After the establishment of the Republic, the city underwent a new renovation process, during which took place the construction of the Aliados Avenue. The project was begun in 1915 by the English Barry Parker and continued under the influence of the French school, due to architect Marques da Silva, who had studied in Paris. This harmonious and beautiful avenue is the northern limit of the historic centre’s protection area. Porto is also known as the “city of work”, due to the traditional dynamism of the city’s bourgeoisie, as well as to their honesty and straightforwardness. Porto also features a peculiar and intense social and cultural life.
Born in 1923, he introduced, from the 1950s on, a cogitation until then non-existent in Portugal about the social role of architecture, in opposition to the accomplishments and official speeches of that time. Creator of a new construction logic, he paid great attention to the original landscape, using it as cultural data that had to be integrated in the dialogue with the finished work. Fernando Távora was also responsible for the pioneer intervention in the heritage recovery field that took place in Bairro Central do Barredo from 1973 to 1974. Siza Vieira, Gomes Fernandes and Viana Lima accompanied him. The architect is also responsible for the following buildings: Santa Marinha Hostel, in Guimarães (1976-1985) Cedro’s Primary School, in Vila Nova de Gaia (1958-1960) Aveiro’s Town Hall (1963-1965)
Obras perto do Porto:
- Pousada de Santa Marinha em Guimarães (1972-1985)
- Escola Primária do Cedro, em Vila Nova de Gaia (1958-1960)
- Câmara Municipal de Aveiro (1963-1965).
Born in 1933, Álvaro Siza is the most international of the Porto architects: he was charged with the Chiado reconstruction in Lisbon, after the 1988 fire. His talent was honoured in Paris with an exhibition of his creations at the George Pompidou Centre in 1990. The creative talent of Álvaro Siza manages to unite social preoccupations and an extremely pure poetical freedom. Buildings in Porto and in the outskirts: Quatro Casas Matosinhos Salão Paroquial de Matosinhos Matosinhos Casa Carneiro de Melo Porto Casa de Chã - Restaurante Boa Nova Leça da Palmeira Piscina Quinta da Conceição Leça da Palmeira Casa Rocha Ribeiro Maia Cooperativa de Lordelo Porto Piscina de Mar Leça da Palmeira Casa Alves Santos Póvoa do Varzim Casa Ferreira da Costa Matosinhos Casa Alves Costa Moledo do Minho Casa Manuel Magalhães Porto Residências Caxinas - Vila do Conde Casa Alcino Cardoso Moledo do Minho Banco Pinto & Sotto Mayor Oliveira de Azeméis Banco Pinto & Sotto Mayor Lamego Casa Beires Póvoa do Varzim Habitação Social Saal - São Victor Porto Habitação Social Saal - Bouça Porto Casa António Carlos Santo Tirso Habitações Sociais Quinta da Malagueira - Évora Banco Borges & Irmão Vila do Conde Casa Margarida Praia da Aguda - Arcozelo Casa José Teixeira Quinta do Forno Taipas - Briteiros - Guimarães Casa Avelino Duarte Ovar Boutique Nina Porto Jardim Escola João de Deus Penafiel Casa Luis Figueiredo Valbom - Gondomar Pavilhão Carlos Ramos Faculdade de Arquitectura Porto Escola Superior de Educação Setúbal Faculdade de Arquitectura Oliveira de Azeméis Casa César Rodrigues Porto Biblioteca Universidade de Aveiro Aveiro Loja de Móveis Carvalho Araújo Lisboa Depósito de Água Universidade de Aveiro Aveiro Recuperação da Zona Sinistrada do Chiado Lisboa Complexo Paroquial Fornos - Marco de Canavezes Edifício " Ferreira de Castro " Oliveira de Azeméis Edifício "Câmara Chaves" Lisboa Edifício Castro & Melo Lisboa Edifício "Grandella" Lisboa ANJE - Associação Nacional de Jovens Empresários Algés - Lisboa Banco Pinto & Sotto Mayor Fundação Manuel Cargaleiro Lisboa Escritórios Álvaro Siza, Eduardo Souto Moura, Fernando Távora e Rogério Cavaca Porto
Economical, social, political and cultural changes were responsible for the new aesthetical movements and tendencies that would originate the Porto modern architecture of the 1920s. The regenerator movement of the Porto modern architecture was due mainly to Marques da Silva, Tomás Augusto Soller and Francisco de Oliveira Ferreira, among others. Bearing in mind this concept of Modern Architecture we will introduce the most representative aesthetical expressions and movements that make Porto not only a city that follows the European and national directives but also a pioneer space that knew how to innovate with great mastery, assuming the role of preceding movement of the national and international architectonic evolution.
This style did not have many followers in Portugal. National artists and architects of this time were not involved exclusively in this movement. However, there is a regeneration in the field of decorative arts, which interferes occasionally in architecture. Art Nouveau in Portugal appears as an interpretation of the French model, applied to the characteristics of the national art. Porto does not have many Art Nouveau examples. The most significant buildings are No. 22, Rua Galeria de Paris, all in stone, with a big Chinese-style window that recalls the creations of the French architect Hankar, and buildings No. 75 and 79, Rua Cândido dos Reis, with large metallic revetments probably influenced by the work of Victor Horta. Iron is an architectonic manifestation of Art Nouveau and it will be seen as a model of the language of that time. This material is widely used in the Palácio de Cristal, built by the English Thomas Dillen Jones in 1865. The Mercado Ferreira Borges, an iron building of 1885, is a national rarity because of its specific urban role. Iron turned out to easily agree with the landscape. It was used quite well in the bridges of Porto: D. Maria Bridge, a 1876 project by Gustave Eiffel, and D. Luis Bridge, planned by Seyrig in 1886. The suited association of iron and glass created an effect of exquisite delicacy which is present, for instance, in the Pátio das Nações of the Palácio da Bolsa, a work by Tomás Soller (1891) and in the São Bento Railway Station, inaugurated in 1903 and planned by Marques da Silva.
There is a cause and effect relation between the Portuguese architecture and the political regime that ruled from 1926 to 1974 and which is known as Estado Novo (New State). During that period there is a certain slowness on the State’s side to accept the new architectonic proposals that were born among some architects who tried to develop the foundations of modern architecture. Those were the architects of the year 1927, known as the Commitment Generation. This movement will seek the State’s support to develop and assert this new kind of architecture. One of the leaders of the group was the architect Carlos Ramos (1897-1969). He became headmaster of the Porto’s Escola Superior de Belas-Artes in 1952, and implemented and inaugurated a new pedagogical orientation there. Another architect of that time in Porto was Rogério de Azevedo, who contributed greatly to the modern architecture in Portugal. He planned the Comércio do Porto’s Garage, which has an innovative style. In the late 1920s, there is a hesitating start of a new architectural mentality. It announced a more modern mind in architecture, linked to several new programmes that were starting to appear in the capital. The most progressive tendencies in architecture will be delineated after World Ward II, increasing after 1948. In 1950 they are more consistent and settle definitely in Porto. In 1952, under Carlos Ramos’ guidance, there is an official education system of quality at the Escola Superior de Belas Artes. This school will be the only one, nation-wide, to have a high pedagogical prestige for decades. Such names as Viana de Lima, Filgueiras, Távora, Andersen, Loureiro, Gusmão, Arnaldo Araújo, Siza Vieira worked for the prestige of the institution. In the 1960s, architecture links itself to sociological concepts. However, it is still ruled by an official orientation. Small ateliers will give a theoretical and practical contribution to modern architecture, living alongside urban speculation, which is felt strongly. In the 1970s, real estate speculation keeps on growing, dictating the construction rhythm. This is due on the one hand to the increasing tourism demand and on the other hand to the development of the industrial poles. Such realities will be a determinant factor for the creation of urban planning policies. Briefly, architecture, as it is known today, lives on the cities’ tertiary activities, with a growing need to create and adapt social and cultural facilities. Today, a significant architectonic tradition of international reputation is symbolised by the expression “School of Porto.” Porto architects pay great attention to design. It is always about a poetical meeting between the creative precision of form and the importance granted to the materials, a dynamic union of fiction and reality. During the 1980s, the Porto architects answered to the increasing solicitations of a growing market. Fernando Távora and Álvaro Siza are the most prominent names of the decade.
- Cerveira Hostel (adaptation of a fortress square), in Vila Nova de Cerveira (1972);
- Amadeo Sousa Cardoso Museum, in Amarante (1977);
- Matosinhos Town Hall (1981);
- Guerra Junqueiro Museum House.
Estrutura "tipo Contentor" - Museu dos Transportes e Comunicações
- Mercado Municipal de Braga (1980-1983;
- Casa das Artes - R. António Cardoso, 175;
- Porto Reconversão do Edifício da Alfândega - R. Nova da Alfândega - Porto.
Son of the painter António Carneiro, he was born in Porto on 20 September 1900. The Carneiro family played an important role in the whole cultural scene of the century. In the first decade of the 20th century, the family travelled to Paris often. Carlos Carneiro used to visit the Louvre and other occasional exhibitions. Throughout his life he visited the French capital regularly. His notepads are filled with satirical characters drawn during his visits to Paris. In Portugal he used to create caricatures of famous people and of his family, establishing sports characters or copying the work of other artists. In 1911 there is a plan to create a new magazine called "O Echo." To this effect he even creates the magazine’s graphic set-up. In 1914 some historical drawings and an extremely curious periodical appear. The characters he would later use in his considerable work as an illustrator thus gave their first steps. Copies of the fictional periodical “O Bexigueiro” were done when Carlos Carneiro was 13-14 years old. At this time he received an illustration award by the newspaper “O Século”. These were early signs of a natural tendency for drawing. He obtained his academic education at the Porto’s Escola Superior de Belas-Artes, as a student of his father and of Marques de Oliveira. His fellow students include Malta, Medina, and Lino António, among others. In the course of his life he joined plastic art and illustration, journalistic unpretentious chronicle and scattered art reviews. Amongst these works and a lively social life, he died in Porto in 1971.
José Cândido Domínguez Álvarez was born and died in Porto. In 1926 he enrolled in the course of Architecture that he attended for two years, changing then to Painting, in which he graduated, at a later stage, in 1940. His first collective exhibition took place in 1929. The only individual exhibition occurred in 1936 at the Silva Porto Salon where he showed oil paintings and water paintings. Three stages can be devised during his brief career as a painter: the first, which took place around 1927, is called the “red stage” and is characterised by intense colours not much elaborated, in urban landscapes. In 1929, some cubist and abstract experiences began the second stage, characterised by the fantastic. The third stage began in 1937 and is characterised by a return to landscape painting, this time technically better.
Born in Porto, he attended the Porto’s Superior School of Fine-Arts from 1930 on, having obtained several prizes during his academic learning. He was also awarded some SNI prizes in the fields of drawing, water-colour painting and sculpture. He was a scholarship student of the Haute Couture Institute and travelled through several European countries throughout the 1930s and 40s. There is poor knowledge of individual exhibitions, although the one that took place in Porto and in Lisbon, in 1939, is worthy of mention. There was also a posthumous one, in 1989, at the Casa do Infante (Porto). He is regarded as a water-colour painting renovator in Portugal, having achieved to despoil it of the anecdotal motifs that were attached to it. He dedicated himself to the register of landscapes in which the lighting factor is fundamental (as a factor of dissolution, occultation or revelation of the shapes). Thanks to the many registers he left of the city, he is undoubtedly one of the privileged Porto painters.
Born in Vila Nova de Gaia, the personality of this creator of tapestries is strongly attached to the city of Porto. He graduated in Painting at ESBAP, where he later taught. He was awarded in 1936 the SNI’s Sousa Cardoso Prize, in 1957 the BCG’s Sixth Plastic Arts Exhibition Prize and in 1967 the Tapestry National Prize. He has numerous works in public places. Frescos: Conceição Church, Porto, Valpadrinhos Church in Macedo de Cavaleiros, Chaves, Famalicão and Tomar Courts, Porto’s Court of Justice. Tapestries: Coimbra’s Faculty of Arts, Porto’s City Hall, S. João Hospital, Porto, Finance and Defence Ministries, Autonomous Junta of Funchal, Lisbon’s National Library, Amarante’s Court of Justice, among other places. The vast work of frescos and tapestries developed by this artist places him on a very private level of the Portuguese art, one followed by very few. His production, easily recognisable by the style adapted early, is characterised by elements that mirror the diluted influences of cubism, in its geometry and formal analysis. All his shapes are faceted, which allows for the exploration of light and colour, adapted to the particularities of tapestry. EXHIBITIONS: - INDIVIDUAL: 1952 - Porto / 1953 and 58 - Lisbon - COLLECTIVE: 1957 and 1961 – BCG’s Sixth and Seventh Plastic Arts Exhibitions / 1962 – Sixth Tapestry Biennial, Lausanne / 1966 – Tapestry Exhibition, Stuttgart / 1975 – Survey of 20th-century Art in Porto, MNSR, Porto / 1992 – 100 Years of Art in Porto, Cooperativa Árvore / 1995 - ESBAP-FBAUP, Customs-House, Porto COLLECTIONS: MNSR, Porto / Matosinhos Town Hall / Porto’s City Hall / F.C.G. / Caldas da Rainha Museum / Ovar Museu / Tomar Museum
Júlio Martins da Silva Dias was born in Porto where, from 1937, he attended the Escola Superior de Belas-Artes, having been a pupil of Dordio Gomes. The group of students responsible for the organisation of the Independent Exhibitions, which took place in several cities from 1943 to 1950 with the intention of breaking free from academicism, met regularly at his house. The first signs of modernity appear in Júlio Resende’s paintings around 1943. In 1945 Resende went to Madrid where he carefully studied Goya’s painting, thus discovering his fundamental talent: expressionism. Older companion of the main promoters of geometrical abstractionism and of the neo-realism of the 1940s, his artistic creation reflects at a superior level the whole social and aesthetics problematic of such artistic movements. The populist subject dominates in his painting, represented in a way that learns from abstractionism, be it geometrical or gesticulatory. He received a SNI prize and left for Paris as a scholarship student, attending the Paris Fine-Arts School in 1947.
