A draughtsman and illustrator, João Abel Manta frequently published graphic works in the Portuguese press between the late 1960s and the 1970s, a period that saw two of the defining phases in Portuguese history: the Colonial War and the end of the Estado Novo dictatorship, followed by the Revolutionary Process in Course (PREC).

 

This 1972 work, from the group of illustrations to José Cardoso Pires’s book Dinossauro Excelentíssimo (Most Excellent Dinosaur) (Lisbon: Arcádia, 1972), exemplifies the critical and ironic tone oftheworks in which Manta addressed the situation in Portugal during the political career of António de Oliveira Salazar and the Estado Novo regime.

 

The central composition, unusual in Manta’s work, is dominated by a photograph of a weight from an old-fashioned set of scales which – through the force of the enlargementand the interplay between figure and ground – stands out prominently in the drawing. This enormous and commanding form, here given a fort-like appearance, can be seen as a critical image of the regime and of the nation. The artist uses it to symbolise the weight of this oppressive reality, but also the condition and status of the exercise of power, here associated with the sinister figure that can be seen within this construction: ready to pronounce yet alone, it is enclosed and removed from reality, imprisoned within itself, taking on the contours of an evil silhouette in a shadow play whose conclusion has been foretold.

 

 

 

Sandra Vieira Jürgens

May 2015