1983 marks, more than symbolically, the beginning of a new era for art in Portugal. The inauguration of the Gulbenkian Foundation's Centre for Modern Art, made a much-needed addition to the modern art scene in Portugal, a modern art museum. The exhibition “After Modernism”( Depois do Modernismo), which created a general consensus on the freedom and diversity of individual expressions, definitively freed from the narratives of the modernism and the avant-garde, they started the social artistry and legitimized a myriad of practices that together only had in common the desire for freedom, which was in line with the euphoria of the economic growth that agitated the country.
The second half of the decade was full of new exhibition rooms dedicated to contemporary productions, we highlight the work of Luis Serpa who, in continuity with the exhibition called Depois do Modernismo, creates the Cómicos gallery, committed to the boldest artists in the scene and bringing relevant foreign artists to Portugal, and culminating with the Serralves Foundation in 1989, committed to building a reference museum and contributing to broaden the countries’ art collection.
Public commissioning was a factor in this era. The most visible and ambitious project was the Lisbon Metro, which included an ambitious decorative program, both for the new stations that marked the expansion of the network, and to the refurbishment of the older stations. Many city councils followed Lisbon’s example and created relevant requests for work in the public space.
From the aesthetic point of view, the main trait of this time is precisely the absence of unity. Art in Portugal was definitively freed from the stylistic corsets and even the organized groups that emerged such as Homeostéticos, were characterized by their individuality, and abstract principles that were not reflected in the visual arts.
North Territory, 1987
Fotografia, ferro, vidro
Colecção do Estado em depósito em Serralves
S/Título (Amália # 6,) 1987
Papel Fotográfico e Ferro, Fotografia e Tinta acrílica
Colecção Gulbenkian
Eucalipto Homenagem, 1991
BMW 316i, Eucalipto globulus (12m)
Sem título, 1989
Tinta acrílica sobre tela
Colecção Gulbenkian
Sem título, 1990
Serigrafia sobre papel Fabriano
Colecção Gulbenkian
Sem título, 1985
Tinta acrílica e colagem sobre tela
Colecção do Estado em depósito em Serralves
Galeria, 1997
Tinta acrílica sobre tela
Colecção Gulbenkian
S/ Título (desenho de Natal) 1999
Papel,Ecoline e Tinta-da-china
Colecção Gulbenkian
Sempre os Mesmos e as Mesmas, 1991
Cartolina, Tinta-da-china
Colecção Gulbenkian
Sem título, 1995
Papel Fabriano, Serigrafia
Colecção Gulbenkian
Sem título, 1984
Desenho sobre papel
Colecção da Fundação de Serralves
Sem título, 1991
Aglomerado e Contraplacado
Colecção Gulbenkian
Sem título, 2000
Contraplaca dode tola
Colecção Gulbenkian
Tiroliro, 1988
Madeira e Aço
Colecção Gulbenkian
Sem título, 1993
Madeira e Gesso
Colecção Gulbenkian
Sem título, 1986
Mármore
Colecção do Estado em depósito em Serralves
Sem título, 2010
Ferro, vidro, espelho
Colecção da Fundação de Serralves
Compound group # ??, 2007
Aço
Colecção Berardo
A Casa dos Murmúrios, 1990
Mármore
Colecção da Fundação de Serralves