At the age of 4, this Chilean moved to Porto, a city that has influenced her ever since. Quinta da China, where she lived, would become a true landscape school for the artist. She had drawing lessons with Costa Lima. She attended the Escola de Belas-Artes at 25, having as a teacher Marques de Oliveira who recognised in her a great talent. In 1898 she moved to Paris and enrolled in the Julian Academy where she was a pupil of Jean Paul Laurens and Benjamim Constant, who praised her talent. She sold her works very well at the successive exhibitions of Quatre Semaines. She visited all the museums in Paris and travelled to Belgium, Holland and Italy, Germany and Spain, learning from the works of Velasquez, Durere, Van Dick and Wistler. After two years spent in Paris, she returned to Portugal and settled in the banks of the Douro, living of her work. Besides painting, she did various illustrations, among which the postal cards remembering the literary creation of Garrett.
EXPOSIÇÕES: - INDIVIDUAIS:
1936 - Palácio de Cristal, Porto
1973 - Museu Nacional Soares dos Resis, Porto
1984 - Casa Tait, Porto. BIBLIOGRAFIA: Silva, Raquel Henriques da - Aurélia de Sousa, Lisboa, Inafa.
Born in Porto, Arlindo Rocha finished his course in sculpture at the ESBAP (Porto’s Superior School of Fine Arts) in 1945. In 1953 he went to Italy with a Haute Couture Institute’s scholarship, and in 1959, with a BCG’s scholarship, he went to Egypt and Greece, and had the opportunity to visit the most important museums in Europe. He was one of the members of the Independents Group in Porto (in the 1940s). He was awarded a silver medal at the Universal Exhibition of Brussels (1958), and the Salão dos Novíssimos Prize, in 1959. Some of his works can be found in public areas - barracks, schools, courthouses, gardens, etc., for example in Setúbal, Viseu and Porto. Arlindo Rocha is regarded as the pioneer of the abstract sculpture in Portugal, and can be compared to Jorge Vieira and Fernando Fernandes in the movement that freed sculpture from its statuary penchant. The works Mulher e Árvore from 1948, and Ciência from 1961 (this one is of a radical abstractedness) are fundamental marks in the Portuguese sculpture of the 20th century. His work had an irremediable tendency to absolute geometric forms. However, he returned to a hard figurativeness in the last years, in response to public orders. EXHIBITIONS: INDIVIDUAL: 1951 – Luanda/1954 – Lourenço Marques; Beira/1971 – Balaia Hotel, Algarve; Casa do Corpo Santo, Setúbal/1986 – Meridien Hotel/Alvarez Art Gallery, Porto/ 1987 – 5 Art Gallery, Coimbra. COLLECTIVE: Independent Exhibitions/1957, 1961 and 1986 – BCG’s I, II and III Plastic Arts Exhibitions / 1958 – Brussels Universal Exhibition; S. Paulo’s V and VIII Biennials /1959 and 1965 – S. Paulo’s V and VIII Biennials /1975 – Survey of 20th-century Art in Porto, MNSR, Porto/Biennial of V. N. de Cerveira/ Lagos’ Biennial/ Biennial of Caldas da Rainha/1992 – 100 Years of Art in Porto, Árvore/1995 – ESBAP/FBAUP, Porto Custom-House. COLLECTIONS: CAM-FGC, Lisbon/SEC PASSIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY: MATOS CHAVES, Joaquim – Quando a escultura procurou ser escultura apenas, in “Sobre Artes Plásticas”, Porto, Galeria Quadrado Azul, 1992.
Fernando Lanhas was born in Porto where he took a course in Architecture. As a student he was one of the main organisers of the Independent Exhibitions, from 1943 to 1950. These exhibitions took place not only in Porto but also in Braga, Coimbra, Leiria and Lisbon. In these last two cities, in 1945, following Júlio Pomar’s advice, Fernando Lanhas decided to show for the first time the abstract paintings done the previous year. The first abstract paintings by Fernando Lanhas, from 1944, are a consequence of previous drawings from a meditation began in 1942. Therefore, the 1944 paintings present a well-defined style that lingered in the following artistic creation. The stylistic unity of all Fernando Lanhas’ abstract painting is the first characteristic that should be stressed.
Born in 1924 he is regarded as a pioneer of aesthetic promotion. Jaime Isidoro is an inevitable reference of the city’s artistic history since the early 1950s. Founder, in 1954, of the Alvarez gallery (a Galician painter much admired in Porto in the 1930s), he opened the Dois gallery at Avenida da Boavista, where he had multiple exhibitions for more than ten years. Besides this intense activity, Jaime Isidoro was also one of the people responsible for the cultural decentralisation movement in the north of Portugal, that took place in the 1970s and 1980s and was marked by various events, such as the “Encontros Internacionais de Arte” in Valadares and Caldas da Rainha and the V. N. de Cerveira Biennial, which he organised himself. Connected to the organisation of some of the most important Portuguese modern art collections, he introduced in Porto, in 1971, the painting of Serge Poliakoff. His private collection (presented in 1988 at an exhibition in Casa de Serralves), testifies his taste for the Portuguese modern art and assembles pieces of such prestigious painters as Eduardo Viana, Amadeo de Souza Cardoso, Almada Negreiros, Vieira da Silva, Arpad Szenes and Júlio Resende, without neglecting the artistic talents of younger and lesser known artists like Ângelo de Sousa and Albuquerque Mendes. Also a painter, known since the early 1950s for the watercolour paintings where he filters the poetry of the fluvial landscapes of the Alto Minho and Porto, he presently runs a gallery at the Meridien Hotel.
Born in Figueira da Foz, his academic and artistic career is indisputably connected with the city of Porto. In 1955 he graduated in Sculpture at ESBAP, where he taught from 1958 on. In 1956 he was awarded the SNI’s Soares dos Reis Prize. He has works at the City and Town Halls of Matosinhos, Póvoa de Varzim, and Porto; at the Courts of Justice of Porto, Lisboa, Mirandela, Tondela, and Alijó; at Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Porto; Bragança Inn. He has sculptured shapes at several places in Porto – Arrábida Bridge, Caixa Geral de Depósitos, S. Bento Railway Station, City Hall, among others. His production of sculpture remained figurative, never moving forward towards the abstract radicalism that other colleagues of his generation have tried to attain. His statues, solid and robust, strongly marked by frontality, have rarely sought spatial fluidity. EXHIBITIONS: - INDIVIDUAL: 1968 – Alvarez Gallery, Porto; Diário de Notícias Gallery, Lisbon. - COLLECTIVE: / 1949 and 1951 – Plastic Arts General Exhibitions, SNBA, Lisbon / 1951-1967 – ESBAP’s Grand Exhibitions / 1955 – Plastic Arts International Exhibition, Póvoa de Varzim / 1957 and 1961 – BCG’s Sixth and Seventh Plastic Arts Exhibitions / 1958 – Artist of Today Exhbition-Hall, Lisbon / 1985 – Sculptures in Caminha / 1992 – 100 Years of Art in Porto, Árvore / 1995 - ESBAP-FBAUP, Porto’s Customs-House. COLLECTIONS: MNSR, Porto / Matosinhos Town Hall / Machado de Castro Museum, Coimbra/ Ovar Museum, Porto’s Military Museum / BCG, Lisbon PASSIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY: QUADROS FERREIRA, António - Gustavo Bastos ou a Estética do Real, Figueira da Foz, Town Hall, 1989
Born in Porto, Jorge Pinheiro studied at the Porto’s Fine-Arts Superior School where he taught from 1963 to 1976, when he moved to the Lisbon’s Faculty. He was a scholarship owner of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in 1965/66 and in 1979/90, when he studied at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. He was one of the founders of the Porto’s group “Quatro Vintes”, formed in 1968. He has co-operated with architects and landscape painters and is the author of numerous illustrations of children’s books. From a figurative work he later progressed to a geometrical abstractionism, also questioning the support itself that may acquire unorthodox shapes, breaking up with its predominantly rectangular nature. During the time he was a member of the aforementioned group, he preferred to develop these aspects and was interested by the construction of objects with plain and shiny colours. Later he would devote most his attention to drawing and its relation to painting, by exploring the composition values, in works of great virtuosity where figuration is again present. T he following are his individual exhibitions: 1957 - O Primeiro de Janeiro, Coimbra / 1964 – Divulgação Gallery, Porto / 1968 and 70 – Buchholz Gallery, Lisbon / 1969 and 76 – Alvarez Gallery, Porto / 1976 and 82 – Quadrum Gallery, Lisbon / 1978 – Morone Gallery, Milan / 1983 - Diário de Noticias Gallery, Porto / 1988 – Nasoni Gallery, Porto / 1993 - Cooperativa Árvore, Porto / 1994 - Casa da Cerca, Almada / 1995 - Arte Periférica Gallery, Lisbon. The following are some of the collective exhibitions in which he was present: 1973 – Portuguese Painting of Today, Barcelona / 1983 – Sixth National Drawing Exhibition of Cooperativa Árvore, Porto / 1992 - 100 Years of Art in Porto, Cooperativa Árvore / 1995 - ESBAP-FBAUP, Porto’s Customs-House; The Desire of Drawing, Casa de Cerca, Almada
Born in Estremoz, he would develop his activity in Porto. He graduated at ESBAP with honours and was a teacher there between 1962 and 1973. In 1964, with a F.C.G.’s scholarship, he went to London on a studying trip. His exit from the School implied a dedication to the graphic arts, an area in which he has developed an intense activity. He was one of the members of the “Quatro Vintes” group, alongside José Rodrigues, Jorge Pinheiro and Angelo de Sousa, in 1968. Having started by a figuration that may approach the neo-realist universe, representing motifs of the Alentejo work area, he then opted – together with almost all his generation’s colleagues – for a material informality, which he developed in the 1960s. The following decade is of great experimentation, associated to the particular rigour and to the definition of the graphic arts, marked by an exploitation of the “rainbow” sign and by the construction of painted, purified and contained objects. From the 1980s on, he regains the landscape values, and Alentejo is almost omnipresent, but completely transformed by the acquired experience. His works then fluctuate between “windows” rigorously delimited on the canvas and more revolt areas of a greater material richness. EXHIBITIONS: - INDIVIDUAL: 1964 – ESBAP / 1965, 85, 93 – Cooperativa Árvore, Porto / 1973 – Dois Gallery, Porto / 1978 and 1981 – Jornal de Notícias Galleries, Porto / 1985 – Biscaínhos Museum, Braga / 1987 – Nasoni Gallery, Porto / 1989 – Fonte Nova Gallery, Lisbon / 1990 – Nasoni Gallery, Lisbon / 1995 –Degrau Arte Gallery , Porto / 1996 –Fernando Santos Gallery, Porto - COLLECTIVE: 1956 – Tenth Plastic Arts General Exhibition, Lisbon / 1957 – F.C.G.’s First Plastic Arts Exhibition / 1958 – 11 Painters at Abril Gallery, Madrid / 1960 – Modern Art Exhibition at Amarante / 1961 – Portuguese Art Exhibition, Antwerp ; Paris’ Second Biennial; “Queima das Fitas” Plastic Arts Exhibition, Coimbra / 1963 – Cooperativa Árvore’s Inaugural Exhibition / 1966 – BCG’s Exhibition in Baghdad / 1967 – Divulgação Gallery’s Inaugural Exhibition / 1968 – " Os quatro vintes ", Alvarez Gallery, Porto / 1969 – "Os quatro vintes", Zen Gallery, Porto / 1970 – "Os quatro vintes", Desbrières Gallery, Paris / 1975 – Survey of the 20th-century Art in Porto, MNSR, Porto / 1982 – Abstract Art Aspects, SNBA, Lisbon / 1984 – 15 Portuguese Artists, Alemanha; Cerveira’s Fourth Biennial / 1986 – Portuguese Art in Bordeaux / 1986 e 87 – ARCO, Madrid / 1987 – FIAC, Paris / 1992 – 100 Years of Art in Porto, Árvore / 1995 – ESBAP/FBAUP, Porto’s Custom-House. COLLECTIONS: Soares dos Reis National Museum, Porto / BCG, Lisbon / Matosinhos Town Hall PASSIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY: A proximação ao Silêncio, Porto, Nasoni Gallery, 1987 / Armando Alves, Porto, Jornal de Notícias Gallery, 1978 / PERNES, Fernando - Catálogo de Exposição, Porto, Jornal de Notícias, 1978 and 1981 / PERNES, Fernando – Catálogo de Exposição, Porto, Cooperativa Árvore, 1985 / Quatro (Os) Vintes, O Oiro do Dia, 1985
