"The Happy Modernism Art Deco in Portugal , painting, drawing and sculpture - 1912 -1960" - Temporary exhibition at Museum of Chiado, Lisbon - The 18th of August 2012

I spent the whole morning and part of the afternoon at Chiado Museum, which has assembled some of the most meaningful paintings, drawings and sculptures of Modernism in Portugal dating back from 1912 through to 1960.

I started on  the first floor and made my way through all the second floor rooms, taking some photographs and thoroughly reading what had been written about them, as amongst some of those being exhibited were some of my favourite Portuguese painters, such as Almada Negreiros, Mario Eloy and Eduado Viana.

Antonio Soares - oil on canvas, painted around 1933.

Almada Negreiros - Indian ink on paper - 1920 (Left). Stuart Carvalhais - Indian ink on cardboard - around 1925 (Right).

Amadeo de Sousa Cardoso - Indian ink on paper (Left). Jorge Barradas - 1927 cover for the Portuguese Magasine ABC (Right)

Cristiano Cruz - Gouache on cardboard -1916-18 (Left). Eduardo Viana - oil on canvas - 1919 (Right)

Adriano Sousa Lopes - "Portrait of Margerite Gros Perroux" - oil on canvas -1920  (Left). Lino Antonio - oil on canvas - 1926 (Right).

Almada Negreiros - Indian and aniline ink on paper - 1912

Almada Negreiros - "Self portrait of the painter, seated at a café table with the Spanish dancer and actress Julia de Aguillar, the actress Aurora Gil and the professor and poet Doria Nazaré" - oil on canvas - 1925 (Left). Almada Negreiros - "The Sunbathers" - oil on canvas - 1925 (Right).

Eduardo Viana -"Nude" - oil on canvas -1925

Almada Negreiros - "Nude" - oil on canvas - 1926

Abel Manta -"The Chess players" - oil on canvas - 1927.

Carlos Botelho - "Portrait of Berta Mendes" - oil on cardboard - 1932 (Left). Abel Manta - "Portrait of Berta Mendes" - oil on canvas 1934 (Right).

Mario Eloy -"Self portrait" - oil on canvas - 1928 (Left). Mario Eloy - "Portrait of the dancer Francis" - oil on canvas - 1930 (Right).

 

 Jorge Barradas -"Anunciação"" - oil on canvas - 1936

Canto da Maya - "Family" - Terracotta - 1927

 

Canto da Maya - "Adam and Eve" - polychromed terracotta" - 1929-39

The temporary exhibition unveiling various influences from pyramidal compositions to  stylised figures or the visible linearity of "classical" Picasso and the analytical Cezannian brushwork type of approach was very well organised enhancing the variety of Portuguese Art Deco representations  within a particular time frame.



I spent around four hours in the Museum premises and felt I might have even spent some more time ... there is nothing like Art to appease one's soul ...