An important set of paintings from the Modern Collection of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum go on exhibition on 18 November in the second section of the Portugal em Flagrante exhibition.

The first section of this exhibition (Operação 1), inaugurated this summer gathers together books, photographs, engravings and designs from the collection on the lower floor of the Modern Collection building, thus providing an introduction to the history of art and culture of Portugal in the 20th century.

Operação 2 is to show the fundamental works of artists such as Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, Almada Negreiros, Mário Eloy, Eduardo Viana, Mário Cesariny, Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, Paula Rego, Lourdes de Castro, António Areal, António Dacosta, Álvaro Lapa, Julião Sarmento, Gil Heitor Cortesão, João Louro and Isabel Simões, among many others.

The presentation is chronological in structure and emphasises some of the key moments in the history of Portuguese art. This throws a focus on the first three decades of the last century based upon the Exhibition of Independents, a sample organised by the National Society of Fine Arts in 1930, which brought together the works of new generations of artists. This is then followed by the diverse surrealist experiences as well as a new figuration and abstraction of the 1960s. The 1970s also get highlighted alongside the impact of the exhibition Alternative Zero, organised by Ernesto de Sousa at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Lisbon. This chronological progression will also recall the international exhibition Dialogue, held at the Gulbenkian Foundation and the euphoric years of the 1980s. Finally, this approaches the final decade of the last century and the first decade of this one.

The exhibition also bears witness to the impulses driving Portuguese artists to leave the country, frequently on grants awarded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, often heading to the great artistic centres, firstly Paris, later London and, finally Berlin and New York. The paintings of the 20th and 21st centuries emerges within the framework of the expanded context of this constant migration and cultural intersection.

In February 2017, a third section (Operação 3) shall complete the presentation of the Modern Collection with a set of equally significant works in sculpture and installation, amongst other formats.