He attended the Soars dos Reuse Decorative Arts School, in Port, where he was born, and ESBAP, where he finished his Painting Studies. As a student he obtained the Ventura Torres Scholarship and the Rodrigo Soars Prize (1960). In 1958 he had obtained the Miguel Barrios Prize at the Sixth Oil Painting Exhibition, in Vila Real, and in 1960 he was the First Prize winner at the Contemporary Painting Free Exhibition, in Lammed. In the same year he received a prize at the Second Independent Exhibition-Hall of Minato and in 1967 the same thing occurred at the JECS’s Exhibition-Hall. Other than painting, he devoted himself to the mosaic and to the stained-glass, fields in which he produced works for Vies, Bragança, Porto, Nova Lisboa, and other places. EXHIBITIONS: - COLLECTIVE: 1956 and 58 - SNBA, Lisbon / 1959 - Vila Real Exhibition-Hall / 1960 – Modern Art Exhibitions, Braga, Évora and Lamego / 1961 – BCG’s Second Plastic Arts Exhibition / 1967, 68 and 70 – JTCS Exhibition-Halls / 1969 – Exhibition in remembrance of the Fifth Centennial of Amadeo’s Death, Amarante / 1975 – Survey of 20th-century Art in Porto, MNSR, Porto
Born in Luanda, his name and work would undeniably be connected with the city of Porto. He graduated in Sculpture at ESBAP. He has had a permanent fertile activity in the fields of sculpture, drawing, illustration, creation of medals, and theatre scenography. He co-operated with the University Theatre of Porto, the Experimental Theatre of Porto, the Experimental Theatre of Cascais, and the Hoje Theatre Company. He has numerous works in public places, namely in Porto (Faculty of Economy, Ribeira Square, Foz do Douro, Av. da Boavista), V. N. de Cerveira, Viana do Castelo, Vila do Conde, Lisbon (Cª Portuguesa Rádio Marconi), the USA, etc.. He received the Sousa Cardoso Prize, the Portuguese Art Review Prize, the Press Prize for the best scenic space in Lisbon (1972), the Sculpture Prize at the Biennial of V. N. de Cerveira (1980), the SOCTIP’s Artist of the Year Prize (1990) and the Tendencies of Contemporary Art in Portugal Prize (1994). He was one of the members of the Porto’s group “Os Quatro Vintes”, founded in 1968. Although in the last two decades the artist has had various exhibitions dedicated almost exclusively to drawing, it was his sculpture production that established him in the national artistic scene. Initially, the sculptor tried to explore linear and filiform elements that put the pieces in a clear relationship with space (and letting themselves be crossed by it) and the aspects inherent to modern sculpture, such as balance, stability versus instability or movement. Later, mythological subjects would be used on various works, marked by an anatomical figurativeness, never before seen in his production. In the sphere of this figurativeness, the self-portrait temptation has been constant. EXHIBITIONS: - INDIVIDUAL: 1984, 85 and 94 - Cooperativa Árvore, Porto / 1987 – Nasoni Gallery, Porto; Jornal de Notícias Gallery, Porto / 1988 - Amadeo de Souza Cardoso Museum, Amarante / 1989 - Cooperativa Árvore; Alfândega da Fé Town Hall; Solverde Gallery, Espinho / 1991 - Tokyo Art Expo, Tokyo; Castros’ Manor House, V. N. Cerveira; Magellan Gallery, Paris / 1993 – Orada Convent, Monsaraz; TLP’s Gallery, Porto - COLLECTIVE: 1973 - S. Paulo’s Biennial / 1975 – Survey of 20th-century Art in Porto, MNSR, Porto / 1976 – Portuguese Illustration in Rome; Modern Art, Madrid / 1978 – Venice Biennial; Sixth Biennial of V. N. Cerveira (and following) / 1980 – Second Iberian-American Art Biennial / 1982 – Drawing Triennial, New Deli / 1983 – Sixth Drawing Biennial of Cooperativa Árvore, Porto / 1984 - " Porto", Cooperativa Árvore; "Sculptures in the Gardens", SEC, Porto and Germany / 1986 - "The 20th century in Portugal", Brussels / 1988 – Exhibition in celebration of the 25 years of Árvore, Porto / 1989 - "Art and Saturday", Cooperativa Árvore, Porto; "Euro-art", Guimarães COLLECTIONS: MNSR, Porto / BCG, Lisbon / S. Paulo’s Museum of Contemporary Art PASSIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY: José Rodrigues, Lisboa, SOCTIP Editions, 1990 (Book that celebrates the Artist of the Year Award) / Quatro (Os) Vintes, Porto, O Oiro do Dia, 1985
Born in Porto, he graduated in Painting at the ESBAP in 1963, a school that later welcomed him as a teacher. As a student he obtained the José da Costa Meireles and the Rodrigo Soares Prizes, the Três Artes and the Porto’s Rotary Club Prizes. He presented himself at a collective exhibition in the 1950s and individually the year he graduated. He was a founding member of Cooperativa Árvores. He was a co-founder of the arts and letters magazine “Paisagem”. He obtained two F.C.G.’s scholarships, one in 1966 for study visits to Europe, and the other in 1978 for the research of “Realism in the 20th century”. Domingos Pinho’s work evolution developed towards a geometry that reached the abstract in the 1960s. In that decade he devoted himself to a matter and gesture research, which he would abandon in the following decade, opting for a meticulous realism that illustrates daily objects. The precision of the image attaches itself to its strangeness, and one must relate “hyper-realism” with “metaphysical painting”. After the mid-1980s and during the 1990s the almost expressionist strokes are back, and a new cycle arises in the artist’s production. EXHIBITIONS: - INDIVIDUAL: 1963 – Alvarez Gallery, Porto / 1964 - Nova Lisboa Museum, Angola / 1965 – Commerce Palace, Luanda / 1967 – Divulgação Gallery, Porto / 1970 and 1971 – Alvarez Gallery, Porto / 1974 - Alvarez Dois Gallery, Porto / 1978 – Contemporary Art Centre, MNSR, Porto / 1982 - Jornal de Notícias, Porto / 1983 – Módulo Gallery, Porto / 1985 - Cooperativa Árvore, Porto / 1986, 1988 and 1990 – Nasoni Gallery, Porto. - COLLECTIVE: 1959 – 4 Young, Divulgação Gallery, Porto / 1960 – Winter Exhibition-Hall, SNBA / 1961 – BCG’s Second Plastic Arts Exhibitions / 1963 – Alentejo Subjects, Porto / 1967 – Contemporary Art, Amarante; 14 Porto Artists, Divulgação Gallery, Porto / 1968 – 2 Sculptors, 3 Painters, Espinho / 1969 – Exhibition in Homage to Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, Porto and Amarante / 1970 – Inaugural Exhibition of the Dois Gallery, Porto / 1972 – Summer Exhibition, Ogiva Gallery, Óbidos; Inaugural Exhibition of the Abel Salazar Gallery, Porto; Espinho 72 / 1973 – Contemporary Portuguese Illustration, Espaço Gallery, Porto; Espinho 73; Drawings and Illustrations Exhibitions, Árvore Gallery, Porto; Exhibition 73 SNBA / 1974 – Reviews Exhibition-Hall, SNBA; International Realism Cycle, Alvarez Gallery, Porto / 1975 - Figuration - Today?, SNBA; Survey of 20th-century Art in Porto, MNSR, Porto / 1992 - 100 Years of Art in Porto, Árvore / 1995 - ESBAP/FBAUP, Porto Customs-House COLLECTIONS: Ovar Museu / Luanda Museum / BCG, Lisbon
Born in S. Mamede do Coronado, he studied in Lisbon and Porto where he lives and where he has developed a substantial part of his activity. He was a scholarship owner of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation between 1986 and 1970. He obtained the National Sculpture Prize in 1968, the Soquil Prize in 1971, and the AICA-SEC Prize in 1986. Alberto Carneiro’s production has often exceeded the concept of a single work – in which he uses wood as the chosen material – to reach the concept of installation or, in a wider sense, of project. Around ecological questions – putting at play not only natural materials but nature itself and his body – Alberto Carneiro questions the limitations of art and its role in the contemporary world. The following may be seen as individual exhibitions: 1976 – Contemporary Art Centre, MNSR, Porto / 1977, 79, 81 e 83 – Quadrum Gallery, Lisbon / 1978 – Módulo Gallery, Porto / 1980 – JN Gallery, Porto / 1981 – Diferença Gallery, Lisbon / 1985 e 88 - EMI - Valentim de Carvalho Gallery, Lisbon / 1991 - FCG, Lisbon; Serralves Foundation, Porto / 1993 - Pedro Oliveira Gallery, Porto / 1998 - Quadrado Azul Gallery, Porto. The following are some of his remarkable collective exhibitions: 1 969 – Paris Biennial / 1971 - London / 1972, 73 e 74 - SNBA, Lisbon / 1972, 74 e 86 - AICA, Lisbon / 1976 – Venice Biennial/ 1984 - Atitudes Litorais, Lisbon / 1987 e 88 – Serralves Foundation / 1992 - Arte Contemporânea Portuguesa na colecção da FLAD, FCG, Lisbon / 1994 – Um Museu Português, Santiago de Compostela / 1994-98 – ARCO, Madrid / 1998 – Direcção: Escultura, FCG, Lisbon.
Ângelo César Cardoso de Sousa was born in Lourenço Marques (nowadays Maputo). He graduated in Painting at the Porto’s Escola de Belas-Artes where, since 1963, he became part of the teaching staff. He then studied at several London schools (1967). He began his public career in 1959 at the beginning of a cycle of exhibitions organised by the architecture student José Pulido Valente. The purpose of such exhibitions was to join in the same event a young and a famous artist. P redominating since the beginning the symmetrical compositional sense, the vertical lines play a major role in Ângelo’s chromatic fields. EXPOSIÇÕES INDIVIDUAIS - 1959 E 1963 - Galeria Divulgação, Porto / 1964, 1965 e 1966 - Cooperativa Árvore / 1976 - Museu nacional de soares dos Reis / Centro de Arte Contemporânea, Porto / 1981 - Galeria JN, Porto / 1985 , 1986 e 1990 - Galeria Emi / Valentim de carvalho, Lisboa / 1992 e 1993 - Galeria Quadrado Azul, Porto / 1993 - Fundação de Serralves, Porto e Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisboa.
