Works from CAM in Cruz-Filipe’s retrospective exhibition
After CAM – Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian presented a solo exhibition by Cruz-Filipe in 2007, a retrospective show of fifty-seven works by the painter can now be visited for free until 15 April in the Ground Floor Gallery. The exhibition includes thirteen paintings from the CAM Collection and ten new canvases painted since 2015.
In a very unique way, Cruz-Filipe’s work combines painting and photography through the use of acrylic paint on photosensitised canvases, a technique of which the artist was one of the main pioneers in Portugal. Curated by Ana Vasconcelos, the exhibition includes works from CAM’s collection that are highly representative of the various periods of the artist’s work, with a predominance of paintings made in the 1970s and 1980s and the most recent two works entitled ‘Ficções’, from 2013.
Heir to a pop sensibility, Cruz-Filipe’s work was developed through a selective look at the history of Western painting, especially Italian and Flemish painting from the 16th and 17th centuries, but also German romanticism of the early 19th century. The juxtaposition of images of details taken from classical painting and the pictorial work on these different layers emphasise the ambiguity and mystery contained in his work. ‘Intervalle du temps’ (1982) and ‘No Limiar da Paisagem’ (1999) are two of the works from the CAM Collection in this exhibition in which we can find these characteristics.