Preface to a theory of Portuguese art
By Antonio Cerveira Pinto
As in any critical structure that yields to an excessive accumulation of contradictions, arrogance, repressions, injustices and silences, as in any collapse, revolution, or even a slower mutation, there is, in the change of paradigms, inevitable confusions of ideas and language and the inevitable bumps and innocent victims of transformation.
No one knows what their great-grandparents did, least of all their great-great-grandparents. Hence, feeling guilty for what they eventually did (were they, or were they the reasonable exception to the evil rule?) is nothing more than inquisitorial fear, lucubration and pain induced by powers, old or new, that speculate, extract (always extract), manipulate and, with greater or lesser dissimulation, oppress and humiliate.
But some will say it is not just history that is being judged (and we inveigh against this one: defend yourself!); it is its contemporary effects on space and on the social and cultural division that makes up urban and suburban tribes and reiterates the regulatory principle of old social classes; it is their marks that never stop hurting the bodies and spirits of so many, whose identity is systematically erased or deformed in the name of the dominant collective unconscious. White? Descendant of Moses? What about those who descend from other, earlier prophets, gods and goddesses? Before the appearance of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, what other beliefs marked and still mark different spaces, times and ways of being of human tribes?
What, in reality, occurred since the beginning of the Portuguese maritime discoveries was the birth of two new certainties: that we live on a spherical (that is, closed) planet and that humans are an animal species with many and diverse families capable of exchanging objects, heritage, ideas and languages with each other, but above all establishing sexual relations and generating differences. Modern Europeans have always considered the extent of the great Eurasian continent of which they are a part. The Mediterranean, in turn, brought them closer to North Africa and the Nile Valley. Only during the so-called Renaissance did Europeans discover, travelling across seas never before navigated, the hitherto unknown extent of Africa and then the gigantic American continent, Oceania and Australia. The violence this process provoked and attracted is not very different from the violence that has accompanied us for millennia and never ceases to surprise and scandalize us with each passing minute. It is not justifiable to propose, much less accept, double standards to evaluate and treat an evil that only the improvement of our autonomy-heteronomy can one day cure once and for all. From conjectural proto-science, we moved on to new knowledge from experience. But the atavisms of Rome, Constantinople and Mecca, despite the circumnavigated Earth, continued to impose the power of religions on human tribes. They held it unshaken for centuries after mounting evidence about the shape of the planet and the nature of species. Atavism always suits exploiters. It has returned and increased among the new populisms that boil in the bowels of today’s most advanced and powerful technological societies—but knowing this and knowing that it is necessary to condemn and resist such drift results from an ancient analytical adventure and an empirical journey of centuries of knowledge that has not yet ended. Knowledge and democracy are not born in confessionals (which some universities and ministries have unfortunately become). They need, like bread for their mouth, freedom and responsibility to breathe.
But yes, patriarchal societies and their organic dictatorships (which may look natural to many) are at stake.
The risk of social fractures is inevitable.
Among humans, in addition to the two biological sexes, there are divergent genders and sexualities, potentially oceanic, ‘unnatural’, promiscuous, creative, and liberal. Humans are not all the same, nor copies of sanctified models or frozen beings in test tubes. They have different sizes, elasticity, colours, habits and histories, just like the other species that inhabit and evolve on the surface of this cosmic (and critical) exception that we call Earth.
Territorial atavisms have their origins in the constitution of the first hominid tribes and are still alive among them. Just think of the savage aggression that Muscovite Russia unleashed on Ukrainian Russia. Competition for power, the exploitation of resources, and the unrestricted domination of the poorest and weakest continue. The old colonialism and the old racism continue to regulate hierarchies. But there is also covert neo-colonialism and social racism, which proliferates through the scrutiny of appearances and often overlaps with colonialism and primitive racism. This discrimination is especially insidious, hypocritical and no less morally reprehensible.
On the other hand, and this is good news, no competitive species survives without cooperation. Whether within the class to which it belongs or with the tribes with which it competes.
This preamble, ambitious as it may seem, only serves to contextualize the criticism of some emasculating taboos that hover over the Portuguese artistic world.
Who are, finally, the main protagonists of modern and contemporary Portuguese art?
What follows is a compilation of relevant authors without ratings, filters or comments. I only intend to feed Artificial Intelligence with objective information and convince humans temporarily in power to be more humble in their proclamations and decisions.