Born in Porto he finished his Complementary Painting Course at ESBAP. He is a Secondary School Teacher. He received a prize in 1961 at the Plastic Arts Exhibition of Queima das Fitas, Coimbra, and in 1968 at the First Youth Exhibition-Hall that took place at Figueira da Foz. He has worked in the field of graphic arts, where he has received several prizes. His work has developed on a figurative matrix with a precision that is not foreign to the practice of the graphic arts. EXHIBITIONS: - INDIVIDUAL: 1964 – Commerce Palace, Luanda / 1965 - ESBAP / 1967 – Divulgação Gallery, Porto / 1968 – Foz Palace, Lisbon / 1969 e 1970 – Alvarez Gallery, Porto / 1973 - Cooperativa Árvore, Porto; D. Diogo de Sousa Museum, Braga / 1974 – Paisagem Gallery, Porto - COLLECTIVE: 1958 TO 1962 - Grand ESBAP Exhibitions / 1961 – Plastic Arts Exhibition of Queima das Fitas, Coimbra; Third Exhibition-Hall of the New / 1962 – ESBAP Students at Alentejo, Évora; Fourth Exhibition-Hall of the New / 1963 – Alentejo Subjects at ESBAP; Fifth Exhibition-Hall of the New / 1966 – First National Art Exhibition-Hall / 1967 – 14 Porto Artists at the Divulgação Gallery, Porto; Fifth Modern Art Exhibition-Hall of the Costa do Sol Tourism Board / 1968 - 2E 3P, Espinho; First Exhibition-Hall of the Youth, Figueira da Foz / 1969 – Exhibition in Homage to the Painter Amadeo de Souza Cardoso; Art of Today, Viseu / 1972 – First National Biennial of the Young Artists, Famalicão / 1973 – Modern Art Exhibition-Hall of the City of Luanda / 1975 – Survey of 20th-century Art in Porto, MNSR, Porto / 1980 – First Collective Exhibition of Cooperativa Árvore, Porto; Second International Biennial of V. N. Cerveira / 1982 – Porto Artists in Seville / 1984 - Gaia as seen by her artists / 1985 – National Plastic Arts Exhibition, Gaia Artists
Justino Alves was born in Porto, graduated in Painting at ESBAP, and was a scholarship owner of the FCG and of the Ventura Terra Legate. From 1968 to 1970 he was professor and principal of the Funchal’s Fine-Arts Academy and from 1971 on he taught at ESBAL. Besides painting he created ballet stage-settings. He was awarded the Master Joaquim Alves Prize, the Silver Medal at the Fourth Art Show in Rome, the National Painting Prize (1969) and the Ministry of Culture’s Third Almada Negreiros Prize. After exploring indented and overlaid shapes, Justino Alves’ painting develops one of the most noble traditions of the western world – the one that explores the values of painting/painting, in fields purely pictorial or plastic, wisely built and with a strong visual impact. Now and again the adoption of big signs is also visible, approaching writing/painting, evoking another tradition, or the adoption of figures placed on the canvas in an equally solid way. EXHIBITIONS: - INDIVIDUAL: 1961 - Amarante / 1963 and 68 - Alvarez and Divulgação Galleries, Porto / 1965 - Abade Baçal Museum, Bragança / 1966 - Cascais / 1972 - Lisbon / 1975 – Documento Gallery, Paris / 1988 to 92 - S. Mamede Gallery, Lisbon; Santiago Gallery, Almada; Palmira Suso Gallery, Lisbon; Degrau Arte Gallery, Porto / 1995 – Ara Gallery, Lisbon - COLLECTIVE: Magnas e Extra-Escolares da ESBAP / 1963, 73 and 74 - SNBA, Lisbon / 1964 and 66 – JTCS’s Exhibition-Halls / 1969 – Fifth Centenary of the Death of Amadeo, Amarante; Sixth Biennial of Paris / Illustrators National Society / 1972 - Sixth Biennial of Young Artists, Famalicão / 1973 - Portuguese Painting Today, Barcelona, Salamanca, Lisbon / 1975 – Survey of 20th-century Art in Porto, MNSR, Porto / 1978 – Sixth International Biennial of V. N. Cerveira / 1982 - ARÚS, MNSR, Porto / 1985 – Tribute to Almada Negreiros, Lisbon; ARCO, Madrid / 1992 - 100 Years of Art in Porto, Cooperativa Árvore COLLECTIONS: SEC P ASSIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY: CENTENO, Y. K - Justino Alves - O Pintor e a sua Filosofia, Lisboa, INCM, 1985
Born in Valbom, district of Porto, he studied and graduated at ESBAP (1963-68) where he would later teach. During his studies he was a BCG’s scholarship owner and, from 1971 to 1973 he renovated his scholarship to study in England. He is the author of several monumental sculptures, namely in Porto. He received prizes in 1967, at the Coimbra’s Plastic Arts Exhibition; in 1969, at the Exhibition remembering the Fifth Centenary of Sousa Cardoso’s Death, in Amarante; in 1982, at the Third Biennial of V. N. de Cerveira; in 1983, at the Sixth Drawing Exhibition of Cooperativa Árvore; in 1984, at Lagos’ 84; in 1985, at the A.F.’s Contemporary Art Exhibition, in Porto; in 1986, at the BGC’s Third Plastic Arts Exhibition; in 1993, at the Competition for the Celebration Medal of the 100 Years of the Leixões’ Harbour; in 1995, at the Sculpture Competition for the Computer Centre of Minho’s University. Zulmiro de Carvalho’s work was extremely innovative in terms of the materials explored and of the shapes reached, showing structural essentiality and simplicity. The intervention of iron and other metals signalled the beginning, being later joined by marble, slate and even wood. The great shapes that he creates stand out through a rigorous outline or show textural accidents of great expressiveness. EXHIBITIONS: - INDIVIDUAL: 1969 - Porta Nova’s Tower, Barcelos / 1970 - Cooperativa Árvore, Porto; Buchholz Gallery, Lisbon / 1971 – Plastic Arts Centre, Coimbra (and 1981); Alvarez Gallery, Porto ; Quadrante Gallery, Lisbon / 1982 – Quadrum Gallery, Lisbon; Coimbra’s Artistic Movement; Cooperativa Árvore; Roma e Pavia Gallery, Porto / 1983 and 87- JN Gallery, Porto / 1986 – EMI Gallery, Lisbon / 1987 - SEC, Porto; Nasoni Gallery, Porto; Gardens, Santo Tirso / 1988 - Amadeo Souza Cardoso Museum, Amarante; Porto’s University Faculty of Arts / 1995 – Minho’s University Gallery, Braga - COLLECTIVE: 1964, 65, 66 and 68 - ESBAP’s Grand Exhibitions / 1965, 66, 67 and 68 – Extra-Curricular Exhibitions of the ESBAP’s Students / 1965 – Spring Exhibition-Hall, Guimarães / 1967 – Plastic Arts Exhibition, Coimbra / 1968 – Exhibition Celebrating Ovar’s Museum Seventh Anniversary; SE SP, Espinho / 1969 – Exhibition Remembering the Fifth Centenary of Amadeo Sousa Cardoso’s Death; BPA’s Plastic Arts Exhibition, Lisbon / 1970 – Fourth Summer Exhibition-Hall, SNBA; Ogiva’s Gallery Inaugural Exhibition, Óbidos / 1971 – Quadrante Gallery, Lisbon / 1972 – Multiples, Mini Gallery, Porto; Platform 72, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford ( and 73) / 1974 – Painters are with the children, JN Gallery, Porto/ 1975 – Survey of 20th-century Art in Porto, MNSR, Porto; Abstraction Today, SNBA / 1986 – BCG’s Third Plastic Arts Exhibition / 1992 - 100 Years of Art in Porto, Cooperativa Árvore / 1995 - ESBAP/FBAUP, Porto’s Customs-House. COLLECTIONS: BCG, Lisbon / SEC / Serralves Foundation P ASSIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY: PERNES, Fernando - in Zulmiro de Carvalho. Esculturas Recentes, Porto, 1982; in Zulmiro de Carvalho. Esculturas, Porto, 1986
Although he was born in Porto, Manuel Casimiro lives and works in Nice since 1976. He has developed a solid international career, but still uses fundamental aspects of a national mythology, like the series connected with King Sebastião. His production, of a conceptual matrix, is crossed by a series of constants in which fixed shapes and schemes appear, wandering from one canvas to the other – let us not forget the predominance of oval shapes. His work is extremely intentional and elaborate, not submitting to the empiricism of solutions. EXHIBITIONS: - INDIVIDUAL: 1968 – Interior Gallery, Lisbon / 1969, 70 – 111 Gallery, Lisbon; Alvarez Gallery, Porto (and 1972) / 1971 – Dubose Gallery, Huston / 1972 – Judite Dacruz Gallery, Lisbon / 1974 and 77 – Modern Art Gallery, SNBA, Lisbon / 1978 – BCG, Paris / 1979 – Anne Roger Gallery, Nice / 1981 – Roma e Pavia Galleries, Porto / 1982 – MNAA, Lisbon / 1984 – SNBA, Lisbon / 1985 – Zen Gallery and Cooperativa Árvore, Porto / 1986 – Fine-Arts Museum, Nice / 1988 – MNSR and Roma e Pavia Gallery, Porto / 1989 and 90 – Fluxus Gallery, Porto / 1996 – Chiado Museum, Lisbon - COLLECTIVE: 1968 – Etchings International Gallery, New York / 1969 – 22 Years of Portalegre’s Tapestry, Lisbon / 1971 – Lausanne’s Fifth International Biennial of Tapestry, Lausanne and Warsaw / 1972 – Sixth Biennial of the New Artists, Famalicão / 1973 – Grands et Jeunes d'aujourd'hui, Paris; Exhibition 73, SNBA; Drawing 73, Cooperativa Árvore, Porto / 1974 – Perspective 74, Porto; Painters are with the children, JN Gallery, Porto / 1975 – Contemporary Artists and St. Antão’s Temptations, NMAA, Lisbon, Survey of 20th-century Art in Porto, MNSR, Porto / 1977 – Zero Alternative, Modern Art National Gallery, Lisbon / Weird Corpses and Collective Paintings, Ottolini Gallery, Lisbon; Abstraction Today, SNBA, Lisbon / 1981 – Nucleus VI, S. Paulo’s Modern Art Museum / 1982 – Third Biennial of V.N. Cerveira / 1985 – National Centre of Contemporary Art, Nice; Signatures, Liège; Performat, Torres Vedras / 1988 – FotoPorto, Casa de Serralves, Porto / 1989 – Euro-art, Guimarães COLLECTIONS: FCG, Lisbon PASSIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY: De Perto e de Longe (Exhibition Catalogue), Porto, Fluxus Gallery, 1989 / France, José Augusto and LYOTARD, François – in Colóquio artes, n. 64, 1985 / MONTICELLI, Raphael – in Colóquio Artes, n. 32, 1977 / Pinturas Recentes (Exhibition Catalogue), Porto, Fluxus Gallery, / 1990
He studied at ESBAP and developed his activity in the fields of sculpture and ceramics. He received the Teixeira Lopes Awards in 1967 and was honoured in Porto and Coimbra in 1967, and in Aveiro in 1968. EXHIBITIONS: - COLLECTIVES: 1972 and 74 - SNBA, Lisbon / 1974 – Algarve’s International Festival / 1992 - 100 Years of Art in Porto, Cooperativa Árvore /
Born in Coimbra, Eduardo Batarda became a professor in 1976 at the Porto’s Fine-Arts School, where he had studied. As a scholarship owner of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, he post-graduated from the London’s Royal College of Art. In 1986 he obtained the Homoeoaesthetics Prize and the Prize for the creation of a tapestry for the Constitutional Court. Among others, he had the following individual exhibitions: 1975 – Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon; 1982, 86 and 90 – Zen Gallery, Porto; 1983, 85, 87, 89 and 92 – 111 Gallery, Lisbon. A fter a stage of recognisable figurative elements and humorous and satirical situations, Eduardo Batarda devoted himself to a painting of filiform elements, generating ellipses and curved lines constructed in detail, to which text is added from time to time.
Born in Porto, he graduated at the Porto’s Fine-Arts Superior School, where he teaches. He was a scholarship owner of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Among others, he had the following individual exhibitions: 1981 – Cooperativa Árvore, Porto; 1983 – Diário de Notícias Gallery, Lisbon; 1988 – Nasoni Gallery, Porto. He was present at the following collective exhibitions: 1975 – Survey of 20th-century Art in Porto, MNSR; 1977 – Portuguese Art in Spain; 1980-82 – Second and Third Biennials of Cerveira; 1982 – First National Drawing Exhibition of Cooperativa Árvore; 1986 – F.C.G.’s Third Plastic Arts Exhibition; 1995 – ESBAP/FBAUP. M ário Américo’s work systematically crosses painting and drawing, in a presence that lives of connection lines, of marked structures, of filiform graphic signs that cover the whole support.
Born in Porto, Rui Aguiar has developed his painting activity in this city. Several works in the field of graphic design and stage-setting are also known. In the late 1980s he was a scholarship owner of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Among the individual collections he made, the following are especially worthy of mention: 1988 – Nasoni Gallery, Porto; 1994 – Por Amor à Arte Gallery, Porto and 1998 – Projecto Gallery, Vila Nova de Cerveira. R ui Aguiar’s work is characterised, according to Joaquim Matos Chaves, by the investigation of raw materials, from other activity areas. Other than a pasting work, a structuring of pieces from lines and other geometric elements, his is a notable work. Despoilment and contention may be regarded as other characteristics of a work whose approach is little facilitated.
