What can a construction yard in the Iraqi desert, on the banks of the Euphrates, tell us about Calouste Gulbenkian? Rediscovered in the storage rooms of the Gulbenkian Art Library, a photograph album from c. 1933, by an unknown photographer, documents the construction of the Iraq Petroleum Company pipeline. Calouste Gulbenkian held a 5% stake in the company.
We revisit the exhibition held alongside the “II Exhibition of Plastic Arts” in 1961, which showed the stage reached in the development of the future Headquarters and Museum of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, then still in the early phases of design.
Some accounts of the process through which the site for the buildings and gardens of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation was selected and acquired – the place where the Centro de Arte Moderna and a new south-facing garden now stand.
The inauguration, on 9 November 1970, of the Calouste Gulbenkian Cerebral Palsy Rehabilitation Centre marked a milestone not only for children with cerebral palsy and their parents, but also for health and education professionals.
In the year marking the centenary of Marcelino Vespeira's birth, we highlight the long and multifaceted relationship between the artist and the Foundation.
Inspired by a Greek coin from Calouste Gulbenkian’s collection, the Foundation’s seal features the quadriga as a symbol of its four statutory purposes: Art, Charity, Science and Education.
The family correspondence held in the Gulbenkian Archives reveals the context of Mikaël’s childhood and the upheavals that led his grandfather, Calouste, to take control of the boy’s education.
The Revolution of 25 April 1974 marked a historic change in Portugal, initiating a process of political, social and cultural democratization. The idea was to build a fairer, more participatory society, with culture as one of its fundamental instruments.
The Gulbenkian Archives uncover a selection of records concerning the official visit undertaken by Azeredo Perdigão to Guinea-Bissau between 14 and 19 January 1973, at the invitation of General António de Spínola, then Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the overseas Province.
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s funding for air ambulances in Angola and Mozambique and how it helped in the creation of the Mozambican Medical Air Service in the 60s and 70s of the 20th century.
The I Exhibition of Plastic Arts, held in Lisbon from 7 to 30 December 1957, was one of the Foundation’s first major events, helping to establish and assert its image as an institution and to create a template for the institution’s work in support for modern and contemporary art in the decades that followed.
Everyday domestic life in Calouste Gulbenkian’s Paris house in the late 1940s is unexpectedly revealed through the household accounts.
In the year marking the 35th anniversary of the first appearance at the Encontros ACARTE of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Company, directed by Pina Bausch, we look back at the participation and influence of this internationally celebrated dancer and choreographer, in and on the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation's programming.
In the late 1940s, Calouste Gulbenkian, then resident in Portugal, paid special attention to the deep tensions generated in the Middle East, particularly those following the foundation of the new State of Israel, the discussion of the political status of Jerusalem and the consequences for the Armenian community in the Holy City.
Read about the different stages in the building of the Instituto de Investigação Científica Gulbenkian, later known as the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência.
The evacuation to Wales of a few paintings belonging to Calouste Gulbenkian's collection, on loan to the National Gallery in London, is a little-known episode in the history of the collection now housed in the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon.
In the year marking the 50th anniversary of the Revolution of 25 April 1974, the Art Library and Archives remembers the posters with the slogan “A poesia está na rua” – Poetry is in the Street – by the painter Maria Helena Vieira da Silva.
Elections were held on 24 April 1975 to the Constituent Assembly, the first elections after the 1974 Revolution. The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation played an important role.
The Art Library and Archives look back at the "Medal of Honour for Epidemics" awarded by France to Calouste Gulbenkian in 1919.
The Iraq-Mediterranean Oil Pipeline, the world's first transnational oil pipeline, went into operation in 1935, having been built by the Iraq Petroleum Company Limited, consortium in which Calouste Gulbenkian owned his famous 5% share.