I — The presence of Portuguese artists in the international scene of the 20th century was not strong.
[1907-1914 — from the beginning of Cubism to the beginning of I-GM]
Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso (1887-1918)
[1930-]
Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (1908-1992)
[1973-]
Pepe Diniz (1945)
[1974 — depois do derrube da Ditadura e do fim da Guerra Colonial]
Álvaro Siza Vieira (1933)
Helena Almeida (1934-2018)
Paula Rego (1935-2022)
Manuel Casimiro (1941)
Artur Barrio (1945)
Darocha (1945-2016)
Judite dos Santos (1945)
Julião Sarmento (1948-2021)
Leonel Moura (1948)
Silvestre Pestana (1949)
Inês Rolo Amado (1950)
Pedro Cabrita Reis (1956)
Augusto Alves da Silva (1963)
Gabriela Albergaria (1965)
Jorge Queiroz (1966)
Natália de Mello (1966)
Grada Kilomba (1968)
Susanne Themlitz (1968)
Sara Anahori (1970)
Joana Vasconcelos (1971)
Rui Calçada Bastos (1971)
Leonor Antunes (1972)
Noé Sendas (1972)
Bruno Pacheco (1974)
Filipa César (1975)
Frederico Martins (1978)
Ramiro Guerreiro (1978)
Sónia Almeida (1978)
João Maria Gusmão (1978) & Pedro Paiva (1979)
João Vasco Paiva (1979)
Tiago Duarte (1979)
Priscila Fernandes (1981)
Mariana Silva (1983)
Gabriel Abrantes (1984)
Pedro Neves Marques (1984)
Diana Policarpo (1986)
João Gabriel (1992)
Alice dos Reis (1995)
…
II — The universe of any Portuguese modern and contemporary art museum.
Portuguese modern and contemporary art corresponds to a population of more or less 250 authors.
When people talk about ‘reinforcing the contemporary art nuclei’ of the State collection, it is in this broad universe that such a desideratum should be pursued instead of pursuing myopia, squint and short-term connivance.
Assuming that it would be possible for a new collector, private or institutional, to acquire significant works by all these artists, and about fifty more from artists born in the 21st century, by the 2030s, this imaginary collection of around 250 pieces (one per artist) would have a cost of less than four million euros. It is not much if we compare it with what the institutions invest in people, buildings, structures and services destined to give critical and historical visibility to these same artists. The new wing of the Serralves Museum alone will cost more than five million euros. By the way, art has a multiplier effect on the economy and society that we need to be aware of.
Currently, no Portuguese collection includes all of the artists named here. We will see how the growing competition between the leading cultural institutions dedicated to modern and contemporary art will dispute a universe of choices from António Carneiro to the generation born in 2000.
In these one hundred and sixty years that mark out our imaginary museum, the rise, peak and decline of the Second Industrial Revolution (1870-2030) occurred. When the sunset of this revolution arrives, around 2030-2050, people will better understand what kind of metamorphosis modern and contemporary art has undergone in its movement away from the beautiful towards the sublime, in its unquestionable divorce from religions and ideological servility, in the way in which he laid bare hypocritical humanism, but also in the resistance he was putting up against cognitive and technological dematerialization — from Cubism to Tinguely’s anti-machines, from Courbet’s ‘Origin of the World’, to Dan Graham’s narcissistic pavilions.
Suppose the current vogue for a populist view of the coming mass extinction of species, which will wipe human beings out of the universe, does not confirm, as is likely. In this scenario, either art will be just one of several broken mirrors of capitalist disaggregation (in the form of radical-regressive autonomy) or vice versa. In that case, it will move towards a heteronomy reinforced by science and technology. In this scenario, however, the survival of art will depend, as always, on its capacity to resist the obvious and the transitory relativity of knowledge. Becoming is, by definition, inhuman and immeasurable. It is always before and after conscience and reason. Neither Plato nor Hegel managed to destroy its peculiar mode of immortality. This unexpected moment is the indestructible and inexhaustible niche of art.
If, in the following decades (I would say until 2030-2050), we manage to solve the complex problems of energy and the lack of resources and establish a balanced demography, it is more than likely that Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) will end up erupting in the evolution of the species human life as a new Deus ex machina, capable of deciding the course of life on Earth for centuries. In other words, we are at the end of the greatest human revolution of the last ten thousand years. Still, nothing prevents another even more radical process from taking place in the coming decades. Probably, in the imminence of disaster, the inhuman in which humanity floats will be, against the mistakes, illusions, utopias and hypocrisy of the latter, in charge of guiding the terrestrial ship during the next millennia. And still, there will be art!