Although he was born in Porto, Manuel Casimiro lives and works in Nice since 1976. He has developed a solid international career, but still uses fundamental aspects of a national mythology, like the series connected with King Sebastião. His production, of a conceptual matrix, is crossed by a series of constants in which fixed shapes and schemes appear, wandering from one canvas to the other – let us not forget the predominance of oval shapes. His work is extremely intentional and elaborate, not submitting to the empiricism of solutions. Exhibitions: - Individual: 1968 – Interior Gallery, Lisbon / 1969, 70 – 111 Gallery, Lisbon; Alvarez Gallery, Porto (and 1972) / 1971 – Dubose Gallery, Huston / 1972 – Judite Dacruz Gallery, Lisbon / 1974 and 77 – Modern Art Gallery, SNBA, Lisbon / 1978 – BCG, Paris / 1979 – Anne Roger Gallery, Nice / 1981 – Roma e Pavia Galleries, Porto / 1982 – MNAA, Lisbon / 1984 – SNBA, Lisbon / 1985 – Zen Gallery and Cooperativa Árvore, Porto / 1986 – Fine-Arts Museum, Nice / 1988 – MNSR and Roma e Pavia Gallery, Porto / 1989 and 90 – Fluxus Gallery, Porto / 1996 – Chiado Museum, Lisbon - Collective: 1968 – Etchings International Gallery, New York / 1969 – 22 Years of Portalegre’s Tapestry, Lisbon / 1971 – Lausanne’s Fifth International Biennial of Tapestry, Lausanne and Warsaw / 1972 – Sixth Biennial of the New Artists, Famalicão / 1973 – Grands et Jeunes d'aujourd'hui, Paris; Exhibition 73, SNBA; Drawing 73, Cooperativa Árvore, Porto / 1974 – Perspective 74, Porto; Painters are with the children, JN Gallery, Porto / 1975 – Contemporary Artists and St. Antão’s Temptations, NMAA, Lisbon, Survey of 20th-century Art in Porto, MNSR, Porto / 1977 – Zero Alternative, Modern Art National Gallery, Lisbon / Weird Corpses and Collective Paintings, Ottolini Gallery, Lisbon; Abstraction Today, SNBA, Lisbon / 1981 – Nucleus VI, S. Paulo’s Modern Art Museum / 1982 – Third Biennial of V.N. Cerveira / 1985 – National Centre of Contemporary Art, Nice; Signatures, Liège; Performat, Torres Vedras / 1988 – FotoPorto, Casa de Serralves, Porto / 1989 – Euro-art, Guimarães Collections: FCG, Lisbon Passive Bibliography: De Perto e de Longe (Exhibition Catalogue), Porto, Fluxus Gallery, 1989 / France, José Augusto and LYOTARD, François – in Colóquio artes, n. 64, 1985 / MONTICELLI, Raphael – in Colóquio Artes, n. 32, 1977 / Pinturas Recentes (Exhibition Catalogue), Porto, Fluxus Gallery, / 1990
Born in Porto in 1979, he graduated in Painting at ESBAP, where he teaches. He received the Revelation Prize at the Second Biennial of V. N. de Cerveira (1980), the Edition Prize at the Third National Illustration Exhibition (1981), an Honourable Mention at the Biennial of Lagos (1982), the Acquisition Prize at the Biennial of Lagos (1984) and the Fifth Biennial of Cerveira Prize (1986). In 1988 he was a BCG’s scholarship owner in the fields of painting, illustration and theatre stage-setting. Rui Pimentel’s work affirms a formal contention and a progressive economy of resources that originates a great unity. He creates his works from basic drawings, calligraphic elements that suggest aspects from nature or architectonic shapes. EXHIBITIONS: - INDIVIDUAL: 1972 – Lourenço Marques’ Art Centre / 1980 - Cooperativa Árvore, Porto / 1986 – JN Gallery, Porto / 1987 – EG Gallery, Porto; Plastic Arts Circle, Coimbra / 1988 - Roma e Pavia Gallery, Porto; University Gallery, Braga; O Tempo do Gato Gallery, Lisbon / 1991 – Fluxus Gallery, Porto - COLLECTIVE: 1980 – Second Biennial of V.N. de Cerveira; Abstract Art Aspects in Portugal, SNBA / 1981 – Third National Illustration Exhibition; Porto Artists in Vigo / 1982 and 84 - Biennial of Lagos / 1982 – Porto Artists, Seville; Aspects of Contemporary Drawing in Portugal, Germany and Portugal / 1983 – Sixth Biennial of Young Art, Chaves; Sixth National Drawing Biennial, Porto; Christmas Tree, Espaço Lusitano Gallery, Porto / 1984 - Lagos 84; Sixth Plastic Arts Exhibitions of the Porto’s City Hall; Figurative or Abstract, Braga; Porto, Cooperativa Árvore / 1985 - ARUS, MNSR, Porto; Second Drawing Biennial, Árvore, Porto / 1986 – Fifth Biennial of Cerveira; Third Plastic Arts Exhibition, BCG; Contemporary Art Show, S. João da Madeira; Lagos 86; 80 Years of Art in Porto, Cooperativa Árvore / 1987 – Sixth Drawing Biennial, Campinas - Brasil; Amadeo de Sousa Cardoso Modern Art Exhibition, Serralves Foundation; Sixth Biennial of Sintra; Third Anniversary of the EG Gallery / 1988 – Contemporary Art Forum, Lisbon; Coimbra’s University Biennial; Mom'Arte, Vila do Conde; ArtePortex, Porto / 1989 – 25 Years of Cooperativa Árvore, Porto; ARCO 89, Madrid; 10 Artists 10 Serigraphs , Serralves Foundation, Porto; Anniversary of Sábado Magazine, Cooperativa Árvore, Porto / 1994 - El Duero que nos une, Salamanca and Zamora / 1995 - ESBAP/FBAUP, Porto’s Customs-House
They both graduated at the Porto’s Fine-Arts Superior School and they both teach: Isabel Cabral at the Soares dos Reis Secondary School and Rodrigo Cabral at the Porto’s Fine-Arts Faculty. They have developed a multifaceted career that comprises sculpture, installation, performance, in Portugal and abroad, the co-operation with theatre through scenery and pattern conception, and the creation of murals and others. They have been working in the so-called “Common Project” since 1987, which led them to sign as one person all the work created in the meantime. They received prizes in 1990 and 94 at the Second and Fourth Illustration Biennial of Amadora, and the Almada Negreiros Painting Prize; in 1993 they were awarded the BFC’s National Painting Prize and in 1983 the Afonso Nadir Prize at the First Biennial of Chaves. The following are some of their exhibitions: 1983, 86, 88 – Árvore, Porto; 1989 – Labirintho, Porto; 1990 – SNBA, Lisbon; 1991 – Quadrado Azul Gallery, Porto; Gonfilarte, Vila Praia de Âncora; Cinanima, Espinho; 1992 – Elms Lesters Gallery, London; 1994 – Nyborg Art Event Gallery, Denmark; 1995 – Por Amor À Arte Gallery, Porto. Isabel and Rodrigo Cabral’s sculpture often uses materials that are not part of the lasting western tradition but comprises in it characteristic substances from contemporaneity. Of various references (ethnographic, decorative, humoristic or amusing) from the western civilisation or elsewhere, their work has an affirming and lively presence on Portuguese art.
Born in Porto, Gerardo Burmester attended for a while the Fine-Arts Superior School of this city, and abandoned it before completing his academic studies. Between 1975 and 78 he lived in Paris. He was one of the members of the Puzzle Group, having performed with them, and founded and directed (with Albuquerque Mendes) the Espaço Lusitano, in Porto. He received prizes in 1986 and 1995 at the Fifth and Eighth Biennials of Cerveira. The following are some of his individual exhibitions: 1981, 82, 89 – Roma e Pavia Gallery, Porto; 1982, 88 – Cooperativa Árvore, Porto; 1983 – Espaço Lusitano, Porto; 1990, 91, 92, 93, 95 and 97 – Pedro Oliveira Gallery, Porto; The following are some of the collective exhibitions in which he took part: 1980 – Portuguese Art Today, SNBA, Lisboa; 1981 – Postal Art – Biennial of S. Paulo; 1982 – Biennial of Cerveira; Third Iberian-American Biennial, Mexico; Porto Artists, Seville; 1983 – First National Drawing Exhibition of Cooperativa Árvore; 1984 – New Primitives, Árvore, Porto; 1985 – Expo AICA, SNBA, Lisbon; 1986 – Fifth Biennial of Cerveira; Eighth Biennial of Pontevedra; AICA 86, SNBA, Lisbon; 1988 – Tendencies of the 1980s, S. João da Madeira; 1989 – FAC – Second Contemporary Art Forum, Lisbon; 1991 – A Minute ago of the time that goes by, Serralves Foundation, Porto; 1992 – Sortileges, Customs-House, Porto; 100 Years of Art in Porto, Árvore, Porto; 1993 – Images for the 1990s, Serralves Foundation, Porto; 1994 – When the world falls on us, CCB, Lisbon; Fragments to an imagined museum, Serralves Foundation, Porto; 1995 – Eighth Biennial of Cerveira; 1997 – Coastline, Munich; Contemporary Anatomies, Oeiras. Gerardo Burmester’s work developed towards big dimensioned pieces, facilities comprising objects where the alleged utility condition, the evident uselessness and the aesthetic quality intersect. The whole is treated in perfectly finished materials that stage splendour situations, which is an element systematically associated with his production.
Born in Trancoso, his activity is attached to the city of Porto. He has been exhibiting since the 1970s, having worked in the fields of performance and installation. He was one of the founders of Espaço Lusitano, in Porto, and member of the Puzzle group. He obtained the Nadir Afonso Prize at the Chaves’ First Biennial of Art in 1983. Among his individual exhibitions the following are worthy of mention: 1987 – Sala Atlântica, Porto; 1988 – Gruporzan Gallery, La Coruña; 1990 and 93 – Nasoni Gallery, Porto and Lisbon; 1991 – Lídia Cruz Gallery, Leiria; 1992 – Amadeo de Souza Cardoso Museum, Amarante; 1993 – Nogueira da Silva Museum, Braga.
Born in Vila Nova de Gaia, where he lives, Amaral da Cunha graduated at ESBAP where he became a teacher. In 1982 he was a BCG’s scholarship owner, exploring the application of bronze fusion through a sand process. He received an award at the 1980’s Biennial of V. N. de Cerveira and was distinguished by the jury at the BCG’s Third Plastic Arts Exhibition in 1986, at the Óbidos’ Second International Biennial in 1987 and received the SECIL’s National Sculpture Prize in 1992. He has participated in numerous symposiums on sculpture and stone work, both in Portugal and abroad. He was invited for plastic arts projects in Cascais and Lisbon (Telheiras Metro Station). Although he has worked with bronze, Amaral da Cunha prefers marble and granite. He has always shown quite an interest for motifs that have always been present in the history of sculpture throughout the years, like the “female torso.” He has also collected the signs of the oriental imaginary, in pieces that resemble votive pieces, a reflex of his journey to Japan in 1987. Exhibitions: - INDIVIDUAL: 1983, 87 and 1992 – Quadrum Gallery, Lisbon / 1983 - Teixeira Lopes House and Museum, V.N. Gaia / 1987 – SEC’s Gardens, Porto / 1992 – Praça Gallery, Porto; Counts of Resende’s Manor House, V. N. Gaia / 1993 - Amadeo Souza Cardoso Museum, Amarante - COLLECTIVE: 1980, 82 and 84 - V. N. de Cerveira Biennials / 1984 - Novos, Novos, SNBA, Lisbon; / 1986 - BCG’s Third Plastic Arts Exhibition / UNICER’s Young Sculpture; 1987 – Óbidos’ Second International Biennial / 1994 –Contemporary Art Tendencies, Vila da Feira / 1995 - ESBAP-FBAUP, Porto’s Custom-House.
António Santiago Gonçalves Areal e Silva was born in Porto and died in Lisbon. The practice of drawing was the most natural to his intellect and conditions. His first exhibitions were in 1955, in a SNBA collection, and in 1956, at the Pórtico Gallery, alongside Carlos Calvet and Jorge Vieira. António Areal’s artistic creation may be divided into three stages. The first stage comprises the time between 1953 and 1958. The drawings created then use realistic processes to activate visionariness. From these first stage drawings to the paintings and objects later created, the persistent shapes-forms are the disc and the box, which are archetypal. In 1957, Areal won a drawing prize at the First Gulbenkian Exhibition. In 1975 he wrote an essay on the sense and meaning of poetry, which was published in 1958. His career as a writer was permanent, having published later on a compilation of the remarkable Intervention Texts at the Vanguard of Visual Arts. After 1960 he started a technical incursion as a painter into informality.
