernist meant being free. This idea led him to Paris in 1910. He never completed the courses he enrolled in as a means of complementing his shoddy studies at the Oporto Academy between 1903 and 1910 (Architecture, Drawing and Sculpture). He maintained his position within humorous illustration and joined Aquilino Ribeiro and Leal da Câmara to launch the magazine Génio Latino (Latino Genius) with the participation of Manuel Jardim and Anjos Teixeira. The magazine was a flop, yet he collaborated with French pamphlets and exhibited at the Salon des Humoristes at the Palais de Glace. Some of his drawings from this period appear signed with the letter A drawn within a box or the pseudonym, Boulemiche.

In spite of this activity, times were hard for him in Paris. He lived miserably and was obliged to live by his wits. In the year of 1914, he even spent several months in hospital.

Within the goings-on of the famous Cité Falguière and the bohemia of Montparnasse, Basto was encouraged by his colleagues, and especially sculptor Diogo de Macedo, to paint. He worked in the ateliers of acquaintances with borrowed material. According to Diogo de Macedo, “…After a day of confession, of conscientious examination of his life’s deeds and obligations, we urged him to find his way without becoming an outcast. We encouraged him to go into painting seriously, as his prior dilettantism had in no way brought him fruits or fame … We gave him paint, canvases and brushes. He already had the talent. I proposed to be his first model, and so he painted his first work: my portrait …” (taken from Exposição Retrospectiva da Obra do Pintor Armando de Basto, 1889-1923, p. 10).

By 1915, Armando Basto was back in Portugal. He dedicated himself to painting and graphic work and was an animator at the Salão dos Fantasistas do Oporto in 1916, where he had tried to found a group of Independents in 1915. He exhibited his work in Porto again in 1918 and in Lisbon, where he unsuccessfully tried to establish himself in 1923.

Besides these events, his career does not present any further remarkable notes. A few canvases of urban scenery and some landscapes, where he was accused of being too “Spanish”, remain. His interior scenes, according to José-Augusto França, reveal the fragilities of a somewhat improvised painter and careless elegance. Most of his sitters were included in these scenarios with profuse visual elements, like posters, canvases and other objects. An account by Diogo de Macedo states that “The room he occupied in Vila Falguière was a ‘flea market’. The door was always ajar with a messy pile of annoying things spread out on the table and chairs: books, drawings, letters, photographs, exhibition catalogues, clothes, painted and bare canvases […] and a large guitar” (ibidem, p. 5). His Retrato do Dr. Pimentel (Dr. Pimentel’s Portrait), from 1918, subtitled O meu violão, que não tem cordas, só serve para isto (My guitar with no strings and only one purpose) illustrates how this instrument accompanied many of his portraits. Another oddity concerning these portraits is related to the fact that when he changed them during a second phase of work, he would leave them incomplete so as not to disturb the initial sensation that had captivated his imagination.

CARLA MENDES