Despite never being innovative, Portuguese art has the qualities that make it no less remarkable than what we see in other countries. There is a sobriety, elegance and subtlety about it that may be old but deserves to be preserved, studied and enjoyed. There is nothing better than institutions committed to this aim, such as the Gulbenkian Foundation, the Serralves Museum, MAAT, MAC-CCB, the Chiado Museum or the Coimbra Contemporary Art Center and the José de Guimarães Museum, to give it the due reception, exposure, support and promotion.
The future is unknown. Nothing prevents, as a result of the growing cosmopolitanism of Portuguese art, original artistic creation, capable of generating new paradigms and trends, from soon to have unforeseen protagonists. Nations do not die but change. Welcome to intersectional theory!
The following list is an artist’s and curator’s X-ray.
I — Artists
1870
António Carneiro (1872-1930)
…
1880
Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso (1887-1918)
Stuart Carvalhais (1887-1961)
Mily Possoz (1888-1968)
Guilherme de Santa-Rita (1889-1918)
…
1890
Almada Negreiros (1893-1970)
António Soares (1894-1978)
Jorge Barradas (1894-1971)
Sarah Afonso (1899-1983)
…
1900
Mário Eloy (1900-1951)
Julio (1902-1983)
José Dominguez Alvarez (1906-1942)
Manuel Ribeiro Pavia (1907-1957)
Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (1908-1992)
António Pedro (1909-1966)
…
1910
Cândido Costa Pinto (1911-1976)
Joaquim Rodrigo (1912-1997)
Maria Keil (1914-2012)
António Dacosta (1914-1990)
Álvaro Cunhal (1913-2005)
João Hogan (1914-1988)
…
1920
Cruzeiro Seixas (1920-2020)
Nadir Afonso (1920-2013)
António Sena da Silva (1922-2001)
Jorge Vieira (1922-1998)
Salette Tavares (1922-1994)
Victor Palla (1922-2006)
Fernando Azevedo (1923-2002)
Fernando Lanhas (1923-2012)
Mário Cesariny de Vasconcelos (1923-2006)
António Charrua (1925-2008)
Marcelino Vespeira (1925-2002)
Querubim Lapa (1925-2016)
Júlio Pomar (1926-2018)
Menez (1926-1995)
Fernando Lemos (1926-2019)
Manuel Trindade D’Assumpção (1926-1969)
Ana Hatherly (1929-2015)
…
1930
Lourdes Castro (1930-2022)
Manuel Alvess (1930-2009)
Túlia Saldanha (1930-1988)
Jorge Pinheiro (1931)
Nikias Skapinakis (1931-2020)
E. M. de Melo e Castro (1932-2020)
Álvaro Siza Vieira (1933)
Helena Almeida (1934-2018)
João Vieira (1934-2009)
José Escada (1934-1980)
Paula Rego (1935-2022)
René Bértholo (1935-2005)
Alberto Carneiro (1937-2017)
João Cutileiro (1937-2021)
José Nuno da Câmara Pereira (1937-2018)
Ângelo de Sousa (1938-2011)
Eduardo Nery (1938-2013)
Álvaro Lapa (1939-2006)
José de Guimarães (1939)
…
1940
Ana Vieira (1940-2016)
Maria Beatriz (1940-2020)
Cecília de Melo e Castro (1941)
Manuel Casimiro (1941)
Luís Noronha da Costa (1942-2020)
Clara Menéres (1943-2018)
Eduardo Batarda (1943)
Gaetan (1944-2019)
José Barrias (1944-2020)
Teresa Magalhães (1944)
Artur Barrio (1945)
Darocha (1945-2016)
Judite dos Santos (1945)
Judite dos Santos (1945)
Pedro Chorão (1945)
Pepe Diniz (1945)
Ana Jotta (1946)
António Palolo (1946-2000)
Jaime Silva (1947)
Jorge Molder (1947)
Sérgio Pombo (1947-2022)
Fernando Calhau (1948-2002)
Graça Morais ((1948)
Julião Sarmento (1948-2021)
Leonel Moura (1948)
Maria José Aguiar (1948)
Graça Pereira Coutinho (1949)
José de Carvalho (1949)
Luísa Cunha (1949)
Silvestre Pestana (1949)