Born in Lamego, it is in Porto that he has an atelier and develops his professional career. He finished the ESBAP studies in 1978, and teaches there presently. He was a BCG’s and JNICT’s scholarship owner in Portugal and abroad. He received a prize in 1978 (Engº António de Almeida Foundation), at ARÚS 82 and at the exhibition comprised in the First International Congress on the Douro River in 1986. Besides teaching and painting, he has devoted himself to writing about art and artistic teaching. Francisco Laranjo’s work has been developing in the field of a vast, under pressure abstract gesture and of a great pictorial freedom. His works of art mirror a despoiled invoice where the great gesture and the intrinsic value of colour stand out. Exhibitions: - INDIVIDUAL: 1978 - ESBAP / 1981 - Engº António de Almeida Foundation, Porto / 1982 - Roma e Pavia Gallery, Porto / 1984 – Módulo Gallery, Porto / 1989, 90 and 93 – Nasoni Gallery, Porto / 1989 and 94 - Interart Gallery, Holland / 1992 – 5 Gallery, Coimbra / 1996 - Árvore, Porto - COLLECTIVE: 1978, 80, 84, 86 and 95 – Biennials of V. N. Cerveira / 1980 – Collective Exhibition of Cooperativa Árvore, Porto / 1981 - Lis' 81, Lisbon / 1982 - ARÚS, MNSR, Porto / 1984 - Porto, Árvore / 1986 - BCG’s Fourth Plastic Arts Exhibition, Lisbon / 1987 – Second Art Biennial of the Azores / 1988 - 25 years 44 artists, Árvore / 1990 and 91 – AIP’s Fourth Painting and Sculpture Exhibitions / 1993 – Tendencies of Contemporary Art in Portugal, Vila da Feira / 1994 - El Duero que nos une, Zamora and Salamanca / 1995 - ESBAO/FBAUP, Porto Customs-House. Collections: CAM-FCG, Lisbon / Serralves Foundation, Porto Active Bibliography: Em torno de uma ideia de técnica em pintura, Porto, Nova Renascença, 1984 / Ensino (O) Artístico e as Belas Artes, VI Congresso Ibérico das Escolas Superiores e Faculdades de Belas Artes, Porto, 1981 / Porto (O) e a Cultura, Porto, Encontro Nacional da APEVEC, 1992 Passive Bibliography: PERNES, Fernando - Sobre Francisco Laranjo, in "Colóquio Artes", n. 56, 1983 / ROCHA DE SOUSA - Do paradoxo à obra aberta, Catálogo de exposição, Coimbra, 1992
He was born in Porto and graduated from ESBAP in 1985. In 1984 he received a prize at the Fourth Biennial of V. N. de Cerveira, in 1985 he was awarded the Augusto Gomes Prize by the Matosinhos City Council, in 1990 he received the Edition Prize at the Second Illustration Biennial of Amadora, in 1993 he received the Banco Comercial de Macau Prize and in 1995 the Almada Negreiros Prize (Mapfre). He is one of the founders of the “Por Amor à Arte” Gallery, in Porto. Augusto Canedo’s painting is part of the renovation of figuration, that occurred in the 1980s, a time that explored almost academic spatiality, composition and lighting. Subsequently, he preferred the vestiges of the human shape instead of the shapes themselves, including in his canvas spots, textures and natural materials, inaugurating a cycle of his work that became known as “Litorality”. The proximity of the Atlantic Ocean motivated the dominant presence of the colour blue and of fossils, which is being surpassed by techniques recently practised, such as the art of encaustic. Exhibitions: - INDIVIDUAL: 1985 – EG Gallery; Cooperativa Árvore, Porto / 1987 – EG Gallery, Porto / 1988 - Café des Arts Gallery, Porto; Augusto Gomes Gallery, Matosinhos; Solverde Gallery, Espinho; Labirinto Gallery, Porto; Príncipe Real Gallery, Lisboa / 1989 – Algarve Gallery / 1990 – Quorum Gallery, Lisboa / 1991 - Meridien Gallery / Alvarez, Porto; Amadeo Sousa Cardoso Gallery, Amarante; Elvine Dalbanes Gallery, Paris / 1992 – Labirinto Gallery, Porto; Eterso Gallery, Cannes; 1993 – Meridien Gallery, Porto / 1994 – Calçada Gallery, Porto / - COLLECTIVE: 1984 - Novos, Novos, SNBA; Fourth Biennial of V.N. Cerveira; Homage to Almada Negreiros, Lisbon; 1984 - O Futuro é já hoje?, FCG / 1985 – Nine Paintings from the New Figuration, Roma e Pavia Gallery, Porto / FCG’s Third Modern Art Exhibition / Biennial of V. N. de Cerveira; Second Drawing Biennial, Cooperativa Árvore; Second Biennial of Chaves; Fifth Biennial of Festa do Avante / 1986 – Second Biennial of V. N. de Cerveira; F.M. Oliveira, MNSR, Porto / 1987 – Third Plastic Arts Exhibition BCG; Operação Ensino Árvore, Pau; Recent Figurations, Quadrado Azul Gallery, Porto / 1988 – Sixth Biennial of Sintra; Marca, Madeira; Industries Fair / 1989 – Eleven Porto Artists, Interni Gallery, Lisboa; Sixth Biennial of Festa do Avante; Norte-Sul, Quadrum Gallery, Lisbon / Second Illustration Biennial of Amadora; Contemporary Art Biennial, Turim; Engraving Biennial of la Coruña / 1991 – Itinerant Exhibition of Portuguese Illustration in Brazil; Jeune Peinture, Monte Carlo; Foire d'Art Cant. De Bologne, Italy / 1992 - America, Minas Gerais; Seventh Biennial of V.N. Cerveira; 100 Years of Art in Porto / 1993 – Duplicities, Brazil / 1995 - ESBAP/FBAUP, Porto Customs-House
Joaquim Manuel Lima Carvalho was born in Porto, where he graduated in Painting at the Fine-Arts Superior School. He learned from his master Júlio Resende and, like him, followed the ways of expressionism. He was one of the founders of Cooperativa Árvore (Porto, 1963), and a member of the Lisbon’s boards of directors of the SNBA and of the Fine-Arts Superior School, where he teaches. He founded the Acre group with sculptors Clara Meneres and Queirós Ribeiro, which intervened aesthetically in public places in Porto, Lisbon and Caldas da Rainha (1974/1977). The expressionist painting of Lima Carvalho brings shapes rhetorically to the foreground. The co-participation in collective actions, after the 25 April 1974, gave priority to immediate language. Lima Carvalho made paintings on walls and, with his group Acre, offered the citizens ephemeral paintings done on pavements; decorations done at night, lyrically lasted “the time of a morning.” The nauseated disfigurement of the early 1970s gave way to a live presence of naked bodies, in energetic strokes that make schemes explode. This whole painting is organic and the contrasts of the elements of the language try to express the violence of eroticism.
Victor Manuel Pires Vieira was born in Porto. He studied Architecture and Urbanism in Paris and Vincennes, starting to exhibit in 1971 at the Alvarez Gallery. He went beyond painting seen merely in terms of the abstract and the figurative to concentrate on the relation between colour and real space. The knowledge of the limits of pure colour impact led him to a persistent analysis of the variations of an elementary structure: a square topped by a small rectangle. An outlined shape or seen as a silhouette, filled with colour or empty, or partially coloured, isolated or in a sequence, taking part in the shape of the support itself, the above-mentioned square topped by a small rectangle marked all the painting of Pires Vieira until 1975. Matisse, Rothko and Reinhardt were adopted in one of these series showing not only a will to synthesise the lessons of such masters but also Pires Vieira’s research direction. An integral part of the support-surface at the time, he tended towards the purely plastic environment. After several years without painting, Pires Vieira resumed his activity in 1983 with paintings and drawings that are images of the process itself.
A Porto artist of great sensibility, she was famous as a painter and drawer. She studied at the Academia de Belas-Artes, being a pupil of Marques de Oliveira. Together with her sister Aurélia de Sousa, she left for Paris and joined the Ecole de Beaux Arts, having as teachers Jean Paul Laurens and Benjamim Constant. She had several paintings at the 13th Exhibition of the Sociedade Nacional de Belas-Artes in 1916 and in the following years. She dominates the techniques of oil and pastel painting, creating inanimate natures, interiors, landscapes and portraits.
Born in 1951, in Vila Nova de Gaia, he studied piano in the conservatories of Porto and Rotterdam. Initially close to Pop Music, at the end of the 1960s, he was then strongly influenced by Bill Evans, Chick Corea, Cecil Taylor and McCoy Tyner. In the early 1970s this led him to join Jorge Lima Barreto and Artur Guedes in the creation of the “Anar Jazz Trio” (a band that influenced jazz in Porto). Together with other Porto “historic” jazz musicians he created, in 1975, the band “Zanarp”, that lasted until 1977. Since his first record, in 1983, he asserts a personal and audacious style, equally present in his contemporary plays, in his compositions for the theatre and for the cinema and other discographic recordings. In numerous international jazz festivals (Paris, Madrid, Amsterdam, Munich, Brussels, etc.), António Pinho Vargas deviated from the “American course” and imposed himself on the cultural panorama of European jazz.
Son of the great painter António Carneiro and Rosa Queiroz Costa, Cláudio Carneyro was born on 27 January 1895, in Rua do Bonfim, Porto. He started studying the violin at 15 with Carlos Dubini. The composition studies began in Porto with the French professor Lucien Lambert. The teacher encouraged him to continue his work in Paris where, for two years, he joined the class of Charles Widor. In 1921 he became a solfeggio teacher at the Porto’s Conservatório de Música. Two years later, the Paris opening of his “Prelúdio, Corale Fuga”, by the Colonne Orchestra, led by the maestro Gabriel Pierné, would persuade him to dedicate himself totally to composition. In 1926 he won a scholarship of the Portuguese government and left for the United States of America where he remained for two years. In Hartford, Connecticut, he married the American violinist Katherine Hickel, who gave him a daughter, Ana Maria, still living there. Meanwhile, the Orpheon Portuense granted him the Moreira de Sá Prize (1933) and the Portuguese government awarded him the medal of “Oficial de Santiago de Espada” (1934). In 1935 he worked in Paris with Paul Dukas as a scholarship owner of the Instituto de Alta Cultura. Three years later he started teaching composition at the Porto’s Conservatório de Música. After 1956 he was also the school’s principal. In 1941 he was appointed musical counsellor of the radio station Emissor Regional do Norte. Cláudio Carneyro died on 18 October 1963 after a cerebral haemorrhage.
Regarded as the “father of Portuguese rock”, this composer and interpreter, born in 1957, created a true rupture in the Portuguese music scene with the record Ar de Rock (April 1980). Songs like Chico Fininho and A Rapariguinha do Shopping were instant classics of the decade. His lyrics, normally written by Carlos Tê, are strongly influenced by the Porto culture and imagery. This unconditional lover of the blues, has played with B.B. King, and is fascinated by Jimmy Hendrix. He became one of the most productive Portuguese musicians, as his discography clearly shows.
Born in 1963, this young pianist initiated his studies in Porto with Helena Sá e Costa and pursued them in Switzerland with Karj Engel and Vladimir Askhenazy, in Salisbury with Tatjana Nikolaijewa and Peter Lan and in the USA with Sequeira Costa. He won the Viana da Mota National Piano Competition in 1983 and the Young Pianists European Competition in 1991. Together with Maria João Pires he is one of the great Portuguese pianists. A specialist in Bach, Schubert and Schumann, Pedro Burmester has recorded numerous CDs. These recordings show the audacity of a musician that has managed to impose, through his talent, a personal taste and style.
Since 1981, this band shares its acronym (Group of New Rock) with the Guarda Nacional Republicana (National Republican Guard) and is inseparable from the concept of “Portuguese rock”. Almost 20 years after its creation, numerous recordings show the band’s popularity, always represented by the charismatic Rui Reininho. Singer, author of numerous lyrics and songs, he is the most loved by the media - and often controversial - symbol of the Portuguese rock scene. Alongside Toli César (drums), Jorge Romão (bass) and Zézé Garcia (guitar), Rui Reininho and GNR create concerts where irony, parody and provocation dominate. They stage - in a language often enriched by the Porto slang - the caricatured and stereotyped sides of the city’s inhabitants. The words and music assume other tonalities to evoke a nostalgia that is connected to the city, to love and to the frailty of emotions.
Contemporary creation in Porto is directly linked to the intense economical, commercial and industrial activity that is characteristic of the “Northern Capital.” In the field of fashion, the 1980s saw the rise of a new generation of stylists, with the thrust of two schools: CITEM-Centro Internacional de Técnicas de Moda (Fashion Techniques International Centre) and CITEX-Centro de Formação Profissional da Indústria Têxtil (Textile Industry Professional Education Centre), and a direct relationship with the field’s industry, traditionally concentrated in the North of Portugal. Some of the most significant stylists are Luis Buchinho, Nuno Eusébio, Nuno Gama, Júlio Torcato, Maria Gambina, Olga Rêgo, Miguel Vieira.
The most prominent names in the field of graphic creation during the 1980s were João Machado and João Nunes. Born in 1942, João Machado began to study sculpture in the Porto’s Escola de Belas-Artes, before opting for design and graphic creation. Some of his creations were present in two books published by ASA editions (in 1982 and 1988). The books demonstrate the extreme efficiency of a graphic language that uses Pop Art symbols and elements and joins text and image in a poetical synthesis of reality. Also graduated in graphic design by the Porto’s Escola de Belas-Artes, João Nunes organised his activity in a close relationship with photography and studio work. Honoured with the GrafiPorto Award in 1986, his creation is inspired by a neo-baroque that privileges theatricality, the contrast between signs, the opposition abstract/symbolic. Contributor of several foreign magazines, João Nunes participated in 1987 in a collective exhibition in Nagoya (Japan), before showing in Porto, in 1988, a retrospective of his work, titled “Nitidez”, in Cooperativa Árvore.
Miguel Vieira was born in S. João da Madeira, in 1966, and started working as a Fashion designer in 1998. He has been showing his private collections since 1991.
Rua Alexandre Herculano, 308
3700 São João da Madeira
Paulo Cravo was born in 1975 in Paris and Nuno Baltazar was born in 1976 in Lisbon. They met at the 12th course of CITEX and began working as a team in 1997. In 1999 they created a company and began commercialising their work. Presently, they keep seven shops around the country.
