More Modern Art

Continuing our exploration of modern art in Lisbon, we stop at the CCB (Centro Cultural de Belém, 1989-92). There are two shows that have drawn us: one based on the curation by Peggy Guggenheim of female artists, and another based on political posters from Portugal's 'hot summer' of 1975. The CCB is in the western neighborhood of Belém, in the old area of the World Exposition of 1940; it's an over-scaled series of contemporary courtyard blocks with beautiful split-faced stone.

The Black Spray (Alexander Calder, 1956) greets us in the circular stairwell, slowly moving bird and leaf-like shadows under the conical skylight. The lines, silhouettes, and floating motion are echoed in Proun 1. Kestnermappe (El Lissitsky, 1923. Both pieces provide preparation for a day of modern art.

 

 

Before we enter the exhibition, a small gallery acts as an appetizer, and features works by Lourdes Castro on the walls and Marcel Duchamp in a central glass case. Castro's shadowed images continue the current theme, as exemplified by Sombra Projectada de Claudine Bury (Castro, 1964). The case contains Duchamp's Boîte [Série C] (1958) but offers views through the transparent panels to the surrounding pieces by Castro, such as No Café (1964).

The gallery is also a reminder of the Bôite-en-valise that we saw last fall at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. It connects Peggy Guggenheim with a female master of Portuguese modernism and further sets up the featured show.

 

31 Mulheres 

The main show is introduced by two life-size vinyl images of the original show "Exhibition by 31 Women" (1943, Art of This Century Gallery, New York). On the far wall, the thirty-one women are each given a photo and biographical tribute. It's almost a shame the curators had not attempted to recreate, and least in part, the curved walls or the diamond-shaped cable-structures employed in the original show.

Peacock Garden (Esphyr Slobodkina, 1938) seems to exemplify the spirit of that time and the exhibit, with mid-century colors and rhythms. Sem Título (Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, 1949) connects to another well-known Portuguese female artist.

The Book of Repulsive Women (Djuna Barnes, 1915) and Three-Dimensional Composition in Blue (Irene Rice Pereira, 1940) show the range of work, from satirical books to stained glass.

 

 

 

Uma Deriva Atlântica (Exposição Permanente)

In spite of the excellent preludes, the special exhibit ends abruptly, leaving us in a large gallery showing pieces from the permanent collection – but the selection is astonishingly good.

We are immediately drawn to Composição (1948) by Vieira da Silva and mistakenly thinking that it's a continuation of 31 Mulheres. The wall label explains:

Maria Helena Vieira da Silva was one of the artists chosen by Peggy Guggenheim for the exhibition 31 Women, which she organised [sic] at the Art of this Century gallery in New York in 1943. While it is not known what work she exhibited at the time, Peggy Guggenheim said that Vieira da Silva reminded her of Paul Klee.

Natura Morta (1943) by Giorgio Morandi hangs on the opposite wall, an artist we got to know very well during our trip to Bologna in May. Femme dans un fauteuil [Métamorphose] (Pablo Picasso, 1929) is nearby, an painting from Picasso's surrealist phase, but with whimsical touches of synthetic cubism.

Sabro (Franz Kline, 1956) is around the corner, taking us fully into abstract expressionism. Two further pieces, Tot Negre amb Clivelles (Antoni Tàpies, 1962) and Untitled (Cy Twombly, 1957), are examples of the extremes, studies in darkness and white.

 

 

 

Número d'oiro. Ângulo ideal - Relação 9/10 (José de Almada Negreiros, 1958) and Study for Homage to the Square: Blond Autumn (Josef Albers, 1964) present similar studies in color and proportions; we saw many Homages in Brussels last summer.

In terms of sculptural extremes, the rigid Royal Tide, Dawn (Louise Nevelson, 1960-1964) and the melting Soft Light Switches, "Ghost" Version (Claes Oldenburg, 1963) both give abstracted views of common objects.

Finally, Olds (Ed Ruscha, 1988-1989) delivers an American twist on something so abstract, it becomes realistic again. It's a painting that looks like a photo or graphic print and acts as an overture to the show of political posters.

 

 

 

Cartazes sem Censura

In Portuguese history, between the Carnation Revolution (April 25th, 1974) and the signing of the Constitution (April 25th, 1976), is the Verão Quente de 1975 (hot summer). These posters are a visual time capsule of that period (also top image).

The dictatorship had left behind a poor, backward, and grey country, but the

revolution had opened the doors to the will—both individual and collective—to move forward. On one hand, there was a Portugal with little employment and few resources; on the other, a people emerged, driven by ideas, eager to express their newly gained freedom of speech and to build a new Portugal.