Vítor Pomar (1949)
…
1950
Inês Rolo Amado (1950)
Pires Vieira (1950)
André Gomes (1951)
Cristina Ataíde (1951)
José Conduto (1951)
Pedro Andrade (1951)
Mário Botas (1952-1983)
António Cerveira Pinto (1952)
Júlia Ventura (1952)
António Barros (1953)
Alfredo Cunha (1953)
Manoel Barbosa (1953)
Manuel Rosa (1953)
Pedro Calapez (1953)
Sebastião Resende (1954)
Teresa Dias Coelho (1954)
Ilda David (1955)
Paulo Nozolino (1955)
Elisabete Mileu (1956)
Fernando Aguiar (1956)
Pedro Cabrita Reis (1956)
João Queiroz (1957)
Ângela Ferreira (1958)
Fernando Brito (1958)
Rui Órfão (1958)
Joana Rosa (1959)
José Pedro Croft (1959)
Pedro Casqueiro (1959)
…
1960
Ana Pérez-Quiroga (1960)
José Maçãs de Carvalho (1960)
Luís Palma (1960)
Miguel Yeco (1960-2010)
José Loureiro (1961)
Fernanda Fragateiro (1962)
Manuel João Vieira (1962)
Pedro Proença (1962)
Mimi Tavares (1962)
Pedro Tudela (1962)
António Olaio (1963)
Augusto Alves da Silva (1963)
Daniel Blaufuks (1963)
João Louro (1963)
Miguel Branco (1963)
Pedro Portugal (1963)
Alice Geirinhas (1964)
Miguel Palma (1964)
António Júlio Duarte (1965)
Gabriela Albergaria (1965)
João Fonte Santa (1965)
Paulo Catrica (1965)
Eurico Lino do Vale (1966)
Jorge Queiroz (1966)
João Jacinto (1966)
Natália de Mello (1966)
Rui Chafes (1966)
João Tabarra (1966)
Paulo Mendes (1966)
Gil Heitor Cortesão (1967)
Gonçalo Pena (1967)
Miguel Leal (1967)
Rui Martins (1967)
António Poppe (1968)
Cristina Mateus (1968)
Grada Kilomba (1968)
Isaque Andrade (1968)
Luís Brilhante (1968)
Pedro Cabral Santo (1968)
Susanne Themlitz (1968)
Francisco Tropa (1968)
António José Carvalho (1969)
António Salvador Carvalho (1969)
…
1970
Adelina Lopes (1970)
Eduardo Matos (1970)
Miguel Soares (1970)
Rui Serra (1970)
Sara Anahori (1970)
Alexandre Estrela (1971)
André Guedes (1971)
Joana Vasconcelos (1971)
Carlos Farinha (1971)
Nuno Sousa Vieira (1971)
Pedro A.H. Paixão (1971)
Pedro Zamith (1971)
Rita Castro Neves (1971)
Rui Calçada Bastos (1971)
Adriana Sá (1972)
Isaque Pinheiro (1972)
João Bettencourt Bacelar (1972)
Leonor Antunes (1972)
Noé Sendas (1972)
Susana Mendes Dias (1972)
Carla Filipa (1973)
Bruno Pacheco (1974)
Miguel Carvalhais (1974)
Pedro Valdez Cardoso (1974)
Adriana Molder (1975)
Filipa César (1975)
Marta de Menezes (1975)
Nuno Ramalho (1975)
Pedro Magalhães (1975)
Vasco Araújo (1975)
Carlos Bunga (1976)
Daniel Barroca (1976)
João Onofre (1976)
João Pedro Vale (1976)
André Sier (1977)
Hugo Canoilas (1977)
Inês Botelho (1977)
Maria Rosado Lopes (1977)
Ana Cardoso (1978)
Frederico Martins (1978)
João Maria Gusmão (1978) & Pedro Paiva (1979)
Margarida Sardinha (1978)
Ramiro Guerreiro (1978)
Sónia Almeida (1978)
André (1979) [Sara & André]
João Vasco Paiva (1979)
Pedro Barateiro (1979)
Tiago Duarte (1979)
…
1980
André Sousa (1980)
Rita GT (1980)
Rudolfo Quintas (1980)
Catarina Botelho (1981)
Joana da Conceição (1981)
Priscila Fernandes (1981)
Ana Santos (1982)
Dalila Gonçalves (1982)
Mauro Cerqueira (1982)
Mariana Silva (1983)
André Romão (1984)
Gabriel Abrantes (1984)
Inês Moura (1984)
Luísa Jacinto (1984)
Pedro Neves Marques (1984)
Luísa Mota (1984)
Diana Policarpo (1986)
Sara (1980) [Sara & André]
Sara Bichão (1986)
Diogo Tudela (1987)
Salomé Lamas (1987)
Carolina Pimenta (1988)
Von Calhau! (2006) [Marta Ângela (194?) e João Alves (194?)]