Rua da Meditação, 48, 3º
4150-487 Porto
226 065 081 | 226 054 982
cravo.baltazar@mail.telepac.pt
She was born in a social milieu of old families from the Entre-Douro-e-Minho region, in Vila Meã (Amarante), and lives in Porto. Her first novel was Mundo Fechado (1948) but it was only with A Sibilia (1954) that she became one of the most innovative authors of the contemporary Portuguese fiction. According to Álvaro Manuel Machado, Agustina analyses the social life of the old rural northern aristocracy and its psychology, and conciliates regionalism, metaphysics and the invention of language. We may place her in the path of Raul Brandão’s post-symbolism of Húmus, adding a neo-baroque and the influence of Proust and Bergson at the level of the space-time structures of the novel and the detail of the characters and situation analysis. In reality, Agustina says that “to the artist and the psychologist, there are no simple souls.” Therefore, her characters do not possess simple souls. She is excellent in the description of characters. They are sometimes capricious but tenacious in their megalomaniac or mean passions. This gives them a mythical sense close to the Greek Tragedy. Agustina’s tumultuous and ambiguous prose is the ideal instrument to perfectly suggest what Rilke named “the occult and guilty God-River of Blood”, the blind forces that are clearly present in desire and that shape the tragic destination of beings, or Pascal’s “erreur nécessaire”, the mysterious mistake that is the first link of the exceptional individual’s destiny in his inevitable conflict with society. According to António José Saraiva, Agustina is, “alongside Fernando Pessoa, the second revelation, the second miracle of the Portuguese 20th century and will be regarded in time – once her immense stature will be fully measured - as the most original contribution of the Portuguese language to the international literature, alongside the Brazilian Guimarães Rosa.” As an author of children’s and youth’s books Natércia Rocha mentions Augustina’s “pleasant dive into one or more infancies,” from which she keeps “what is the least visible to the adult.” In 1967 she was distinguished with the “National Novel Prize” by the ensemble of her literary work. Three of her books, Fany Owen, O Vale de Abraão and O Mosteiro were turned into feature films by Manoel de Oliveira in 1981, 1993, and 1995 respectively, and her work is translated into French, Italian and German. Most important works: Fiction - Mundo Fechado, 1948; Os Super-Homens, 1950; Contos impopulares, 1953; A Sibila, («Delfim Guimarães» and «Eça de Queirós» Prizes), 1954; Os Incuráveis, 1956; A Muralha, 1957; O Susto, 1958; Ternos Guerreiros, 1960; O Manto, 1961; O Sermão do Fogo, 1963; As Relações Humanas: I-Quatro Rios, 1964, II-A Dança das Espadas, 1965; A Bíblia dos Pobres: I-Homens e Mulheres, 1967; II-As Categorias, 1970; A Brusca, contos, 1971; As Pessoas Felizes, 1975; Crónica do Cruzado Osb., 1976; As Fúrias («Ricardo Malheiros Prize»), 1977; O Mosteiro («D. Dinis Prize»), 1980; A Corte do Norte, 1987; Prazer e Glória, 1988; Eugénio e Silvina, 1989; Vale Abraão, 1991; Ordens Menores, 1992; O Concerto dos Flamengos, 1994. Teatro - O Inseparável, 1958. Crónica e viagens - Embaixada a Calígula, 1959; Conversações com Dimitri e Outras Fantasias, 1979. Biography/Novel - Santo António, 1973; Florbela Espanca, 1979; Fany Owen, 1979; Sebastião José, 1981; Longos Dias Têm Cem Anos (painter Vieira da Silva’s biography), 1982; Adivinhas de Pedro e Inês (biography of D. Pedro and D. Inês de Castro), 1983; O Bicho da Terra (biography of Uriel da Costa), 1984; A Monja de Lisboa, 1985; Camilo, 1994. Children’s Literature - Memórias de Giz, 1983; Dentes de Rato, 1987; Contos Amarantinos (traditional narratives), 1987; Vento, Areia e Amoras Bravas, 1990.
Poet born in 1923, in Póvoa da Atalaia (Beira). He lives in Porto since 1950. Translated into numerous languages, his work is considered one of the most important and original since the Second World War.
Died on 13 June 2005.
Novelist, playwright and poet, born in Porto in 1941. Winner of the Portuguese Literature Prize in 1985. In 1990 he published A Quinta das Virtudes (Quetzal editions), the story of a renowned house in Porto, which is also a story of the city between 1757 and 1853.
He was born in Porto on 10 December 1908. His family belonged to the city’s industrial bourgeoisie. He went to a boarding school in La Guardia. He loved cinema since early but it was as a sportsman (athletics and motor car racing) that he became known first. His youth was a bit bohemian. He was part of a flying trapeze number in the annual Sport Clube do Porto’s festivities. At 20 years old he enrolled at the Escola de Actores de Cinema, created in Porto by Rino Lupo, with the aim of becoming a movie star. He soon appeared as an extra in a movie: Reno Lupo’s Fátima Milagrosa (1928). In the following year, with a rudimentary 35mm camera he had paid for himself and with a book-keeper who enjoyed photography as a camera operator (António Mendes), he started filming his first picture: Douro, Faina Fluvial. The film’s soundless version would premiere in 1931, onn 21 September, at the International Review Congress. The Portuguese reviewers reacted violently while abroad Oliveira was applauded. This was the first contact of Oliveira with an audience and the cycle would go on for more than six decades. Avelino de Almeida, José Régio and Adolfo Casais Monteiro were some of the few Portuguese intellectuals who supported the film that is regarded as the predecessor of the Portuguese New Cinema. In 1933 Oliveira was an actor again in Cotinelli Telmo’s A Canção de Lisboa, and in 1934 a sound version of Douro, Faina Fluvial, with a musical score by Luís de Freitas Branco, was shown. The film started a series of presentations abroad that would endure until today. Oliveira then started some projects that would never see the light of day. Desemprego, Gigantes do Douro, Hino da Paz, Luz, Roda, A Mulher Que Passa, Prostituição, are some of the 1930s' titles that were not produced. Meanwhile, he directed some documentaries: Miramar, Praia das Rosas, Em Portugal Já Se Fazem Automóveis and Famalicão. In 1941 he directed his first fiction film, Aniki-Bobó, produced by António Lopes Ribeiro. Afterwards he spent another long period of unproductive time. He had married, in 1940, Maria Isabel Brandão Carvalhais and the many misunderstandings that surrounded him (namely the refusal of the Cinema Fund to subsidise his films) made him stop filming for more than a decade. In the 1950s two other projects were also not produced: Angélica and Pedro e Inês. In 1955 he went to Germany to study colour in films and, with equipment he paid for himself, wrote, produced, photographed, cut and directed, in the following year, O Pintor e a Cidade. Two feature films then failed to be produced (O Bairro de Xangai and Do Ano Dois Mil Não Passarás) and a new documentary appeared (O Pão, 1958-1959). Still in 1959 he started filming A Caça and the shooting would last until 1963. The 1960s would mean the beginning of Manoel de Oliveira’s international notoriety, starting in Italy (1964: gold medal at the Sienna Festival with Acto da Primavera; A Caça was shown at the Bergamo Festival) and France (1963: premiere of Acto da Primavera in Paris; 1965: a retrospective of his work was shown at the Henri Langlois’ French Cinemathèque). Portugal surrendered to Oliveira in 1963, the year that Acto da Primavera established him as an author. In the 1970s he directed his “trilogy of frustrated loves” and the international repute was confirmed. In the 1980s he received many awards and was honoured all around the world (among the prizes he received are a Special Golden Lion at the Venice Festival). In 1987, showing a clear eclecticism, he premiered as a stage director, in Italy, with a play based on the Agustina Bessa Luís’ tale De Profundis. The play was staged at The Theatre Citadel Festival in Santarcangelo di Romagna, in July of that same year. Oliveira is now over 100, but still active and still the most significant film director of Portuguese cinema.The following is a chronological list of his most important films: Year Movie 1931- DOURO, FAINA FLUVIAL 1932- HULHA BRANCA 1938- JÁ SE FABRICAM AUTOMÓVEIS EM PORTUGAL 1942- ANIKI-BÓBÓ 1956- O PINTOR E A CIDADE 1959- O PÃO 1963- A CAÇA 1975- BENILDE OU A VIRGEM MÃE 1981- FRANCISCA 1983- LISBOA CULTURAL 1985- LE SOULIER DE SATIN 1993- VALE ABRAÃO 1994- A CAIXA 1995- O CONVENTO 1996- EN UNE POIGNÉE DE MAINS AMIÉS 1997- VIAGEM AO PRINCÍPIO DO MUNDO 1999- A CARTA 2000 - Palavra e Utopia 2001 - Vou para Casa 2002 - O Princípio da Incerteza 2003 - Um Filme Falado 2004 - O Quinto Império - Ontem Como Hoje 2005 - Espelho Mágico 2006 - Belle Toujours 2007 - Cristóvão Colombo – O Enigma 2009 - Singularidades de uma Rapariga Loura
In 1981, a group of cinema enthusiasts decided to show cinema of the fantastic genre in the city of Porto, in order to divulge one of the most underestimated cinema genres. What ensued became one of the most important international film festivals, nowadays considered a unique cultural event. In that first year, the most recent tendencies of the fantastic genre were shown, namely two films by Brian de Palma. There was also a showing of fantastic comedies and Hitchcock was revisited. Some of the most important films shown in 1981 were: O Testamento de Orfeu (The Testament of Orpheus), A Bela e o Monstro (Beauty and the Beast), Feiticeiro de Oz (The Wizard of Oz), O Fantasma do Paraíso (The Phantom of the Paradise), Por Favor Não Me Morda o Pescoço (The Fearless VampireKillers OR Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck, also known as Dance of the Vampires) among others.It wasn’t a Cinema Festival yet, but it was the beginning of a Celebration…
1982 – The organisation of the second Fantasporto promoted several competitions (best fantastic tales, best poster and best comic strip), a Plastic Arts and Photography Exhibition, several theatre plays, music and magic shows. By that time the festival already had a faithful audience. Some films: Blow Out, Fim de Semana Sangrento (Bloody Weekend), Alphaville, No Céu Tudo é Perfeito (Eraserhead – In Heaven Everything is Fine), among others. This year is remembered for being the one that introduced the Competition Section, in which films from all over the world competed, from the Terror to the Wonder genre. Cinema from unusual origins could also be seen in Fantas 82. The choice of films and the type of public varied. Some films: Blow Out, Alphaville.
1983 – David Cronenberg was the great winner of Fantas 83 and the screening of films in Portugal was enriched. The Competition Section showed less Terror and was opened to other kinds of fantasy. In a time when other Festivals of the Fantastic still existed, like Avoriaz or Paris’ Grand Rex, Fantasporto showed vitality and gained its own space, in Portugal and abroad. Some films: Scanners, Mad Max, King Kong, Blade Runner, Mother’s Day.
1984 – The most stimulating films this year were French. Even if this was not a particularly innovative year, the parallel sections were worthy of notice and people were curious about the following year.Some films: Kamikaze, O Último Combate (The Last Combat), A Bela e a Rosa, Halloween 2, among others.
1985 – This is still remembered as the “year of The Company of Wolves”. It was also the Sherlock Holmes’ year. Also, a new market emerged: the Soviet Union. There were only a few American films present and this opened the doors to other worlds and other fantasies. Some films: Altered States, Excalibur, Dream One, The Never Ending Story.
1986 – Besides presenting new talents, this Fantas showed some of the final masterpieces of renowned directors. It was a spectacular year, with many commercial American films, which premiered afterwards on the regular screens. Following the previous years’ example lesser-known cinematography was shown. The fantastic genre proved its relevance on thematic festivals. The usual ante-premiere Section was replaced by the Special Section, in which the public was required to vote for the Best Fantastic Film of the Year. Fantasporto 86 paid homage to true classics such as Orson Welles and Fritz Lang. Some films: Fright Night, Gremlins, Terror in the Wax Museum, A Clockwork Orange.
1987 – It was the year of Pedro Almodóvar! Following the festival’s intention to reveal works of important authors or to pay homage to sub-genres of the fantastic, there was a cycle dedicated to the British Cinema. This was not a year to review prominent titles but rather an attempt to reveal unknown films or films which were not seen for quite some time in Portugal. Some films: Matador, Jack the Ripper, Mad Max, Reporter X.
1988 – One of the most fabulous imagination markets of the Fantastic Cinema burst forth in Fantas 88: the Orient. The USA was strongly present in the competition, with commercial fantastic films, suitable for all fans of the genre. Clive Barker’s Hellraiser was probably the most impressing film of the competition and the one that remained in the mind of the public and in the history of the festival. The director was a renowned author of terror literature, who sat on the director’s seat with excellent results, setting the precedents for subsequent works. In short, 1988 meant offers to everybody’s taste. Some films: A Chinese Ghost Story, Heaven and Earth, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Mask, Shining.
1989 – This year was suitable for all tastes and ages. The Competition Section was not restricted to the usual sub-genres and presented atmospheres and paranoia a bit out of the ordinary. As always, there were films from varied origins and languages and the Festival created a successful space for the European Cinema of the Imaginary, which showed some of the films present in previous years. It was one of the most interesting years regarding the offer of the imaginary. Some films: Superman IV – The Quest for Peace, Paperhouse, Dead Ringers, Alien Nation, Cocoon.
1990 – This was Troma’s year (an American production company whose purpose is to amuse the people who see and the people who make its movies!). A new world was introduced and the organisation reached its goal. Fantas 90 celebrated its 10th anniversary and was one of the most prolific and varied festivals. Some films: Troma’s War, Dune, The Fly, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Living Doll.