[from the Cartazes sem Censura show bill]

 

 

 

 

Modern Art in Lisbon

CAM Gulbenkian (May 19th)

The Centro de Arte Moderna has a new show, "Paula Rego e Adriana Varejão – Entre os vossos dentes" (Between Your Teeth). The renovated CAM is still in its first year since re-opening, so we are curious to revisit and see how CAM's staff turns over its installations. The show's two artists are Paula Rego, who we know very well, and Adriana Varejão, who is new to us. The exhibition is arranged in a series of partitioned 'temas' (themes), with the subtitles listed below …

"Memórias de açúcar e sal" (Memories of Sugar & Salt)

Rego's "Vasto mar de sargaços" (2000) faces the entrance to the first tema'; it includes a large canvas and a smaller 'predella'. The images illustrate the novel Wide Sargasso Sea (Jean Rhys, 1996), a prequel to Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë, 1847) which re-contextualizes the character of Bertha Mason, the 'hysterical' woman locked in the attics of Mr Rochester's manor and who later sets the house ablaze (note the burning tree beside the house).

Varejão's "Passagem de Macau a Vila Rica"(1992) places Portuguese churches atop the mountains of an old Chinese ink painting, as well as a mill in the valleys of Brazil, plus a blob of paint that looks as if she dropped the dripping heart of an animal on the surface. This sets up a series of twists in which we are made to rethink familiar visual tropes, often involving the subjugation and violence Portugal's colonial dictatorship.

"Comemos, dançamos, matamos e misturamos" (We Eat, Dance, Kill & Mix)

Though built as separate 'islands', the openings between the temas suggest a path. Varejão's "Tintas Polvo" (2013) and "Polvo Color Wheels" (2018) dominate the next space. The Wheels look like experiments in color until we read the names (a sampler):

Branquinha – Snow White

Cabocla – Half Breed

Morenao – Big Black Dude

Mulatinha – Sweet Mulatto Miss

Polaca – Polack

Rego's "Mãe" (1997, no photo) and "Carga Humana" (2008) are on the side and facing walls and give these colors a human presence and narrative life.

"Apesar de você" (In Spite of You)

Varejão's 'bloody' wall papers serve as a background for Rego's "A sina de Madame Lupescu" (2004) and "Salazar a vomitar a Pátria" (1960).

 

 

 

"Mar, onde sou a mim mesma devolvida em sal, espuma e concha" (The Sea Where I Am to Myself Given Back in Salt, Foam, & Shell)

Rego's "Sirenas voladoras" (2017) fly overhead; they are haunting mermaids with dark, battered wings and toothless faces. Around the room, Varejão's over-sized chargers, such as "Mãe d'Água" (2009), "Prato con mariscos" (2011), and "Ama Divers" (2011) make offerings of seafood and fruit, as well as the people who harvest them.

Varejão's "Pérola Imperfeita"(2009), with its bright yolk and divers in the translucent egg whites, is next to Rego's "O Pescador" (2005), a monstrous angler wearing a grotesque 'minstrel' mask.

Rego's "Figo" (Fábrica de Faianças Artísticas Bordallo Pinheiro, 2017) is on the other side of the doorway; it is a recreation of a plush sculpture executed in ceramics. The 'biology' is recreated in astonishing detail.

 

 

"Faca amolada" (Sharpened Knife)

The tile wall in Varejão's "Parede com Incisões à la Fontana" (2002) is cut open like the spent set of a slasher movie. The perpetrator appears to be Rego's "Anjo" (1998), with her enormous blade, cleaning sponge, and petrifying smile.

"Rituais de limpeza" (Cleansing Rituals)

The smaller, more intimate images are just as terrifying. Varejão's "A malvada" (2009) provides more evidence of evil, again, without naming the deed. And Rego's "Sem Título Nº 7" (1999) shows the deed, while letting us fill in the title.

"Câmara de ecos" (Echo Chamber)

In Varejão's "O Sedutor"(2004), we are invited to step into the tiled washroom, unsure if we are too late – or worse, too soon.

"Corpo em transe" (Body In Trance)

In Rego's "Possessão" (2004), we feel the psychological damage as a patient struggles to sit still in five nearly life-sized drawings.

"Fui terra, fui ventre, fui vela rasgada" (I Was Land, a Womb, a Torn Sail)

We finish in another room like "Apesar de você", covered with Varejão's papel de parede (the web site suggests this room as the show's starting point). Rego's "A primeira missa no Brasil" (1993) depicts the arrival of the Portuguese in Brazil, but focuses on the pregnant woman, wide-eyed in anticipation and fear, and gesturing to the Cross. While Varejão's "Mapa de Lopo Homen II" (1992-2004) attempts to stitch the wounds but cannot heal them.

The show is veracious, almost brutally so – maybe not the best for a relaxing day of art, but the artistic and curatorial storytelling is urgent and powerful.

 

 

 

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Museu Calouste Gulbenkian

To take the edge off, we wander across the garden to the Museu to see "Arte Britânica – Ponto de Fuga", a retrospective of British art from the last century. The show has an easy energy and explores the figural, the abstract, and the liminal; it includes many favorite artists (even Rego, who worked in London) …

For example, "Picture Emphasizing Stillness" (David Hockney, 1962) and the series "Konstruktion [Kestnermappe 6]" (Lászlo Moholy-Nagy, 1922-23) both display an ethereal balance of diagonal motions to very different effects.

