Convertsational notes on a conversation between jandir jr. and viniciux da silva by Stefano Harney and Fred Moten (original) (raw)

This paper aims to rethink 19th century Portuguese sculpture’s stylistic categories from the analysis of the work of António Teixeira Lopes, who is considered the major representative of naturalism in this country. First, the concept of naturalism in Portuguese art history is examined, with a critical characterization of its separation from romanticism (contrasting with mainstream literature) and demonstrating that its emergence from painting research and its adoption in sculpture is inoperative when observing a concrete art work. Secondly, with the Portuguese art reality as a backdrop, Teixeira Lopes’ academic and professional life is contextualised. Finally, based on the analysis of the sculptor’s work and the knowledge of his methods and views on art, the labelling of Lopes as a naturalist is questioned and the necessity for a less compartmentalized understanding of 19th century art is stressed.

This exhibition seeks to advance towards a space of continuity. The authors presented are emblematic, are historical, and they contemplate some of the dimensions of plasticity inscribed into the perspective of Looks and Writings. They do not, however, represent an exhaustive survey of all the important names that stand out in the historiography of Portuguese art, which is why there is a pressing need for future events to complement this first showing. The history of Portuguese art in the 20th century may also be constructed by focusing upon the inter-relationship between the image and writing, a persistent and relevant trend that has involved authors of unquestionable talent, and has accompanied the general development of poetry and literature and the performing arts. At the beginning of that century, the most representative and high-profile case in Portugal (though achieving recognition only belatedly) was Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, who made use of fragments of writing in his compositions, giving them a privileged place in keeping with the languages of synthetic cubism, futurism and Dadaism, which were at that time emerging (definitively). As was the case with other unquenchable artists, the very act of integrating external elements into his painting led to an expansion into new combinations, revealing an overlapping relatedness peopled by words from his private hoard, chosen for their creative and provocative seductiveness.

The reason for painting, for the authors and for a collection favours the sensitivity of reasons and heterogeneous thoughts. They do not have necessarily to be decoded. They would rather get propinquity, effort of affections and thoughts as allies. This study focuses works that belong to the Portuguese Art Collection of the Polytechnic of Porto. The presented pieces are from artists that started their activity in the 60s and 70s. These decades consist of a unique period - which is irreversible (in the right direction) -, concerning the forthcoming and prevailing panorama of Portuguese 20th century art, nowadays installed and transposed, as in the first decades of the 21st century.

The present work intends to analyze the pictorial composition of some works presented in the general exhibition of 1890, acquired and awarded by the National School of Fine Arts, from the theoreticians Pierre Francastel in his work: ‘’Pintura e Sociedade’’, in 1990 and Georges Didi-Huberman, in ‘’Diante do Tempo’’, ‘’História da Arte’’ and ‘’Anacronismo das Imagens’’, in 2015. Featured paintings are: Os bandeirantes, by Henrique Bernardelli, ‘’Caipiras negaceando’’, by José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior, ‘’Morro da Viúva’’ (Rio de Janeiro, RJ), by Joaquim José da França Júnior; ‘’Praia Formosa’’ (Rio de Janeiro, RJ), by Hipólito Caron; ‘’Turbínio’’, by Antonio Parreiras and ‘’Paisagem’’ (de Barbacena, Minas Gerais), by Giambattista Pagani.

This article studies the drawing theory of Francisco de Holanda through the sketchbook De Aestatibus Mundi Imagines (1543-1573). This graphic work reveals the author’s artistic life through the parts that compose it. The visual production of Holanda is marked by two poles, chronologically demarcated: i) first stage – Humanist Thought (youth, journey to Italy, treaties Da Pintura Antigua, Diálogos em Roma and Do Tirar Polo Natural) and ii) second stage – Trent Thought (distancing from the court, doctrine of faith, spirituality, treaties Da Fabrica que Falece na Cidade de Lisboa and Da Sciencia do Desenho). The album De Aestatibus Mundi Imagines permeates these two phases, given the interregnum of its production, and show the matrix of thought of Holanda, between classicism and reforms. This period of 20 years alternated between importance of observational drawing in Renaissance humanism and the post-Council of Trent, where the drawing was under suspicion. The studied work materializes through the direction of that conflict.