1991 – The organisation gave up on a festival totally dedicated to the fantastic and opted for the inclusion of a New Directors’ Section, which included first and second works. This competition section attracted a new audience and warranted Fantas a new international prestige. The basis of a new concept within the festival was set. Some films: Paper Mask, The Massacre, Predator, Henry-Portrait of a Serial Killer, Terminator, Wild at Heart, Lunatics, The Russia House.
1992 – The Orient was back with a vengeance. Shinya Tsukamoto, a young Japanese director, introduced a unique original atmosphere. The New Directors’ Section was stronger than previously. Even if this was not one of the best years, one could see that the festival was never again going to restrict itself merely to the fantastic, and would rather bet on all kinds of quality productions. Some films: Tetsuo, Timescape, Days of Being Wild, Brian’s Life.
1993 – Worthy of notice was the night dedicated to another small production company of the American Fantastic: Fangoria. Quentin Tarantino and Peter Jackson are some of the most original cinematographers of our time and will always be connected with this year’s festival. Some films: Braindead, Reservoir Dogs, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Blade Runner.
1994 – This was an intelligent and attentive festival. It was a microscopic reflex of the international panorama of the year’s cinema. It introduced examples of lesser-known cinematography and took the major leap towards the internationalisation of a general thematic festival, where the fantastic is merely one of the cinema genres to be discovered. There was less violence and a wide range of more or less intimate cinema. Cinema enthusiasts found themselves in presence of a wider choice of themes. Fantas became an evasion and an annual opportunity for the fans to contact closely with the best films of each year. The New Directors’ Section and the New Tendencies’ Section favoured the European productions or the American independents. The films of Marcel Carné were remembered as well as the 100th anniversary of the British Cinema. Some films: Cronos, The Forbidden Quest, El Mariachi, Bleu.
1995 – This was a festival filled with fantasy. The Fantastic Official Selection offered Science Fiction, Terror, Psychological Thrillers, Action Thrillers, and Pure Fantasy. Clean Shaven, an American independent film, won the New Directors’ Week. Fantas 95 remembered the French Cinema Pioneers, the First Portuguese Works, and the 100th anniversary of the Fantastic Genre, and all kinds of films were shown. This was also the year the fantastic genre returned in all its strength. Some films: Stargate, Satan’s Bible, Boy meets Girl, Killing Zoe, The Pagemaster, Once Were Warriors, Aniki-Bóbó, Manhã Submersa.
1996 – The first film on competition this year was the nowadays mythical Seven Deadly Sins and the whole festival was marked by the excellency of its direction. It won the Grand Prix. When a festival surpasses the affirmation stage on the international markets and turns into a cultural vehicle of recognised importance in its own country, it becomes easier to present a quality product! Some films: Mortal Kombat, Two Bits, Margaret’s Museum.
1997 – Two years before the glorification of the Wachowski brothers with Matrix, Andy and Larry were revealed and rewarded at Fantasporto. This year set the end of the relationship between the festival and the Carlos Alberto National Auditorium. Some films: Bound, Frankenstein and Me, Relic, Evita, Shine.
1998 – This was the year Fantas took place in the Rivoli Theatre, a more modern and comfortable space. Other playhouses joined the event, which enabled the showing of more films, mostly reviews. A new section was inaugurated, dedicated to the Oriental Cinema, from Honk Kong to Japan, named Fantasy and aimed at awarding two prizes, one to the best real image film and the other to the best animation film. The Fantastic Competition Section included Thrillers, Psychological Thrillers, Dramas, Science Fiction Adventures, Terror films, and Pure Fantasy films. Some films: Triumph of the Will, Perfect Blue, Aliens, the Resurrection, Airbag, Nirvana.
1999 – This Fantas offered two aspects of cinema: the ante-premieres of films already bought by the Portuguese market and the possibility to contact with cinematography present only on events such as this. It was a competition similar to the previous ones, joyful and fun, with debates and friendly discussions about cinema over restaurant tables and a film selection to arouse the envy of many foreign festivals.
Paulo Soares da Rocha was born in Porto on 22 December 1935. After finishing High School in 1953 he enters the Lisbon University’s Faculty of Law, and is active as a film collector. Between 1959 and 1961 he attends the IDHEC (Institut des Hautes Etudes Cinematographiques), in Paris, where he graduates in Direction. He works as a training Assistant Director with Jean Renoir in Le Caporal Epinglé. In Portugal, he works as an Assistant Director with Manoel de Oliveira in Acto da Primavera and A Caça. He directs for the first time in 1962 in Verdes Anos, produced by António da Cunha Telles. In 1966 he directs Mudar de Vida and in 1971 he is invited by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation to film A Pousada das Chagas, about the Óbidos Museum. He is chairman of the Centro Português de Cinema (Portuguese Cinema Centre) from 1973 to 1974. Between 1975 and 1983 he is the cultural attaché of the Portuguese Embassy in Tokyo where he studies the life and work of Wenceslau de Moraes, which becomes the subject of his following films, A Ilha dos Amores and A Ilha de Moraes. In 1987 he films O Desejado ou As Montanhas da Lua and in 1988 Máscara de Aço contra Abismo Azul, about the painter Amadeo de Souza Cardoso, for the television network RTP. 1993 – Oliveira, o Arquitecto 1994 – Shohei Imamura, le Libre Penseur 1995 – Portugaru-San, o Senhor Portugal em Tokushima 1998 – O Rio do Ouro
Manager of the Águia d’Ouro Cinema and, later, of the S. João Cine, in the 1930s, he is a symbol of one’s respect for cinema and for its viewers. He supplied information and magazine reviews to journalists and even invented a “subtitling” process for the silent movies with words superimposed on the image.
Engineer Neves Real, a mathematician and university professor, is the noted representative of film screening in Porto and has influenced decisively cinema in the city. A most worthy researcher, he left us two important works: Carta Aberta aos Senhores Deputados da Nação (Open Letter to the Deputies of the Nation) and Alberto Armando Pereira-Um pioneiro do Jornalismo Cinematográfico Português (Alberto Armando Pereira – A pioneer of the Portuguese Cinema Journalism). He died in 1985.
His vivacity as a reviewer and article writer, his profound knowledge of cinema life, which he which he investigated and reported, his unlimited enthusiasm for the formulation of a countless number of initiatives – from Porto’s Cineclube to Cooperative Árvore – are the elements that confer his work the uniqueness it holds within the Portuguese cinematographic culture. A good friend of Manoel de Oliveira, since his youth, he was one of the great experts and admirers of his work.
He was the pioneer, among us, of film journalism and he is an essential name to the study of how the “Seventh Art” expanded and “was sociable” with the Portuguese, mostly before the talkies. In 1919 he founded and directed the magazine “Porto Cinematográfico”, the first ever in the city. From 1926 on he founded and directed the daily newspaper “Espectáculo”, and was also the director and distributor of cinema houses in the 1930s and 40s, with the company “Aliança Filmes, Lda.”.
At the exemplary studios of Invicta Film, founded in 1917, some twenty films were shot between 1918 and 1924. Located at Carvalhido, on land bought to the Porto’s House of Mercy, these facilities were, at the time, at the same level as the European ones, thanks to their vastness and to the quality and modernity of their technical means. The Porto of the 1920s had reasonable experience and good traditions in the field of cinema, and the Porto inhabitants had first seen the “moving pictures” in 1896. From 1906 on cinematography sessions took place regularly. Alfredo Nunes de Matos and Henrique Alegria, with the assistance of banker José Augusto Dias, was the “soul” of this company. The first one managed the legendary Salão-Jardim Passos Manuel (the present Coliseum) where, from 1910 on, dozens of documentaries and “actualities” were produced. These were even sold to France’s Pathé and Gaumont that were represented in Portugal by Nunes de Matos. Pathé would later co-operate actively on the project of the Carvalhido’s studios, in 1917. This shows the dynamics and the amplitude of the horizons of our pioneer in film production. The second one was the founder (in 1912) of the Olympia, at the time a beautiful and elegant room under the name of Olympia-Kinema Teatro. He would be responsible for production and for artistic direction at Invicta Film. When looking at the photos of that time, one can imagine what Invicta and enterprising Porto were like in the 1920s and 30s, although there was a war going on and serious internal crisis (coup d’état, instauration of dictatorship, etc.). The impresarios of Invicta Film deliberately chose “national subjects” and contracted abroad – namely in Paris and Italy – a vast team of actors, directors and technicians. Great theatre and cinema names, such as Palmira Bastos, Amélia Rey-Colaço, Robles Monteiro, passed by Invicta’s studios. Unfortunately, there was a disconnection between the film production and the exhibition sectors that led to the collapse of the company. Great part of its property was auctioned in 1931.
Raul de Caldevilla was born in Porto in November in 1882, and he was considered the one who introduced scientific and organised publicity in Portugal. He also had an important activity as film producer. At the exemplary studios of Invicta Film, founded in 1917, some twenty films were shot between 1918 and 1924. Located at Carvalhido, on land bought to the Porto’s House of Mercy, these facilities were, at the time, at the same level as the European ones, thanks to their vastness and to the quality and modernity of their technical means. The Porto of the 1920s had reasonable experience and good traditions in the field of cinema, and the Porto inhabitants had first seen the “moving pictures” in 1896. From 1906 on cinematography sessions took place regularly. Alfredo Nunes de Matos and Henrique Alegria, with the assistance of banker José Augusto Dias, was the “soul” of this company. The first one managed the legendary Salão-Jardim Passos Manuel (the present Coliseum) where, from 1910 on, dozens of documentaries and “actualities” were produced. These were even sold to France’s Pathé and Gaumont that were represented in Portugal by Nunes de Matos. Pathé would later co-operate actively on the project of the Carvalhido’s studios, in 1917. This shows the dynamics and the amplitude of the horizons of our pioneer in film production. The second one was the founder (in 1912) of the Olympia, at the time a beautiful and elegant room under the name of Olympia-Kinema Teatro. He would be responsible for production and for artistic direction at Invicta Film. When looking at the photos of that time, one can imagine what Invicta and enterprising Porto were like in the 1920s and 30s, although there was a war going on and serious internal crisis (coup d’état, instauration of dictatorship, etc.). The impresarios of Invicta Film deliberately chose “national subjects” and contracted abroad – namely in Paris and Italy – a vast team of actors, directors and technicians. Great theatre and cinema names, such as Palmira Bastos, Amélia Rey-Colaço, Robles Monteiro, passed by Invicta’s studios. Unfortunately, there was a disconnection between the film production and the exhibition sectors that led to the collapse of the company. Great part of its property was auctioned in 1931. Caldevilla Film was a great dream of this man, who was the son of a Spanish engineer that became Portugal general consul in Cadiz, as well as commercial agent for several Latin-American countries. Caldevilla went to France and Italy to see cinema studios: he wanted a well thought and well set company. Upon his return, based on the project of a French architect, he began to set up his producing company. The movies actually went further than the company itself, which never came to see the light of day. Two movies were made and some documentaries still remain. That was the case of Chá nas Nuvens - Tea in the clouds- (the climbing of Clérigos Tower by the Puortullanos brothers), Termas de Portugal (Portugal Spa resorts) and O 9 de Abril April the 9th). The latter is a movie of great historic value, focusing on the victory of the war of 1914-18 and the arrival of great characters of this conflict to Portugal.
The Portuguese Cinematography Club was founded by a group of secondary school final year students – Hipólito Duarte, who first thought about the idea, was among them – in 1945. Fernando Gonçalves Lavrador (essayist), Fernando Condeço (architect), and brothers Vergílio Pereira accompanied Duarte. The group was enlarged by reporters Manuel de Azevedo, Luís Neves Real, José Borrego (architect) and Henrique Alves Costa, Mário Bonito (architect), Júlio Gesta (lawyer), Lopes Fernandes (TV director). In 1948 it became known as Cineclube do Porto. The first session occurred at Cinema Batalha, a room that was, for decades, the privileged place for the screenings of the CCP. Its creation, in the 1940s, is the expression of a cultural movement in Porto that founded the Porto’s Experimental Theatre and Cooperativa Árvore. The movement was also responsible for a publishing dynamism created by its own members and by young artists and writers of the post-war generation. The CCP was a “school” to prepare cinematographers and directors, with a dimension never before attained by another cinema club in the country, and also a model for the advance of cinema clubs among us. With a screening room, several sections in function, a film library with valuable titles, and a specialised library only surpassed, among us, by the one of the Portuguese Cinemateca, the CCP has also managed to find and collect old Portuguese films and to keep them for our cinema heritage. The reactivation of the Portuguese cinema production since the early 1970s is due to an historical action of the CCP: the “Portuguese Cinema Week”, which has moved the Gulbenkian Foundation towards an effective support of our film directors. Presently, the sessions take place at the headquarters and at the Carlos Alberto National Auditorium. Since 1996 the CCP has revitalised an old and prestigious section: the Experimental Cinema section, from which several short films have arisen.
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