Exhibition included in the programme of the Centre Culturel Portugais (CCP), head office of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (FCG) in Paris and former home of Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian (1869-1955) in the city, dedicated to holding individual exhibitions for current and former FCG grantholders. As part of this series, the Paris delegation, together with the FCG’s International Department and Exhibitions and Museography Department, organised an exhibition to present some of the more recent works by painter Nadir Afonso (Chaves, Portugal, 1920 – Cascais, Portugal, 2013), which had already been exhibited there in 1970.

The show included a total of 26 oil paintings and 11 gouaches covering almost two decades of work (1953-1977) exhibited on the ground floor of the FCG delegation in Paris.

The artist was invited by the CCP director, José Pina Martins (1920-2010), who was “extremely interested in exhibiting his latest oil pieces”, immediately accepting the invitation (Letter addressed to painter Nadir Afonso, 8 Feb. 1979, Gulbenkian Archives, PRS 05136).

The organisation and production of the exhibition followed the same model as those used in the individual exhibitions for grantholders held between 1978-79 (Fernando Pinheiro, João Moniz, Pedro Chorão, Justino Alves, Graça Morais, Jaime Silva, Bertino Cordeiro, Manuel Casimiro, Maluda, Jacques Minassian, João Dixo and Gonçalo Duarte), with a simple catalogue comprising a few pages. It presented some black-and-white reproductions of pieces on display, as well as the list of works.

The catalogue preface was written by art critic Michel Gaüzes, who highlighted the work of Nadir Afonso as a geometrical synthesis of historical artistic transformations: “Nadir Afonso dont l’oeuvre n’a pas non plus d’âge, qui retient dans un effort de synthèse, toutes les forces de création du passé et va vers l’avenir avec une subjectivité propre, montre l’expérience du Quatrocento, ce retour à la vision géométrique des grecs, comme une tentation à suivre et un monde culturel à refaire” (Nadir Afonso, 1979, pp. 3-4).

In the opinion of the CCP director, Nadir Afonso “without departing from his stylistic ‘manner’”, was able to use “semi-abstract graphics” that provided a “concrete suggestion of things”, advancing “towards chromatic enrichment of his painting” (From José Pina Martins to the International Department, 1 June 1979, Gulbenkian Archives, PRS 05136).

Several hundred visitors attended the exhibition opening, including some Portuguese painters and diplomats who could not miss the event.

At the end of the series of exhibitions, the CCP intended to hold annual “salons”, that is, group shows for grantholders and other events, also on a yearly basis, on the most important works being shown in Portugal, using for that purpose internal evaluation by the FCG, other institutions, art critics and historians. Despite this new direction, it was safeguarded that individual shows on a specific artist could also be held in very special situations (Note by the International Department, 8 June 1979, Gulbenkian Archives, PRS 05138).