I have been to a temporary exhibition at the Contemporary Art Museum pertaining to Gulbenkian this morning, an exhibition focussed on the initial artistic stages (1928 through to 1960) of Julio dos Reis Pereira's career, especially those linked to Surrealism and Expressionism.
A sequence of human figures in vibrant colours contrasting with the black outline of their forms ... urban landscapes as the setting scenarios in many of them ... female figures in their various perspectives ... conveying sensuality ... inspiration ... involved in macabre looking scenes ... alone ... accompanied by sinister looking male ...
Many of his pencil ink drawings (also being exhibited) reminded me of Marc Chagal's paintings, particularly those which include musicians in upside down positions ... or in dreaming-like scenes ...
Amidst the paintings many of his poems, which he signed under the pseudonym Saul Dias and whose extracts I have copied down ...
"A poem
almost without words
A diagram
of undefined traces
The echo of a sound
that may never have vibrated
A portrait
made from none of this
with all of this." - Everything
"Why do you insist on writing?
Why should you insist on marking instants, hours
mornings, afternoons, inopportune
glimmers, reflections?" (...) - extract from Envy
"Losing
is finding the essence
of what has been lost
Thus, I
will always keep you
safe,
like the golden object
in the Museum ..." - Essence
To further understand his paintings in a pictorial poetic type of approach there is a documentary film directed in 1965 by the Manuel de Oliveira "My brother Julio's paintings" with poems recorded by José Regio worth being watched within the exhibition room.
The exhibition will be on till the forthcoming 7th of April and is definitely worth being seen. I may eventually try to go there one more time, as I realised photos of his paintings, as long as one does not use a flash, are allowed and the catalogue I have bought hasn't got but the reproduction of just a few.
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