Three new Metro stations have recently been opened in the Lisbon area - Moscavide, Encarnação and Aeroporto. If two of them are plainly decorated with tiles, the Airport one is profusely decorated with tiles depicting some of the most outstanding characters of our political, artistic and sportive life.
We very rarely praise our own unless they have either been praised abroad first or whenever the country has the need to reinforce the fact that the Portuguese people are creative or strong enough to break the barriers of oblivion.
Out of the whole amount of caricatures depicted I would start by choosing the ones connected to Art, not that the others may not be equally important, but as Art has always played an important role in my life it would only be natural to select the characters associated with it.
Almada Negreiros 'caricature focuses on one of his recurrent themes over a period of time - the Harlequin. I do clearly remember having been fascinated by the various pencil and watercolour drawings of "his" harlequins as an adolescent, though the artistic piece that mostly impressed me were the glazed panels covering the Alcântara and Rocha Conde de Obidos maritime station walls.
It wasn't but later that I had access to what he wrote and realised he was a very complete artist, once he displayed his artistry as a painter, poet, romance writer, actor, dancer, choreographer, philosopher, and whichever he got involved in.
His challenging spirit and innovative attitude associated with a persuasive resilience made him stand in the forefront artistically.
I have recently bought his photo - biography and the more I read about him the more I admire him and his irreverence.
He once wrote -"Portugal may one day end up having its eyes wide open, if its blindness proves not to be incurable" and although I have freely translated it and taken it out of the context it was written in, I feel it could easily be adaptable to Portugal nowadays ...
(...)
We very rarely praise our own unless they have either been praised abroad first or whenever the country has the need to reinforce the fact that the Portuguese people are creative or strong enough to break the barriers of oblivion.
Out of the whole amount of caricatures depicted I would start by choosing the ones connected to Art, not that the others may not be equally important, but as Art has always played an important role in my life it would only be natural to select the characters associated with it.
It wasn't but later that I had access to what he wrote and realised he was a very complete artist, once he displayed his artistry as a painter, poet, romance writer, actor, dancer, choreographer, philosopher, and whichever he got involved in.
His challenging spirit and innovative attitude associated with a persuasive resilience made him stand in the forefront artistically.
I have recently bought his photo - biography and the more I read about him the more I admire him and his irreverence.
He once wrote -"Portugal may one day end up having its eyes wide open, if its blindness proves not to be incurable" and although I have freely translated it and taken it out of the context it was written in, I feel it could easily be adaptable to Portugal nowadays ...
(...)
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