Important dates of Flemish and Portuguese Baroque influences
Nuno Gonçalves (1448-1481) was appointed court painter to Alfonso Vin 1463. There is virtually no trace of his work, but historians have attributed to him the polyptych of São Vicente da Fora (c. 1469) on the high altar of Lisbon Cathedral, now on display at the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon. Produced on wood, its six panels bear witness to the Flemish and Italian influences that would endure in 15th-century Portuguese art. It depicts 58 court figures and commoners venerating St. Vincent, who holds an open book on the left and before whom soldiers kneel on the right. This portrait bears witness to Portugal's 15th-century military expansion into the Maghreb, which was carried out under the symbolic patronage of this saint. Another feature of Portuguese painting from this period is the impact that the discovery of Brazil may have had on artists' imaginations. In the famous Adoration of the Magi (1503) by Vasco Fernandes (1475-1542), known as Grão Vascode, Melchior is painted as a Brazilian.
After Portugal's independence from Spain, another milestone was the arrival of Josefa de Óbidos (1630-1684), one of the most famous female painters in the history of Baroque painting in Portugal, daughter of a Portuguese painter and a Spanish mother. She was 4 years old at the time. Her family did not settle in Lisbon, but in Óbidos, a small town on the outskirts of the capital, from which she took her artist's name. However, some of her works can be seen in various places in Lisbon, including the Santa Maria d'Alcobaça monastery. A tutelary figure of the Óbidos school of painting, she painted still lifes as well as religious themes. Her Magdalene Comforted by Angels (1679) joined the Musée du Louvre in Paris in 2016. A year earlier, a retrospective was dedicated to her by Lisbon's Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga.
Lisbon is eclipsed from the history of art for three centuries
Lisbon has no painter or sculptor who has truly marked the art history of Lisbon and Portugal for three centuries. The fashion for classicism saw the Lisbon scene dominated by foreign artists, and there were no masterpieces to mark this long period of art history. It wasn't until 1879 that the return of naturalist painter António da Silva Porto (1850-1893) to Portugal after studying in France restored Portuguese art to its former glory. However, this new modernity did not take root in Lisbon, but in Porto. An in-depth study of these three centuries of Lisbon art remains the preserve of specialized art historians, and is still confined to libraries. The Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon does offer the chance to rediscover some totally forgotten artists, but it's true that they don't stand out. Perhaps you'll fall in love with a forgotten Lisbon painter or sculptor? If so, let your instincts guide your visit.
Great contemporary Lisbon artists
From the 20th century onwards, the chronology accelerates with great names in Lisbon art, particularly women artists. Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, a world-famous Franco-Portuguese artist, was born in Lisbon in 1908. She moved to Paris at the age of 20 to study, and married another painter, Árpád Szenes, of Hungarian origin. Naturalized French in 1956 after spending the Second World War in Brazil, she became a member of the École de Paris. A leader of the abstract landscape movement, with its elusive perspectives and spider-like compositions, she illustrated works by René Char and Léopold Sédar Senghor. She died in 1992, two years before the inauguration of the Árpád Szenes-Vieira Foundation in Lisbon.
Censored by the dictator in power, Paula Rego, born in Lisbon in 1935, divided her life between Portugal, where she first studied at St. Julian's School in Carcavelos, and England, where she completed a painting course at the Slade School of Art from 1952. The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation then offered her a grant to live in London. In 1960, she painted Salazar vomiting the Homeland, an expressionist image of the situation in the country. Paula Rego's first solo exhibition was in Lisbon in 1965, and shortly after the Carnation Revolution in 1974, she moved to London in 1976, where she married art critic and artist Victor Willing. She was the only woman to join the London School, which also included Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud. Her painting evolved towards greater realism, while retaining a dark tone. Committed to various causes, including the legalization of abortion, she died in June 2022.
Maria de Lourdes Ribeiro or Maluda (1934-1999), a popular artist of the second half of the 20th century, was born in Panjim, in the then Portuguese territory of Goa in India. She spent her childhood in Mozambique, then a Portuguese colony, and moved to Lisbon in the early 1960s. She repeatedly paints geometric views of Lisbon's rooftops, and can be likened to pop art in her work, except for the city's singular light, which she depicts with fervor.
Although Helena Almeida's (1934-2018)first solo exhibition in Lisbon was held in 1967, it wasn't until 1975 that she began her "Peinture habitée" series, staging herself by retouching black-and-white photography. This native daughter of a sculptor, married to architect and photographer Artur Rosa, has played with her body and produced self-portraits all her life. A well-known Portuguese photographer, she occupies an important place on the international art scene.
From photography to installation
Jorge Molder, born in 1947, isanother Lisbon-based photographer who still works with black-and-white self-portraits today. After studying philosophy, he turned to photography in the late 1970s. His first solo exhibition in Lisbon took place in 1977. Since then, he has developed a body of work based on self-representation, with references to Samuel Beckett and Francis Bacon. From 1990 to 2009, he directed the Center for Modern Art at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. The artist represented Portugal at the São Paulo (1994) and Venice (1999) biennials.
Pedro Cabrita Reis, born in 1956 in Lisbon, where he lives, emerged on the Portuguese art scene in the mid-1980s. With his minimal installations, sculptures using everyday materials, self-portraits in ink and abstract paintings, he drew close to the conceptual movement andArte Povera. In 1992, he took part in Documenta IX in Kassel, Germany. He represented Portugal in its national pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2003. His architecturally inspired installations, built from recycled materials, have won him international recognition. In 2006, for Le Plateau in Paris, he curated the exhibition "En voyage". It featured Ana Jotta, an artist of his generation, and 6 emerging Portuguese artists: Carlos Roque, Jorge Queiroz, Nuno Cera, Rui Calcada Bastos, Carlos Bunga, and Noe Sendas.
Since 1996, the Lisbon galleries belonging to Apga (www.apga.pt) have organized Lisboarte (Contemporânea). This is a network of galleries offering the capital's inhabitants the chance to discover well-known and emerging artists over a given period (July). Please note that the opening day is the same for all participating galleries. This program of simultaneous exhibitions reinforces the participation of these art venues in the city's cultural dynamic, and helps create new audiences. Works of contemporary art are also on view as you stroll around Lisbon.
The street art boom
Alexandre Farto is a Portuguese street art artist born in Lisbon on January1, 1987. He began to graffiti under the name Vhils in the early 2000s, then chose to engrave and sculpt faces on walls. In 2008, he met Banksy in London, which propelled his career internationally. In 2010, he also opened Underdogs Gallery in Lisbon, which represents Portuguese and international artists and still offers guided tours of Lisbon.
During a street art festival,Italian graffiti artist Blu and Brazilian twins Os Gemeos painted a huge mural on an abandoned building of a giant king in a suit and tie, drawn with several eyes, sucking Brazil dry with a straw, the better to denounce Portugal's economic stranglehold on its former colony. It can still be admired today in Lisbon. The British daily The Guardian ranks it as Europe's best work by street artists.
2019 sees the opening of Fabrica Braço de Prata. This alternative cultural center offers film screenings, concerts and the best of Lisbon street art on its exterior wall. Ideal for taking the pulse of the capital at night, as it closes at 4 a.m.!
