Tag Archive for: painter

‘Em todas as ruas te encontro – On every street I encounter you’
(from: Pena Capital, 1957)

To celebrate the centenary of the birth of MĂĄrio Cesariny de Vasconcelos (1923-2006), the country will mark a year of reflection on the work and life of its most famous surrealist poet, activist, and painter.

Last month the festivities reached the capital with a major exhibition ‘O Castelo Surrealista’ (the surrealist castle) at the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT) – until the 18th of February. Some new publications are also in the pipeline as well as a series of lectures, concerts, and performances throughout the country.

At a very young age, Mário Cesariny learned chiseling to continue his father’s trade, goldsmithing. He didn’t like the subject and entered the Lisbon Conservatory (piano major). During the war, he was shown surrealist magazines from Paris by friends and became captivated by those anomalous texts and images.

In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, he was initially interested in neo-realism, a movement dominated by the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP), that positioned itself as a viable alternative to the official art of the fascist Estado Novo (New State) of Salazar. But he left the movement soon after because of its fidelity to the representation of people in paintings and its stylistic dictates, including the obligatory use of figuration.    

In 1947, he got the chance to spend some time in Paris, where he visited the International Exhibition of Surrealism organized to reinvigorate the surrealist movement that had been on the verge of disappearing during the war. There he met André Breton, the founder and leader of the French surrealists, and later that year founded the Portuguese Surrealist group (Os Surrealistas).

In 1950, his debut poetry collection ‘Corpo visível’ (visible body) was published outside the censorship of Salazar’s dictatorship. He lived in London and Paris, sometimes for longer periods, to be free of the intrusiveness of the PIDE (secret police) as they kept an eye on him because of his homosexuality and political ideas.

‘Surrealism is a way of transforming life and the world’, he used to say.
‘It is one of the two great revolutions of the 20th century, the other is Lenin’s.’

Only in 1961, when the repressive regime had somewhat softened, his poems were published by an established publisher in Portugal. In 1974 – when the Carnation Revolution liberated the country from the fascist terror – he participated in the Poetry International festival in Rotterdam, the Netherlands after which all his work was published and he was able to make trips to Spain, England, the US, and Mexico.

Cesariny was first and foremost a great poet. Public recognition for his pictorial work came later with the EDP Grand Prize for painting in 2002. That same year, a major retrospective exhibition of his paintings and other visual work was held in several Portuguese museums and an oeuvre catalog was published.
But he also was an excellent translator of poetry, translating work from Rimbaud, Novalis, and Breytenbach.


Happy Holidays         Boas Festas                (pic PĂșblico/Zucamag)




PAULA REGO

in

‘ALL TOO HUMAN’
Bacon, Freud and a Century of Painting Life 

at Tate Britain, London

February 28 – August 27

Lang, mager, sterk

Spitse neus, werkhanden, grote mond

Spijkerbroek en overhemd
Alleen jasje voor de chic

Stylist voor kinky kleding Loes

Buitenmens, binnenman

Tuinman, timmerman, alles kan

Natuur is Frans
Oude kunst Italiaans

Wijn zijn enig medicijn
zolang het maar rood is

Schildert groot en groter
exposeert zich arm

kijken zonder kopen
doet geen pijn,
als er maar principes zijn

eigen mening
nuance vrij
nooit water bij de wijn
beslist geen populist

privacy moet, bezoek mag

houdt van duif en hond
maar geen geblaf

Leesbril ook voor veraf
altijd oog voor detail

regeert ook Ăłver zijn graf
overlijdt net voor Prinsjesdag

Collectie Joan MIRÓ

in

Lissabon

– Palácio da Ajuda –

vanaf 7 september 2017

ALMADA NEGREIROS (1893-1972)

van 3 februari – 5 juni

GULBENKIAN museum, Lissabon

“Modern zijn is niet de manier waarop je je kleedt, maar meer wie je bent”
( Almada Negreiros)

 

AMADEO DE SOUZA-CARDOSO

MUSEO DO CHIADO

12 januari – 26 februari  2017

“Ben ik een impressionist, kubist, futurist, abstractionist?  Van alles een beetje”  ( Amadeo de Souza)

Gulbenkian museum, Lissabon

AntĂłnio Ole uit Angola nog tot 9 januari