Designed originally for the external patio of the Foundation’s Delegation Headquarters in Paris, the work belonging to the CAM collection now goes on display to the public for the first time in Portugal.

Inspired on classical art, Julião Sarmento made recourse to 3D digital sculpting techniques to produce a female figure in resin standing 1.80m tall, who wears a piece of silk clothing produced by fashion designer Felipe Oliveira Baptista. Resin represents a material capable of resisting the action of time but the adjoining fabric, susceptible to a natural process of deterioration, will be periodically renewed.

Under the auspices of paying homage to the artist, the Foundation also acquired the Close, an installation video produced in 2001 in collaboration with the director Atom Egoyan, which premiered in the Venice Biennial of that year.

With this new acquisition, Julião Sarmento is now represented in the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation CAM modern art collection by 30 works, including important paintings from the 1980s and 1990s, various series of engravings, an experimental film from the 1970s and two installations.

With a solid international career, Julião Sarmento explored various supports during his career – from photography to video, extending to installations, painting and engraving –, dedicating an important part of his works from the 1970s onwards to the exploration of the male gaze in the depiction of the female body throughout the history of art, ranging from classical sculpture through to contemporary media.

He represented Portugal at the 47th Venice Biennial in 1997 and was present at important events, such as Documenta 7 (1982) and 8 (1987), the 11th Paris Biennial (1980), the 49th Venice Biennial (2001), and the 25th S. Paulo Biennial (2002).
His work has been frequently referenced by critics and gone on display at important national and international institutions, including; the Tate Collection, London, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Museo de Bellas Artes, Málaga, Luís Cernuda Foundation, Seville, IVAM, Valencia, Guggenheim, New York, Van Abbemusem, Witte de With and Stedelijk Museum, in the Netherlands, Musée National d’Art Moderne/Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others.
Felipe Oliveira Baptista is one of the Portuguese designers with the highest international profiles having collaborated with reputed brands such as Max Mara, Cerruti, Lacoste and Kenzo.