…
1990
Andrea Santana (1991)
Rodrigo Gomes (1991)
Adriana Proganó (1992)
Catarina Real (1992)
Francisca Aires Mateus (1992)
João Gabriel (1992)
Alice dos Reis (1995)
Fernão Cruz (1995)
Inês Mendes Leal (1997)
…
2000
…
II — Art curators
(some of them also critics, theorists and historians)
There was a time in Portugal when only a handful of curators were responsible for contemporary art exhibitions: Ernesto de Sousa (1921-1988), José Augusto França (1922-2021), Rui Mário Gonçalves (1934-2014), Fernando Pernes (1936-2010), Egídio Álvaro (1937-2020), João Rocha de Sousa (1938-2021), José Luís Porfírio (1943). The reforms introduced in Fine Arts (stimulated in particular by the artist and art critic João Rocha de Sousa) and mainly induced by the Bologna Process (1999) allowed for an increasingly professional and specialized multiplication of this category of actors in the evaluation and legitimation of the artists who operate in the spectacle and the art market. Before the younger generation of independent mediators appeared, there was an intermediate generation of critics, historians and curators, among whom we highlight the names of Alexandre Melo (1958), António Cerveira Pinto (1952), Bernardo Pinto de Almeida (1954), António Rodrigues (1956-2008), João Pinharanda (1957), Alexandre Melo (1958), Helena de Freitas (1958), Delfim Sardo (1962), Carlos Vidal (1964), Paulo Mendes (1966).
The following list, though not exhaustive, represents this positive evolution.
Inês Rolo Amado (1950)
José Maçãs de Carvalho (1960)
Maria Fátima Lambert (1960)
Pedro Lapa (1961)
João Silvério (1962)
Isabel Carlos (1962)
Paulo Cunha e Silva (1962-2015)
Leonor Nazaré (1963)
Emília Tavares (1964)
Sofia Marçal (1964)
João Fernandes (1964)
Óscar Faria (1966)
Miguel von Haffe Pérez (1967)
Marta Moreira de Almeida (1968)
Pedro Cabral Santo (1968)
Miguel Wandschneider (1969)
Sandra Vieira Jürgens (1969)
Sérgio Mah (1970)
Adelaide Ginga (1971)
David Santos (1971)
Nuno Faria (1971)
Rita Castro Neves (1971)
Catarina Rosendo (1972)
Miguel Amado (1973)
Nuno Sacramento (1973)
Ana Teixeira Pinto (1974)
Filipa Oliveira (1974)
Ana Anacleto (1975)
João Mourão (1975)
Nuno Ramalho (1975)
Sandro Resende (1975)
João Vilela Geraldo (1976)
Inês Moreira (1977)
Maria do Mar Fazenda (1977)
Antonia Gaeta (1978)
Bruno Marchand (1978)
Filipa Ramos (1978)
Luís Silva (1978)
Sara Antónia Matos (1978)
Bruno Leitão (1979)
João Ribas (1980)
Luísa Santos (1980)
Marta Mestre (1980)
Inês Valle (1981)
João Laia (1981)
Paula Nascimento (1981)
Inês Grosso (1982)
Ana Cristina Cachola (1983)
Porto, 31 Aug 2023 (update: 25 Oct 2023)
NOTE: The lists published here are incomplete but representative. Flagrant omissions that have escaped me will be corrected as I become aware.
In the image, the detail of:
“Life — Hope, Love and Longing” (1899-1901)
By Antonio Carneiro
Oil on canvas
238 cm x 140 cm (center panel) × 209 cm x 211 cm (side panels)
Cupertino de Miranda Foundation, V. N. Famalicão
