Japan in the artistic creation of Fernando Lemos

Calligraphy, photography, engraving and drawn gesture

Event Slider

In the context of the exhibition ‘The Occidental Calligrapher’, which reflects on the relationship between the work of the artist Fernando Lemos and Japan, Rosely Nakagawa, Alexandra Curvelo and Ryuta Imafuku come together for a conversation moderated by CAM curator Leonor Nazaré.

Calligraphy, humanity’s primordial impulse to ‘write’ and ‘draw’ (Imafuku), took Fernando Lemos to Japan in 1963, with a grant from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

In this talk, the influence of Japanese painting in the drawings, calligraphy and in the work of the artist Fernando Lemos will be addressed from this principle, broadening the thinking about the confluence of Western and Eastern cultures to other facets of the image and creative production.

Engawa – A Season of Contemporary Art from Japan

‘Engawa’ is a programming that brings to Lisbon a set of creators from Japan and the Japanese diaspora, many of them for the first time in Portugal. More info


Speakers


Programme

15:00 / Introduction

15:10 / The image and the gesture in black and white

The path of Fernando Lemos is made of black and white gestures traced by the artist in various forms of expression. We will reflect on the relationship of his drawings, engravings and photography with his writing. The power of the gesture can be seen as part of the construction of an aesthetic, literary and plastic imagery, materialized in his works as leftover objects or proof of his work.
Rosely Nakagawa – Curator

15:30 / Learning to see. Japan in Fernando Lemos

In an interview in 2009, Fernando Lemos said that it was in Japan that he realised the importance of photographic recording in the process of learning to write (calligraphy) and draw: ‘In Japan, I realised that children first learn to photograph and only then to write and draw. They record images and only then learn the acts of writing and drawing. (...) It's not about becoming artists, it's about learning to see things.’
Taking this excerpt as a starting point, I propose to analyse the work of Fernando Lemos that is most closely associated with Japan, the series of photographs he made in the 1960s and the Indian ink and watercolour works on Japanese paper, highlighting some of the Japanese aesthetic principles that underlie them and their relationship with time and space.
Alexandra Curvelo – Full Professor and researcher

15:50 / Archipelago of the calligraphic imagination

Calligraphy is a universal form of humanity's creative imagination. From an art history perspective, it is believed that this aesthetic form originated in East Asia. Going beyond this genealogical thinking, we can look at calligraphy as a global "constellation" or "archipelago" created by the dynamic interaction of cultures, and to place Fernando Lemos within this constellation.
Ryuta Imafuku – Anthropologist and cultural critic

16:10 / Talk

Rosely Nakagawa – CuratorAlexandra Curvelo – Full Professor and researcher Ryuta Imafuku – Anthropologist and cultural critic
Moderated by:
Leonor Nazaré – Curator

16:30 / Q&A

16:45 / Closing

Duration: 105 min.

Support

The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation reserves the right to collect and keep records of images, sounds and voice for the diffusion and preservation of the memory of its cultural and artistic activity. For further information, please contact us through the Information Request form.

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