In the same way, "Rudol 333" (Kurt Schwitters, 1939) and "The Vivian Girls as Windmills" (Paula Rego, 1984) offer two ways to express a churning, swirling playfulness.

Finally, "Dokumentarfilm [Doshi, 12. April 2003, 13.34 Uhr]" (João Penalva, 2004) and "School - Classroom" (Mark Wallinger, 1990) present empty spaces where enigmatic light seems to animate the stillness. If that's a projector lamp, we must be the show. 

 

 

 

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MACAM (June 2nd)

The Museu de Arte Contemporânea Armando Martins is housed in the recently renovated Palácio dos Condes de Vila Franca (early 18th century). 

The Permanent Collection fills the two wings of the Palácio; the Museu describes this as "Uma coleção a dois tempos" (a collection in two stages) …

"Arte Moderna Portuguesa"

The first gallery begins with the early days of the República Portuguesa and the Estado Novo aligning with the entreguerras. These painting give us a flavor of the places and people that carried the optimism of that time. "Música Surda" (Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, 1914-15) offers hints of Cubism and Fauvism. "Diligência no Terreiro do Paço" (José de Almada Negreiros, c1938) is an Art Deco influenced study for a mural of a stagecoach disembarking at an arcade on the Praça dos Restauradores.

The "Sinfonia da Tarde" (Júlio dos Reis Pereira, 1924) and "As Três Graças" (Sarah Affonso, 1930) extend the collection's stylistic reach into Expressionism and Primitivism; yet both pieces reflect the influence of Portuguese arte popular (folk art).

The "Páteo de D. Fradique" (Carlos Botelho, 1946) and "Le Retour d'Adonis" (Manuel Cargaleiro, 1972) bring us to the end of the dictatorship and are deeply personal interpretations of essential Portuguese imagery: the Páteo near the Castelo de São Jorge and the ever-present patterns of azulejos.

 

 

 

On a prominent end wall and with precisely shuttered lighting, "Maio de 68" (Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, 1968, top image) marks our arrival in the abstract. Its disposition is gritty and urban, but with a sense of twilight or maybe sunrise.

"Fernando Pessoa" (Júlio Pomar, 1985) and "As Três Graças [Naked Lunch #35]" (Miguel Branco, 2019) deliver us into the present day with dazzling color and light. The Graças provide a glittering and grisly echo to Afonso's trio and dance under the dome of the Palácio's old bread oven.

 

"Arte Contemporânea Nacional e Internacional"

The "Casa Luis Barragan 3" (Juan Araujo, 2010) reconnects to the liminal sensibility from the Arte Britânica show: a painting of a photo printed in a book, between inside and out, with dappled sunlight, and an Albers 'Square' painting. A searing haze overwhelms "São Paulo #1" (from the series "Rua Stan Getz", André Cepeda, 2012), as if we are microscopically zoomed into the Albers.

The leafy shade and intense heat prepare us for the next room, where we spend quite a long time with "Wildfire [Meditation on Fire]" (David Claerbout, 2019-2020, sample here). It's a singular piece that ought to be experienced live and at scale (video from Kunstmuseum Winterthur, 2020) – equal parts meditative and horrifying.

 

Wildfire (Meditation on Fire ) at Kunstmuseum Winterthur 2020, Studio David Claerbout

Rego's "The Knight, the Lady and the Priest 2" (Paula Rego, 1984) gives more connective material; in Rego's oeuvre, this series follows the "The Vivian Girls" from Arte Britânica. "Untitled [two stones]" and "Untitled [lion king]" (from "Red Series [Military]", Rosângela Rennó, 2000 and 2000-2003) take those flat red graphics, and the vague religious and military 'shadows' in a different direction.

"Paisagem Nº77" (Lucia Laguna, 2014) bring elements of the cityscape into the gallery. While "There is always Something More Important" (Mariele Neudecker, 2012) and "Blossom #8" (Pedro Cabrita Reis, 2024) spill into the courtyard between the Museu and the Hotel. The Hotel also features a stunning, ceramic brise soleil by Maria Ana Vasco Costa.

 

 

After a casual lunch in the Hotel's cafe, we depart the Palácio and cross the street. From this side, we can see that the Hotel's elevated outdoor spaces contain more large sculptures, the "Pilha Pesada de Cinco Metais" (Angela Bulloch, 2024) and "Untitled" (José Pedro Croft, 2023).

Hearing about this complex, a hotel and a museum, we expect to find a little gallery off the lobby. But this is an impressive collection, professionally presented, and as substantial as the palace. It's a concise but complete retrospective of twentieth and twenty-first century art, with a unique lens on and from Portugal.