Art Portugais. Peinture et Sculpture du Naturalisme à nos Jours

The initial challenge to organise this exhibition came from the Secretariado Nacional de Informação (SNI) which, hoping to organise an exhibition of contemporary Portuguese art in Madrid, asked the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (FCG) to loan some artworks from its collection. The FCG agreed to participate - "It would be difficult, let's say completely impossible, to deny the SNI what they asked of us, especially because the SNI has always shown itself to be willing to work with the Foundation" (Proposta do Presidente, 24 Jul 1967, Gulbenkian Archives, SBA 15365). The Foundation suggested, as a counteroffer, repeating the exhibition in Paris and Brussels in order to make use of the permits to travel granted for the 19th-century and early 20th-century works of art belonging the state's collections. Once these terms were accepted, a "mixed committee" of FCG and state representatives was set up, which would later establish the groundwork for the three exhibitions and select the works to be exhibited.

The committee comprised Francisco de Avillez, António Duarte, Carlos Botelho and Fernando Guedes, as representatives of the SNI, and Artur Nobre de Gusmão, José Sommer Ribeiro and Fernando de Azevedo, representing the FCG. Fernando de Azevedo was the name chosen to curate the exhibition (aided for the Madrid exhibition by Américo da Silva and Luís Pinto Coelho, as assistant curators).

The Sociedade Nacional de Belas-Artes [National Society of Fine Arts] would later come to express its unhappiness with not being invited to be part of the exhibition's organising committee (Letter from Francisco Conceição Silva to José de Azeredo Perdigão, 19 Jan 1968, Gulbenkian Archives, SBA 15365).

Initially designed to document Portuguese art from the "dawn of modernism in Portugal", the exhibition ended up embracing naturalist artists "to allow them to be more clearly understood. Because they were the ones who awoke Portuguese artistic consciousness in the final quarter of the 19th century" (Arte Portugués. Pintura y Escultura del Naturalismo a Nuestros Dias, 1968). The exhibition was therefore eventually devised to present a panorama of Portuguese painting and sculpture "from the last hundred years, starting with naturalism", with an unprecedented overview of "all that Portuguese artists of this time have done following arduous work carrying out experiments and trials" (ibidem).

Sixty-four artists were represented in the exhibition, with a total of 117 paintings and sculptures belonging to several institutions (the Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea, Museu Nacional de Soares dos Reis, Museu Municipal de Lisboa, the Musée d'Art Moderne, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Secretariado Nacional de Informação) and private collections.

Although at the time the FCG already had a considerable number of contemporary Portuguese artworks, most of which were kept at its Centre Culturel Portugais, in Paris, the organisation of this exhibition provided the impetus for new pieces to be acquired. These acquisitions were the result of finding that many Portuguese artists were not represented «in the country's organised collections, both official and private». This situation was «somewhat strange and surprising», and explained by «various circumstances, ranging from the information, taste and resources of the few private collectors, to the inability that the National Museum of Contemporary Art has faced in organising itself as a pinacotheca - something we still lack - for the art of our times, and the scarce interest of our major museums in that art» (Apontamento do Serviço de Belas-Artes, 14 Sept 1967, Gulbenkian Archives, SBA 15365).

The costs incurred by the FCG for the three exhibitions varied: the Madrid exhibition was paid for by the SNI, «the Foundation limited to providing (...) the works, its property, which must appear in it». The costs of the Brussels exhibition were shared between the FCG and the «Les Amis du Portugal» association. And the costs of the Paris exhibition were paid entirely by the FCG (Ata do Conselho de Administração, 25 Jul 1967, Gulbenkian Archives, SBA 15365).

Brussels exhibition

Written on the poster as «60 ans d'art portugais». It included cooperation with the «Les Amis du Portugal» association, led by Emile Langui, who was also the director-general of Arts and Letters at the Belgian Ministry of National Education and Culture.
The FCG chamber orchestra went to Brussels at the time of the opening to play three concerts (the day before, the same day and the day after the opening), something that was recommended by the exhibition's organising committee, who thought it «advantageous to hold concerts of Portuguese music alongside» the exhibition (Apontamento do Serviço de Belas-Artes, 20 Oct 1967, Gulbenkian Archives, SBA 15365).

Paris exhibition

The Paris exhibition enjoyed the patronage of André Malraux, then France's Minister of Cultural Affairs, and was organised in close collaboration with the Association Française d'Action Artistique (which had already worked with the FCG on the Um Século de Pintura Francesa [A Century of French Painting], exhibition in 1965). Work at the Centre Culturel Portugais was overseen by Joaquim Veríssimo Serrão, the director of the centre at the time. He greatly praised the initiative, which «allowed many hundreds of Parisians to become aware of the Cultural Centre's existence» (Letter from José Veríssimo Serrão, 4 Oct 1968, Gulbenkian Archives, SBA 15362).

Madrid exhibition

 Part of the «Jornadas Portuguesas em Madrid» [«Portuguese Days in Madrid»], organised by the Secretariado Nacional de Informação (SNI) in the Spanish capital between 15 April and 12 May 1968, the exhibition was opened by the Spanish head of state, General Franco.

According to one of the introductory texts in the Spanish exhibition's catalogue, the intention - shared by both the FCG and the SNI - of presenting this exhibition in Spain was «to enhance cultural and artistic exchange between our countries» (Arte Portugués. Pintura y Escultura ..., 1968).

Following the interest sparked by the exhibition in the three countries where it was held, the FCG received several requests to repeat it in South Africa, in Lisbon and in «other countries in Europe and even in North America» (Letter from Pedro da Cunha to Félix da Silva Correia, 15 May 1968, Gulbenkian Archives, SBA 15365). However, the possibility was never considered, since "the exhibition mentioned brings together pieces that belong not only to the Foundation and state collections, but many that belong to individuals (...), who have been denied their works for what is already quite a lengthy period of time" (ibidem).

Tradução: Thomas Williams